Sex Differences

1
Sex Differences

• Real or Imagined?

2
Traditionally, we documented and remember the
differences

• Religious writings
• Platos wandering uterus
• Germanic soldiers and system of fines
• Mythology
• Studies of brain differences

3
Yes, there are some sex and gender differences

• Are they due to nature or nurture????

4
3 broad areas of differences

• Biological
• Personality
• Cognitive

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Biological- Physical Attributes

• Genes - chromosomes, sex-linked traits
• Hormonal differences
• Physical features - height, strength, body
  fat, hemoglobin, temperature regulation,bones,
  iron deficiency
• Health

6
Physical/Personality Differences

• Body Space
• Body Posture
• Touch
• Facial Expressions
• Smiling
• Eye Contact

7
Personality Differences/Similarities

• Sociability
• Nurturance, Helping behavior
• Self-Esteem
• Emotionality
• sadness, tears, joy, etc.
• aggression

8
Cognitive Abilities

• Until recently, thought there were 3 areas of big
  differences - verbal, spatial,
  mathematics Today new research casts
  doubt
• General Intelligence
• Brain Cognitive Processing

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Cognitive Abilities

• Verbal
• Quantitative and Spatial
• Mathematics
• math abilities
• attitudes about math

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Eccles Expectation X Model

• Examines the variables that affect/ determine
  whether girls take math courses in high school

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So 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

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So 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

13
We need to look not only at genetic abilities but
at the influences of society, stereotypes,
unconscious assumptions and attitudes
14
Why 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

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So-- are gender differences due to nature or
nurture?
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What 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