Psychology of Women

Psychology is a Latin word derived from two terms, psyche meaning soul and ology meaning study. Thus psychology is the systematic or scientific study of the soul and mind. The study involves taking a closer look at human consciousness which defines the powers and roles of the human. Psychology has been an academic discipline since time immemorial which is concerned with the study of human brain, behavior, and mind. The knowledge of such studies is used to influence the daily activities of humans such as treatment of mental disorders and other problems affecting individual's daily lives.

Women and Power

Mary Robinson born as Mary Bourke is a former president of Ireland and she also served as a United Nations High Commission on Human Rights after resigning as a president two months before the end of her term. She is a lawyer by profession and was elected to the presidency in 1990 having stood as an independent candidate. She currently serves in various capacities in international organizations. She stood against all odds of being a female, a Catholic and young than expected to venture into politics in 1969.

Commentary

Mary Robinson is a true role model for women. She has been able to handle well family issues and those that concern her career. During her presidency, a woman was appointed as a justice minister and another as a High Court judge thus creating balance since the attorney general was a male. Her success is an encouragement to women all over the world that it is not the only man who can rule but also females can.

Oprah Winfrey is another example of a woman who exhibits massive power. She is a television hostess, actress, and philanthropist. She was actively involved in campaigning for President Barrack Obama, an election that he won. To experience her power, one can take the time to watch her at the Oprah Television show. This reflects the true power women possess. Samples of her shows can be found at http://www.oprah.com/oprah_show.html

Female Body and its Meanings

This is a verse of usher's song OMG I fell in love with shawty when I saw her on the dance floor she was dancing sexy, pop, pop, popping, dropping, dropping low never ever has a lady hit me on the first sight this was something special ; this was just like dynamite honey got a booty like pow, pow, pow honey got some boobies like wow, oh wow girl you know I'm loving your, loving your style check, check, check, check, check, checking you out like ooh (oooh) she got it all sexy from her head to the toes

Commentary

The modern world is filled with music that is promoting the view that women are sex objects. In the above song, a guy is seen to gaze at a lady. He claims to be in love with the lady but we further she how he is describing the lady's body. This goes to show that he is sexually aroused by the lady's body and thus, it is not genuine love that he is feeling. Modern feminists have greatly criticized this kind of viewing a woman as a sexual object since they argue that the female body is a fountain of fertility and pleasure (Birke, Lynda, 2000).

Violence against Women

Denizens of Dehradun woke up to news of the grisly murder of 33-year-old Anupama Gulati by her husband and software engineer Rajesh (37) on Monday. Gulati, who allegedly murdered his wife, cut the body into pieces and hid it in a deep freezer for nearly two months, was sent to four days police remand by a local court (By Sunil Kumar; the Pioneer December 14, 2010).

Some movie releases also are sort of geared towards praising violence against women. It is surprising that even audiences like to see their heroines in movies under such harsh treatment. An example of such a movie in which the lead actress is exposed to violence and finally to her murder is "The Killer inside Me". It features Cassey Affleck and Jessica Alba as the main casts. Its trailer can be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2010/may/05/michael-winterbottom-killer-inside-me

Commentary

Violence against women takes a broader perspective ranging from abuse in relationships or females being abused by those they know and those they don't know. Abuse can lead to a female contemplating self-harm, suicide or even lead to mental illness. The violence can take form of physical harm, humiliation and sexual abuse. Psychological disorders have been cited as the main cause of a man deciding to harm his spouse. But with the advent of new laws, legislations and tough court decisions in handling such cases, the rate of violence against women has drastically reduced (Johnson, M. P. 2006).

Women Aggression

Commentary

Aggression in terms of psychological terms is any kind of behavior that is intended to cause harm or pain (Robin, E. and D.T 2005). Women are less likely to express their aggressiveness in physical terms as compared to men (Bjorkqvist et al. 1994). Women express their aggressiveness based on the culture of where they come from. Women who hail from a culture of male dominance and who are physically violent will be in constant conflict with other women than men. Such women are said that if they come into conflict with males, they avoid confronting them physically but rather compose songs that mock them. They may even hire assassins to kill a man for them if they really want to kill him. Thus the woman (exhibits indirect aggression) is in an indirect physical confrontation with danger. Recent studies show that female students are engaging more in girl fights (Bjorkqvist et al. 1994). One cause for this could be the decrease in academic grades or fight over a male partner. Females who do not attend schools are said to be more violent than those who attend schools. The females who have been reported to be more aggressive even to the extent of harming themselves are seen to have mental instability.

An aggressive woman showing her teeth

Modern women are involved in cyberbullying especially through Facebook, IMing, and Myspace. This kind of aggression is seen to be on the rise as shown by an article at http://cyberbullying.us

Women and Relationship

Commentary

Women are said to be more sensitive and thus understand men more than the men do understand them. Women tackle problems and situations at a go and thus seek one to hear their problems and empathize with them. They like to be appreciated in terms of their beauty and dress; it makes them feel attractive and desirable. Women like to be presented with gifts and other surprises geared towards praising them. They won't want their man to look at other women with a desiring eye or even comment that such and such a woman is beautiful even if it is a fact. A hurt or a worried woman tends to become possessive, argumentative, jealous, moody and withdrawn (Prabhakar Pillai. 2009). The sensitivity of women in a relationship can further be seen by the fact that they are aware of the non-verbal clues, spoken words and don't forget any fights in their entire life.

Many authors of books are these days seen to gear their efforts towards writing books based on relationships. This could be due to the many marriage breakages that are being witnessed. Always men are blamed for any wrongdoing in a relationship. Thus these books try to give solutions to problems that are being faced in relationships. An example of such a book is

Commentary

Women have always been exploited by advertising firms. It is believed that a body image of a woman in a commercial advertisement for certain product drastically changes the view and opinion of the public about that product. Beauty industries are deemed to fail if they do not use beautiful women in advertising and promoting their beauty products. Advertisements featuring women is more pronounced as compared to the men. The myth is that women are more selling than men. A video showing such a scenario can be seen at http://www.kewego.it/video/iLyROoaftZA9.html where the sale of under wears is being promoted by nude women.

Psychological Disorders

Commentary

Psychological disorders may be exhibited in the following ways: anxiety, depression, behavior, eating, psychotic and personality. People suffering from these disorders can only be treated by psychiatrists or psychologists. The following could be the causes or symptoms of Psychological disorders in women: Headaches, weight loss, fatigue, anorexia, anxiety, confusion, depression, hallucinations or even hearing voices

The following is an example of a poem on a woman suffering from mental illness. We need to appreciate people suffering from psychological disorder since they are part of us. For poems to be composed to speak out about mental illness, then it shows how deep this problem is rooted in our society.

Caverns of the Mind

I've lain awake like some insomniac late into the black of midnight hour, am I just a crazy lunatic or maniac of will I have no healing power,

My mind with insane thoughts of a blown up fake reality, Inside a Looney bin I've fought to gain back my fading sanity.

White coated persons inside asylums drill in my brain as secrets reveal I'm not crazy nor even insane simple normalacy I tend to feel.

That is my medical conclusion! Living life fast in a bucket of illusion! I'm not just a person I have a name yet to you all you label me is insane,

Well you know what,that's a bummer cause I just walk to a different drummer.

Women & Crime

Commentary

Women have generally been considered to be obedient and always seek men's protection. But this view has been proved wrong from the recent statistics concerning crime and those who have committed them. A fairly good percentage of women are also involved in crime. The testerone hormone has been considered to be responsible for the crime trait. Females who engage in crime are therefore looked down upon. They are treated with much indifference and their treatment in prison is wanting. They are perceived to be mad and abnormal. It is not until recently when women were separated into different cells from those of men.

Some women have been shown to feel love for others and that is why they resort to crime as shown in a video that tries to explain why women commit crimes. http://investigation.discovery.com/videos/deadly-women-female-sociopaths.html

Conclusion

Psychology, therefore, encompasses various aspects in studying the mental behavior and ways in which it can be influenced. The field of psychiatry is based on the studies done by psychologists such that the doctors are able to communicate effectively with people who have mental disorders and in the end try to integrate them to the society. This helps to root out the very threat they pose to the society.