问答题
.Without a doubt, men are capable of doing bad things. We fill newspapers each day with the bad things men do. Some of this bad behavior may be associated with the failure of men to adapt to cultural shifts since the 1960s, which have redefined their role in society. Indeed, it is common for people to talk about a crisis in masculinity, and even more ominously, of "toxic masculinity". The study of masculinity in psychology began in the 1990s and developed a deficit model, focusing mainly on problems attributed to masculinity. For example, masculinity was said to impose on men a narrow set of values and views. The crisis in masculinity today is said to be about men struggling to find their place in a world that no longer values the traditional male role of the breadwinner and stoical defender of the family.
In 2013, Diane Abbott, the current shadow home secretary, described how rapid social change has left today's men in a cultural tornado of traditional values, pornography and male cosmetics. She suggested that the path forward is a combination of a more flexible view of masculinity, strengthening the bond between fathers and children, and improving educational and career outcomes for men. A few months ago I led a survey of 2,000 men born or resident in the British Isles. We asked these men which core values were most important to them. We also asked them about the importance they place on values around various aspects of life—and we assessed how much their values were related to their mental wellbeing.
I found that men rated qualities such as honesty and reliability over adventurousness and athleticism. The most important predictors of their wellbeing were job satisfaction and being in a stable relationship. Other predictors were valuing health as a way to live longer, personal authenticity and being like their father. These findings suggest that if there is a masculinity crisis, it is a crisis facing those men who don't value their health and don't feel good about themselves.
We need to bear in mind the research telling us that when men have problems, they are less inclined than women to want to talk about their feelings as a way of coping. This reluctance to talk about feelings is often interpreted as a stubborn clinging to traditional male stoicism, but this interpretation is not particularly useful to psychologists, for two reasons. Firstly, we are failing to be "client-centred" in the way that we would normally be, and instead we expect them to adapt to our idea of what therapy should be. Secondly, we are presuming that men should talk about their feelings in the same way that women tend to. Evidence, however, suggests that although men benefit from talking about their feelings, the approach required might be more indirect than with women.
For example, men may prefer to open up about their feelings while engaging in other activities rather than talking as an end in itself, or have a different "port of entry" to talking about feelings. Though we usually see men's sexuality as a problem, recent research has found that men are more likely than women to use sex and pornography as ways of coping with stress. These are complex issues, but ones that we need to address if we are to support men's mental health.
Given the high rates of suicide among men, and other signs of mental health issues, any crisis of masculinity is not being alleviated by the inertia of the psychology profession when it comes to understanding the mental health needs of men. If men in Britain are in crisis, we are probably not helping by taking a negative view of masculinity, for example by labeling certain behaviours as "toxic masculinity". From what we know about research into self-fulfilling prophecy, "giving a dog a bad name" only makes behaviour worse. Learning to see the good things about masculinity may well allow for better mental health and behavioural outcomes for men.
Positive psychology is a relative new field, and its application to masculinity has yet to be properly explored. I think that it is time that we followed the lead of psychologists in the United States and experts in the UK and take a more positive view of masculinity. Recognizing the good things about men and masculinity doesn't mean ignoring the bad things men do, or ignoring the problems facing other demographic group. But if masculinity is in crisis, let's show some compassion and be part of the solution.