Gender as a Moving Target: Making Up “Woman” and How the Looping Effect Can Help Advance Psychological Theories

This paper argues that Ian Hacking’s concept of the looping effect refers to an empirical phenomenon, the analysis of which offers valuable insights for advancing psychological theorizing. As psychological knowledge increasingly permeates public discourse, accounting for looping effects in psychological theory and practice is more pertinent than ever. Psychological research often treats concepts like gender as stable, monolithic variables, despite evidence that psychological theories actively influence experiences, feelings, and behaviors. Current theorizing on gender fails to capture the complex ways women interact with both traditional and feminist concepts of womanhood, particularly in highly psychologized societies. Analyses of psychologization’s influence on the looping effects of “woman” are illustrated through, and informed by, excerpts from interviews with women from 12 countries. This paper extends Hacking’s account by proposing that looping effects are dynamic, context-dependent phenomena affected by variables such as psychologization, and should be empirically studied to improve theorizing and interventions. The interviews suggest that updating psychological theories of gender, including those applied to affective disorders and workplace inequalities, to reflect the growing influence of feminist ideals and psychologization on women’s experiences, feelings, and behaviors may better achieve scientific aims of explanation, prediction, and intervention in the West. Theoretical frameworks and methodological recommendations for capturing the looping effect to improve psychological theorizing are presented. I show how feminist conceptions of scientific objectivity ground these proposed frameworks and recommendations.