Psych of Gender Test 1 Flashcards
Minimalist
View Differences between men and women as trivial. i.e. men and women are different but the differences are not significant.
Maximalist
View Gender differences as significant
Medias effect of gender bias
Media ignores the idea of no sex differences because it is not “news” as in it doesnt sell or produce ratings, and is not interesting.
Culture and gender stereotypes
stereotypes can be more exaggerated in different cultures. Occurs when cultures separate the roles in an extreme fashion
Explaining Gender Patterns: Essentialist
Biological; Built in; Part of DNA, sex differences have evolved over time.
Explaining Gender Patterns: Environmentalist
Social learning; Women and Men are assigned different sociological functions; biology not important; pressured to fulfill assigned roles(socialized) because of different reproductive functioning and physical strength.
Explaining Gender Patterns:Constructionist
Cognitive theorists; gender is a set of socially constructed ideas, we shape behavior to fit our own ideas of what a man or women should be not from social pressure.
Feminist movement impact on psychology
women became included in studies (as researchers and participants) instead of gay men; spurred a critique on current research on women and started more research on gender.
Goal of women’s movement
to vote
Benevolent sexism
Treating well but is detrimental (pedestal)
Hostile sexism
harmful; act of control or view of superiority
Gender schema theory
based on preexisting ideas on how you should act or process by which you act like a make or female (schema tells you which way to behave).
Correlational study
association of two variables; cannot determine causality because it does not show whats causing what between the 3 variables (X, Y, Z)
Sex
Biological properties or physical characteristics
Gender
what you associate yourself as
Experimental studies
allows for cause and effect; provides for manipulation of a variable.
Independent Variable (IV)
The variable that is manipulated
Dependent Variable (DV)
The variable that is dependent on the IV (does the IV cause DV)
Ex-post facto study
a study after the fact; the subject variable (participants) are a pre-existing group; you use when your studying something like brain damage (usually because you cant ethically manipulate the variable).
MMPI-Femininty M-F scale
Masculine Feminine scale; to test feminenty they used gay men; they used M or F on two different dimensions; brought the concept into the picture. .
Sandra Bem’s Sex role inventory (BSRI)
did not work well on with Chinese and Americans, US hispanics, african americans and native americans ( not significant cross culturally).
4 categories of BSRI
masculine, feminine, adrogenous, undifferentiated
Agency
Masculine sex traits, enhancing and protecting self.
Communion
female sex traits, cooperation
Odepius complex
aggression and resentment toward father
Horney’s concept of Penis envy
women werent jealous of the penis just the social status of men
Horney and womb envy
men were jealous of the mothers feelings of carrying a baby
Chodorow
Focus on pre-ediple period. before 3 yrs old; his respute to freud
Cascade effect
first confirming one stereotype in a person leads to attributing all sterotypes to that person
Phallic Stage
when boys and girls begin to perceive differences.
Kernel of Truth
Stereotypes exaggerated built in sex differences
predjudice
negative evaluation of an entire group
discrimination
action on predjudice
stereotype
take one small difference and exaggerating it
illusory Correlation
When you believe theres a correlation in a stereotype, but doesnt really exist (false positive)
Hyde’s studies
Context can change the sex differences (situational) Ver
Found sex difference
all very small but spatial ability, verbal ability, and quanitive ability. NO DIFFERENCE IN INTELLIGENCE
Date of study effect
Differences get smaller and are continuing too; fewer differences since 1973
Problem with Sat as measurement
Boys drop out if doing poorly; wider range of girls taking the test.shows largest difference
Explanation of Gender Differences: Essentialist’s
built into brain, resulting in effects of prenatal hormone, speed of brain development, etc..
Explanations of gender difference: Environmentalist
contingencies and opportunities in environment effect brain development
moderators of finding
does context effect differences; choose population, type of test, location etc…
Verbal ability Findings
Girls>Boys; size difference is small; only on DAT and SAT; no differnence in vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Test taking Population: have boys and girls tested match on other variables
ETS- male’s seem more highly selected…
Drop out rate higher among boys than girls with poor performance
Sex differences may be larger in a general population
Quantitative ability: differences
Boys do better only after high school
Measurement effect
effect of the measure itself to the results; discussed alot on SAT and DAT; selected population due to moderators.
Population effect
General? no difference
High school students? Males better on math problem solving
Mathmatical gifted students: larger differences; more boys in group; principle source of overall sex difference (had to be mathematically gifted
racial group? Euro-americans only
Time of Testing moderator
differences are smaller and shrinking except on sex
Prior experience moderator
family effects; may push son to due more math than daughter.
Mothers bias
more likely to encourage sons and daughters to go into math.
Occupation choices (sex differences) Pinker
Pinker study: argues biological-inherited hormone. Occupation sex difference based on hormone related differences or inheritance
Occupation choices (sex difference) Spelke
little evidence of inborn sex differences; alot of opportunity for experiances to come in and effect.
Differences is spatial ability spelke
men better on some women better on some so no real difference.
rod and frame test
explaind M-F variation on Sat; Men do better than women
embedded figures test
less of a difference in sex spatial ability
sex homones and differences
Estrogen or circulating testosterone
Toys and spatial ability
Outdoor toys may help teach spatial ability
Cultural restictions on girls vs. boys
more restricted in culture more spatial ability that favors boys.
Statistic
is there a reliable difference
Practical significance
does it matter
