SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

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SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

• Are men and women worlds apart?

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essentialism
Social constructionism
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Aggression

• Stereotype?
• Media images Columbine etc

-measured in lab Maccoby and Jacklin
(1974) Hyde (1984b)
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Some variables

• Age
• Different DVs for preschoolers and college
  students
• Larger for physical over verbal
• Larger in naturalistic, correlational
• Direct observation, projective methods, or peer
  reports compared to self-reports, parent-reports,
  or teacher reports
• Earlier than later studies (prior to 1978)

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• Observational issues
• Observer bias
• Tapes of children in the snow
• Rough play versus aggression
• Contingent upon the receiver
• Rewards- boys and girls equally likely

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Relational versus Overt aggression

• Females relational aggression
• Males overt aggression

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Aggression to violence

• Sexual and physical abuse related to violent
  behavior for women
• Men commit far more homicides, and men are far
  more victim to homicides
• Far more wives leave homes
• Females- 72 of victims of simple assault
• 60 of aggravated assault in families

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• Toward family members
• No difference in spousal aggressive acts
• No difference in child abuse
• However, men commit more serious abuse and
  inflict more injury

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Social Psychological Reasons

• The teaching of aggressive acts to boys over
  girls
• The rewarding of aggressive acts in boys
• The presence of more aggressive male than female
  role models
• More social acceptance for relational aggression
  in women
• Different constructions of aggression by men and
  women

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Biological

• The distinction between rough and tumble play and
  real aggression becomes important

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Sex hormones and aggression

• Testosterone!
• Link between prenatal hormones (androgen) and
  rough and tumble play
• CAH girls- paper and pencil tests- how likely to
  act aggressive
• Violent male criminals

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Problems with research

• Correlational (not cause-effect)
• Experiment testosterone on skin
• Experiment testosterone to men
• Testosterone levels are not constant
• -competition, defeat
• Role of schema in measurement

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Influenceability

• Stereotype?
• Greater female conformity
• The size of the difference is small- ¼ of a
  standard deviation (Eagly Carli, 1981)
• Heavily influenced by SITUATIONAL VARIABLES

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Explanations

• Gender roles
• May not be because women conform more but maybe
  men conform less
• Mens opinions change to greater NONCONFORMITY
• Role of status

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Dominance

• Stereotype?
• Social dominance orientation
• Personality scores on dominance
• Mixed sex groups
• Nonverbal behavior

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• Same-sex groups?
• Female groups tend to be less structured, more
  cohesive, and show less stable linear dominance
• Same-sex pairs and personality
• Leadership/groups- men are more likely to emerge
  as leaders however women are more likely to
  become social leaders (Eagly Karau, 1991)
• Type of task masculine versus feminine

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Race and dominance

• African American women
• -all female groups
• -resisting challenges to preferences
• -conversational experiments

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Cross-cultural research

• Arapesh and Mbuti favor equality and discourage
  dominance hierarchies
• Iroquois- female line- women own the land and the
  soil
• Interplay of status and dominance

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Nurturance

• Stereotype?
• There is no evidence of a difference that holds
  across all types of activities
• No difference in physiological response to crying
  baby
• Similar in tenderness, sensitivity to types of
  cries
• Personality measures

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Some possible explanations

• The feminine stereotype makes it more
  easier/socially acceptable for women to display
  nurturance
• masculine-stereotyping is the issue- androgynous
  men
• Different types of expression for men and women

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Empathy

• Stereotype?
• womans intuition
• Meta-analysis- females higher (Eisenberg
  Lennon, 1983)
• However, differences in terms of measure
• Self-report
• Responses to emotional stimuli
• Physiological measures

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• Differences are most notable when it is obvious
  that empathy is being measured
• Gender-typing and empathy Self-reports of
  empathy are correlated with positively with
  self-ratings of femininity
• Nonverbal cues- the exception
• - Role factors

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Altruism

• Stereotype?
• Results are inconsistent- there is no overall
  difference between the sexes
• Situational factors
• Men are more likely when some degree of active
  intervention is needed
• More helpful to strangers
• Dependent upon receiver

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Differences in size in lab and outside

• There is a tendency for differences to be smaller
  in the lab
• Controlling lab conditions- equal for men and
  women
• Status
• Observer biases

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Midterm Exam

• Focus on dividing the chapters/sections within
  chapters
• Think of questions that would be comprehensive in
  nature
• Answer ONLY the question- do not write down
  everything you know
• 3/4 SA s ½ LA s
• Total 45 marks