International Society of Political Psychology

Conference Abstracts

On the necessity of developing an indigenous understanding of sexism

Aysel Kayaoglu, Anadolu University

Conference: ISPP 2011
Affiliation: Anadolu University
Research Area: Social inequality and social change

In 21th century sexism still has been constituted  as a social problem in all of societies in the world. Social psychology, among the scientific disciplines, tries to explain and thereby remedy this social problem. The phenomenon of sexism is predominantly framed by the prejudice perpective in social psychology. While the prejudice perspective allows to measure the strength of the sexist attitudes across different cultures it misses the historical and social context of  the phenomenon. As we know patriarchal practices are not only differ in terms of their intensity but also in terms of their forms. In this presentation, it will be argued for a necessity of developing an indigenous understanding of sexism by taking the case of honor killing in Turkey as an example.