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theses

Men are more likely than women to commit suicide, but are resistant to seeking psychological care. This dissertation explored whether men avoid psychological care to avoid masculinity loss, and whether changing the way social pain is conceptualized could minimize masculinity loss while increasing positive attitudes toward psychological care. Study 1 examined masculinity loss by asking participants to rate the masculinity of targets in a 2 (target gender) x 2 (physical versus social pain) x 2 (help-seeking, no help-seeking) design. Regardless of target gender, masculinity loss was present in targets seeking help for social and physical pain (relative to non-help-seekers), though the effect was larger for social pain. The effect was limited to masculine prescriptions. Study 2 attempted to minimize masculinity loss by re-conceptualizing social pain as similar to physical pain using a 2 (target gender) x 2 (pain prime, control prime) x 2 (help-seeking, no help-seeking) design. The pain prime decreased masculine proscriptions in men relative to women, independent of help-seeking. Participants rated male targets (relative to female) and non-help-seekers (relative to help-seekers) as more masculine. Study 3 explored whether re-conceptualizing social pain could improve attitudes and behavior toward psychological care in men and women. The pain prime had no effect on attitudes or behavior related to psychological care in Study 3. These studies failed to fully support the theory that men seek psychological care less than women to avoid losing masculine capital though there was evidence that help-seeking resulted in masculinity loss for both men and women.

ETD_7158

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Mary Suzanne Himmelstein

doi:10.7282/T3FF3VJ8

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.