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Gender and Behaviour
Chapter 11
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Gender Stereotypes
Female stereotypes tend to reflect expressiveness Orientation toward emotion and relationships
Male stereotypes tend to reflect instrumentality
Orientation toward action and accomplishment Male stereotype preferred (androcentrism)
Stereotypes bias perceptions & expectations of self/others
Are a type of schema
Widely shared beliefs about abilities, traits
and social behaviour
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Gender Similarities and Differences:
Cognitive Abilities
Verbal ability
Includes vocabulary, reading, writing, spelling, &
grammar
Small difference favouring females
Females:
Speak earlier
Have greater vocabularies
Have better reading scores
Males:
Better at verbal analogies
More likely to stutter
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Gender Similarities and Differences:
Cognitive Abilities
Math ability
Includes computations and word problems
Small difference favouring males
No differences until high school
Differences driven by European Americans
Males:
High school boys outperform girls in area of problem solving
Outnumber girls at high end of math scale of SAT 17 to 1 Spatial Ability
Mentally manipulating shapes and figures
Males significantly better at mental rotation
Experience & training can improve skills for both genders
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Gender Differences in Personality
Traits and Social Behaviour
Self-esteem
Females show slightly lower self-esteem than males
Girls self-esteem does not drop dramatically in adolescence
(contrary to some claims) Gender differences larger in low &
middle SES families
Aggression Behaviour intended to cause harm to another
Males more physical aggression
Females more relational aggression
Verbal aggression unclear
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Gender Differences in Personality
Traits and Social Behaviour
Attitudes towards sex
Men:
More permissive when it comes to casual sex
Have more interest in sex
Are more likely to be aggressive when it comes to sex
Women:
See a greater connection between sex and intimacy Sexuality influenced more by situational or cultural
factors
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Gender Differences in Personality
Traits and Social Behaviour
Emotional expression
Women do display more emotion
Sadness
Disgust Fear
Surprise
Happiness
Anger
Does NOT mean men are heartless!
Men feel emotion just as much as women do, they are
just less likely to express it outwardly
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Gender Differences in
Communication
Men:
Talk more than women
Interrupt women more
Women:
Tend to be more tentative in language use
Are more sensitive to non-verbal cues
These differences may reflect power and
status differences
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Gender Differences in
Psychological Disorders The overall incidence of disorders is similar
Some specific differences however, have been found:
Women more likely to have:
Depression, anxiety, and eating disorders
More likely to attempt suicide
Men more likely to have:
Antisocial behaviour, alcoholism, drug-relateddisorders
More likely to commit suicide
Note connection of differences to traditional gender roles
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Reflecting on Gender Differences
Differences refer to groups NOT individuals Much more variability within than between groups
HUGE overlap
Differences do not mean that one gender is superior
Similarities far outweigh differences
Social Role Theory
Minor differences may be magnified by the different socialroles males and females occupy
Social Contructionism
People construct their own reality based on societal
expectations, conditioning, and self-socialization
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Evolutionary explanations
Differences reflect natural selection process
Behaviours favoured that help us pass on our genes
How might we test this explanation?
Look for cross-cultural stability
Cognitive abilities, aggression and sexual behaviour
Consider how the gender differences already described in each
of these domains could contribute to reproductive success
This theory is highly speculative and untestable
Biological Origins of Gender
Differences
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Biological Origins of Gender
Differences Hemispheric specialization (right/left brain)
Left hemisphere: verbal and mathematical processing
Right hemisphere: visual-spatial, nonverbal processing
Some data suggests males more specialized Female corpus callosum (fibers that connect
the 2 hemispheres) larger
Limited data
Findings on gender differences inconsistent
Different, early, socialization experiences could cause
slight brain differences
Male/female brains MUCH more similar than different
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Hormonal Differences
Prenatal gender differentiation
Sex cells produce androgens: High levels? male
Females exposed prenatally to higher levels of androgenexhibit more male-typical behaviours
Males exposed prenatally to lower levels of androgen
exhibit more female-typical behaviours
Limitations of these findings Evidence much stronger for females
Research is correlational
Most disorders have multiple effects
Generalizeability issues (small samples)
Biological Origins of Gender
Differences
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Hormonal Differences
Sexual and Aggressive Behaviour
Testosterone linked to sexual desire
and aggressive behaviour
Testosterone levels affected by situational cues
e.g., holding a gun will raise your testosterone level
General conclusions on biology: Hormones do seem to effect some aspects of behaviour
Overall, biological factors play a minor role in gender
differences
Biological Origins of Gender
Differences
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Environmental Origins of Gender
Differences Gender role socialization
Direct and indirect teaching about gender roles
1.Reinforcement and punishment
For gender appropriate and inappropriate behaviour
Parents focus most upon sons gender inappropriate behaviour
2.Observational Learning
Parents, teachers, siblings, TV/movie characters = role models
More likely to imitate same gender parent (more similar)
3.Self-socialization
Children create gender schemas to organize world
Link gender scheme to their self-concept (by 3 yrs)
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Sources of gender-role socialization
Parents
Encourage gender appropriate play
Assign household chores according to gender
Varies by ethnicity and SES
Peers
Play differs by gender group
Peers critical of violations of traditional gender norms
and perpetuate stereotypes
Gender atypical children at risk for bullying,
increased distress, and loneliness
Environmental Origins of Gender
Differences
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Schools Textbooks use sexist language
Teachers and Counselors
Reward gender-appropriate behaviour More attention paid to males
Media (TV): The Smurfette Principle
Male characters more successful and competent overall
Female characters tend to be young, attractive, less successful
Commercials, & videogames also promote gender stereotypes
Amount of TV watched correlated with acquisition of gender
stereotyped beliefs
Environmental Origins of Gender
Differences
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Questions?
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