Psychology Chapter 11

Social role theory

asserts that minor gender differences are exaggerated by the different social roles that males and females occupy.

Hormones

chemical substances released into the bloodstream by the endocrine glands.

Gender schemas

cognitive structures that guide the processing of gender-relevant information

Sexism

Discrimination against people on the basis of their gender

Instrumentality

An orientation toward action and accomplishment.

Expressiveness

An orientation toward emotion and relationships.

Gender roles

Cultural expectations about what is appropriate behavior for each gender.

Androgyny

Refers to the coexistence of both masculine and feminine personality traits in a single person

Socialization

The acquisition of the norms and roles expected of people in a particular society.

Corpus callosum

The band of fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain

Androcentrism

The belief that the male is the norm.

Cerebral hemispheres

The right and left halves of the cerebrum, which is the convoluted outer layer of the brain.

Sexual harassment

Unwelcome conduct on the basis of gender.

Gender-role identity

a person's identification with the qualities regarded as masculine or feminine.

Social constructionism

asserts that individuals construct their own reality based on societal expectations, conditioning, and self-socialization.

Meta-analysis

combines the statistical results of many studies of the same question, yielding an estimate of the size and the consistency of a variable's effects

Aggression

involves the behavior that is intended to hurt someone, either physically or verbally

Gender-role transcendence perspective

proposes that to be fully human, people need to move beyond gender roles as a way of organizing their perceptions of themselves and others.

Gender

the state of being male or female

Gender Stereotypes

widely shared beliefs about males' and females' abilities, personality traits, and social behavior.