Exam 2 Psychology of Gender

Cognitive Development Theory

*-Paigent and Inhelder: Children have different cognitive organizations from adults. - Gender Identity: Individuals knowledge that she or he is a female or male; develops ~18-24months, They don't know gender is constant/permanent, and they think if they're a boy and they put a pink shirt and a bow on they'll be a girl. -Gender Constancy: A child's understanding that gender is a permanent, unchanging characteristic of the self: develops ~5-7years old; crucial for adoption of gender roles, this is when gender becomes part of their personal identity. -Gender-role learning as one based on gender constancy, children self-socialize based on gender constancy (Ex: being a boy is awesome, i wanna be good at being a boy, so they play with boy toys-> same goes for girls.)

Verbal Ability Data

- Gender differences very small F>M d=-.11 -Largest difference is in writing. Females outperformed males in both the multiple choice and essay sections. -Larger proportion of males have verbal disabilities than females.

Biological Factors: Genes

-23 pairs of chromosomes, XX= typical female, XY= typical male. But there can be other configurations. -SRY: sex-determining region Y chromosome, it directs formation of the testes, and testosterone production. -Twin studies: genes explain 20% to 48% of behavioral sex differences, this also showed that you can tease out differences due to environment and between genes.

What is Meta-Analysis?

-A statistical techniques that allows a researcher to combine the results of many separate research studies.

Differences in Aggression

-Aggression is when you INTEND to harm another person. -Males are more physically aggressive than females, d=.55 -Relation Aggression is a behavior INTENDED to hurt others by DAMAGING RELATIONSHIPS. -Females are slightly more relationally aggressive than males, d=-.13 assessed by teachers d=-.19 assessed by peers

Stereotype Threat

-Being at risk of personally confirming a negative stereotype about one's group. -This my interfere with performance by reducing cognitive capacity and/or increasing anxiety. (Ex: stereotypes about women and math hurt women's performance)

Differences in Personality

-Big 5 Personality Traits: 1.Neuroticism 2.Extraversion 3.Agreeability 4.Conscientiousness 5.Openness to Experience (Intellect) -Women are more neurotic, extroverted, agreeable and conscientious. -No sex difference in openness to experience (intellect).

Evolution of Cognitive- Deveolpmental Theory

-Children who have acquired gender constancy imitate same-gender models; Toddlers (2-3yrs) will usually imitate both parents, but once they get older (5-7yrs) they normally imitate the parent with the same gender. -Preschoolers who have acquired gender constancy are more stereotyped in their views of adult occupations than are preschoolers who do not have gender constancy. -But, children's gender-typed interest appear before gender constancy (~2-3yrs)

Spatial Ability Data

-Depends on the task at hand -Spatial Visualization: d=.19 M>F -Spatial Perception: d=.44 M>F -Mental Rotation: d=.56 M>F -Object Identity Memory: d=-.23 F>M -Object Location Memory: d=-.27 F>M

Differences in Empathy

-Empathy: seems to involve feeling the same emotion as another person or feeling sympathy or compassion for another person. -Self-Reported Measures: Large difference favoring females. -Observational Measures: moderate difference favoring females. -Physiological Measures: small difference favoring females. -Women are more empathetic but the difference is small, d=-.18

What is the down side to Meta-Analysis tests?

-File Drawer Problem: studies showing null results are unlikely to be published and therefore aren't included in the collection of data.

How do researchers conduct a Meta-Analysis?

-First they locate all previous studies on the research question of interest. -Then they compute effect size of gender differences -Lastly they average all the values of d over all of the different studies.

Biological Factors: Hormones

-Hormones: Manufactured by the endocrine glands -Sex-Related Hormones: Androgens (Testosterone), Estrogens (Estrodial). -Organizing effects: Prenatal; effects formation of things like the nervous system, etc. -Activating effects: Puberty; activate some psychological things that weren't happening before. -Strongest effects: sexual and aggressive behavior; organizing effects on behavior are impossible to look at experimentally. -Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH): Both males and females can have this, its when the fetus' adrenal glands overproduce androgens, Masculinization of XX fetuses to the external genitalia, and behavioral differences in females. -Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS): When biological males (XY) can't process androgens, their external genitalia appear to be female, they are infertile -Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS): When there is some development in the masculine direction but not a lot. 1 in every 20,000 are born like this, they don't menstruate and have trouble with sex because they have a short vagina people who have this have to have a sit down talk as a kid and be told they're XY and that they will have some side effects.

Evolutionary Psychology

-Humans complex psychological mechanisms are the result of evolution based on natural selection *-Sexual Strategies Theory: Women and men had different short term and long term mating strategies. Ex: Men's evolutionary advantage is to inseminate many women, Women's evolutionary advantage is to ensure a man's ability to provide for family. -Men are more likely to be more aggressive because of the Hunter-Gather Society where the women are the nurturers of the children so it forced the men to go hunt. -The downsides to this is that we cant do experiments to prove this is happening, and this is oversimplifying a very complex behavior, all of these differences can also be explained by current social and economic factors.

Cognitive Domains Overall

-In spatial domain the largest gender difference was in mental rotation -In verbal domain the largest gender difference was in writing. -There are substantial sex differences in math among highly talented samples. -There are substantial sex differences in verbal skills among those with verbal difficulties.

Differences in Helping Behaviors

-Males help more than females, d=.34; But its linked to the type of helping behavior. -Heroic, chivalrous, dangerous, observed by others was reported that males help more. -Nurturing and care taking was reported that females help more. -Helping behaviors depend on the sex of the person in need of help; men are more likely to help females than males, and women are equally as likely to help females than males.

Differences in Sexuality

-Men have more permissive attitudes towards sex than women. -Greater number of casual partners; d=.18 -Positive attitudes towards premarital sex; d=.10 -Men think about sex more than women. -Frequency of masturbation; d=.58 -Frequency of pornography; d=.46 -Men also desire more sex than women. -Have more sexual partners; d=.15 -Men and those with traditional gender role attitudes have more of a negative attitude towards homosexuals, in particular gay men.

Psychoanalytic Theory

-Originated by Freud -Its basic assumption is that part of the human psyche is unconscious. Greatest contribution is the view that the human personality was a result of development. *-Most importantly the phallic stage. For boys he thought they went through the Oedipal Complex, Thats where the little boy represses his sexual desire for his mother and identifies w/ his father. By doing this he develops a conscious Superego. For the girls it starts with the realization that she doesnt have a penis. Penis Envy occurs because she realizes that the penis is superior and shes envious she doent have one. This turns into the Electra Complex, where she blames her mother for her castration and she develops and strong sexual desire to be impregnated by her father (Maternal Urges) -Immature Superego: when the girl is not motivated to resolve the Electra Complex so she never develops a fully mature Superego. So she has a lifelong feeling of inferiority, Predisposition to jealousy, and intense maternal desire. -The Downside is that his concepts can not be scientifically evaluated, His patients sought him out for therapy (creating bias), and his views were male/penis centered.

Self- Confidence

-Our belief that we can succeed at a task. (similar to self-efficiency) -Sex differences seem to me limited to stereotypically masculine tasks. -May be a factor in the under-representation of women in the masculine areas of achievement. -women are more reluctant than men to display confidence when they have outperformed another person, believing that others' self-esteem would be threatened by such display. -Have someone estimate how well they can do a task then have that person do the task and compare the estimate and actual performance of the task. Men tend to overestimate how well they are going to do (Ex: they over estimate how high their GPA is going to be), while women tend to be more accurate in their predictions.

Differences in Activity

-Overall males are more active than females; d=.50 -Infants: d=.29, M>F -Preschoolers: d=.44, M>F -Older children: d=.64, M>F -Situation constraints: In front of peers d=.62, M>F Alone d=.44, M>F -80-90% of hyperactive kids are boys.

Psychoanalytic Theory: Karen Horney

-Penis Envy reflected desire for men's power and status in society, not literal desire to have a penis. -Womb Envy: Men's Envy of women's uterus and reproductive capacity -Males achievement represents an overcompensation for feelings of anatomical inferiority.

Gender-Role Socialization

-People and objects in the child's environment provide rewards and models that shape behavior to fit gender-role norms. -Parents treat boys and girls differently by buying them sex-typed toys (EX: Girls get dolls, Boys get cars), also parents communicate differently with boys and girls (Ex: They talk more about emotion with girls, also more negative emotions with girls) Differential treatment is to more likely occur at a younger age than older. *-Media is a big influence. In adult programs men are more likely to have the lead role and only 42% of all characters are females. In movies 29% of speaking characters are female. 25% of lead characters are female, and 17% of crowd scenes are female. In kid shows boys are portrayed as more powerful, smart, ambitious, competitive and violent while girls are portrayed as timid, warm, sensitive, and physically attractive.

Social Learning Theory

-Reinforcement: Something that occurs after a behavior and makes the behavior more likely to occur in the future. -Imitation: When people do what they see others doing; we imitate same-gender adults more than other-gender adults. -Observational Learning: When a person observes someone doing something, and then does it at a later time. *-Bandura (1965) found that boys tend to be more aggressive than girls, Gender differences disappeared when children were offered reinforcement for being aggressive.

Gender Schema Theory

-Schema: A general knowledge framework that a person has about a particular topic; it processes, and organizes new information on a topic. *-Gender Schema: (Bem, 1981) Is a person's general knowledge framework about gender; It processes, and organizes new information on the basis of gender-linked associations. -Gender schemas are closely linked to our self concept (Ex: a girls self-esteem is dependent on how well she measures up to her "girl schema") -Different individuals have, to some extent, different gender schemas -The gender schema is more central to self concept for some people; those who are highly gender-typed.

Math Ability Data

-Sex differences in math are small to zero decreasing over time. -Females outperform males in the classroom. -Males outperform females on standardized tests. -Sex differences in math ability among the highly talented are substantial; these differences may relate to men's advantages in spatial ability, in particular mental rotation.

What are the Meta-Analysis averages over individual studies, and how are they interpreted?

-Small: d=.20 -Medium: d=.50 -Large: d=.80 -A positive d score is for males; A negative d score is for females. -These scores allow us to consider whether moderator variables influence the size of the sex differences.

Achievement Motivation

-The desire to accomplish something for value or importance through one's efforts; the desire to meet standards of excellence. -TAT Test Picture: participants are shown a picture of a child who is playing the violin facing a window and you cant tell if its a boy or girl, then they are asked what was happening in the picture. Some people say the child was practicing to be one of the best violin players, while others said the child wanted to be outside and not playing the violin. -Gender similarities are the rule.

Social Role Theory

-The roles that society assigns men and women are responsible for gender roles. Men roles foster agency, where women's roles foster communication. -Biological factors contribute to these roles as well (Ex: women bearing children, Men being larger) *-Whiting and Edwards (1988) observed children from a few month to 10 years old from 12 different communities to see how they interacted with other children and adults. They concluded that differences in behavior were due to the different environment of girls and boys. The environments provided girls with more practice in nurturance and boys more practice in egoistic dominance. They stated that "The power of mothers to assign girls and boys to different settings may be the single most important factors in shaping gender-specific behaviors in childhood."

What gender differences exist in SAT scores and choosing courses? What are the potential explanations for these gender differences?

-Verbal scores= Female: 493 Male: 497 -Math scores= Female: 496 Male: 527 - Males tend to score higher on the SAT than women. -Female Under Prediction Effect: when females' SAT scores predict lower grades in college then they actually do. -Females actually do better than males overall at every point in school. -Males tend to pick more physical sciences like physics, chemistry, geology, and astronomy. -Female tend to pick more life sciences like biology. -Males also tend to major in more "STEM" fields like science, technology, engineering, and math. -Only recently have girls started taking more advance math courses. Math is the "critical filter" for achieving high paying jobs, ~2.3% of males take it, and ~1.7% of females take it. -There is an Ability-Achievement Gap for girls because in school they surpass the boys in school achievements but lag behind them in career achievement in some areas.

Evidence for Gender Schema Theory

-When looking at 2 pictures one with a little girl baking and the other with two little girls boxing children 5 to 6 years of age remember the picture with the little girl baking but will distort the picture of the two girls boxing so its stereotype consistent (they change it to two boys boxing) -They always get the action right but will change the gender to be consistent with the gender stereotype.

Psychobiosocial Models

-When we think of bio factors in anything, we have a default that this is a linear assumption that it leads from biology to behavior. It's not always the case that it goes from bio to behavior, sometimes our behavior can influence our biology. Its actually cyclical. -Research shows that women who are weight lifters have higher levels of testosterone than women who are not weight lifters, but we can also link this to if they have higher levels of testosterone then maybe thats whats motivating them to engage in these more masculine stereotyped activities. Or it could be that engaging in these weight lifting activities increases testosterone (This is actually the case).

Turner Syndrome

-XO chromosomes -1 in 3500 females are born with turners -Can happen because of ovum is fertilized by a sperm with out a sex chromosome. -Can happen durning development and the Y doesn't develop properly. -At birth they look standardly female. One of the biggest effects is that the women doesn't develop normally functioning ovaries and they're infertile. Durning puberty, they don't spontaneously develop secondary sex characteristics (Ex: breast) -Treatment: estrogen supplements -In terms pf psych, in childhood there's more stereotypical behavior that happens with XO kids. Less athletic, greater interest in stereotypical play (Ex: makeup, dolls, dress up) -Cognitive effects: have normal to above normal IQ

Klinefelter Syndrome

-XXY Chromosome -Typically male genitalia -1 in every 800 males are born with this. -Can happen because of a problem with the ovum or sperm -Physically some of the symptoms include being taller than average, longer arms and legs, commonly have smaller male genitalia, small breasts. -Typically infertile because of lower level of testosterone. -Psych differences: gender identity issues more often than with XY guys, higher chance of experiencing mental retardation, XXY are also over represented in the prison system.