279: BF’s career, Women abusing men, Video games, Afraid to talk, gender theory

In today’s show, Dr. Howk discusses: 

1.Should I be worried if my boyfriend’s career is a higher priority than me and our future family? If I was the love of his life would his career still be more important than me? He is 40 and a financier on wall street. 

2. What are the ways women abuse men? Is the silent treatment, inducing jealousy, withholding intimacy, considered abusive? I’m a woman and I found myself doing these things in a toxic relationship in which my partner called me abusive, which made me wonder if I was.

3. You’ve only briefly touched on video games on the podcast, and I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on the psychology behind them. What do you link their popularity as an entertain medium / form of escape to?You’ve only briefly touched on video games on the podcast, and I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on the psychology behind them. What do you link their popularity as an entertain medium form of escape to?

4. I am a 35 year old female who is afraid to talk to men. I am so nervous when talking to the opposite sex that it is affecting my work and studies, to the point where I chose to pursue a professional degree in which the majority of students are female. I avoid interacting with males wherever I go; I always choose female doctors or dentists and only speak to female salespersons when in a store. At 35, I have never been on a date, which my friends (who are female) and family think is weird. I have never been traumatized by a man, never been raped, and had a good childhood. I know this is not normal and would like to overcome this.

5.I am a student in my 3rd year of a bachelor of psychology. No matter the subject, the courses always manage to devote a section to gender theory. Its taught as a fact that gender is a series of norms socialized into us and have no basis in biology. Where does evolutionary psychology fall on gender theory?