Working Thesis: The gender pressures pushed on men by society are preventing men from seeking help from depression, which in turn leads men to have a higher suicide rate then women’, this must change.
Mandracchia, Jon T., and Phillip N. Smith. "The Interpersonal Theory Of Suicide
Applied To Male Prisoners." Suicide And Life-Threatening Behavior 45.3 (2015):
293-301. PsycINFO. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.
In this study researchers looked into 39 male prisoners and their suicide rates. They used interpersonal theory to aid in their experimental design to rule out factors for the suicide rates that they could not control. They examined thwart belongingness and perceived burdensomeness and controlled for emptions of depression …show more content…
In this study the researches specifically focus on the variable of “masculinity” in society and see how it impacts suicide rates. Mr. Michale, Masfiels, and Syzdek say that the constructs of masculinity created by society pays too little attention to the provisional and circumstantial effects of gendered social learning in men and the negative effects it has on mental stability. The social psychologists use multiple perspectives on the social learning theory, as it concerns male mental health, as well as gender inequalities. The authors use perspective, theories, and nominal arguments to point out that todays social idea of masculinity actually hinders gender equality in todays society and does not meet the agenda of the promotion of male mental health. This study does not have numerical hard data to back up their argument, but conceptually it is without fault. It is done with a very academic though process in mind; not to mention that all the contributors have various other published research in very distinguished psychological journals. This is the main argument of my own paper, that indeed the answer to “ is masculinity a problem?” is yes. I will use the flow and theoretical organization of this argument in my paper while backing up ideas with data provided by other …show more content…
The authors of this article uses previous studies to make claims about masculine gender roles in society and how they limit the proactive seeking of mental health professionals by males. They make the assumption that American men are hesitant to seek counseling and claim that men with higher gender role conflict (i.e stay at home dads, etc.) have more negative views on actually seeking mental health professionals. The researchers of this journal argument really use outside sources really well. They really focus on societies masculine pressure of alexithymia; the difficulty experiencing, fantasizing, thinking about, and expressing ones emotions. These articles findings are significant, however, are limited by the negative effects of uncontrolled variables, but that is expected while studying such brad fluid ideas like “gender” or “masculinity”. The credibility of the authors, and those that they source, are what make this a academically sound article. I will be using the ideas, and points made by the authors as to why men are hesitant to seek help because of societal pressures of alexithymia as my main argument as to why theses gender pressures must stop. I will argue the existence of a greater male suicide rates using other source, but use this article and things referenced in it as the cause of those increased