The DOI matches its Crossref record; 3 of the 3 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The gendered nature of self-help
Abstract
Self-help promises the chance of being “better”. Across multifarious platforms, including books, apps and television shows, it offers hope that we can be our own agents of change for a happier life. Critical research troubles this premise, arguing that the recurring trope of the individualistic ideal-self found in self-help literature is at the expense of seeking solutions in collective, feminist, or otherwise politicised activism. Self-help is also problematically gendered, since women are often positioned as particularly in need of improvement, an understanding further intensified by postfeminist sensibility. These issues are examined conceptually before introducing 10 articles on self-help published in Feminism & Psychology across three decades and brought together as a Virtual Special Issue to offer a significant body of work for scholars and students alike.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“However, interpretations and practices of self-help by individuals and especially women, who are its main audience (Riley et al.,2019) have been found to be more varied and nuanced, and this study adds to this literature.”
From ‘YOU CANNOT EXPECT SUCH VALIDATION IN REAL LIFE:’ HISTORICAL CONTINUITIES AND CHANGE IN WOMEN’S ROMANCING WITH AI CHATBOT REPLIKA (2025) · cites this paper as Riley et al.,2019
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Inventing our Selves: Psychology, Power, and Personhood
Rose, N. (1996) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511752179 · Cited by 2,809
Saving the Modern SoulTherapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self-Help
Illouz, E. (2008) · doi:10.1525/california/9780520224469.001.0001 · Cited by 534
Counterproductive: Time Management in the Knowledge Economy
Gregg, M. (2018) · doi:10.1215/9781478002390 · Cited by 121
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 75
- Anderson, E. (2017). “Mental discipline” vs “struggling against your own nature”: How the “science” of happiness works to divide and pacify . Paper presented at the BPS Qualitative Methods in Psychology Conference, Aberystwyth, UK, 5–7 July.
- Appignanesi L., 2009, Mad, bad and sad: A history of women and the mind doctors from 1800 to the present
- 10.1080/10304312.2015.1022938 · DOI · Paper page
- Barker M. J., 2013, Rewriting the rules: An integrative guide to love, sex and relationships
- Barker M. J., 2017, Enjoy sex (How, when and if you want to): A practical and inclusive guide
- Barker M., 2018, Mediated intimacy: Sex advice in media culture
- Bauman Z., 2000, Liquid modernity
- Beck U., 2000, On the edge: Living with global capitalism, 164
- Beck J., 2015, The diet trap solution: Train your brain to lose weight and keep it off for good
- 10.1177/0959353509348215 · DOI
- 10.1177/0959354308093397 · DOI
- 10.1215/9780822394716 · DOI · Paper page
- Birch J., 2018, The love gap: A radical plan to win in life and love
- 10.1177/1367549404042496 · DOI
- 10.1177/0891243204263108 · DOI
- Brunila K., 2014, Discourse, 37, 56
- Byrne R., 2006, The Secret
- 10.1177/0959353504040305 · DOI
- 10.1177/0959353509351856 · DOI
- 10.1177/0959354317718970 · DOI
- De Vos J., 2015, Handbook of critical psychology, 250
- 10.1177/095935359800800213 · DOI
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199914760.001.0001 · DOI
- Foucault M., 1977, Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977
- Foucault M., 1988, Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault, 16
- Foucault M., 2008, The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979
- 10.1057/9781137304377 · DOI
- Furedi F., 2004, Therapy culture: Cultivating vulnerability in an uncertain age
- 10.1177/1367549407075898 · DOI · Paper page
- Gill, R. (2008). Culture and subjectivity in neoliberal and postfeminst times. Subjectivity , 25 , 432–445. · DOI
- 10.1177/1750481309343870 · DOI
- 10.1177/1367549417733003 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1386/macp.10.2.179_1 · DOI
- 10.3898/NEWF:91.01.2017 · DOI
- 10.1177/1360780418769673 · DOI
- 10.1177/0959353504044641 · DOI
- 10.1177/0959353513498070 · DOI
- 10.3898/136266211797146828 · DOI
- Hamilton D., 2015, I heart me: The science of self-love
- 10.1177/0004869003394006 · DOI
- 10.1177/026327694011002001 · DOI
- 10.1525/9780520951853 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1525/9780520941311 · DOI
- Kay K., 2014, The confidence code: The science and art of self- assurance: What women should know
- 10.1080/13676260500523606 · DOI
- Kondo M., 2014, The life-changing magic of tidying: A simple, effective way to banish clutter forever
- Lasch C., 1979, The culture of narcissism: American life in an age of diminishing expectations
- Layard R., 2011, Happiness: Lessons from a new science. (2nd ed.)
- 10.1111/j.1753-9137.2011.01118.x · DOI
- 10.1177/0959353500010003005 · DOI
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171242.001.0001 · DOI
- McKenna P., 2016, The hypnotic gastric band
- McRobbie A., 2009, The aftermath of feminism: Gender, culture and social change
- 10.1080/08164649.2015.1011485 · DOI
- Norwood R., 1985, Women who love too much
- 10.1111/spc3.12367 · DOI
- 10.4324/9781315648613 · DOI
- 10.1080/095023800334986 · DOI
- 10.1177/0959353506068747 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1017/CBO9780511488856 · DOI
- 10.2307/591464 · DOI
- Rothman L. A., 2013, Style bible: What to wear to work
- 10.1080/09502386.2013.857361 · DOI
- Rousseau G. S., 1993, Hysteria beyond Freud, 91, 10.1525/9780520309937-003 · DOI
- Sandberg S., 2013, Lean in: Women, work and the will to lead
- 10.1177/0959353593033021 · DOI
- 10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5 · DOI · Paper page
- Simonds W., 1992, Women and self-help culture: Reading between the lines
- Smiles S., 1859, Self-help with illustrations of conduct and perseverance
- 10.1177/0959353594041004 · DOI
- Twenge J., 2009, The narcissism epidemic: Living in the age of entitlement
- 10.1177/1464700105050225 · DOI
- 10.1080/13603116.2017.1412514 · DOI
- Vanderkam L., 2012, City Journal
- Wells M., 2016, The goddess revolution: Make peace with food, love your body and reclaim your life
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Depounti, I., & Saukko, P. (2025) · AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research · doi:10.5210/spir.v2024i0.13927 · Cited by 3
Metadata
- Authors
- Riley, S., Evans, A., Anderson, E., & Robson, M.
- Affiliations
- Aberystwyth University, UK
- Coventry University, UK
- University of Brighton, UK
- Venue
- Feminism & Psychology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2019-02
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-18
- ISSN
- 0959-3535
- 1461-7161
- Cited by
- 59
- References
- 3
- Language
- en
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
