PSY 315 exam 2

The six evolutionary causes of (Susceptibility to) behavioral disorders

1. Appropriate defenses or response to problems- depression, anxiety 2. Side effects/pleiotropy/compromise- Traits that predispose individuals to psych disorders have benefits in terms of inclusive fitness that outweigh the costs. 3. Frequency dependent selection- Unusual traits that are considered pathological could lead to inconclusive fitness benefits; such traits may be advantageous precisely because they are rare. 4. Malfunction of module (or more general system)- A lot of things can go wrong, but we don't really know why. But it usually has something to do with something that goes against our evolution (solitary confinement) 5. Mismatch with current environment/time lag- Contemporary human lifestyles are different from the EEA; many changes have occurred too rapidly for selection to make appropriate changes. 6. Trait variation- Many traits show substantial individual variation because they are influenced by many genes and environmental factors

Disorders with substantial sex biases in occurrence: Explanations and limitations for each

1. Depression- females are twice as likely to have depression. Possible explanation is that women face different life challenges 2. Psychopathy- more men have psychopathy. Probably because they are less likely to be ostracized by society for psychopathy. Or they could be more susceptible to brain abnormalities 3. Generalized Anxiety disorder- Mostly female as could be explained by differences in gender roles 4. Autism; Mind-blindness Theory; strengths and evidence for extreme male brain (EMB) theory of autism- Mostly male. COuld have something to do with the fact that guys have a harder time reading people 5. Eating disorders; anorexia, bulimia, symptoms, key facts; media's influence, Becker (2004)- mostly female and could be because of the media's influence

General patterns across cultures

1. When laying in groups, children usually self-segregate by age and sex 2. Girls engage in more infant contact and care. 3. Girls engage in more grooming (real and play). 4. From age three onwards, girls spend more time working, whereas boys spend more time playing. 5. Boys spend more time away from home and their mothers 6. Boys engage in more rough-and-tumble play and more practice play with weapons and vehicles

"Men's" and "women's" jobs, job segregation and unequal status even in the same profession

90% of bank tellers, receptionists, and registered nurses are women Engineers, computer scientists, systems engineers, and business leaders are typically male Women working in blue-collar jobs will be separated and paid less than men, but men working a feminine job, but likely rise to management positions and be compensated well

ASSIGNMENT 10 2. Why is the ACLU opposed to single-sex schools?

ACLU is against single-sex schools because they are "morally and legally suspect." They claim that discriminating by sex is no different than discriminating by religion or race and that it actually promotes stereotypes rather than breaking them down.

Other unusual human cases (Prenatal hormones)

Ablatio penis: a boy's penis was damaged and removed at 2 months old. The individual was raised and identified as a girl, but was bisexual and expressed masculine activity interests Cloacal exstrophy: chrosomally and hormonally "male" children who were reared as girls because of severe birth defects reassigned themselves as females. XY karyotype but low androgen exposure: The degree of hypoandrogenization as indicated by genital stage and diagnosis showed a significant relationship to nearly all of the gender-related behaviors assessed.

ASSIGNMENT 10 1. According to Sommers, what are the key reasons that parents ought to be able to send their children to all-male or all-female public schools?

According to Sommers, the key reason parents ought to send their children to all-male or all-female schools is because it helps break down academic stereotypes about gender, and close the gaps in math/science and reading/English.

ASSIGNMENT 8 7. According to the p-values in Table 2, what factors were important in predicting pointing accuracy? How important were (1) experience shopping at the market, (2) preference for each food, (3) caloric density, (4) sex (5) and sense of direction?

According to Table 2 significant results were found for: intercept, sex, sense of direction, experience, and caloric density. Shopping experience at the market was significant, but not as much so as other factors. The participants preference for each food did not appear to be significant. However, the caloric density of the food seems to have had a large effect on the study. Sex and sense of direction also appeared to cause very significant differences.

ASSIGNMENT 11 2. What kinds of professors were included in the study?

Assistant professors trying to obtain tenure while trying to raise a child under the age of two were included in the study.

Playing at parenting, domesticity, and drama

At about 2 years both boys and girls engage in sociodramatic play where they imagine, rehearse and act out fantasies or dramas. Boys focus on power, dominance, and aggression Girls focus on interpersonal relationships, especially of family members Girls "play parent" and "play house" Sandberg and Meyer-Bahlburg (1994): almost 99% of 6-year old girls, but only 17% of 6-year old boys frequently played with dolls

Quantitative performance, Benbow & Stanley (1983)

Benbow & Stanley (1983): Boys did about 30 points better on the SAT-M -- Boys were significantly over-represented Males perform better on standardized tests, but girls do just as well (if not better) in the classroom

IQ and brain size

Bigger brains correlate to higher IQs. Men often have larger brains than women But there is no evidence that males are smarter

ASSIGNMENT 7 4. What were the main results in terms of who and what the children looked at?

Both sexes looked at the adult female in the video more than the adult male. A T-test showed that both male and female infants spent more time viewing the video with the balloon being hit, but males spent the most time viewing it.

ASSIGNMENT 8 10. In their letter to Science, why do you think Brumfiel et al. they put quotes around the word "study" in the second sentence of their letter?

Brumfiel et al. are throwing shade at New et al. because the New at al. study has some glaring flaws in it. One such flaw is how they set up the study to favor males, rather than choosing a more neutral approach.

Mechanisms of differentiation: parental hormones CAH and activity interests

CAH girls show a preference for male-typical toys despite encouragement from parents

Patterns across nations and CAH data

CAH women frequently held male-dominated jobs

Understand relations and properties of objects

Chen and Siegler (2000) found that as early as 18 months of age, boys are better at tool use tasks Several other studies show there is no difference in tool use ability

Market condition and comparable worth policies

Comparable worth policy: an external person is deciding how much a job is worth. It will be paid more if it is less enjoyable, more difficult, or more dangerous

Parents' differential behavior: Lytton & Romney (1991); effects of children on parents

Crowley et al. (2001): found parents explained scientific mechanisms more to boys than girls. No evidence that the girls were less interested in the topics. Lytton & Romney (1991): A huge ****ing meta-analysis. Found: (1) both parents, especially fathers, encouraged sex-typed activities; (2) Fathers encouraged dependency among girls; (3) Fathers used more physical discipline with boys; (4) Both parents especially fathers, used more physical punishment with boys. There were no substantial differences in how boys and girls were treated in most other areats, including encouragement for math achievement.

Prenatal hormones

Effect sexual orientation, but do not determine it

Verbal performance

Females excesll at speech production tasks, such as making anagrams and generating synonyms Males do somewhat better on verbal analogy problems

Personality

Gay men are more similar to heterosexual women and that lesbians are more similar to heterosexual men (this includes personality)

other sex differences

Geary (2009): Girls are better at fine eye-motor coordination; Boys are better at throwing, running, jumping, upper body strength Geary (2009): Girls grow and mature faster; Boys grow taller, bigger hearts, lungs, longer forearms, and develop more masculature Geary (2009): Boys take higher risks, have more accidental injuries, are more active and have a greater caloric needs; Boys are more affected by social, nutritional stress

Attention to people vs. things

Geary (2009): females (even as infants) orient more to people and establish eye contact more Lutchmaya & Baron-Cohen (2002): Most boys looked equally often at the social and non-social stimuli, but girls looked almost twice as much at the social clips (p<.001 -- highly significant) Alexander et al. (2008): Girls showed a strong tendency to fixate more on a doll, but boys did not significantly prefer to look at the truck

Factors affecting prenatal hormones

Genes Stress Uterine Environment

Lips' structural/societal explanations

Glass ceiling and Glass elevator

Prenatal hormones, Grimshaw et al. (1995), Puts et al. (2008)

Grimshaw et al. (1995): suggests that prenatal T has an effect on spatial abilities (the effect was positive for girls, but negative for boys) Puts et al. (2008): concludes that there is only weak evidence that circulating hormones affect spatial abilities

Circulating hormones, Gouchie and Kimura (1991)

Grouchie and Kimura (1991): Testo correlated with performance on tests like mental rotation and paper folding, but not on tasks like tongue twisters and advanced vocabulary. There is a U-shaped relationship between testo and spatial performance

Guiso et al (2008) main results and cautions against over-interpretation

Guiso et al (2008): boys are greatly over-represented as top-scoreers in math, but in gender-equal countries this pattern is weakened

Socialization might be overrated: Harris (1995) genes and peers

Harris (1995): The social environment outside of the home is crucial. But much of this environment is apparently selected by the kids themselves. Most parents do a pretty good job so details/variation don't matter too much.

Prevalence

How common something is

ASSIGNMENT 8 5. What is the reasoning behind hypothesis 2: "H2: The locations of more nutritionally valuable resources will be more accurately remembered than less nutritionally valuable resources"?

Hypothesis two supports the argument that the navigational skills are an underlying resource are adaptions for foraging. Because when foraging was a necessity, the people would have been looking for healthier foods.

ASSIGNMENT 8 11. What was Brumfiel et al.'s point about what is known about hunting in human societies, including in the past?

I believe that the point that Brumfiel et al. was trying to get across is that there are clear sex divisions of labor that have been seen across time. This could have potentially led to evolutionary adaptations that have been tested for in many different studies.

ASSIGNMENT 8 6. Why did the study use different stalls and foods each week, rather than asking all participants to perform precisely the same task? Why were participants not told initially about the directionality questions they would be asked later?

I think the researchers did not want the participants to merely memorize the route. If the route had been the same each week, they would have memorized it just walking around, and if the participants had been told about the directionality questions they would have actively tried to memorize it. By using the design they did, they were studying instincts rather than their ability to memorize a route.

Sex differences in Holland General Occupational Themes

In societies where there is more gender equality, people tend to choose more sex-typical jobs

ASSIGNMENT 9 5. Why was it important to measure math achievement at the beginning of the school year?

It is important to measure math achievement at the beginning of the school year to show the potential change in math achievement. If the girls are doing worse than boys to begin with, it cannot be blamed on the teacher's anxiety. However, if they children are relatively equal at the beginning of the year, and at the end of the year girls are doing worse, there is something going on during the school year causing the performance differences.

Attention in the Classroom, Jones and Dindia (2004)

Jones and Dindia (2004): (meta-analysis) (1) Found that overall, teachers interact slightly more with male students than with female students; (2) Teachers had slightly more positive interactions with male students; (3) Teachers had more negative interactions with male students; (4) Results didn't significantly differ for age level or according to teacher sex

ASSIGNMENT 10 11. In their Discussion, Pahlke et al discuss the differences between their study and that of Kim and Law (2012). What was the main result of Kim and Law study? What is the key weakness of the Kim and Law study?

Kim and Law (2012) found a slight advantage to single-sex schools. However, Pahlke claims this is invalid because Kim and Law studied middle schools, which have a less-random assignment.

ASSIGNMENT 8 13. How do Krasnow et al. respond to these points? Are you convinced?

Krasnow et al. claimed that while past studies have found that men have better spatial ability skills, they could have unintentionally been influenced by internalized sexism. Studies such as New et al. could potentially be an influential study because they are breaking down these barriers.

Reverse engineering approach

Look at the known sex differences in cognition and inferred the sex-differences in cognition and inferred the sex-differentiated evolutionary challenges from them. "Just So Stories"

Low's cross-cultural findings

Low (1989): Communities and parents don't arbitrarily socialize their children. They emphasize the traits that will lead to reproductive success (not necessarily happiness) in their societies.

Sex differentiated adult challenges: non-social and/or cognitive

Male-typical challenges/problems: (1) hunting (2) make and use tools, especially weapons Female-typical challenges/problems: (1) care for children and foster their development of skills and knowledge (2) forage individually

Variability across time and cultures

Math gaps disappear in more gender-equal nations, but the reading gap becomes larger

Standardized tests or grades

Men do better on standardized tests Women do better in class

Why men earn more than women

Men often work more cumulative hours than women

Knowledge of plants vs. animals

Men tend to focus more on acquiring animal foods, women focus more on plant foods Geary (2010): woman have greater botanical knowledge: they agree more on their classification of various plants and have greater knowledge about the biology and utility of different species

Cognitive constructs, Montemayor (1974), Bandura et al. (1961)

Montemayor (1974): showed that whether a game was described as "like basketball" (masculine) or "like jacks" (feminine) influenced the performance of 5-6 year old American children (they did better when it was consistent with their gender) Bandura et al. (1961): Bobo experiment -- both boys and girls were more influenced by same-sex models, but overall boys showed more than twice as much physical aggression.

early differences in mental rotation

Moore and Johnson (2008) found evidence that male infants were better able to mentally rotate objects

differences in means or variance, Deary et al (2003)

Most scientists agree there is no evidence for IQ differences between the sexes, but Deary et al. (2003) found evidence for greater variable in male IQ scores

ASSIGNMENT 7 5. What were the main results in terms of what the children did with the balloon?

No sex differences were found in how many seconds infants cradled the balloon after viewing the videos. However, males did increase the amount of seconds they spent hitting the balloon after watching the videos where as females did not.

Gender-role socialization, Nosek et al (2009)

Nosek et al (2009): the more people hold onto the stereotype that science is manly, the larger the sex difference was in 8th grade science and math classes

ASSIGNMENT 10 7. What data set did Pahlke et al focus on? Why?

Pahlke et al focused on data sets comparing single-sex versus coeducational schools in Korea because the assignment to these schools appears to be random.

ASSIGNMENT 10 6. What grade and topics did Pahlke et al focus on? Why?

Pahlke et al focused on math and science performance in eighth grade girls to show that single sex schools are particularly advantageous to girls.

ASSIGNMENT 10 5. Why do Pahlke et al believe that their study is a major improvement over the hundreds of previous studies of single-sex schooling? In other words, what are the problems with most of the earlier studies and how does their study solve the problems?

Pahlke et al. believes that past researches have serious methodological problems. Specifically citing their lack of accounting for confounding variable with the differences between the schools they are studying. The authors believe that studying Korean schools will solve this problem, because of how the students are randomized into the school by the government.

Gaydar

People's ability to detect sexual orientation using cues: --appearance, body motion, and voice --speech articulation --walking style --odor

Experience, Quaiser-Pohl & Lehmann (2002), Feng et al. (2007); Beanninger and Newcombe (1989)

Quaiser-Pohl & Lehmann (2002): undergrad women performance on mental rotation was significantly correlated with self-reported participation in technical activities and computer experience Feng et al (2007): After playing video games for 10 hours sex differences in spatial rotation tasks were reduced. Beanninger & Newcombe (1989): (meta-analysis) both sexes, on average, improved about equally from training

ASSIGNMENT 11 1. According to Rhoads, if we are interested in testing whether sex differences in parenting can be minimized or eliminated, professors are an ideal group to study. Why does he think this?

Rhoads believes that college professors are the ideal group to study because their children frequently have less stereotypical gender roles than most American children. Children of professors often seen as being more androgynous than the norm.

Rough-and-tumble and coalitional play

Sex difference in rough-and-tumble play become pronounced by 3 years of age Lever (1978) showed that boys prefer playing games in larger groups with specific roles Maccoby (1998): Boys, but not girls will often sacrifice a friend in order to improve their odds of winning

Reasons to expect biological mechanisms, activity meta-analysis

Significant differences in hearing are found in infancy Newborn girls are significantly more sensitive to being uncovered Newborn girls show a greater reaction to pain. Newborn girls are more sensitive than boys to sweet tastes Newborn girls are better at imitating small movements Newborn girls prefer social vs. non-social cues more than boys Campbell & Eaton (1999): Meta-analysis; boys were slightly, but significantly more active, but parents' reports underestimated the sex differences

ASSIGNMENT 8 1. According to New et al., what does the hypothesis of Silverman and Eals (1992) suggest about the typical foraging challenges of ancestral men and women? What does the hypothesis predict about what kinds of tasks will show a female performance advantage?

Silverman hypothesized that men have an advantage in basic navigational which helped our ancestors hunt for food. However, when it comes to gathering women have the advantage because they are able to store information on locations and understand when the resources will be bountiful. The implications of this hypothesis are that females should preform better at remembering locations of items within a complex spatial array, especially in incidental learning tasks.

Empathy and social responsiveness

Simner (1971): reported that infant girls cried longer than infant boys upon hearing the cries of other infants (empathy) Rosen et al., (1992) both sexes would approach a potentially risky and familiar object if their mothers smiled, but if the mothers indicated fear of the object girls (not boys) were much more likely to withdraw Geary (2009) women outperform males on "reading the mind in the eyes" tests Benenson et al (2004): Boys significantly prefer (and will pay attention to) larger groups

Baby X paradigm

Smith & Lloyd (1978): parents (mothers) show and give babies toys that "match" their supposed gender Stern & Karraker (1989): reviewed 23 studies and found that gender labeling effects were weak Baby X effect was generally strong for children between ages 2 and 6, but these children already have preferences for certain things

Mechanisms of differentiation: socialization

Socialization (often favored theory)

Discrimination by "The Man" explanation has gaps

Some fields that were traditionally male dominated now have a fairly high female population, while others don't. Is this all because of stereotyping or because the stereotypes reflect reality

ASSIGNMENT 10 3. Sommers critiques a review paper published in the journal Science. This paper argues against single-sex schooling. What are Sommers' key points to counter or refute this Science paper? What do you think of the logic and evidence for Sommers' counterpoints?

Sommers claim that the authors were biased due to their involvement with anti-single sex school advocacy groups and because of it, they cherry picked their articles and ignored all the research supporting single sex schools. Sommers also claims that the authors didn't support their claim that single sex schools foster sexism. Sommers also reminds the reader that race and sex are different and discriminating by it is not illegal. If what she says is true, I agree with the majority of Sommers critiques. Those are clearly problems when writing a scientific paper. However, I feel as if bringing in the legality of differentiating between discrimination of race vs. sex was unnecessary and is going to turn people away from her argument. People don't like technicalities like that even if it true.

Spatial visualization, spatial perception, mental rotation and targeting

Spatial visualization: requires people to disembed a figure from a complex background or to imagine how a piece of paper would look when folded a certain way -- No reliable sex difference Spatial Perception: determine spatial relationships with respect to one's body -- We don't really know the sex differences here, but it might be that guys are better Mental rotation: rotate figures in space -- Large male (?) difference Targeting: integrate spatial and temporal information (when will a moving target hit a wall?) -- large male advantage

4 more causes of pay gap: taste discrimination (e.g. Orchestra), statistical discrimination, productivity, human capital

Statistical discrimination: more rational -- because people have a certain desirable trait Taste discrimination: hiring people because of a certain, unrelated trait Productive: men are more likely to work more hours and do more things because women do more jobs outside of work Human Capital: All the traits that allow you to be productive (size, education...)

ASSIGNMENT 10 10. What is the main result shown in Table 3? What does it mean in terms of the study's hypotheses?

Student's performance in math and science was better predicted by socioeconomic status than type of school. Which could be why there were so many conflicting studies done in the US. Generally single-sex schools are private and expensive, making them appear to be more effective.

Cognitive abilities

Studies of mental rotation report that gay men perform more similarly to heterosexual women and that lesbians perform more similarly to heterosexual men. Other sex-differentiated cognitive tasks (rod & frame; targeting; navigation; verbal tasks; object location memory) show similar patterns

ASSIGNMENT 7 6. What is the point of Table 1? What hypothesis is it addressing?

Table 1 shows that male infants spent significantly more time hitting the balloon in the first and second minutes before and after viewing the videos. This data appears to support their original hypothesis that males do more propulsive motions from a younger age.

ASSIGNMENT 9 3. According to the authors, what point does Fig 1B make? What is gained by doing a meditational analysis involving the variable "gender ability beliefs"?

Teacher math anxiety was significantly correlated to girl's gender beliefs. And in turn, girl's gender beliefs significantly predicted math achievement. Gender beliefs is worth studying because when both teachers math anxiety and gender beliefs were plugged into the equation as predictor variables, teachers math anxiety was no longer significantly correlated to math achievement. This shows us that teachers anxiety is not as directly correlated to math achievement as originally expected.

ASSIGNMENT 8 3. How does the study of New et al. address these problems? What are they key features of their task?

The New et al. study uses a scale of spatial complexity and item diversity to help address the problem. The study also took place at a large farmers' market to help create more natural experimental conditions

ASSIGNMENT 7 8. How do the authors' rule out the explanation that "boys just hit balloons more than girls do"?

The authors appear to think that boys do not just hit balloons more than girls because before watching the videos, there was no difference in the amount of hitting between male and female infants.

ASSIGNMENT 9 4. According to the authors, what point does Fig 2 make?

The authors believe that Figure 2 shows that girl's math achievement is at least partly related to their confirmation of traditional academic gender beliefs.

ASSIGNMENT 7 2. What is the authors' hypothesis about how motoric affordances and propulsive motion might generate male-typical behavior? How does this hypothesis differ from the usual interpretation regarding the classic Bandura studies? How will their study design allow them to test their hypothesis?

The authors believe that male children being able to throw more forcefully than females at a young age is an example of motor affordances laying a foundation for sex-typed activities. The propulsive motions needed in to use weapons, vehicles, and tools, are also seen in males at a younger age. This pattern is not seen only in humans, but in most mammals. While the Bandura study is known for suggesting that children are primed to learn some movements more rapidly than others, differentiating by sex is a new twist on the classic study. The researchers used male ad female 6-9 month old infants who should not be affected by gender self-labeling to test their hypothesis. If their hypothesis is true, the male infants will display more propulsive movements than the female infants.

ASSIGNMENT 7 1. Why do the authors say (first full paragraph on page 2) that "Innate predispositions for perceptual attributes or motor affordances of objects therefore likely provide a foundation for sex-typed activity preferences"? What is the authors' evidence and reasoning for this claim?

The authors make this claim because previous studies have shown that even from infancy, males and females tend to focus on different things. One such study has shown that female babies will look at a female face longer than a mobile, while males did the opposite. Other studies show that female infants (about 5 months) will look more at a doll than a truck, but male infants do not discriminate.

Sex differentiated challenges for children

The challenges occur after puberty Based on a "social evolution" The sex specific skills help us become better adults

ASSIGNMENT 7 3. Briefly describe the key points of the experimental procedure. Why were there so many different video clips shown? Why did they show two clips at once? What were the main behavioral measures?

The child was first allowed to play with the balloon, but it was taken away when the videos began. There were 32 videos, playing 2 at a time. The videos were short and showed an adult either cradling the balloon or hitting the balloon. Once the videos were over, the child was given the balloon back. Ideally, the child would reenact the actions of whichever video it paid the most attention to. The behavioral measures included: which videos the infant looked at the most, whether infants cradled the balloon with two hands, and if the infant hit the balloon with one hand.

ASSIGNMENT 8 9. What were some of the alternative explanations for the sex difference considered in the Discussion? How did the authors (attempt to) refute them? How does the demonstrated importance of caloric density help refute these explanations?

The discussion section is arguing that despite males better navigational skills, women are better at relocating nutritional food items. They try to strengthen their argument by reminding readers that this does not apply when non-food items are applied or when vector-type directions are required over landmark-type directions.

Interactions: money wrestling

The effect of circulating T had on boys behavior was effected by his relationship with his family (close relationship with mother and sisters, circulating T is associated with peer competence) Some sex differences in monkey social behavior are affected by "biological factors" but many also depend on their social environment

Converging evidence

The evidence from many different area, collectively makes it clear that prenatal hormones strongly contribute to typical sex differences in activity interests, play styles, aggression, and activity levels

ASSIGNMENT 9 1. What is the study's main hypothesis?

The main hypothesis is that female elementary school teachers, who are anxious about math, will pass that anxiety along to their female students. By the end year, female students will begin to internalize the stereotype that boys are better at math and their performance will show lower math achievement.

ASSIGNMENT 10 8. What is the main result shown in Table 1? What does it mean in terms of the study's hypotheses?

The main result of Table 1 is that there are no differences between the students in Korean single-sex and coeducational schools being studied. This proves their point of Korean schools being a more valid measure because of their random assignment.

ASSIGNMENT 10 9. What is the main result shown in Table 2? What does it mean in terms of the study's hypotheses?

The main result seen in Table 2 is that schooling type does nothing to change student performance in math and science. It means that single-sex schools may not increase performance as they wanted to prove, but it defends their ideas on it not causing worse performance.

ASSIGNMENT 7 7. When it comes to imitating the hitting, who do the boys mainly imitate? How do the researchers "know" this?

The male infants appear to watch the adult males in the video more than the adult females. Their hypothesis comes from the proportion of time spent watching the male model in the video compared to the female model. The infants that increased hitting the most, spent more time watching the adult male hit the balloon. The researchers believe that it is because the male infants imitate the types of movements the adult males in the video made. Males infants imitate the "harder" hit seen by the adult males in the video. They hit it more straightforward and seemingly with more force.

ASSIGNMENT 8 8. How was each participant's general sense of direction measured (see last paragraph of methods section)? Do you think this approach was reasonable? Why do the authors claim that it was?

The participants were asked to take a survey on their general sense of direction each week. The authors claim this was a reasonable measure because when finding the weekly average error, they were able to separate the theory-irrelevant information. However, I think that observational measures may have allowed for more accurate results as many people have a skewed sense of the directional skills.

ASSIGNMENT 8 2. According to New et al., what are the problems with the evidence that has so far been gathered to test the Silverman and Eal's hypothesis?

The problem with Silverman and Eal's hypothesis is that, when testing it, the effect has been very weak (sometimes the hypothesized results were seen, sometimes they weren't). Possibly because the researchers were using experimental tasks that don't really engage spatial adaptations for plant forging.

ASSIGNMENT 9 2. What was the general design of the study? Experimental or correlational? Field or lab? (Don't give all details or copy from the paper - summarize in your own words!) How were the variables shown in Fig 1B measured?

The researchers began their study by assessing the math-anxiety levels of 17 first and second grade teachers, the math achievement of their 117 students, and the student's beliefs about gender and academic success. The students match achievement and beliefs about gender and academic success were tested in the first three months of the school year and again in the last two months of the school year. This study is correlational as no variables are being manipulated. From the information given, I assume that the research was conducted in field. The gender ability belief variable, as seen in figure 1B, was tested by telling the children two gender-neutral stories, one about a child that is good at math and another about a child that is good at reading, and then asked the children to draw a picture of the characters in the stories. In theory, after a year under a math-anxious teacher, female students will say that the character who is good at math is a boy, and the character good at reading is a girl. The teacher's math anxiety was assessed during the last two months of the year with a Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale. The students math achievement was tested at the beginning and end of the year with the Applied Problems subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson III Test of Achievement.

ASSIGNMENT 8 4. What do New et al. mean when they say (p2680, left column, under Hypothesis 1), "Thus, in order to most effectively jeopardize this hypothesis, we designed our study to favour men's established wayfinding strengths." What could be the purpose of using a study design that might be expected to have favored men?

The researchers explained that the purpose of using a study design that might favor men helps show how flexible women are with their navigational skills. They said that sex differences in navigational skills have already been well studied, but if we want to test the hypothesis that women are naturally better at finding immobile foods, there has to be challenges in place.

ASSIGNMENT 8 12. What is their point about a social learning explanation for the New et al. results?

The social learning explanation is contradictory of other studies on the topic. They claim that they believe that it is an evolutionary adaption, but they describe it as social learning when they bring in the sex differences in shopping and cooking.

ASSIGNMENT 7 9. According to the authors, what are the three possible reasons that boys mainly imitate the male model? Which do they think is most likely to be true? Do you agree with them?

The three explanations the researchers give for their findings are (1) male infants may consciously label themselves and the adults by gender then selectively imitate the motions of the male adult that are associated with male behavior; (2) fathers may have reinforced their sons, but not their daughters, for exhibiting propulsion; (3) males may before attracted innately than females to propulsive movement. I believe that it is likely a combination of the second two explanations. The infants are likely too young to truly understand gender, but innate responses due to the well studied androgen levels, or social influences from a young age, seem very possible.

Browne's (2006) alternative approach

There are on average, sex differences in temperament and abilities. Including: --Competitiveness, dominance, and status-striving --Risk-taking --Mathematical ability --Mechanical ability --Nurturance and interest in children --Verbal ability

Brain organization

There have not been any reliable difference in brain differences, but people keep checking out the hemishperic lateralization and the corpus collosum

Interactions: Udry's (2000) study of women's femininity

Udry (2000): Women who reported high levels of mother encouraged femininity reported higher adult femininity but only if their prenatal T levels were low. If prenatal T was high, mother encouraged femininity had no effect on adult femininity. The interaction between socialization and prenatal T is crucial when looking at adult femininity

Stability

Unchanging

Environmental causes

Unusual relationship with mother or father Unusual experience matters, such as a boy having sexual contact with an older male Having sexual contact with abusive men make women more likely to be gay Gender learning

"Just 77 cents for ever dollar...." is misleading

Women don't make 77 cents to a dollar within the same job. The gap is significantly smaller before they have kids and how similar their job is to the mans. Also when considering the benefits females tend to get with their jobs.

Different occupational interests and trade-offs

Women frequently like more comfortable jobs working with people Men like jobs working with things/concepts and are more willing to be uncomfortable/take risks for more pay

Causes of the pay gap

Working conditions, job satisfaction, stability, and other non-wage incentives

Childhood, Bailey & Zucker (1995)

analyzed sex-typed behavior and childhood non-comformity in 41 retrospective studies. They found consistently large difference between heterosexuals and homosexuals. The effect was usually larger in males.