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PSYC 305 > Socialized & Systemized: Personality in Context > Flashcards

Socialized & Systemized: Personality in Context Flashcards

Sex, Gender and Culture

1
Q

what are some of Malala’s traits?

A
  • tends to be extraverted, good when performing speeches
  • very low neuroticism
  • high in conscientiousness, agreeableness, communion, authenticity, self-actualization
  • very high honesty and humility
  • levels of traits are associated with psychological wellbeing
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2
Q

what is culture?

A
  • customs, values, beliefs, knowledge, art, and language of a society or community
  • passed from generation to generation
  • are the basis for everyday behaviours and practices
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3
Q

what is gender?

A
  • social and cultural meanings of different sex categories
  • includes commonly associated attributes (feminine vs. masculine)
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4
Q

what is gender identity vs gender expression?

A
  • gender identity - a person’s deeply-felt, inherent sense of being a man, or woman, or an alternative gender
  • gender expression - a person’s expressed behaviour that communicate aspects of their gender or gender role (masculine/feminine, androgynous)
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5
Q

what is an example of gender being a social construct?

A
  • used to be common practice to dress boys in gowns and dresses till age 8
  • also used to be common to dress boys in pink and girls in blue
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6
Q

what determines a persons sexual orientation?

A
  • is 50% heritable but also depends on environmental factors
  • multiple genes play a role in same-sex orientation
  • sexual orientation is on a continuous scale
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7
Q

what determines a persons gender identity?

A
  • both environment and biological factors (60% heritable)
  • multiple genes play a role in nonconforming identities
  • olsen et al found that trans children showed patterns of gender cognition more consistent with their expressed gender than their assigned gender at birth
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8
Q

do all cultures think of gender as binary?

A

no
- many precolonial indigenous tribes recognized and respected third-gender or gender-variant people

  • traditional Navajo culture recognised 4 genders, including the Nadleehi (feminine male) and the Dilbaa (masculine female)
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9
Q

what is low identity clarity and what does it lead to?

A
  • not being confident in who we are, our identity (associated with suicidal ideation)
  • in gay and straight women, ambiguity about sexual identity has been associated with alcohol misuse and suicidal ideation
  • low cultural identity clarity in indigenous youth has been associated with low subjective well-being and low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, and physical and relational aggression
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10
Q

what is most likely to compromise identity clarity?

A
  • invalidating a person’s identity
  • attacking and restricting a person’s identity (hate and discrimination)
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11
Q

what is intersectionality?

A

the study of intersecting, overlapping social identities and labels; and related systems of discrimination and oppression

  • ex. women are more likely than men to go missing, but indigenous women are more likely to go missing than any other women
  • ex. trans women are more likely to be murdered than other trans people, but trans people of colour are the most at risk
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12
Q

how does intersectionality come into play in Malala’s life?

A
  • intersectionality between her culture and gender
    • she became an activist because of the sociocultural environment she grew up in, but also because of her being a woman
  • also intersectionality between her culture and age
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13
Q

what are the problems in the research on sex differences?

A
  1. reliance on sex-gender binaries and cisgender people
  2. possible exaggeration of differences, stereotype reinforcement
  3. insufficient attention to intersectionality
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14
Q

how do we measure sex differences?

A
  • look into meta-analyses to observe size of differences (cohen’s d)
  • effect size is averaged across studies to give objective assessment of difference
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15
Q

what is a small, medium, and large effect size, and what does it mean in the study of sex differences?

A

0.20 - small effect

0.50 - medium effect

0.80 - large effect

  • positive d means men are higher
  • negative d means women are higher
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16
Q

what is the maximalist view on sex differences?

A
  • more attention paid to sex differences because they think that they matter
  • think that even small differences could have larger cumulative effects (ex. helping behaviour)
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17
Q

what is the minimalist view on sex differences?

A
  • believe that the differences between sexes are very small
  • there are more differences within groups than between groups
  • there is a lot of overlap between average levels of traits in men and women
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18
Q

what is the gender similarity hypothesis?

A
  • in line with the minimalist view
  • suggests that men and women are similar in most, but not all, psychological variables
  • meta analyses found 78% of sex differences were small or close to 0
    • but, men are more aggressive and have more sexual activity
  • it is still important to study sex difference because it affects other personality aspects
    • ex. men were more likely to not follow safety precautions during covid because of ideas of masculinity
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19
Q

what are the biggest sex differences in the Big Five traits?

A
  • women are more neurotic (moderate difference)
    • could be because of socialization of emotional expression
  • women are slightly more extraverted (very small difference)
  • women are more agreeable (moderate difference)
    • men score higher in agentic traits and women score higher on communion traits
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20
Q

what are the biggest sex differences in temperament in children?

A
  • girls are more able to control inappropriate behaviours (inhibitory control)
  • girls are more able to detect subtle stimuli from the environment (perceptual sensitivity)
  • boys have more approach behaviour and impulsivity (surgency)
  • girls are more fearful and boys have more anger expression
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21
Q

what are the main sex differences in agreeableness, how do they translate to nurturance?

A
  • females across cultures consistently score higher on all aspects of agreeableness
    • including trust and tender-mindedness
  • females also score higher on warmth (extraversion) and empathy
  • these traits are associated with higher tendency towards nurturance
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22
Q

what are the main sex differences in aggressiveness?

A
  • by age 4 or 5, males show higher aggression (low agreeableness)
  • across cultures, males are more aggressive, as assessed on personality tests, in fantasies, and in behaviours
  • males are higher in the dark triad and tetrad
    • including psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder
  • we think large difference is driven by a small subset of men who are extremely high in aggression
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23
Q

what is the difference between overt vs. relational aggression? how do they relate to sex differences in aggression?

A
  • overt aggression - physical and verbal aggression
  • relational aggression - excluding people, starting rumours, etc
  • maybe there is no difference in internal causal property, but different ways of displaying aggression in men and women
  • could be because of socialization - boys encouraged to be aggressive but girls are forced to hide it
  • some argue men are more diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder because the DSM is based on the way that men express these traits
    • argue women display antisocial personality disorder differently
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24
Q

how do men and women differ in the frequency and intensity of their emotions?

A
  • women experience positive and negative emotions more frequently and more intensely than men
  • biggest sex differences: affection, joy, fear, sadness
  • minimal sex differences in pride and guilt
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25
Q

what are the main sex differences in self-esteem?

A
  • men have more self-esteem across the lifespan
  • difference in levels of self-esteem is largest in childhood and becomes smaller in adulthood
    • suggests that it’s tied to environmental and situational factors
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26
Q

what are some possible reasons for sex differences in self-esteem?

A
  • during adolescence, many girls accept stereotypical notions for how they should be
    • repress true feelings to adopt a woman-like self-presentation
    • idealize standards of beauty
    • greater bodily changes, more discrepancy between real and ideal body types
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27
Q

what is the cross-cultural perspective on sex differences in self-esteem?

A
  • consistent with previous research, found age-related increases in self-esteem from late adolescence to middle adulthood
  • also found significant gender gaps, with males consistently higher reports of self-esteem
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28
Q

what are the findings regarding self-esteem in collectivist cultures?

A
  • more of an increase of self-esteem in males and females overall
  • difference between self-esteem in males and females is less
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29
Q

why might the self-esteem gap be larger in individualistic cultures?

A
  • sex differences overall, are larger in individualistic cultures that have more gender equality
    • could be because individualistic cultures are more aware of inequalities
  • also, differences in height of sexes are larger in individualistic cultures
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30
Q

how do men and women differ in sexuality and emotional investment?

A
  • men have permissive attitudes toward casual sex, desire more sex partners, have more frequent sexual fantasies, and are more willing to accept sex from strangers
  • men who have “hostile masculinity” and who lack empathy use sexual aggression more often
  • women have more emotional investment
    • could be due to evolution of sex difference in attachment to children and partners
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31
Q

what is the people-things dimension?

A
  • things dimension - prefer careers that deal with impersonal objects
    • ex. carpenters, mechanics, building contractors, tool makers, farmers
  • people dimension - prefer social occupations that involve thinking of others, caring for others, or directing others
    • ex. teachers, social workers, nurses, and counsellors
  • men are more likely to be closer to the things dimension and women closer to people dimension
  • similar to empathizing-systemizing distinction
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32
Q

why were masculinity, femininity, and androgyny important in research?

A
  • first believed sex differences were due to differences in masculinity-femininity
  • then bem argued there might be another dimension that is independent, androgyny
  • androgyny - the possession of high levels of both masculine and feminine attributes (most adaptable)
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33
Q

how does masculinity and femininity change our perceptions of gender nonconforming people?

A
  • those who conform to gender themselves, judge gender conformity more harshly
  • men who have more “masculine” traits are more likely to be unaccepting of people who don’t fit into their gender expectations
34
Q

how are masculinity and femininity studied today?

A
  • masculinity and femininity are now studied as instrumentality (for agency) and expressiveness (or communion)
  • this removes implicit association with sex/gender
35
Q

what are the common trends for couples based on level of masculinity and femininity of each partner?

A
  • couples with one member high in masculinity and the other high in femininity have sex sooner
  • couples in which both members are average for their sex break up more often
36
Q

what is unmitigated agency?

A
  • originally made to associate with men
  • focus on the self to the exclusion of others
  • problems stem from unwillingness to attend to relationships, negative view of others
  • correlated with hemogenic and toxic masculinity, and dark traits
37
Q

what is hemogenic (toxic) masculinity?

A
  • see men as successful, self-reliant, socially dominant, tough and competitive, lacking emotional sensitivity, and fearful or avoidant of appearing feminine
  • developed in boys as a result of early socialization and exposure to unhealthy notions of what it means to be a man
  • aggression can result when men live up to the ideals, or when they fail and experience stress
38
Q

what is unmitigated communion?

A
  • originally made to associate with women
  • focus on others to the exclusion of self
  • problems stem from tendency to subjugate one’s own needs, and dependence on others for esteem
39
Q

what is the gender schema theory by sandra bem?

A
  • gender schemas are cognitive orientations that lead people to process information through a sex-linked perspective
  • explain how individuals become gendered in society and how gender stereotypes are maintained over time
40
Q

what are the three components of gender stereotypes?

A
  1. cognitive → social categories (dads, soccer moms)
  2. affective → +/- feelings result from stereotypes (sexism)
  3. behavioural → treating people differently (discrimination)
41
Q

how universal are stereotypes?

A
  • asked western and non-western universities to indicate whether some trait adjectives were more associated with men, women, or both
  • most trait adjectives were associated with one or the other sex, there was tremendous consensus across cultures
42
Q

how universal is gender bias?

A
  • 90% of people are biased against women in relation to politics, economics, education, violence, and/or reproductive rights
  • 91% of men/86% of women hold at least one bias against women in every country except nordic countries, netherlands, and australia
  • almost half of people surveyed feel men are superior political leaders and over 40% believe men make better business executives
43
Q

what was sandra bem’s legacy?

A
  • wanted people to see how the female/male dichotomy is often unnecessary and sometimes harmful
  • society should decrease the use of the gender dichotomy as a functional unit, and try to be gender aschematic
44
Q

what are the socialization theories of sex differences?

A
  1. socialization theory
  2. social learning theory
  3. social role theory
45
Q

what is socialization theory on sex differences?

A
  • based on reinforcement
  • males are reinforced by parents, teachers, and the media for being “masculine”, and females for being “feminine”
  • results in females and males becoming different over time
46
Q

what is the social learning theory on sex differences?

A
  • based on observing others
  • children learn by observing and modelling the behaviours of same-sex others
  • over time, these models provide a guide to what behaviours are masculine or feminine
47
Q

what is the social role theory on sex differences?

A
  • based on differing social roles
  • males and females adopt different traits because they are distributed into different occupational and family roles
  • over time, children learn behaviours associated with these roles
48
Q

what is the evidence for socialization of sex differences?

A
  • boys and girls are treated differently by parents and society in general and across cultures
  • exposure to counter-stereotypical role models can influence aspirations of young people
  • teenagers in Sweden tend to choose gender-typical careers, even though they’re one of the most gender-neutral countries, because of fears of not being accepted and of not being able to do the job
49
Q

what is the daughter-guarding hypothesis?

A

protecting a daughter’s sexual reputation and mate value may have increased her reproductive success more than that of sons

  • reason for socializing girls to be more sexually restrained
50
Q

how do matrilineal societies prove that socialization can result in sex differences?

A
  • in a matrilineal society, woman have more power than in patriarchal societies because kinship is defined by maternal lines
    • power is evenly distributed
  • in matrilineal societies, girls are equally competitive to boys
  • in patriarchal societies, girls are less competitive
    • differences emerged during puberty
51
Q

how do toy preferences prove that socialization is responsible for some sex differences?

A
  • sex-typed toy preferences emerge very early in childhood (even Rhesus monkeys)
  • infant males were more likely to look at cars and infant females were more likely to look at dolls
  • within sex differences: both males and females preferred to look at dolls at 1-years old and also preferred red over blue
  • at age 2, there was a bigger difference between sexes
    • suggests that avoidance of dolls (in older boys ) and preference for pink (in older girls) may be acquired via socialization
52
Q

what is the hormonal theory of sex differences?

A
  • hormonal, physiological differences cause boys and girls to diverge
  • after puberty, males have 10x more testosterone than females
  • sex differences in testosterone are linked with traditional sex difference in behaviour
    • aggression, dominance, career choice, sexual desire, depression and empathy
  • estrogen is associated with empathy and oxytocin secretion
  • link between hormones and behaviour is bidirectional
    • engaging in these behaviours also leads to higher levels of testosterone
53
Q

how do hormones in the womb affect gender expression?

A
  • hormones in the womb affect organization of the brain and gendered interests
  • congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) - female has an overactive adrenal gland that produces more prenatal androgens like testosterone
    - females are hormonally masculinized, preference for male-typical toys, superiority in traditionally masculine cognitive skills
54
Q

what is the evolutionary theory of sex differences?

A
  • sexes are predicted to differ only in domains in which people are faced with different adaptive problems
  • there are sex differences in mating and sexuality
    • ex. males are higher in aggression, females are higher in nurturance, males are higher in sexuality
55
Q

what are the integrated theoretical perspectives on sex differences?

A
  • evolutionary pressures or socialization could explain hormonal differences
    • boys, but not girls, are socialized to engage in behaviours that increase testosterone
  • either hormonal differences or evolutionary theory (or both) could explain origin of socialization practices and roles
  • evolutionary psychology suggests why the sexes differ and hormonal and socialization theories specify how the sexes became different
  • consensus - in terms of personality differences, socialization is the most supported cause
56
Q

what is evoked culture?

A
  • differences in physical environments lead to different social and psychological adaptations among different groups of people
  • ex. food scarcity is related to more egalitarianism/cooperation
  • ex. economic livelihood based on herding is related to more honour in order to protect their livelihood
57
Q

what are the two ingredients needed to explain cultural variations?

A
  1. universal underlying mechanism
  2. environmental differences in the degree to which the underlying mechanism is activated
58
Q

how do early experiences effect evoked mating strategies?

A
  • harsh, rejecting, and inconsistent child-rearing practices results in child being impulsive and having a mating strategy marked by early reproduction
  • opposite parenting results in conscientiousness, and mating strategy of commitment and later reproduction
59
Q

how does pathogen prevalence effect personality traits of a culture?

A
  • most cultural differences found in decreases extraversion and decreases in openness to experience
  • higher levels of conformity because deviating from cultural norms increased likelihood of pathogen exposure
  • more authoritarianism because not strictly obeying authority increased likelihood of pathogen exposure
60
Q

how are honour and aggression evoked in a culture?

A
  • herding economies are more likely to have a culture of honour than agricultural economies
    • because it’s important to create a reputation of willing to respond with violence, in order to protect the stock
  • cultures of honour or more likely to respond to insults with aggression
    • also had higher levels of testosterone
61
Q

what is an example of evoked culture in Malala’s life?

A
  • Pakistan is a culture of honour
  • resulted in Malala being perceived as a threat to their culture
  • resorted to violence
62
Q

what is transmitted culture?

A
  • ideas, values, and beliefs that are communicated from one person to another
  • the focus on spreading certain values lead to differences to cultural differences in personality (individualism vs. collectivism, self-construal, self-enhancement)
63
Q

what are the different cultural orientations?

A
  • individualism - focus on uniqueness, independence, agency
    • value identity and self-enhancement; independent self-construal
  • collectivistic - focus on relationships and communion
    • value unity and selfishness; interdependent self-construal
64
Q

what were the sources of transmission of individualistic and collectivist cultures?

A
  • Descartes fuelled individualism in the West
  • Confucius laid the foundation for collectivism in the East
65
Q

what does the expanded model of cultural orientation propose?

A
  • cultural orientation is based on two dimensions: individualism/collectivism and inequality/equality
  • individualism - valuing individual rights and status over others (unequal, vertical) or without a desire for status (equal, horizontal)
  • collectivism - valuing group rights and value status over other groups (unqual, vertical) or without a desire for authority (equal, horizontal)
66
Q

what is bicultural orientation?

A
  • strong in both individualistic and collectivistic orientations
  • often results from acculturation, taking on traits from the social environment based on norms and expectations
67
Q

what are the two ways that individualism and collectivism can be studied according to?

A
  1. value orientation - focuses on individuals’ beliefs about the importance of personal versus collective goals
  2. self-concept - focuses on self-construal involving separateness versus social embeddedness
68
Q

what are the different types of self-construal?

A
  • independent - self-definition is based on internal attributes (traits, abilities, values, and preferences)
    • associated with an individualistic cultural orientation, and with agency
    • explain events in an analytic way (object detached from context
  • interdependent - self-definition is based on relationships with others and social embeddedness
    • associated with an collectivistic cultural orientation, and with communion
    • explain events in a holistic way (attention to relationships and context)
69
Q

what is metapersonal self-construal?

A
  • self understood to be fundamentally interconnected with all living things and the universe
    • in common with monks, biospheric value orientation, andpro-environmental behaviour
  • closer to interdependent than independent
70
Q

which type of cultural orientation and self-construal best describe Malala?

A
  • most likely bicultural orientation
  • she moved from a collectivistic culture to individualistic culture
  • stands up for women’s rights, indicates individualism
    • still humble and connected to her community, indicates collectivism
  • probably has independent self-construal
71
Q

how do different cultures engage in self-enhancement?

A
  • north americans are more self-enhancing than japanese people (present themselves with positive attributes)
  • possible that asians truly evaluate themselves positively but feel it would be damaging to express those views
    • and maybe north americans feel the need to present themselves more positively
  • but people in all cultures show a self-enhancement bias
72
Q

is individualism rising?

A
  • there’s been an increase in the tendency towards individualistic practices and values
  • China decreased in individualism overall, but it has increased among the higher classes
73
Q

what could be responsible for the rise in individualism?

A
  1. economic growth - capitalists focus on growth at the expense of others, as you gain access to resources, you rely less on other people
  2. decreased pathogen prevalence - don’t require as much collectivism, more freedom to roam and express oneself
74
Q

what cultural orientation is optimal?

A

collectivist - independence

  • involves a collectivist value orientation and an independent self-construal (horizontal individualism)
  • in common with social democracies of the world that value human rights and better social welfare (nordic countries, Netherlands)
  • research supports that being primed for this orientation has greater benefits for group creativity
75
Q

what are the biggest differences of traits between different cultures?

A
  • largest difference was seen in extraversion
    • north americans, australians, and europeans scored slightly higher than asians and africans
  • higher levels of narcissism in western countries, which is correlated with individualism
76
Q

what are cultural universals?

A
  • features of personalty that are common to people in all cultures ( “human nature” )
  • three important aspects of personality that appear to be universal
    1. beliefs about men and women
    2. emotional expression
    3. five-factor model of personality
77
Q

what traits are culturally universal?

A
  • dimensions used for personality evaluation show a high degree for cultural universality but there may be more important traits in other countries
  • the HEXACO model is also culturally universal
  • chinese personality assessment has 4 traits, 3 are in common with neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness
    - last one is interpersonal relatedness (value, harmony, balance, and reciprocity in relationships)
78
Q

what are some important traits in small scale societies?

A
  • 2 principal factors reflect socioecological characteristics common in small-scale societies
    1. prosociality
    2. industriousness
  • in line with agency and communion
79
Q

what two dimensions do we use to evaluate people we meet for the first time?

A
  1. warmth/trustworthiness - do we want to approach or avoid (intent to harm)
    • can i trust this person?
    • related to communion
  2. competence/dominance - strength/weakness (ability to harm)
    • can i respect this person?
    • related to agency
  • assessment of competence doesn’t matter if we find them not trustworthy
80
Q

what are the parallel concepts to agency vs. communion?

A
  • status (need for power) vs. love/nurturance (need for intimacy)
  • traditional masculinity vs. femininity
  • instrumentality vs. expressiveness
  • industriousness vs. prosociality
  • individualism vs. collectivism
  • independence vs. interdependence
  • dominance/competence vs. warmth/trust

PSYC 305 (4 decks)

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