Biological Approach 2 - Hassett et al Flashcards
When was this study?
2008
What does et al. mean?
Too many other experimenters to cite so only the lead researcher has their name published.
What is the big psychological debate this study is testing?
Nature vs Nurture
What are the two theories for differences between males and female?
Biology and Socialisation
What is the psychology being investigated?
Males and females differ, but is that due to societal expectations, or differences in hormone levels?
How are boys generally encouraged to act?
Strong, tough, active.
How are girls generally encouraged to act?
Caring, passive, nurturing.
Why is this study done on monkeys rather than children?
It would be highly unethical as children are exposed to socialisation early on and it would be impossible to deprive a child of this. Monkeys do not face the same social pressures as humans so their preferences are due to hormones.
Does prenatal hormone exposure to infants affect toy preferences?
Yes, girls exposed to more boy hormones (androgens) played with more “boyish” toys even when encouraged not to with socialisation.
Why is studying children with prenatal hormone exposure unlikely?
These children are rare and there are too many extraneous variables. (amount of hormone exposure and the extent of gender-related socialisation).
What is the aim of this study?
To investigate whether toy preferences in monkeys resemble those of children, to test whether sex differences in toy choices is biologically determined by sex.
What type of experiment is this?
Field experiment.
What is the experimental design?
Independent measures design.
What is the IV?
Gender.
What is the DV?
Activities with the toys.
What sort of observation was there?
Covert. (Through video cameras).
Other than toy preferences and gender, what else did the experimenters look for a correlation between?
Social rank and toy preferences.
What sort of comparison was done with the monkey’s data?
Independent measures comparison between a similar study previously done on children.
What type of monkeys were used?
Rhesus monkeys.
What was the sample size?
82.
How many male and female monkeys were used?
21 male
and
61 female.
Where did the monkeys live?
In natal groups at the Yerkes primate research station in the USA.
Why were 14 adult monkeys not studied?
They had had previous hormone treatment.
Why were 39 infants not studied?
They were too young to be properly identified.
What was the living space for each natal group like?
A 25mx25m outdoor space and a temperature controlled indoor space.
Were the monkeys taken care of well?
Yes, they were provided food and water multiple times a day.
What were the two categories of toys?
Wheeled and plush.
How many wheeled and plush toys were there?
6 wheeled and 7 plush.
How many trials did each social group have?
7
How long was each trial?
25 minutes.
How did the researchers observe the monkeys?
Covertly through two cameras.
What was used as a counterbalancing measure with the toys?
They were switched from left to right.
How many researchers observed the cameras after the trial and tried to come to conclusions?
2
What two things were recorded by the researchers?
Frequency and duration.
What sort of observation did they use?
Behavioural categories.
What were the records for each animal converted into?
An overall average frequency and duration for that individual.
What was the minimum number of behaviours needed for the monkey’s data to be used?
5
How many monkeys had fewer than 5 recorded behaviours?
14 males and 3 females.
What was the final number of individuals used in the analysis?
11 males and 23 females.
Using the frequency data, within each sex, which toys did males show a preference for?
Wheeled toys.
Using the frequency data, within each sex, which toys did females show a preference for?
No preference between the toys.
Using frequency data between the sexes, which toys did females interact with more than males?
Plush toys.
Was there a sex difference for wheeled toys?
No.
In terms of duration, how did males and females play with the toys?
Males played longer with wheeled toys and females had no preference.
Was there an overall difference in the time that males and females spent playing with the wheeled and plush toys?
No.
What is the magnitude of preference?
How much males preferred the wheeled toy and females preferred the plush toy.
How was the magnitude of preference calculated?
Total frequency of wheeled/plush toy
interaction - total frequency of plush/wheeled toy interaction.
What did the magnitude of preference confirm?
Male monkeys had a stronger preference for ‘masculine’ toys than female monkeys did for ‘feminine’ toys.
Were there still differences between the sexes when taking into account social rank?
Yes.
For males and females combined, what was the correlation between rank & total frequency of interactions for wheeled and plush toys?
Positive correlation.
