6+7 Sex Differences Flashcards
Sex vs gender
Gender roles and identity
Sex is linked to XX female and XY male chromosomes.
Gender is socially defined set of traits, a sense of psychological identity
Gender roles- behaviours considered appropriate for males and females
Gender identity- perception of oneself as male or female
Dichotomous vs continuous
Essentialist vs conditionalist
Dichotomous= limited to two distinct categories, continuous means gender is a spectrum.
Essentialist says there are essential characteristics of being male or female, whereas conditional is says characteristics are conditional based on context.
Reasons why sex isn’t dichotomous
1 in 400 live births show sex chromosome atypicalities eg Turner’s syndrome XO, and Klinefelter’s syndrome XXY.
Many mens T levels are indistinguishable from above average women, Keevil showed with over 4000 ppnts saliva.
1.3% of the uk identify as gender variant.
How to quantify sex differences
D scores;
Cohen’s D= male average- female avarege/ standard deviation
Positive value means men are higher, negative means women are higher.
Eg D score for height is 2.
Can do experiments or psychometric tests or meta analysis to measure sex differences.
Results of sex difference studies
Eagly found that d is 0.4 for physical aggression. 0.49 for leadership.
-0.58 for positive social behaviur( means females do it more than males)
BSRI
Ben’s sex role inventory. Masculinity and femininity were two separate dimensions. Could be highly masculine( forceful, dominant), highly feminine( warm, gentle), androgynous or undifferentiated.
Similar measures eg expressively vs instrumentality or nurturance vs dominance show same thing
All the theories for why differences exist in social behaviour
Social approaches= social role theory and learning theory and gender schema theory
Biological approaches= evolutionary arguments, bio development
Social role theory and limits
By Eagly 1987.
There is a culturally imposed gendered division of labour, which leads to conformity to gender role expectations, thus sex-typed skills and beliefs, thus differences in behaviour.
Eg Ember showed that males are exclusively for warfare, hunting, trapping etc, women are exclusively for care taking of infants.
(Howveer, Haas et al found burial evidence for a female hunter in the Andes. Also Campbell et al found that children show sex differences before they even formed stereotypes.
Moreover, SWim stated that the stereotypes should be bigger than behaviour in order to cause it, but his findings show they’re not. Eg we underestimate the sex differences in maths skills, peer influence, leadership and overestimate differen between agg.
Developmental approachs for gender differences
Learning theory by Mitchell. Boys and girls are rewarded for diff behaviours, eg ‘so strong boy’, ‘sweet pretty girl’.
However, a meta analysis found that only the toys and chores have impact, not words.
Social Learning Theory by Bandura. Modelling. Eg Perry and Bussey got children to watch 8 adults choose an apple or orange. If all models were same gender, they copied, if not, they didnt.
Gender Schema Theory- gender stereotype grows as schema develops, so sex typed behaviours occur.
Media= 4 year old watched 2hr tv a day, 12 year old 4 hrs- Comstock. Watching rap videos associated with negative views of women -BRyant.
Evolutionary theory
Sexual selection- differential mating and reproduction
Inter-sexual selection= opposite sex prefers some traits more than others, so increases frequency of those genes in next gen.
Intra-sexual competition- some traits make individual a better competition against own sex.
Parental investment
The sex which has the lower PU competes for more mate access, whereas the sex which has higher PI is more choosy (females).
So men are more competitive, dominance striving and agg ( because RS depends on number of partners- polygyn benefits them)
Wheras women are averse to physical risk, low agg and more democratic leadership ( because need to look after offspring, keep safety in numbers)
Y chromosome
Small, only carries 30 ish genes. Principally carries the SRY gene.
Testosterone organising effects
It’s an androgennreleased by testes, foetal production at 6 weeks to 3 months.
For boys: Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia CAH causes a surge in adrenal T in utero. Caused by metabolic error and cortisol deficiency. 1 in 15000 births. = enlarged genitals and higher agg.
For girls :external organs are masculinised. They’re ‘tomboys’
Activational effects of testosterone
The Batista Boys- family with rare genetic disorder. Boys were under exposed to T in utero, so they were raised as girls. But at puberty, sudden release of T, grew beards and penis, 17/18 swathed to male identity.
David Reimer case. Was BRuce, to Brenda, then David.
Social and bio approach together =….
Canalised development. Genes create a finite number of options, but the environment helps refine them.
Idea of ball down a hill.
Certain paths are easier than others, but still determined by enviro.
Epigenetics; genes-enviro interaction
