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
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
3
Q
what is gender?
A
- social and cultural meanings of different sex categories
- includes commonly associated attributes (feminine vs. masculine)
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)
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
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
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
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)
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
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)
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
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
13
Q
what are the problems in the research on sex differences?
A
- reliance on sex-gender binaries and cisgender people
- possible exaggeration of differences, stereotype reinforcement
- insufficient attention to intersectionality
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
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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
- cognitive → social categories (dads, soccer moms)
- affective → +/- feelings result from stereotypes (sexism)
- 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
- socialization theory
- social learning theory
- 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
- universal underlying mechanism
- 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
- value orientation - focuses on individuals’ beliefs about the importance of personal versus collective goals
- 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
- economic growth - capitalists focus on growth at the expense of others, as you gain access to resources, you rely less on other people
- 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
- beliefs about men and women
- emotional expression
- 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
- prosociality
- 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
- warmth/trustworthiness - do we want to approach or avoid (intent to harm)
- can i trust this person?
- related to communion
- 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
