Chap 11 - Gender and Sexuality Flashcards
hijras
in India, this term is used to describe third-sex individuals, often individuals with biologically male genitalia who dress in ways that appear feminine but do not view themselves as either male or female
biological sex
The physical characteristics that define male and female - anatomical and physiological characteristics related to reproduction
Gender
incorporates all those features that a society associates with or considers appropriate for men and women
women as a group earn less money than men - is this a sex or gender difference?
This is not a sex difference but a gender difference because it arises from societal forces that have created different expectations and outcomes for males and females in the workforce
rare cases of sex chromosome abnormalities
a girl may have only one X chromosome or a boy may have three sex chromosomes (XYY or XXY)
intersex individuals: they have some combination of sex chromosomes, genitalia, hormones, and gonads that differ from the standard combination
Female brains tend to have more gray-matter volume in some parts of the…
prefrontal cortex, which is located behind the forehead and is involved in decision making
male brains have more gray-matter volume in…
subcortical temporal structures, which are located deep in the brain and contribute to auditory and visual processing, long-term memory, and emotions
why might males have an advantage, in general, in mapping their perceptual experiences with actions (such as perceiving a ball moving quickly toward them and swinging a bat to make contact with the ball)?
the typical male brain shows a pattern of connections that largely operate within a single hemisphere moving from front to back or vice versa in either the left or right hemisphere
why may be why females, in general, are able to combine analytical and intuitive thinking to reach solutions that are beneficial to a group?
the typical female brain shows a pattern of connections that go across the two hemispheres
when do brain differences between the sexes emerge in development?
The differences are not evident in children’s brains but emerge during adolescence, suggesting they are connected to hormonal processes during puberty
what alters the development of the brain and nervous system? For example, it signals the male brain to stop secreting hormones in a cyclical pattern so that males do not experience menstrual cycles at puberty
relative amount of testosterone
estrogen affects the anatomy and physiology of which part of the brain?
hippocampus, which plays an important role in long-term memory and spatial orientation
gender roles
A pattern of behaviors and traits that defines how to act the part of a female or a male in a particular society. (e.g., the roles of wife, mother, and woman for females and of husband, father, and man for males)
gender-role norms
society’s expectations or standards concerning what males and females should be like
gender stereotypes
Overgeneralized and largely inaccurate beliefs about what males and females are like. - generated by gender-role norms in each society
where do many gender stereotypes originate?
with a grain of truth, and in the case of gender stereotypes, the grain may be the physical makeup of males and females - e.g., women’s ability to bear and nurse children
- communality
communality
An orientation that emphasizes the well-being of others and includes traits of emotionality and sensitivity to others; considered feminine.
agency
an orientation toward individual action and achievement that emphasizes traits of dominance, independence, assertiveness, and competitiveness; considered masculine
what are viewed as the two fundamental psychological dimensions of human nature that are widespread across a variety of cultures?
Communion and agency
today’s adults are more likely than those from prior decades to believe in male–female equality when it comes to what aspect?
competence
men and women in the mid-1990s described themselves more similarly than men and women did 25 years earlier, largely because modern women saw themselves as having more…
agentic traits
Most millennials, male and female, have what type of views about the roles for men and women?
egalitarian
gender identity
Individuals’ basic awareness that they are either a male or a female.
cis is Latin for
“on this side of”
trans is Latin for
“other side of”
Nonbinary
Individuals whose gender identity does not neatly fit into one of the two categories of gender (male, female) that most societies have prescribed.
gender similarities hypothesis
The hypothesis that males and females are similar on most, but not all, psychological variables:
- more similar to one another than they are different
Why do boys and girls engage in different play activities?
a combination of hormone-driven preferences and a society that promotes the “genderization” of children throughout their development
Females display greater abilities in what area?
verbal abilities
-One verbal task where females consistently outperform males by a small to medium margin is reading; also show a moderate advantage over males on writing tasks
Males outperform females on many tests of what task?
spatial ability, especially three-dimensional mental rotations, starting in childhood and persisting across the life span - Training in the form of playing action video games can reduce or eliminate the gender difference on most spatial tasks
On the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), conducted with fourth- and eighth-grade students around the world showed what differences between males and females?
there were no math differences between boys and girls in 26 countries
On the College Board SAT Mathematics test, which is typically taken by 11th- and 12th-graders, what differences between males and females?
males score approximately 20 points higher than females - Among the highest-performing students on the SAT-Math, there are 45% more males
Paradoxically, there is evidence that girls in high school earn higher grades in math classes than boys
Which sex displays greater memory ability on a variety of tasks including episodic memory and associative memory?
Women
Males engage in more physical and verbal aggression than females, starting as early as…
17 months
at 17 months, for every one girl who is physically aggressive there are five boys who display frequent physical aggression
Even before birth and throughout childhood, males are more…
physically active than females - teachers report that boys are more hyperactive than girls
Females are more prone to develop which three mental health conditions?
anxiety disorders, depression, and eating disorders
males are more likely to display which behaviours and mental health concerns?
antisocial behaviors and drug and alcohol abuse and are more frequently diagnosed with autism
if we ordered people based on degree of aggressiveness from most aggressive to the least aggressive person in a group, only __% of the observed differences could be attributed to whether a person is male or female
5%
Average gender differences in most abilities and personality traits are typically large or small?
small
social-role theory - who and what?
Alice Eagly
gender role stereotypes are created and maintained by differences in the roles that men and women play in society rather than being inherent in males and females
-it is not all “by nature.”
according to social-role theory, Individuals even perceive themselves differently depending on which of their roles they are considering: more _______ when thinking of their work role and more __________ when thinking of their family role
agentic
communal
Zachary Estes and Sydney Felker
gender norms and stereotypes, even when they are unfounded, affect how we perceive ourselves and other people. As long as people expect females to be less competent in math than males, for example, females may lack confidence in their abilities and perform less competently
research on mental rotation ability: Gender differences on this task were eliminated when males and females had the same confidence levels.
the top five occupations held by U.S. women continue to be, in order
teacher, nurse, nursing or home health aide, secretary, and cashier
Biosocial Theory - who and what?
Money and Ehrhardt
- theory of gender-role development that focuses on how biological events influence the development of boys and girls and how early biological developments influence how society reacts to children.
The biosocial theory predicts that if a biological male were consistently labeled and treated as a girl, he would, by about age 3…
acquire the gender identity of a girl
From the 1950s until the early 1990s, different forms of androgen were prescribed to women in the hopes of preventing a miscarriage. What was the result?
depending on the dose and timing of the drug, some female infants ended up with external organs that resembled those of a boy (e.g., a large clitoris that looked like a penis and fused labia that resembled a scrotum), despite their XX genetic endowment and female internal organs - underwent surgery to alter their genitals, and were then raised as girls
(androgenized females)
androgenized females
A genetic female who was exposed to male sex hormones during the prenatal period and therefore developed male-like external genitals and some masculine behaviors
4 common masculine behaviors of androgenized females
tomboys and preferred boys’ toys and vigorous activities
began dating somewhat later than other girls and felt that marriage should be delayed for career
relatively high proportion (37%) described themselves as homosexual or bisexual
tend to perform better than most other females on tests of spatial ability
what may be part of the reason males are more likely than females to commit violent acts?
male exposure to testosterone and other male hormones
Men with high testosterone levels tend to have high rates of…
delinquency, drug abuse, abusiveness, and violence
- findings have emerged from correlational studies showing an association between testosterone and aggression; they do not show us the direction of the relationship
-not restricted to the current levels circulating in the body
Social Learning Theory
children learn masculine or feminine identities, preferences, and behaviors through two processes:
differential reinforcement
observational learning
differential reinforcement
children are rewarded for sex-appropriate behaviors and are punished for behaviors considered more appropriate for members of the other sex
observational learning
children adopt the attitudes and behaviors of same-sex models
One area where differential treatment seems to continue is…
encouragement of “feminine play” or play with “feminine toys.” Parents are quite comfortable encouraging their girls to play dress-up and play with dolls, but rarely encourage their sons to do so
-boys are encouraged to play with “masculine” toys such as blocks and trucks and, on the flip side, boys are usually not discouraged from running, jumping, and climbing on things
who is most likely to reward children’s gender-appropriate behavior and to discourage behavior considered more appropriate for the other sex?
fathers
who is most likely unconsciously influenced by implicit stereotypes without directly stating these stereotypes? (e.g., throwing away a brochure for a math camp, assuming a daughter will not be interested in this)
mothers
Jacquelynne Eccles and her colleagues conducted several studies to determine why girls tend to shy away from math and science courses and are underrepresented in occupations that involve math and science
- results?
suggest that parental expectations about gender differences in mathematical ability become self-fulfilling prophecies
Parents attribute their sons’ successes in math to ability but credit their daughters’ successes to hard work
Children begin to internalize their parents’ views, so girls come to believe that they are “no good” in math.
what contributes in important ways to gender typing?
observational learning
at what age do children begin to pay much closer attention to same-sex models than to other-sex models? for example, they will choose toys that members of their own sex prefer even if it means passing up more attractive toys
Around age 6 or 7
women who grew up with a brother or sister followed more traditional gender norms which led to lower earnings?
brother
- With a boy and girl in the family, parents often find that it makes sense to assign the feminine-stereotyped chore to their girl and the masculine-stereotyped chore to their boy
Among the top 100 films of 2014 how many main characters were male? how many female?
75% of the main characters were male, 13% were comprised of a group with both males and females, and only 12% were females
Children who watch a large amount of television are more likely to do what?
choose gender-appropriate toys and to hold stereotyped views of males and females
the strongest traditional gender stereotypes are found in tv, movies, books or video games?
video games
- where female characters are portrayed as subordinate and sexually provocative, in contrast to male characters who are portrayed as strong and aggressive
the stereotype of the “real gamer” continues to be what?
young male
- Women who play online interactive video games report high levels of harassment and sexist treatment from other players
Criticism for social learning theory: 2 items
often portray children as the passive recipients of external influences
does not put enough emphasis on what children contribute to their own gender socialization (boys ask for trucks and their girls want dolls, at least by 18 months of age)
Cognitive Theories of gender development
Kohlberg’s theory of gender typing
Martin and Halverson’s schematic-processing model
Lawrence Kohlberg’s cognitive theory of gender typing
two major themes:
-Gender-role development depends on stage-like changes in cognitive development; children must acquire certain understandings about gender before they will be influenced by their social experiences
-Children engage in self-socialization; instead of being the passive targets of social influence, they actively socialize themselves
“I’m a boy, so now I’ll do everything I can to find out how to behave like one.”
Kohlberg believed that children are what kind of agents in their gender development?
self-initiated ‘gender detectives’—agents who actively construct the meaning of gender categories, rather than as passive recipients of external gender socialization agents
gender constancy
understanding that our genders remain the same throughout our lives and despite superficial changes in appearance
three steps that children everywhere progress through as they acquire gender constancy
- Basic gender identity is established when children can recognize and label themselves as males or females, usually by age 2½
- preschool-age children acquire gender stability—that is, they come to understand that gender identity is stable over time. They know that boys invariably become men and girls grow up to be women
- children achieve gender consistency somewhere between age 5 and 7 when they realize that their sex is also stable across situations
How does gender stability / gender constancy relate to Piaget’s stages?
This is about the time that children enter Piaget’s concrete-operational stage of cognitive development and come to grasp concepts such as conservation of liquids. With this, they also realize that gender is conserved—remains constant—despite changes in appearance.
What happens when children acquire gender stability?
often become rather rigid in their gender behaviors:
It is at this point that many girls succumb to “pink frilly dress” or “PFD” syndrome, the strong desire to wear pink frilly dresses and embrace all that is pink
Criticism of Kohlberg’s theory (2 items)
children do actively seek same-sex models and learn many gender-role stereotypes and develop clear preferences for same-sex activities and playmates long before they master the concepts of gender stability and gender consistency at age 5-7
transgender children are less likely to believe that gender is stable because for them, their gender assignment at birth does not match their inner sense of gender
schematic-processing model - who and what?
Martin and Halverson
First, children acquire a simple in-group–out-group schema that allows them to classify some objects, behaviors, and roles as appropriate for males and others as appropriate for females
Then they seek more elaborate information about the role of their own sex, constructing an own-sex schema
a young girl who knows her basic gender identity might first learn that sewing is for girls and building model airplanes is for boys. Then, because she is a girl and wants to act consistently with her own self-concept, she gathers a great deal of information about sewing to add to her own-sex schema, largely ignoring any information that comes her way about how to build model airplanes
gender schemata
Organized sets of beliefs and expectations about males and females that guide information processing.
(schematic-processing model)
