Exam 1 Flashcards
What is an example of the actual self?
Include I am statements
I am a woman
I am Dominican
I am…
What is an example of the Ought self?
Includes I should be statements
I should be smarter
I should be prettier
I should be…
It is your moral center and more based on society
What is an example of the ideal self
Includes I want to be statements
I want to be smarter
I want to be prettier
I want to be…
What you want to be out of life
What are prospective norms?
They tell us what we should not do
What are prespective norms?
They tell us what we should do
What happens if the actual self falls short of self-guides?
Negative outcomes may occur
What happens if there are discrepancies between the ideal self and the actual self?
It will lead to dejection of emotions such as sadness and dissatisfaction
What happens if there are discrepancies between the ought self and the actual self?
There will be agitation emotions such as anxiety, fear and worry
What is your self concept?
It is a current description of who you are right now
What are your self guides?
They are not who you are right now but what you are pushing yourself towards
What is women centered psychology?
an approach to psychology that emphasizes the physical, psychological, and social experiences that are particularly characteristic of women.
What is feminism?
favors political, economic, and social equality of all people, regardless of gender, and therefore favors the legal and social changes necessary to achieve gender equality.
- belief that people are equal but we have to ensure that equality
What is Wave 1 of feminism?
• late 1800s and early 1900s in Britain, Canada, and the United States
• Fought for gender equality, particularly women’s suffrage
What is Wave 2?
• Began in the 1960s and extended into the 1990s.
• Wider range of issues: sexual freedom; reproductive rights, access to contraception, and abortion; pay equity; equal opportunity in education; and gender-based violence.
• Proposed the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution
What is wave 3 of feminism?
• 1990s
• Emphasized intersectionality and diversity among women rather than universality of female experience
• Favors the individual’s rights to define feminism, instead of everyone accepting a uniform ideology
What is Wave 4 of feminism?
Fueled by recent advances in online technology, blogs, and social media
• #MeToo movement is an example of activism
• Greater emphasis on intersectionality and critique and rejection of the gender binary
What are the four theoretical approaches to feminism?
Liberal feminist
Cultural feminist
Radical feminist
Women-of-color feminist
What is the focus of liberal feminists?
- gender equality; change laws and social construction of gender; gender similarities
- gender equality is the primary focus
- need to change the laws so everyone has the same rights
What is the focus of cultural feminism?
- focus on gender differences that favor women (e.g. more nurturing)
- “we’re not exactly the same, women are amazing, instead of worse
What is the focus of radical feminism?
- oppression of women is pervasive at all levels (not just laws and policies); massive social; change is necessary
- we need radical changes in order to enact changes. “This has to happen NOW”
What is the focus of women of color feminism?
- focus on intersectionality between gender and other social categories; changes needed from multiple perspectives
- men were the norm, and then white women were, so this doesn’t relate to them
What is the definition of gender?
The state of being male, female, both male and female, or neither male nor female
What is the definition of sex?
Physical or physiological characteristics of maleness and femaleness; sexual behaviors`
What is the definition of gender binary?
A system of conceptualizing gender as having two distinct and opposing groups or kinds
Ex: male and female
What is the definition of genderqueer?
A gender category that is not exclusively male or female and therefore is not captured by the gender binary
What is the definition of gender identity?
A person’s internal sense of their own gender
What is the definition of cisgender?
It describes a person whose gender identity matches the gender they were assigned at birth
What is the definition of transgender?
It describes a person whose gender identity differs from the gender they were assigned at birth
What is the definition of intersex?
- A variety of conditions in which a person is born with genitals or reproductive anatomy that is not typical of female or male people.
- Also termed disorders of sex development in the DSM-5 and differences of sex development or genital diversity
What is the definition of trans?
An umbrella terms for the transgender spectrum; may include people who identify as transgender, genderqueer, cross-dressing, gender nonconforming, gender fluid, or other nonbinary identity
What are sex differences?
Biologically produced differences
- Physical characteristics
What do gender differences result from?
Result from learning and social roles
- social construction of gender
- gender can shift your experiences
True or False: Is it assumed that your ideology separates sex differences and gender differences?
TRUE
What does the gender differences perspective include?
Essentialism and the Evolutionary Perspective
What is essentialism?
gender is a basic, unchangeable characteristic that stems from biological differences and resides within the individual
- very exclusionary, puts people in a box
- sex and gender are linked. Female and male
What is included in the gender similarities perspective?
Social constructionism
What is social constructionism?
differences stem from social (gender) roles that lead to differences in behavior
- It is defined by time, culture, and identity
True or False: We give babies gender roles
True.
- Babies are given gender roles are soon as they are born
What are some prescriptions for women?
- warm and kind
- interested in children
- loyal
- sensitive
- friendly
- clean
- attentive to appearances
What are some proscriptions for women?
- Rebellious
- Stubborn
- Controlling
- Cynical
- Promiscuous
- Arrogant
What are some of the third-gender systems?
- Intermediate State bet. men and women -legitimate gender that isnt viewed negatively
- Both - spiritually
- Neither - they dont identify with the genders or can identify with different genders
- crossing or swapping genders
What is the two gender system?
Male/female - Essentialism
What are some problems with the gender binary?
exclusion of transgender -might not be outside the binary intersex, and nonbinary genders
What are some examples of “Third Gender” in other cultures?
- Native American - Berdache
- India and Bangladesh - Hijra
- Balkans
- we do see examples of different systems not just the gender binary and they vary across different cultures
What are some themes in the Psychology of Women and Gender?
- Gender is not a biologically created fact
- Social Constructionism
- Gender Binary Concept - two spirit
- Gender: Person/Stimulus Variable
- External/Internal Detriments of behavior and inconsistency with people’s behavior - Intersectionality of gender - effects of gender, race, social class, and sexual orientation
What did early theorists in women’s psychology focus on?
Androcentrism
What did theorists focus on between 1890s - 1930s?
Sex differences in intelligence
- men were smarter than women because of their larger head circumference
What did theorists focus on between 1930s - 1950s?
Masculinity and Femininity
-personality differences; how feminine are you as a woman
What did theorists focus on between 1950s - 1980s?
Sex typing and Androgyny - could be beneficial, best of both worlds
- College students tend to be high in androgyny
- Focused on Androgyny; people can have both sets of traits as a part of their self - concept
- Observing behaviors to see if there were gender differences - many children had behaviors that were mixed
What are some gender bias in psychology research design
- Psychology measurement
- Interpretation of low scores in women
- Sampling: area of gender bias
- overgeneralization
- Drug Studies - women excluded: menstrual cycles
- Gender differences in drug reactions > health consequences for women
- The Women’s Health Equity Act of 1990
What are the experimenter’s effects?
when some characteristics of the experimenter affect the way participants behave, thus affecting the research outcome
What are some examples of the experimenter effects?
- Men report more sex partners when the experimenter is female
- Beliefs about rape myth acceptance differ significantly, depending on the experimenter’s clothing (conservative vs. proactive?
What are the observer effects?
when the researcher’s expectations affect his or her observations and recording of the data
What is an example of the observer effects?
The behavior of an infant rated differently if the infant was believed to be female vs. male
What is the female deficit model?
a theory or interpretation of research in which women’s behavior is seen as deficient
What is an example of a biased interpretation of a comparison of confidence scores by gender?
The same findings can be interpreted in different ways
Men report higher confidence than women on X task.
- Are females insecure, underestimating their ability?
- Are males overconfident, overestimating their ability?
What is a bias in publishing findings?
There is a tendency to report significant differences and not any similiarities
True or False: Is sex categorized as a binary?
True
typically
When is sex determined?
After 8 weeks of gestation because of the presence of hormones
- it is relatively stable/difficult to change
What are the four major classes of biological influences?
- Genes - “DNA is not destiny”
- Basic physiological processes
- Hormones - will change the way you’re developing
- Brain - gender differences may stem from different experiences and reflect neural plasticity, not “hard-wired” differences
What is epigenetics?
Changes in gene expression caused by factors other than DNA
How many chromosomes are in each cell of the body?
46 chromosomes
- 22 pairs of autosomes +1 of sex chromosomes (XX or XY)
What is the sex-linked trait?
a trait controlled by a gene on the X chromosome (and occasionally on the Y chromosome)
True or False: The embryo does not have all of the pieces of information on whether it will be male or female or if conception
FALSE.
- At conception, the embryo has all of the pieces of information on whether it will be a male or female
- The information is contained in the XY or XX chromosome
What are the steps in prenatal sex differentiation?
- Step 1: Chromosomal differentiation
- Step 2: Gonad development
- Step 3: Hormone development
- Step 4: Internal reproductive tract
- Step 5: External genitalia
What is chromosomal differentiation?
- Alterations at the chromosomal level
- The y chromosome carries genetic info
- At the 8th week after conception - the SRY gene signals the development of testes
True or False: The SRY gene turns on or off male proteins
TRUE.
- We all start out the same and the SRY turns on or off male proteins
What are some of the problems that can occur at step 1 of prenatal sex differentiation, chromosomal differentiation?
- X-chromosome inactivation
- Turner’s syndrome
- XXX
- Klinefelter’s syndrome
What is X-chromosome inactivation?
in females, the process in which one of the two X chromosomes is inactivated or silenced in nearly every cell, so that only one chromosome functions
What is Turner’s syndrome?
- There is only one X chromosome
- 1/2500 female births
- Prenatal: Mullerian system degenerates - no functioning ovaries; no estrogen
- External genitalia looks feminized - looks like female genitalia, but internal functions haven’t developed.
What is XXX?
- Prenatal : Female
- Tall statue
- Learning challenges - i.e. speech delay
- a lot of information typically comes from one X chromosome, can still lead to an anomaly
What is Klinefelter’s syndrome?
- At least 2X chromosomes and 1Y - the extra X may shift what to develop
- 1/1000 Males
- Small Testes
- May develop Breasts and Feminized Body during puberty
- Reduced Fertility or Complete Sterility
- prenatally can differ what we see in normal prenatal development
What occurs in Gonad Development?
- Sex Gland + 2 internal ducts develop at 6 weeks -future reproductive organs
- Week 7/8 sex glands differentiate - ovary development
What are the Sex Hormones that develop in the Endocrine glands?
- Androgens
- Estrogen
- Progesterone
- Differing levels for males and females
- Release of different types of hormones that are released again during puberty
- Environment can affect our hormones
What are Androgens?
- Group of Sex Hormones produced more abundantly in males than females
- Testosterone - Manufactured by the Testes; lesser amount by ovaries
What is Estrogen?
Sex Hormone produced in the ovaries; produced in smaller quantities in males
What is Progesterone?
Sex Hormone produced in the ovaries; produced in smaller quantities in males
What are Organizing Effects?
Brains and our Bodies
What are Activating Effects?
Hormones are present
What occurs in Step 3: Hormones?
Gonads secrete Sex Hormones
Prenatal Sex Hormones affect which two behaviors?
- Sexual Behavior
- Aggressive Behavior
- things can happen that shift our hormones
What are Prenatal Sex Hormone Alterations?
Not enough of other types of Hormones
What is Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia?
- aka CAH, is a rare genetic condition that causes the fetus’s adrenal glands to produce unusually large amounts of androgens
- Too much androgen, not enough Cortisol and more active and aggressive behavior
How does Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia affect males vs females?
- In males, it may cause the onset of puberty to happen earlier
- In females, masculinized external genitals and early breast development
What is Androgen - Insensitivity Syndrome?
- Produces normal amount of Androgens but the body does not register its presence
- Genital Tubercle doesnt develop into penis
- Usually labeled female at birth; shallow cavity and no uterus
What are the Hormone Effects in Adulthood?
- Sex Hormones in women fluctuate over the menstrual cycle
- Sex levels differ in men and women
- Testosterone and Sex Drive
- Behavior and experience can influence hormone production and secretion
What occurs in Step 4: Internal Reproductive Tract for both males and females?
- Males - development of Vas Deferens, Epididymus, Seminal Vesicles, Urethra, and Prostate
- Females - development of Fallopian Tube, Uterus, and Vagina
- Both start out the same, one protein shift is what causes the differences
What occurs in step 5: External genitalia for females?
In the 12th week
- the genital tubercle turns into a clitoris and the labioscrotal swelling turns into the vaginal libs
What occurs in step 5: External genitalia for males?
In the 8th week
- The genital tubercle turns into the penis and the labioscrotal swelling turns into the scrotum
What is dimorphism?
Two different pathways to developing
True or False: Genes are destiny
FALSE
- Genes are not destiny since environmental factors has a play too
What is a factor contributing to sex differences?
Men have more testosterone, women have more estrogen, but there is an overlap
What does the frontal lobe help with?
- Language Structure,
- Concentrating, planning, problem solving,
- Motor cortex
- Sensory cortex
What does the temporal lobe help with?
- Primary hearing
- Interpreting experiences
- Language comprehension
What does the occipital lobe help with?
- Primary visual
What was used to fuel stereotypes of women’s intellectual inferiority?
- Male brain volume 11.5% larger than women’s (same percentage as physical body size difference)
- No evidence of a correlation between brain size and intelligence
What does fMRI measure?
It measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow
- fMRI measures brain activity by assessing the local oxygenation of neural tissues, which follows neural activity
- This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled
- When an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases
What is the hypothalamus important for?
It is important for regulating certain body functions, including sex hormone production
What are the gender differences in the hypothalamus?
- It results from differentiation in prenatal development -> development of estrogen receptors
- The hypothalamus leads to the pituitary hormone secretion which creates a monthly menstrual cycle in females and in men there is a steady production of pituitary hormones
What is the Sexually Dimorphic Nucleus (SDN)?
It is a small section of the hypothalamus that is larger in men than women
- it may be related to sexual behavior
- it is sensitive to testosterone and estrogen
What is the role of the amygdala?
Emotional stimuli processing
What is the role of the hippocampus?
Memory
- relation to depression
What is the role of the corpus callosum?
Bundle of fibers that connects the left hemisphere to the right hemisphere
What is hemispheric lateralization?
Comparing the left hemisphere to the right hemisphere
What is a part of the left hemisphere?
- Right side of the body
- “Approach” emotions such as joy, interest and anger
- Language processing
What is a part of the right hemisphere?
- Left side of the body
- Visual-spatial information - perception of faces
- Processing of emotional information (facial expressions)
- “Avoidant” emotions such as distress, fear and disgust
True or False: The brain has female-leaning and male-leaning regions
True the brain does have female-leaning and male-leaning regions in their brain
- Intermediate regions have no difference in volume
What is gender typing?
The process by which children acquire the values, motives, and behaviors considered appropriate for their gender in their particular culture
What is gender constancy?
Understanding that gender is a stable and consistent part of oneself
What is gender identity?
First stage of gender development, in which children can identify and label their own gender and the gender of others
What is gender stability?
Second stage of gender development, in which children understand that gender is stable over time
What is gender consistency
Third stage of gender development, in which children understand that gender remains consistency despite superficial changes in appearance
What is gender stereotype?
Belief that members of a culture hold about acceptable and appropriate attitudes, interests, activities, psychological traits, social relationships, occupations, and physical appearance for males and females
What are gender roles?
Composite of the behaviors actually exhibited by a typical male or female in a given culture; the reflection of a gender stereotype in everyday life
What is the definition of temperament?
Biologically based emotional and behavioral traits that appear early in life and predict later behavior
- How does your unique personality navigate the world?
What factors have no gender differences in infancy?
- Sociability
- Shyness
- Soothability
- Adaptability
- Emotional Intensity
- Ease of care
What factors have small to moderate differences in infancy?
- Physically active (boys)
- Inhibitory control (girls)
- Perceptual sensitivity (girls) - how agitated you get when the environment changes
- Attentional focus (girls)
What is the adult perception on infant boys?
- Handled more roughly
- Positive responses for playing with ‘male-typed’ toys
What is the adult perception on infant girls?
The touch is not stimulative - not flipping them upside down, etc.
In the experiment how did the baby’s sex impact how the adult was playing with them?
For the female infant, 80% of adults grabbed the doll
For the male infant, 64% of adults grabbed the football
- Inferences about the babies sex helped determine what toy the adult picked to play with the infant
How are babies prepared of social interactions?
There is a visual preparation for social interaction?
- Not very cues in at 1 month, at 2 months it’s with a particular pattern
How does the motor cortex develop from birth to 2 months?
There is a shift from reflexes to voluntary control of movements
How does the motor cortex develop from 8 months?
The ability to crawl and search for hidden objects
How does the motor cortex develop from 12 months?
Walking
How does the visual cortex develop from 3 months?
Look longer at facelike vs non facelike stimuli
How does the auditory cortex develop from 18 - 24 months?
Language Development
How does the prefrontal cortex develop from 5 - 7 years
Development of executive functions and processing
How do we understand infant gender mindset?
- Habituation Paradigm - when can infants distinguish between masculine and feminine faces
- Preferential Looking Paradigm
What is Habituation Paradigm?
- Infant habituates to picture of female faces
- New female face - no change in response, heart rate
- New male face - Attention and heart rate increases
What is Preferential Looking Paradigm
- Time spent looking at stimuli - liking
- 3-4 months: infants with female care giver prefer looking at female faces
What occurs in the infant from birth to 3 months?
Social world is being taken in by the infants - visually different
What occurs in the infant from 3 - 5 months?
No preference from congruent to non - congruent images
What occurs in the infant from 5 months?
preference for incongruent , looks longer at new images, suggesting that they recognize congruent images already
What occurs at 18 months?
- Boys and girls prefer to look at gender based toys
- There is a lot of socialization that occurs
When does Gender Identity Occur?
2 years old
When does labeling others occur?
3-4 years old
When do associations with certain occupations with men and women occur?
6 years old
Between what ages to children’s knowledge of stereotypes rapidly increase?
Between ages 3 and 5
Until what age are children very flexible with gender stereotyping?
between ages 8 and 9
What are some gender differences in child behavior?
Gender typed toys and same gender play mates; toy and game preference leads to gender segregation
What is gender typing?
- Stereotyping/ applying labels to the social world around you
- the environment shapes children very early
- children use physical and behavioral clues to differentiate gender roles and to gender type themselves very early in life
What is Cognitive Development Theory?
John Kohlberg theorized that children categorize themselves as male or female on the basis of physical and behavioral clues and then behave in ways they understand to be gender appropriate
What are the 3 phases of gender typing?
- Basic Gender Identity
- Gender Stability
- Gender Consistency
What is Basic Gender Identity and when does it occur?
- Children can identify and label their own gender and the gender of others
- 18 months - 2 years
What is Gender Stability and when does it occur?
- Children Understand that gender is stable over time
- appearance rigidity: adherence to gender norms in appearance
- 3 - 4 years
What is Gender Consistency and when does it occur?
- Gender remains consistent despite superficial changes in appearance: i.e. girls can have short hair and not be boys
- 5 - 7 years
What is Gender - Schema Theory? Are Schemas able to be changed?
- The view that children develop schemas or naive theories, that help them organize and structure their experience related to gender differences and gender roles
- Schemas are hard to change or shift because this is their belief system, you can have a schema for anything
True or False: Gender Typing is rigid and difficult to change
True
What are some links between gender schemas and child behavior?
- Selective attention to and memory for own sex relevant information and through motivation, be like same sex others: i.e. little girls will follow mom or sister - taking in their behavior
- Better memory for gender - consistent vs gender - inconsistent information
What is gender schematic?
Likes to use their gender schema to view the world around them
What is gender aschematic?
View the world without a gendered lens
What is the gender self - socialization model?
Stereotype emulation; identity construction: i.e. When i identify as a girl, I start using the behavior i think is for a girl
What is the Social Cognitive Theory of Gender Development?
An explanation of gender role development that uses Bandura’s cognitive social learning principles such as observational learning , positive and negative feedback
What are the 4 principles of the Social Cognitive Theory of Gender Development?
- Watching other children and adults of both sexes and construct knowledge about gender
- Use knowledge to develop concepts of gender appropriate behavior
- Respond to positive and negative feedback when behavior is gender appropriate or inappropriate
- Shift from external to internal regulation of behavior across development
What is Socialization?
The process by which society conveys to the individual its expectations for his or her behavior, values, and beliefs
What is Channeling/Shaping =?
Selection of different toys and activities for boys vs girls
What is Differential Treatment?
- Different Behavior by gender
- talk more to girls; describe emotions differently
- rough, active play with boys; fantasy/pretend with girls
What is Direct Instruction?
Telling boys and girls to behave in different ways
What is Modeling?
Demonstrating good behavior for children
What are some examples of childhood gender role socialization
- Implicit messages from teachers
- role of media; video games
- Childrens gender role attitudes and behaviors, girl’s body dissatisfaction
- Stereotype inconsistent behavior
What is the Peers and the Gender Segregation Effect?
- Theorized by Eleanor Maccoby in 1998,
- The Effect is not solely socialization as their are biological and physiological forces at play
- At age 3, children seek out same - gender peer groups, which differ in terms of activities
- Boys play rough, risky, games of dominance, separate from adults
- Girls include self - disclosure, reduce conflict, communicate with adults
What is BOLD in terms of fMRI?
Blood oxygen level dependent is a method used in fMRI to observe different areas of the brain
What is gender intensification?
Increased pressure for gender-role conformity beginning in early adolescence
- adolescent girls have more negative body esteem than adolescent boys
- less body satisfaction among black adolescence
What is gender intensification?
Increased pressure for gender-role conformity beginning in early adolescence
- adolescent girls have more negative body esteem than adolescent boys
- less body satisfaction among black adolescence
