PSYCH OF GENDER
Sexual Trajectories
•Trajectories of sexual desire and sexual activity. -Lust - highest level - M late 20s; W mid 30s •Sexual satisfaction and health - ass with QOL
Encoding accuracy
•ability to communicate nonverbally that others can intepret correctly
•Meta-analysis on sex differences in sexual behavior
- concluded that the sexes are more similar than different in their sexual behavior and attitudes and that this similarity increases with time.
Sexual orientation
-An enduring pattern of cognitive, motivational, and behavioral tendencies that shapes how people experience and express their sexuality.
Sexual Selectiveness
-Given the social norm that men rather than women should approach potential dates, men may exhibit greater sexual interest than women because of their role as "the suitor" and not because of an evolved tendency.
•Conflict pattern in same-sex couples.
-Gottman found that same-sex couples continued to display positive emotions throughout the duration of conflict discussions -speculated that the positive interactions maintained by same-sex couples during conflict discussions may reflect the emphasis that these couples place on relationship equality
•Three primary dimensions of sexual orientation:
-Identity, motivation, and behavior IMPLIES psychosocial & behavioral components
•A happy marriage is good for health.
-On average, married people, especially those in higher quality marriages, have better physical health and lower rates of mortality than unmarried people and people in lower quality marriages and this applies to both heterosexual and same-sex marriages. -Positive health benefits from marriage: Men > women.
•Cultural differences in eye contact.
-Respect vs disrespect
•Dating scripts
-Social norms about heterosexual dating dictate that men should play the more powerful and active role while women should passively await male attention. -Dating scripts for same-sex couples obviously lack the same expectation of sex differences in who controls the date.
•Sex similarity in love and romance.
-Some research reveals that women and men generally think of and experience love in similar ways---affectionate feeling of deep attachment to another. -The sexes may be more similar than different as they experience love and romance.
Display Rules - WOMEN
-Stereotypically expected to display positive emotions -may be criticized or seen as unfriendly when they do not
sexual assertiveness
-Studies show that observed sex differences in sexual assertiveness may result less from evolved tendencies than from socially constructed differences in power between men and women.
•Sex differences in love and romance.
-The findings regarding sex differences in love and romance are mixed. -There exists a stereotypes of women as the more romantic sex.
•People's self-report influenced by gender roles & stereotypes.
-The sex differences do not always hold up when researchers use different methods e.g., physiological indices or naturalistic observations. •self-reports may be influenced by gender roles & stereotypes rather than than actual differences in subjectively experienced emotions
•Emotional contagion - synchronize emotions
-W > M
Gendered Language can influence sexist attitudes
-bilingual students randomly assigned to complete a survey on sexist attitudes: •they reported more sexist attitudes than when they completed the same survey FRENCH or SPANISH compared to ENGLISH. -Finding consistent with the Whorfian hypothesis that language can affect the way people think
•Hostility and satisfaction.
-both heterosexual and same-sex pairings, couples who show higher levels of hostility (anger, demanding, and dominating) during conflict discussions are lower in satisfaction, and those who show more intimacy (humor and self-disclosure) and problem solving (offering solutions and requesting clarification) during conflict discussions are more satisfied.
Display Rules - MAN
-can express powerful emotions like anger and they are expected to avoid low-power emotions like sadness
Emotional Experience & Expression - DIFFERENCES
-girls and women report experiencing more affiliative and vulnerable emotions -boys and men report experiencing more anger & pride.
Neurohormonal theory (for sexual orientation)
-in utero exposure to androgens prefer female partners; exposure to female sex hormones, prefer male partners (animal but little human support)
Fraternal birth order effect (Theory for sexual orientation)
-more older biological brothers a man has, the higher his likelihood of identifying as gay (strong empirical support) •Ho - Male fetal brains contains proteins that evoke a maternal immune response, which grows stronger with each male fetus. •Eventually, the mother's immune response disrupts typical male fetal development.
•Costs of unhappy marriage
-omen > men -men in unhappy marriages still tend to have better outcomes than unmarried men -women in unhappy marriages experience higher risk of depression and alcoholism, poorer immune functioning, and increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease than do happily married and never-married women
•Five dimensions of sexual orientation (Herek):
-sexual attraction, sexual behavior, personal identity, romantic relationships, and community membership.
•Sex differences in sexual stimuli.
-some conclude that women and men have similar cognitive and perceptual responses to sexual stimuli, and that any observed sex differences in self-reported arousal must therefore reflect other factors such as learning and socialization.
•Electroencephalogram (EEG) technology.
-women tend to show higher empathic responding than men to others' suffering
Biobehavioral model:
1. Main concepts: Love, desire, passionate friendships. 2. Primary assumptions: Conditions of prolonged sex segregation combined with proximity, intimacy, and touch can lead people to develop novel sexual desires. 3. Evaluation of evidence: Most research supporting the theory comes from animal studies, but the available human data are consistent with the theory.
Evaluation of Theories:
1. None of the proposed theories fully explain all of the variance in sexual orientation. ● 2. Most of the theories are biased as they reflect heterocentric assumption that heterosexuality is universal and "normal" while other sexualities are deviations from this norm that require explanation. ● 3. The patterns of many theories seems to reflect androcentric tendency. ● 4. Thus, there is no precise explanation regarding sexual orientation.
•Diverse ways of describing sexual orientatio available.
1.For many years, researchers and media relied solely on the labels "straight," "gay," and "bisexual" to describe the full range of human sexualities. ●
Tipping point theory:
1.Main concepts: : Genes, communal traits. 2. Primary assumptions: 1.Groups of genes that code for same-sex sexuality also code for communal traits (in men) and agentic traits (in women). 2.These traits increase the likelihood that genetic relatives of gay men and lesbians will have mating success, thus passing along genes that code for same-sex orientation. 3. Evaluation of evidence: solid evidence -- men with more communal traits & women with more agentic traits have more sexual partners, but genetic evidence that personality traits are linked to sexual orientation is lacking.
What Is Sexual Identity? (Ground Behaviors)
1.Once people categorize themselves into a given social group, they tend to incorporate the traits, behaviors, and values associated with this group into their self-concept. ● 2.People often view themselves as similar to other members of their sexual orientation group and as sharing similar experiences and outcomes. ● 3.Many people view their sexual identity as a central and important part of themselves and associate it with positive feelings.
Need of emotionality examinations beyond gender binary.
1.Research on gender and emotions focuses largely on making binary: --Overlooks within-sex variability in the experience and expression of emotion. -- Ignores how gender stereotypes about emotion can create and maintain gendered power structures 2.Researchers need to be encouraged to go beyond sex differences and take a more intersectional approach
•Inconsistencies in sexual orientation.
1.Some heterosexual-identified people feel same-sex desire without acting on it while others experience same-sex sexual behavior without adopting a same-sex sexual identity. 2.Some gay-, lesbian-, and bisexual- identified people report: 1.Same-sex desire without same-sex behavior. 2.Other-sex behavior with or without other-sex desire. 3.Some other combination of desire and behavior. 3.number of people who experience these inconsistencies is small, it appears stable over time.
Mate Preferences: Similarities & Differences
1.There are more similarities than differences ● 2.Both men and women desire mate who is honest, trustworthy, kind, sense of humor, affectionate 1.Earning potential and physical attraction are relatively unimportant compared to traits listed above •Men prioritizing looks over earning potential and women prioritizing earning potential over looks, emerges considering long-term mates whereas considering short-term partners, both women and men prioritize physical attractiveness over other qualities. • •Lesbians prioritize earning potential less than straight women do, instead emphasizing personality traits such as honesty. •Partners tend to match in level of physical attractiveness 1.In real life, there are tradeoffs - we don't evaluate one characteristic in isolation of the rest 1.Preferences do not predict actual behavior •Real world mate selection also depends on other person's behavior/desires
Gender Neutral, Higher-Status Language
Actor, author, flight attendant
Diminutive, Trivializing Language
Actress, authoress, stewardess Girls (to refer to adult women)
How Does Understanding of Sexuality & Sexual Orientation Differ Across Time & Culture?
Assumptions of non-Western cultures on sexuality: 1.In non-Western cultures, sexual behavior can have meanings that have little to do with sexual orientation. ● 1.In Sambian culture, pubescent boys undergo a manhood ritual that involves fellating and ingesting the semen of adult male tribe members where it was believed that only through ingesting semen can boys gain the strength and bravery to become warriors, and once they have transitioned to manhood, they largely maintain heterosexual relationships. This cultural practice is not thought to reflect same-sex desire but, instead, gender role socialization
Display rules
Culture-specific norms that regulate how, when, and whether individuals should express particular emotions.
Verbal Communication: What's the Big Picture?
Differences in communication •Women tend to use more emotional & warm language •Men tend to be more argumentative, use more intrusive interruptions, & discuss objects more •Effect sizes are small
How Do Sex and Gender Shape the Experience, Expression, and Identification of Emotions?
Emotion: 1. A complex, internal, subjective reaction that includes physiological, psychological, and behavioral components. 2.Basic emotions, such as joy, anger, and fear, are thought to be innate and universally expressed and recognized. 3.https://www.paulekman.com/resources/universal-facial-expressions/
Empathy & Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence: •The ability to identify and manage one's own emotions and the emotions of others, and to use emotions to solve problems. •Relates to empathy in a way that emotionally intelligent people: oShow awareness of their own and others' emotions, oManage their own and others' emotions well and use their emotions effectively to solve problems and facilitate actions, and oPeople in this tendency are intelligent about emotions in general.
How Do Sex and Gender Shape Experience, Expression, & Identification of Emotions? - Rachele
Empathy: tendency to feel others' feelings. •Empathy and stereotypes -meta-analysis: women do slightly better on tests of empathic accuracy, but larger sex differences emerge when participants know they are being evaluated on empathy.
Sex Differences in What People Communicate:
GOSSIP •Serves primarily as means of learning, e.g., moral norms •Used as a form of relational aggression. •Associated with women more than men. •Provides social information - helps people to form alliances and bond with others SOCIAL MEDIA •Men use profanity more frequently •Women use more emotion words (e.g., excited) social words, symbols (e.g., "love you" and "<3") and self-disclosure •Men use the possessive my when mentioning their significant other and they are also more to talk about objects (e.g., xbox).
Role of Sex and Gender Play in Nonverbal Communication?- Milan
Influence of nonverbal behaviors on speech. 1. can influence speech, e.g., raises voice at the end of a sentence to signify disbelief. 2. Speech tone, pitch, and inflection count as nonverbal behavior because they use sound, but not language to convey meaning. People have gender stereotypes about nonverbal behaviors, with women stereotyped as more nonverbally expressive than men.
Relationship Struggles: Jealousy and Conflict -
Jealousy •Can be adaptive in small doses. -motivates actions that fend off rivals, which can help to protect the bond between romantic partners. - •Can be corrosive in larger amounts. -Correlated with anger/violence -undermine trust, erode satisfaction, and increase stress and conflict - •Sex differences in jealousy. -women and men do not differ in the frequency or intensity of their jealousy - can be explained as stemming from sociocultural factors, such as men's desire to control and suppress women's sexuality
Gender Inclusive
Mail carrier, police officer, first-year student Humanity, friendship You all, you
Gender Exclusive
Mailman, policeman, freshman Mankind, brotherhood You guys (to refer to mixed-sex groups)
Sternberg's Triangular Theory of LOVE
Psychologist Robert Sternberg's theory describes types of love based on three different scales: intimacy, passion, and commitment. It is important to recognize that a relationship based on a single element is less likely to survive than one based on two or more.
What Roles Do Sex and Gender Play in Verbal Communication? -
Sex Differences in How People Communicate •Research rooted in sex binary. •Who talks more?: stereotypes about talkativeness. -meta-analyses shown that the sex differences in talkativeness are often small. •Who interrupts more?: interruption and gender. (small differences) -women tend to interrupt more often in ways that build rapport, whereas men tend to interrupt more often in ways that dominate and control the conversation
Nonverbal Communication: What's the Big Picture?
Sex differences in nonverbal behaviors: 1. Sex differences in nonverbal behaviors tend to be fairly consistent with gender role stereotypes and expectations. 2. In general, -women show more other-oriented behaviors that indicate concern for and attention to interaction partners, such as smiling and nodding -men tend to show more dominant and self-promoting nonverbal behaviors, such as expansive posture and visual dominance.
LGBTQIA Friendships
Special importance on social networks and friendships. •troubled family relationships remain a theme for members of the LGBTQIA community •individuals often gravitate toward intentional communities of LGBTQIA friends •Chosen families. -friend circles of LGBTQIA individuals that stand in for biological families (understand the challenges) -Some research indicates that transgender adults tend to have even larger and more diverse friend networks •Passionate friendships. -Friendships characterized by intense longing for proximity, high levels of affection, and large amounts of physical touch (e.g., cuddling and hand holding).
Sexual orientation label and stigma
Stigma •Sexual minority individual often face stigmatization and prejudice in many cultures where some experience negative, shameful, or fearful emotions associated with their sexual identity. §Some sexual minority individuals experience internalized homophobia, where they internalize the negative messages they receive about same-sex sexuality from the larger culture §people with high internalized homophobia tend to feel less positive about their sexual identity and less connected to other LGB individuals.
How Does Sexuality Change Over the Life Course? -
The Medicalization of Sexual Changes •Influence of hormonal changes in sexual behavior. -perimenopause, menopause, ED •Medicalization of sexuality. -Focus on on biological factors that underlie sexuality and ignores social, emotional, and cultural factors •Key to healthy sexuality. -can contribute to overall well-being and physical health well into the later decades of life
Who has the advantage of encoding and decoding accuracy
Women and female sex typed have the advantage
Behavioral genetics - Theory of sexual orientation
heritabilty bit stronger M>W (strong empirical support)
Diminutives and Gender Labels
•Adding gendered suffixes to neutral words: -Examples: heroines, actress, and hostess. •Subtle power differences suggested by gender suffixes and qualifiers. - Example: Implying that a woman politician differs from a "regular politician" • •Diminutive: word indicating smaller, less powerful, more familiar version. -(e.g., booklet, duckling)
Cross-sex Friendships
•Common by college age in western cultures. •Qualities appreciated in cross-sex friends. -Kindness, honesty, humor, companionship, and openness •Often men's emotionally intimate friendships are with women •Audience problem: assumption of romantic involvement among platonic friends -Cross-sex friends more frequently encounter the audience problem than same-sex friends do, likely due to the pervasiveness of heterocentrism. -Cross-sex friendships between straight women and gay men •Reduce the likelihood of the audience problem •allow exchange of valuable mating advice without concerns about sexual interest, competition, or ulterior motives
Dealing with Conflict
•Common sources of conflict. -Sex and physical intimacy, money, divisions of labor, and parenting decisions - •Reason for fights among couple. -often arise due to temporary annoyances, knee-jerk reactions, or misunderstandings that spiral out of control, which makes it important to understand how couples fight than what they fight about. - •Demand-withdraw pattern - Gottman -relationship pattern - one couple member criticizes or demands, and the other partner responds by withdrawing emotionally or physically. •This stonewalling shuts down further communication -predicts divorce. -distress and withdrawal during conflict discussions predicts lower relationship satisfaction.
How Do Gender-Related Words Influence Social Perception?
•Cultural debates around word choices. -Using nonpreferred terminology can lead to awkward interactions if certain terms carry offensive or outdated meanings. - •Importance of word choice. -word choice is important because words have the power to shape social perceptions and attitudes. -May seem like being too politically correct :Efforts to avoid offending members.
Dating Relationships in adolescents
•Dating rates & race/ethnicity. -Asian adolescents < White, Black, Hispanic, and Native American adolescents - •Dating rate heterosexual & same-sex orientation. -Similar in US -Dutch teenagers found somewhat lower rates of dating among transgender than cisgender adolescents. - •Dating typically begins during adolescence in Western cultures.
Marriage and divorces:
•Even though research consistently finds married people having greater happiness and life satisfaction than unmarried people, many of the marriages end in divorce. -40% of first-time marriages in Western countries end in divorce although divorce is not simply a modern, Western phenomenon.
Use general neutral language
•Generic masculine being replaced by gender-neutral language. - APA guidelines •Options accommodating nonbinary individuals. -use of they and them as singular pronouns -As gender-neutral language becomes more common, new gender-neutral pronouns emerge (e.g., using ze/zir instead of she/her and he/him). - •Disruption of unconscious gender binary. -can be empowering for nonbinary people.
Hookups and Friends with Benefits
•Hookups: uncommitted sexual encounters. •Friends with benefits (FWBs): type of hookup. -friends have occasional, casual sexual interactions without the expectation of a romantic relationship •Prevalence of FWBs. -54% of men and 43% of college women reported at least one FWB arrangement in past year -White and male students report more experience with hookups than Hispanic and female students -tend to be higher among students who are White, younger, and less religious.
Human relations: flexibility &creativity.
•Humans are a social species - hardwired to form connections with each other. •These connections take many forms -e.g., large, extended networks of acquaintances, small friend groups, domestic partnerships, parent-child attachments, and extended family relationships. People historically demonstrated flexibility and creativity in how they structure their relationships, networks, and families
Body Posture and Gait - SPACE
•Manspreading: tendency of men to spread out. •Women more restrictive space
Gendered Features of Language: The Generic Masculine-
•Tradition using male-gendered terms. -Examples: Mankind, freshman, forefathers, brotherhood, and manpower. •Imprecise and can obscure meaning. -"Most congressmen oppose the Equal Rights Amendment." - •Makes girls and women invisible. - Research demonstrates generic masculine language (vs gender-inclusive language) produces gender-biased thoughts in adults and children.
A Brief Social History of Marriage
•Marriage as a patriarchal arrangement. -men more authority, power, & freedom than women •Love based marriage. -Autonomous marriages originated in Western Europe sometime between the 16th and 18th centuries •Arranged marriage -most marriages throughout history have been arranged, often negotiated by parents and other kin, neighbors, or religious leaders. -Divorce: Autonomous marriages divorce > arranged marriages •although it does not necessarily mean that arranged marriages are happier than autonomous marriages because people in arranged marriages may be unlikely to divorce for social or cultural reasons.
Why Do People Differ in Sexual Orientation?
•Most contemporary approaches consider the roles biological and social factors & their interaction
Gendered language
•Nations that have gendered languages -have lower levels of gender equality compared with nations that speak genderless languages. -referring to objects as masculine or feminine highlights or enhances gender distinctions within a culture
Complexity of Sexual Orientation
•Need of distinguishing dimensions of sexual orientation -people do not always experience their sexual orientation in a unified manner
Social Networks and Friendships
•Need to belong: need for close relationships. •Impact of nonsatisfaction of need to belong. -a host of maladies ensues, including disease vulnerability, depression and mental illness, criminality, and even premature death. •Study of social networks vs. friendships. -social networks yields insight into the quantity of social connections that people have -friendships allows insight into the quality of people's connections.
Sexual double standard
•Norms that allow greater sexual freedom in men than in women. • •Exposure to urbanization corresponds with reductions in sexual double standards.
Gendered Features of Language: Grammatical Gender
•Nouns are assigned a gender. •Languages having grammatical gender. -e.g., Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Spanish, and French. •Languages not having grammatical gender. -e.g., English, Finnish, Turkish, Korean, and Maori.
Same-sex marriage and separation:
•Official marriage and divorce rates are lacking. •Same-sex couples have higher rates of breakups than other-sex couples. •Some of the barriers to divorce that keep unhappy couples together, such as children or financial dependence, are less common in same-sex than other-sex relationships.
Body Posture and Gait - GAIT
•People tend to perceive walking with swaying hips as feminine and walking with swaggering shoulders as masculine •People can also identify a walker's sexual orientation based on gender-atypical gaits.
-Fecundity hypothesis (tendency to bear children) (sexual orientation)
•Primary assumptions: Biological mothers and aunts of gay men bear more children than do mothers and aunts of heterosexual men, thus passing along genes that code for male same-sex orientation.
-Alliance formation hypothesis. (Sexual orientation)
•Primary assumptions: Same-sex sexual activity between primate friend pairs increases likelihood of friends assisting and defending each other, which increases likelihood of passing on genes that code for same-sex sexual behavior.
Emotional Experience and Expression: Nature and Nurture
•Role of socialization in sex differences in emotions. -may encourage boys more than girls to dampen their emotions to regulate their high arousal and activity levels •boys may gradually learn to suppress the expression of emotions. -girls more encouragement to express affiliative emotions, such as sympathy and and warmth, and to avoid conflict by directing negative emotions inward instead of outward.
Smiling and Eye Contact
•Sex and cultural differences in smiling. -F > M; persists cross culturally (med effect size) •Factors beyond joy that trigger smiling. -Larger sex differences in smiling when people engage in social interactions, feel social tension, or believe others to be observing them -decreases when people occupy caretaker roles, such as parent, doctor, or therapist. •Eye contact and visual dominance. -W>M gaze; W<M visual dominance
Sexual Fluidity & Trajectories -
•Sexual orientation and identity change over time. •Sex differences in sexual fluidity. -W > M
Encoding and Decoding Accuracy
•Signaling and reading of emotional content. -Communicating emotion effectively through nonverbal behavior involves both accurate signaling and reading of emotional content.
Social networks
•Social network: extended circle of people. -Larger social networks - better social integration; predicts positive psychological and physical health outcomes. •More women in social networks benefit all. •Friendships in social networks. -most people report wanting trustworthy and dependable friends who are similar to them and with whom they can share activities
Friendship Intimacy
•Style of friendship typical of women begins to develop during mid-elementary school §Girls' friendships begin to include emotional intimacy. §Girls'talk-based friendships contrast with boys' relationships, often based on playing games, team sports. §women tend to achieve intimacy in the context of dyadic relationships, with a few close friends. • •Style of friendship typical of men begins to develop during childhood §Gang to explore the world §men's intimacy tends to stem from larger, hierarchically organized groups and interactions containing opposing emotions •equating intimacy with self-disclosure and treating shared activities and self-disclosure as mutually exclusive - researchers might incorrectly attribute more intimacy to female friendships than to male friendships
Decoding accuracy
•The ability to read the nonverbal communications of others correctly.
Gender difference in empathy and emotion
•The gender difference in emotional intelligence is subjective as it shows various results in studies in accordance with various measures. •People who score high on empathy related measures are found to be having better mental health, better interpersonal relationships, and higher marital satisfaction.
What Is Sexual Identity?
•The label that people use to describe their sexual orientation and the emotional reactions that they have to this label. -Examples: heterosexual or straight, lesbian, gay, and bisexual.
-Kin selection theory. (Sexual orientation)
•assumptions: Gay men provide above-average levels of child-rearing assistance to their siblings, thus increasing the survival of nephews and nieces and passing along genes that code for male same-sex orientation.
Sexuality
•capacity for sexual responses.
Stereotypes paint verbal communication
•female speech as expressive & relational •male speech as instrumental & assertive -the evidence does not strongly support these stereotypes, -differences are generally small, and the similarities often outweigh the differences.
No identification with sexual orientation label: Some people
•may avoid labels due to uncertainty about which one best applies to them. •May consides themselves fluid, meaning that their sexual orientation changes over time, or they may view sexual identity labels as overly simplistic. •may avoid labeling themselves because they do not consider their sexuality a core feature of the self that connects them to a social group.
Emotional Experience and Expression: Nature and Nurture
•meta-analysis. - Girls tend to show more other-oriented positive emotions (e.g., sympathy) and inward-focused negative emotions (e.g., fear and shame) than boys, -Boys tend to show more outward-focused emotions (e.g., anger) than girls
Whorfian or linguistic relativity hypothesis:
•structure of language, the kinds of words or language that is used, determines the nature of the speaker's thoughts and worldviews
