Title: Sex Differences
1Sex Differences
2Traditionally, we documented and remember the
differences
- Religious writings
- Platos wandering uterus
- Germanic soldiers and system of fines
- Mythology
- Studies of brain differences
3Yes, there are some sex and gender differences
- Are they due to nature or nurture????
43 broad areas of differences
- Biological
- Personality
- Cognitive
5Biological- Physical Attributes
- Genes - chromosomes, sex-linked traits
- Hormonal differences
- Physical features - height, strength, body
fat, hemoglobin, temperature regulation,bones,
iron deficiency - Health
6Physical/Personality Differences
- Body Space
- Body Posture
- Touch
- Facial Expressions
- Smiling
- Eye Contact
7Personality Differences/Similarities
- Sociability
- Nurturance, Helping behavior
- Self-Esteem
- Emotionality
- sadness, tears, joy, etc.
- aggression
8Cognitive Abilities
- Until recently, thought there were 3 areas of big
differences - verbal, spatial,
mathematics Today new research casts
doubt - General Intelligence
- Brain Cognitive Processing
9Cognitive Abilities
- Verbal
- Quantitative and Spatial
- Mathematics
- math abilities
- attitudes about math
10Eccles Expectation X Model
- Examines the variables that affect/ determine
whether girls take math courses in high school
11So what does this info say/mean?
- There may not be glaring male/female differences
- differences in attitude (anxiety,self-confidence,
attribution for success) may be different for men
and women - stereotypic beliefs still exist for some parents,
teachers, others
12So heres the BIG question
- If women dont have some genetic inferiority
regarding math and math-related occupations, why
are females less likely to choose advanced math
classes? - Think about how earlier choices in math courses
affect college major choice and career options
13We need to look not only at genetic abilities but
at the influences of society, stereotypes,
unconscious assumptions and attitudes
14Why do we see mixed findings?
- Behavior is situation specific
- Hawthorne effect - people act differently when
being observed - Difficult to measure subtleties - we use
stereotypes to fill in gaps - Social situations reward people differently toys,
childhood experiences, practice to
performance,self-esteem, individual motivation,
power differential - Wide variations overlap between men women
15So-- are gender differences due to nature or
nurture?
16What causes aggression and the differences
between m f??
- As a small group - design a graphic model to
shows the factors that contribute to aggression - Then well share different models
on the blackboard