Transcript Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities?

Psychology 320:
Psychology of Gender
and Sex Differences
Lecture 28
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Office Hour Invitations
November 25th, 11:30-12:30 Kenny 2517
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Gender Identity Disorder, Intelligence and
Cognitive Abilities
1. What is gender identity disorder? (continued)
2. Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities?
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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:
1. describe current treatment options for GID.
2. identify contemporary controversies in the treatment
of GID.
3. discuss sex similarities and differences in: sensation
and perception, IQ scores, and domain-specific
knowledge.
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What is gender identity disorder? (continued)
• Treatment of GID in childhood may involve some
combination of behavioural therapy, psychoanalytic
therapy, parental counseling, and group therapy.
• Most children who are diagnosed with GID do not
exhibit symptoms of the disorder later in life.
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• Treatment of GID in adulthood may involve one, two,
or all three of the following elements: real-life
experience, hormone treatment, surgical sex
reassignment.
• Most adults who obtain sex reassignment indicate that
they are satisfied with the results at follow-up.
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“Last week I was sitting across from a very talkative 3 year old girl on the bus. She looked at me
very intently for a few seconds and whispered to her nanny ‘that's a girl, see! She's wearing purple.’
I smiled at her, but inside I felt the same awkward, misunderstood loneliness that I've felt so many
times when people are trying to establish what my gender is. My discomfort doesn't stem from
being offended; I guess I'd just hoped that children would be more receptive to gender variance
without having to label, and just respond to individuals as people.
Sure, I'm a woman, womyn, however you want to spell it, but the concept of gender identity for
each individual extends far beyond sex, sexual orientation, physical appearance and socially
sanctioned gender dichotomies. No, I'm not transgendered, but why can't I exist in a space
between two labels? Why should I be forced to ‘pick a side?’ Why should there be any labels at
all—someone's always going to be left out?
No amount of gender research, whether based in sociological, psychological, biological, or other
fields will ever be able to assess and decipher gender for what it really is. We're talking about
something that's so inherently part of every individual, their history, experiences, and influences,
that most people aren't even aware of it because they fit the heteronormative mold upon which the
gender dichotomy of male/female is based. I think that the lack of recognition that defines white
privilege can be used here to parallel the lack of recognition to genders beyond the male/female
gender dichotomy; gender privilege, if you will. Imagining other genders existing seems hard,
impossible, when all you know is your own gender, whatever it is, and when it's comfortable. Really,
how do you even know that your gender IS male or female or other? The point is, gender as it's
taught is a construct, an umbrella term that tries to embody everyone into 2+ categories; at the end
of the day all it leaves us with are categories, labels and generalizations that polarize to the
greatest degree. The reality is that gender identity is just a feeling, just something that you know,
something that is you."
-- An anonymous class member
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Course Content ... From This Point Forward
The bulk of the remainder of the course will focus on
questions surrounding sex differences.
Although the research literature focuses on sex differences,
one may interpret statistics that are relatively small as
suggestive of sex similarities.
In focusing upon sex differences, the research literature
often fails to consider gender.
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Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities?
• A large body of research has examined the cognitive
abilities of females and males:
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Research on sensation and perception:
 Olfaction: F > M.
 Taste: F > M.
 Audition: F > M. Exception: Sound localization.
 Vision: M > F. Exceptions: Adaptability to darkness,
tolerance for high levels of illumination. Males are
prone to attend to “mechanical motion,” whereas
females are prone to attend to “biological motion.”
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Research on general intelligence:
 IQ: F = M.
 Subjective estimates: M > F.
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Research on general knowledge:
 Current affairs, recreation, technology, geography,
history: M > F.
 Medicine: F > M.
 Psychology, literature, business, art: F = M.
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Gender Identity Disorder, Intelligence and
Cognitive Abilities
1. What is gender identity disorder? (continued)
2. Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities?
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