Gender-Role Standards and
Stereotypes
Sex stereotypes that men are more
aggressive than women and women more
interpersonally sensitive than men are
very robust, even among more educated
people, both sexes, all social classes.
– Probably because they have some
truth in them!
– Keep in mind that male/female
distributions overlap.
Gender differences
NOTE: There are overlaps in all of these areas so that, for example, some
girls are more physically aggressive than some boys. Physical Sex
Differences:
Girls more advanced physically throughout childhood; they mature earlier
and their development stops sooner.
Boys have larger lungs and heart, and they are superior at activities
involving gross motor activities and strength; males more likely to suffer a
wide range of developmental disorders (speech defects, ADHD, mental
retardation), genetic defects (because of x-linkage; WHY?), and are more
susceptible to malnutrition and disease.
Boys are more physically active; in preschool they are more likely than
girls to play in a physically active style in larger groups away from the
teacher.
Girls tend to have a few intimate friends
Boys have a larger number of "pals"—guys they hang out with but don't
have close, intimate, confiding relationships.
Gender differences
Cognitive Sex Differences:
– Girls superior at verbal abilities (vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal
creativity) during early to middle childhood. These differences become
attenuated as children get older, and disappear by adolescence.
– Boys have greater visual-spatial ability beginning around age 10. (Visual-
spatial ability is involved in manipulating objects in two- or three-dimensional
space, reading maps, aiming at a target.)
– Boys also excel at mathematics beginning around age 12.
Some studies indicate that boys have a higher IQ on average than girls by
late adolescence (~4 IQ points).
– Theory: Girls' development ends sooner than boys, and boys continue to
develop. This is controversial.
Girls superior in Conscientiousness: Focused attention, responsibility,
dependability, delay of gratification.
– Conscientiousness is strongly correlated with school success.
Gender differences
Social Sex Differences:
– Boys more aggressive, especially physical aggression and direct
verbal assault. (Girls use indirect forms of aggression such as
exclusion, negative gossip.)
– Boys more into risk-taking and sensation seeking as well as
curiosity and exploratory behavior; boys attracted to physically
dangerous occupations
– Girls more compliant with demands of parents and teachers.
(Conscientiousness)
– No sex differences in attachment classification. However, Girls
more nurturant and dependent. (Affectional System) Infant girls
more attracted to faces and may recognize mother's face earlier.
– Girls more fearful of possible personal threats and dangers. No
sex differences for social phobias, or possibly more common
among boys.
Gender differences
Sex Differences in Atypical Development:
– Boys more likely to have genetic defects, physical disabilities, mental
retardation, reading disabilities, speech defects, and school and emotional
problems.
– Boys are more likely to have genetic defects because of x-linkage: Boys only
have one X-chromosome and therefore any recessive gene on the X-
chromosome is expressed. Girls are likely to get a dominant normal gene from
their father's X-chromosome.
– Boys are "the less canalized sex"—they are more open to environmental
influences, including negative environmental influences. This may be seen as a
high risk strategy. Boys are more vulnerable to stress such as family
disharmony.
The evolutionary theory of sex (see below) implies that boys are expected
to be the high risk sex in general; this is related to the finding that boys are
more aggressive and more attracted to sensation seeking. Both aggression
and sensation seeking are high risk/high reward undertakings.
Developmental Patterns of Gender Typing
15- to 36-month-old toddlers have clear preferences for toys that are
"gender appropriate"; but girls are more likely than boys to choose "gender
inappropriate" toys.
In general, the male role is more clearly defined: there is a narrower range
of activities considered appropriate for males.
– Boys who play with "girl" toys or retreat in the face of aggression "fear
derision" (p. 558). "Although we tolerate tomboys, we reject sissies" (pp. 558).
– The condemnation comes from both parents (especially fathers) and peers.
Based on survey data, boys in the US like guns, boxing, wrestling and
karate, team sports, and fixing and making things more than girls.
Girls prefer dolls, sewing, cooking, dancing, and looking after younger
children more than boys.
Parents encourage these patterns by, for example, assigning household
tasks.
– "Even in the 21st century, girls are more likely to make beds, clean, prepare
meals, wash dishes, and do laundry. Boys are more likely to fix things, take out
the garbage, and mow lawns" (p. 559).
Stability of Gender Typing
Masculinity and femininity develop early and are
stable personality characteristics.
– This is not surprising, since many of the traits that
show sex differences are linked to personality
systems.
– There is some change in later adulthood as men
become more nurturant and expressive, especially in
old age.
Probably due to less testosterone.
Biological Factors in Gender Differences:
HORMONES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Women have small amounts of the male hormone testosterone
and men have small amounts of female hormones like
progesterone and estrogen. In childhood, the differences are
quite small, but they increase markedly in adolescents and
adults.
There are two surges of hormones, prenatally and during
adolescence.
– The surge of hormones prenatally affects behavior in childhood, and
the surge during adolescence activates and enhances the early
predispositions created by the prenatal surge.
– These are critical periods for the effects of hormones on later behavior.
Biological Factors in Gender Differences:
HORMONES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Animal studies: Young, Goy, and Phoenix (1967)
injected female monkeys with testosterone prenatally
or around the time of birth.
– Genetic female offspring were
pseudohermaphrodites. Their genitalia were more
masculine (large clitoris), and their behavior was
also masculine (more aggressive, more mounting
behavior [a male mating behavior], more rough
and tumble play, more socially dominant).
– Similar behaviors are elicited in genetically female
rodents injected with testosterone.
Biological Factors in Gender Differences:
HORMONES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
NOTE: Levels of testosterone are also
influenced by the animal's experience.
Animals that have been repeatedly defeated in
fighting have lowered testosterone, and
winners have elevated testosterone as a result
of their experience.
– This also occurs with humans: Winning an athletic
event results in a surge in testosterone.
Biological Factors in Gender Differences:
HORMONES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Human Studies: Girls who have received testosterone or
testosterone-like hormones prenatally have masculinized
behavior.
– These girls are genetic females but their genetalia are typically
masculinized at birth (enlarged clitoris, fused labia that resemble a
scrotum).
– They often receive an operation to make her appear more feminine.
– These girls have masculinized behavior: Tomboyish, liked vigorous
athletic activities, simply utilitarian clothing; little interest in dolls,
babysitting, or caring for younger children, jewelry, cosmetics, or hair
styles.
– They also had a more male-type achievement pattern and male-type
attitudes toward sexuality. They preferred boys as playmates and boys'
toys.
Biological Factors in Gender Differences:
HORMONES AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
HORMONES AND COGNITIVE SKILLS
– There is evidence for a critical period for brain
organization and hemisphere lateralization (males
more lateralized).
– Testosterone surge prenatally is responsible. This
surge makes females process verbal information
better and males process spatial information better.
– Female fetuses exposed to abnormally high levels of
androgens are better at spatial abilities.
Sex differences in Spatial
Reasoning
Water task; Light bulb in a car going uphill:
Male advantage is only found for spatial (geometric)
ability, not for computational ability, basic math skills or
algebra.
– Biological influences do not rule out environmental influences.
– Text notes that the differences are relatively small (but small
differences lead to large differences in proportions at the high
end of the distribution).
– Girls enroll in progressively fewer math courses over the high
school and college years. Even girls with superior math ability
seem less interested in math as they get older (e.g., 34% of
advanced physics classes). But the gender gap is narrowing.
BRAIN LATERALIZATION:
Brain becomes increasingly specialized with age, with right
hemisphere more specialized for spatial tasks and left hemisphere
more specialized for verbal tasks. Women who suffer left
hemisphere damage are less likely to have damage to verbal
abilities.
In a task where children had to identify objects inside a bag, sight
unseen, boys were better when feeling with their left hand
(controlled by the spatial centers in the right hemisphere). For girls
there was no difference between hands in their ability to identify
objects.
In a rhyming task where subjects were asked if nonsense words
rhymed, both sides of women's brains were activated. For men, only
the left hemisphere (underlying verbal abilities) was activated.
Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of
Sex: Robert Trivers (1972)
1.) MALES DEFINED AS SEX WITH SMALL GAMETES,
FEMALES ARE SEX WITH LARGE GAMETES
2.) FEMALES TEND TO INVEST MORE IN
REPRODUCTION THAN MALES.
– TYPICAL MAMMALIAN FEMALE: PREGNANCY, LACTATION,
CAREGIVING'VERY HIGH COST IN TIME AND ENERGY
TYPICAL MAMMALIAN MALE: SPERM'VERY LOW COST
.
Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of
Sex: Robert Trivers (1972)
3.) ECONOMICS 101: WHEN YOU HOLD
VALUABLE RESOURCES, YOU DON'T GIVE THEM
AWAY.
– FEMALES EXPECTED TO BE SELECTIVE,
DISCRIMINATING MATERS
– FEMALES WANT:
MALES WHO WILL INVEST IN OFFSPRING,
MALES WITH GOOD GENES, HIGH SOCIAL STATUS,
ETC.
Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of
Sex: Robert Trivers (1972)
4.) ECONOMICS 101: MALES DO NOT HOLD RESOURCES. THEREFORE THEY MUST
COMPETE IN ORDER TO GET THEM. THIS RESULTS IN THE PREDICTION THAT
MALES WILL BE MORE AGGRESSIVE.
IN GENERAL, MALES MUST COMPETE FOR FEMALES, AND THE MAIN OBSTACLE IS
OTHER MALES:
– ELEPHANT SEALS: DEFEATING MALES IN COMBAT
– CHINESE EMPERORS: CONTROLLING MALES AND FEMALES
– MOVIE STARS
– SUCCESFUL HUNTERS in hunter-gatherer societies;
– RICH MEN IN ALL SOCIETIES ARE ATTRACTIVE TO FEMALES (The Anna Nicole
Smith
phenomenon)
Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of
Sex: Robert Trivers (1972)
4. (Cont.) MALES HAVE MORE TO GAIN BY BEING HIGH ON AGGRESSION,
RISK-TAKING, SENSATION-SEEKING, SOCIAL DOMINANCE: SUCCESSFUL
MALE CAN MATE POLYGYNOUSLY,
SUCCESSFUL FEMALE CAN MATE ONLY ONCE.
EVEN IN A MONOGAMOUS SYSTEM, SUCCESSFUL MALES WILL HAVE
ACCESS TO HIGHER QUALITY FEMALES (MORE NURTURANT, MORE PRONE
TO FIDELITY, HIGHER INTELLIGENCE, ETC.) RISK-TAKING AND SOCIAL
DOMINANCE PAY OFF MORE FOR MEN.
THEREFORE MEN GAIN MORE BY CONTROLLING SOCIETY (PATRIARCHY),
AND THEY GAIN MORE BY GOING TO WAR.
Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of
Sex: Predictions
WHEN GENGHIS KHAN AND THE MONGOLS
CONQUERED MOST OF ASIA, THEY REALIZED
AN ENORMOUS GENETIC PAYOFF BECAUSE
THEY ESTABLISHED HAREMS WHEREVER
THEY WENT.
– THE MONGOL Y-CHROMOSOME IS STILL FOUND
AT HIGH FREQUENCIES IN ALL THE AREAS THEY
CONQUERED. ~32 million direct descendants
– A MONGOL FEMALE WOULD NOT HAVE
SIMILARLY BENEFITED BY THIS SORT OF
CONQUEST.
Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of
Sex: Predictions
FEMALES ADOPT A MORE CONSERVATIVE
STRATEGY: HIGHER ON FEAR, BEHAVIORAL
INHIBITION.
FEMALES ALSO EXPECTED TO BE MORE
NURTURANT AND LOVING AS MATE
DISCRIMINATION SYSTEM (females benefit by
choosing males who love them and are willing to
invest in their children) AND BECAUSE OF ITS
ROLE IN NURTURANCE (females who are high on
affectional system are prone to nurturance).
Evolutionary Psychology: Theory of
Sex: Predictions
Male sexual jealousy more directed at
ensuring paternity confidence.
Female sexual jealousy more directed at
ensuring continued affection as a sign of
continued support.
The End