PSY 388 03 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND EXPERIENCE THE SEXES MORE SIMILAR THAN DIFFERENT Men and women have more in common than not Even with significant mean differences distributions of scores for males and female often overlap NEW WAY TO REVIEW STUDIES META ANALYSIS META ANALYSIS is a statistical tool that quantifies results of a group of studies o Looks at the magnitude of the effects o Both significance and size of the differences Effect Size d statistic Cohen 1977 o 1 small effect o 3 medium effect o 5 large effect MACCOBY AND JACKLIN S 1974 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX DIFFERENCES first comprehensive review concluded that only four domains showed sex differences o Girls Verbal ability o Boys Visual spatial ability Mathematical ability Aggression VERBAL ABILITY Girls observed that girls o Talk earlier than boys o Develop larger vocabularies o Have better grammar o Better readers But only a small sex difference favoring females Size of sex difference depends on specific domain of verbal abilities Largest in case of writing Girls were better at writing SPATIAL ABILITIES SPATIAL ABILITIES ability to think and reason using mental images rather than words PSY 388 03 Do men have greater spatial abilities o Magnitude of sex differences depend on specific tasks Mental rotation tasks favor men Women object location tasks favor women MATHEMATICAL ABILITY Do men truly have greater math skills than women Sex differences in math in general population are small to zero o Decreasing over time Gender gap closing on SAT math scores or standardized exams Females get higher math grades in school What factors could explain the trends in small differences o Orientations toward schoolwork o Males have more positive attitudes toward math PSY 388 03 Review of 46 meta analyses Hyde 2005 Most sex differences are very small In what behaviors do we observe these small sex differences What factors could explain such sex differences GENDER SOCIAL BEHAVIOR Influenceability 1 Aggression 2 3 Dominance 4 Nurturance 5 Empathy 6 Altruism Not necessarily WHAT IS AGGRESSION ARE MEN REALLY MORE AGGRESSIVE THAN WOMEN Any form of behavior intended to harm someone or something o Intent o Acts intended to harm one s self are aggressive is hard to verify but important to the definition Assertiveness the ability to assert your rights is not aggression o No harm or violation of others rights you re just stating your right LET S SEE IF YOU CAN IDENTIFY AGGRESSIVE ACTS A thief fires a gun at a man he is trying to rob but the bullet misses the mark Panicked the man accidently knocks down a young girl as he flees the scene and she badly cuts her knee on the pavement The girl screams in pain as a doctor puts 5 stitches on her knee to stop the bleeding The doctor asks the girl how badly does it hurt The girl grabs his moustache and yanks it and sneers that s how much it hurts The thief gets arrested and his cellmate verbally berates him for being such an inept burglar The angry thief smashes his fist into the cell wall fracturing 3 fingers In the infirmary the thief angrily kicks and dents a waste container Thief shooting and missing the man Yes Robbery victim knocking down the little girl No Doctor putting stitches in the little girl s knee No Little girl pulling the doctor s moustache Yes Thief s cellmate verbally berating the thief Yes Thief punching the cell wall Yes Thief kicking the waste container Yes TYPES OF AGGRESSION PSY 388 03 OVERT AGGRESSION physically hurting or threatening another person e g hitting slapping kicking Males scored higher RELATIONAL AGGRESSION hurting or threatening another person by damaging his her relationship e g spreading negative info gossiping excluding a person from a group Females scored higher DO WOMEN AND MEN EXPERIENCE AGGRESSION DIFFERENTLY Women view aggression as o A loss of self control o Result from excessive stress Men view aggression as o Exerting control o Brought on by a challenge to self esteem manhood and integrity Both men and women are equally likely to engage in verbal aggression o e g teasing taunting o Unprovoked and repeated Men are more likely to be spontaneously aggressive Women and men are equally likely to be aggressive when provoked through insults WHY MIGHT WE SEE GENDER DIFFERENCES IN AGGRESSION or other means Biological o Testosterone is linked to human aggression Due to interplay between testosterone and socially differentiated environment and not the testosterone itself heightens status awareness o Low levels of serotonin neurotransmitter can impede the ability to inhibit aggressive responses o Relative physical strength differences Social Expectations o Men are expected to be more aggressive Boys men are rewarded more and receive fewer punishments o Women face more social restrictions in their expression of aggression Receive negative feedback Men s aggression more public and physical overt Women s aggression more private and indirect covert Target s gender may influence form of aggression o Boys might behave more aggressively toward other boys PSY 388 03 Socialization o Children imitate aggressive acts o Esp see those gain rewards o Observation of aggressive acts can generate aggressive scripts for handling o Aggressive behaviors are overlooked Boys will be boys problems in boys AGGRESSION IN CONTEXT OF POWER o Rough play does not necessarily indicate aggression but rather high spirits Social power o Males Physical power o Males Learn that aggression is social acceptable Have the right to get their way through aggression Are often bigger stronger and better trained in aggressive techniques Aggression might be a more effective strategy AGGRESSION IN CONTEXT OF ECONOMIC POLITICAL AND CULTURAL DEPENDENCY Male aggression against women tend to be greater in cultures in which women Have little to no economic power and or political authority Honor killings killing people most often women to restore family honor o Most often practiced outside of the U S o But cases have been reported in the U S Palestina Isa 1989 Sandeela Kanwal 2008 Movie The Stoning of Soraya M Media o Models of male aggression in sports and popular media o Male political leaders making threats and talking though about war o Male images of aggression are almost inescapable o Video games being violent aggressive o Violent or aggressive lyrics HOW DO WE STUDY AGGRESSION Measuring Aggression o Observational studies disadvantage researcher bias o Experimental lab simulation disadvantage