Transcript Gender Lecture.pps - KSU Faculty Member websites

Psychology of Gender
You Just Don’t Understand
by Deborah Tannen
Males
Guise of Opposition
one-upsmanship
Focus on Status
avoid failure
Females
Guise of Connection
one-down
Focus on Involvement
avoid isolation
Focus on Independence
Focus on Intimacy
Logical - thinkers
Emotional-feelers
Problem-Solvers
Gift of understanding
Differences in
Personal Relationships
 Gray’s
motivation is $$$$$$$
• 18 million from book sales
• $35,000 per seminar
 Claims
are grossly exaggerated
• use of anecdotal information
 Polarizing
men and women offensive
• creates greater distance
What’s the difference anyway?
 Meta-Analytic
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



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Reviews:
Cognitive Abilities
Sexual Behavior and Attitudes
Conformity and Social Influence
Emotional Experience
Risk Taking
Aggression
Preliminary Remarks
Introduction
to Meta-analysis
Sex/Gender Terminology
Methodological Considerations
Introduction to Meta-Analysis
 Meta-analysis:
Numerically averaging
results across many studies
 A standard way to compute difference
between groups: Cohen’s d statistic



Small = .20
Medium = .50
Large = .80
Defining Terms
 Sex
- biological (anatomy, physiology,
chromosomal characteristics)
 Gender - psych, social, cultural
 Gender role identity - degree to which
one’s self concept connects to psych,
social, cultural understanding for males
and females
Methodological Considerations
Gender Differences or Sex Differences?
Sex/Gender Differences: Strict dichotomies
or continuous variables?
Magnitude of Difference versus Within
Group Variability
File Drawer Problem
Translating “significant difference” into
practical significance
Gender and Cognition
The “Missing” 5%:
Selection pressures enable man to achieve
“higher eminence, in whatever he takes
up, than can woman--whether requiring
deep thought, reason, invention, or
imagination, or merely the uses of the
senses and hands.” --Darwin
Gender and Cognition: Verbal Tests
Verbal Ability Type Effect Siz e
All studies
-0.11
Vocabulary
-0.02
Analogies
0.16
Reading comprehension
-0.03
Essay writing
-0.09
Anagrams
-0.22
General
-0.2
Speech production
-0.33
Source: Hyde & Linn, 1988
Notes: n = 165 studies; Negative d values mean women score higher
Gender and Cognition: Math Tests
Sample
All studies
General Population
Aged 5-10
Aged 11-14
Aged 15-18
Aged 19-25
Aged 26+
Effect Size
0.15
-0.05
-0.06
-0.07
0.29
0.41
0.59
Source: Hyde et al. 1990
Notes: n = 100 studies, Positive d values indicate men score
higher
Gender and Cognition: Math Tests
Study of the Mathematically Precocious (Benbow, 1988)
•SAT-M
•Males: M = 436; Females: M = 404, d = +.39
•Male:Female 600+ = 2:1
•Male:Female 700+ = 4:1
•Predictive Validity?
•Media accounts lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Gender and Cognition: Spatial Tests
Spatial Test
Mental Rotation
Spatial Perception
Spatial Visualization
d
0.56
0.44
0.19
Source: Linn & Peterson, 1995
Notes: Positive d values indicate men score higher than women
Gender and Cognition
Cognitive Crowding Hypothesis:
Females more likely to have verbal ability represented in
both hemispheres.
Male brains more likely to have the left hemisphere devoted
exclusively to verbal abilities and right hemisphere devoted
to spatial abilities.
Sex Differences in Lateralization
•Female brains are more symmetrically organized for
cognitive functions (more bilateral in organization)
•Male brains are more asymmetrically organized (more
lateralized in organization)
Gender and Cognition
Critique of Biological Theories:
•Gender disparities on standardized tests declining in more
recent years.
•Training eliminates disparity on spatial skills tests.
•Socialization mediating biology?
•Early reliance on verbal skills impacting women’s performance
on spatial and mathematical tests?
Sexual Behavior and Attitudes
Sexual Behavior and Attitudes
Measure
d
n
Attitude toward Casual Intercourse
.81
10
Attitude toward Committed Intercourse
.49
10
Sexual Permissiveness
.57
39
Anxiety, Fear or Guilt About Sex
-.35
11
Incidence of Intercourse
.33
135
Number of Sexual Partners
.25
12
Incidence of Masturbation
.96
26
Incidence of Homosexuality
.33
19
Source: Oliver and Hyde, 1993
Note: Positive d values occur when men score higher than women.
Conformity and Social Influence

Asch-type Conformity Experiments:

Women conform more than men
• d=.32 (Becker, 1986)
• d=.28 (Eagly & Carli, 1981)

Persuasion

Women report more attitude change
• d=.16 (Becker, 1986)
• d=.11 (Eagly & Carli, 1981)

Negotiation (Stuhlmacher and Walters, 1999)

Men more effective in Zero Sum Games (d=.20)
Conformity and Social Influence

Leadership Styles (Eagly et al., 2003)

Transformational
• Inspirational leadership that gains the trust confidence and
admiration of group members
• Women more likely than men (d=.10)

Transactional
• Managing group members through punishment and rewards
• Women more likely to use rewards (d=.13), men punishment
(d=.12)

Laissez-faire
• Do not manage group members much
• Men more likely than women (d=.16)
Emotional Experience

Self Disclosure (Dindia and Allen, 1992)
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
Emotional Expression


Women self disclose more than men (d=.18)
Compared to their counterparts, women express
sadness and depression more often, men express
anger more often
Women externalize, men internalize (Brody & Hall,
2002)
Response to Stress (Taylor, 2002)

Men show a fight-or-flight response, women more
likely to show a tend-and-befriend response
Risk Taking
Self Report Data
d
Smoking
-.02
Drinking/Drug Use
.04*
Sexual Activities
.07*
Driving
.29*
Observational Data
Driving
.17*
Intellectual Risk Taking
.40*
Physical Activity
.16*
Gambling
.21*
Experiment
.41*
Source: Miller and Schafer, 1999. Note: Positive d values occur when men score
higher than women. * denotes a statistically significant difference
Aggression
Observational Data
Peer reports
d
.84
Experimental Data
Unprovoked Aggression
.43
Provoked Aggression Overall
Provocation is a physical attack
Provocation is insult about intelligence
.06
.48
.59
Aggression
 Pattern
of findings constant across
cultures and nations, though degree is
variable (Archer and Mehdikhani, 2004)
 Difference is largest between 18-22 years
of age (d=.66, Archer and Mehdikhani,
2004)
 Indirect or relational aggression higher in
women compared to men (Crick & Nelson,
2002; Simmons, 2002)
Introduction to Social Factors

Parental Treatment and the Learning of Gender Roles

Baby X Studies (Stern and Karraker, 1989)
• Knowledge of infant’s gender affects childrens’ interactions more
than adults’ interactions with the infant

Parent reactions to gender-typed play
• Fathers’ police more than mothers, everyone polices boys more
than girls (e.g., Raag & Rackliff, 1998)

Big Boys Don’t Cry (Brock, 1978; Weinberg et al., 1998)

Parents assign gender-typed chores
• Daughters assigned household chores, sons outside work (e.g.,
Antill et al., 1996)
Introduction to Social Factors

Enacting Stereotypes

Mass Media
• Commercials and TV Shows (Furnham & Mak, 1999)
• Cartoons (Thompson and Zerbinos, 1995)

When gender is salient, men and women act in stereotypic ways
(Deaux & Major, 1987)
• Men more likely to help in public and wnen women in need (Eagly &
Crowley, 1981)

Stereo-type threat (Steele, 1997)
• When stereotypes queston the abilities of one sex they may
undermine the performance of individual men and women

Self-fulfilling prophecies and Behavioral Confirmation
• Feminists judged unlikable and unattractive (Haddock & Zanna,
1994)
• Women (but not men) not liked if brash and self-promoting
(Rudman, 1998)
• Women evincing direct and masculine style of leadership judged
less likable than men similarly described (Eagly, et al., 1992)