Psychology of Gender a “Wrestle with Identity”

As the end of the semester drew near, the students in Associate Professor Dr. Mary Lynn Colosimo’s psychology of gender class presented their final projects, some of which delved past traditional research work.

The types of projects students could choose ranged from a poetry anthology to a photographic display of gender-related topics.

Senior Bethany Verhage ’11 of Moses Lake, Washington, and sophomore Calob Lostutter ’13 of Tuscon, Arizona, both chose to exercise their writing abilities by creating an original poem and children’s book, respectively.

Verhage’s poem, titled “Your Strength Will Sustain Me,” was based on her insights from a solitude exercise, focusing on man’s identity in Christ.

Lostutter addressed a psychological quandary by writing a children’s book about a bear who wants to be a lion because of insecurity. In the book, the bear struggles with identity and knowing his role in society. To highlight the theme of forming community through our differences, Lostutter enrolled the help of his peers by asking them each to paint a page of the book.

“The issue of identity is one that presses upon every generation,” said Lostutter. “Although each page of the book has a certain quality that makes it stand out, it all comes together in the end to form one story, just as each unique person helps form one single, functioning body.”

He added, “To study psychology of gender is to wrestle with identity. This class provided an opportunity for self-reflection and a chance to consider if I am aligning my identity based on social standards or the roles set forth by God.”