Gender & Sexuality - Psychology of Gender and Human Sexuality PDF

**\ ** **College of Education and Behavioral Sciences** **Department of Psychology** **Psychology of Gender and Human Sexuality** **(Psyc 2074)** **June, 2024** **Haramaya** **Chapter one** 1. As stated in the course title, there are three important terms that are frequently used in this course. These are "Psychology", "Gender", "Sex" and many other related terms. Can you guess the meaning of sex, gender, psychology, gender identity, gender role etc...? Let you see the definition of terms. i. **Psychology** As you can remember from introduction to psychology course, the term ***psychology*** comes from the Greek words ***psyche**,* meaning \"**soul or spirit**\" and ***logos**,* meaning \"**study**\". In the earlier time psychology was therefore understood as the study of "soul" or "spirit". But currently psychology is defined as follows after it passes through different ups and downs. **Psychology** is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. In this definition there are three aspects; science behavior and mental processes. **Science:** psychology uses scientific methods to study behavior and mental processes in both animals and humans. This means psychologists do not study behavior in common senses rather they follow scientific procedures and use empirical data to study behavior. **Behavior:** refers to all of our outward or overt actions and reactions, such as talking, facial expressions and movement. **Mental processes:** refer to all the internal, covert activities of our minds, such as thinking, feeling, remembering. ii. **Sex, Gender, gender identity and gender role** **Sex** refers to the biological categories of female and male, categories distinguished by genes, chromosomes, and hormones. Culture has no influence on one's sex. Sex is a relatively stable category that is not easily changed, although recent technology has allowed people to change their biological sex. There are a number of indicators of biological sex, including sex chromosomes, gonads, internal reproductive organs, and external genitalia. **Gender**, by contrast, is a much more fluid category. It refers to the social categories of male and female. These categories are distinguished from one another by a set of psychological features and role attributes that society has assigned to the biological category of sex. What are some of the psychological features we assign to sex? Emotionality is a trait we ascribe to women, and competitiveness is a trait we ascribe to men. These traits are features of gender rather than sex. Whereas sex is defined in the same way across cultures, gender differs because each society has its own prescriptions for how women and men ought to behave. Gender has two important aspects such as gender identity and gender role. ***Gender identity:*** refers to one's sense of oneself as male, female or transgender. When one's gender identity and biological sex are not congruent, the individual may identify as transsexual or as another transgender category. **Transgendered** **individuals** are people who live with a gender identity that does not correspond to their biological sex. That is, their biological sex is incongruent with their psychological sex. A transgendered person may be biologically female but feel psychologically like a male and choose to live life as a male. This transgendered individual may dress and behave like a man, that is, take on the male gender role. **Transsexuals** also have a gender identity that does not correspond to their biological sex but they have hormonal or surgical treatment to change their sex to correspond with their gender identity. **Intersex** persons are those who are born with ambiguous genitals; these persons typically have surgery to alter their genitals so that they can be consistent biologically. **Intersexuality** (sometimes called **hermaphroditism**) is where a person is born with characteristics of both sexes. It is extremely rare, with no more than 60 cases being identified in Europe and North America in the past 100 years (Money 1986). It occurs when an individual has an ovary on one side of the body and a testicle on the other, or where both tissues combine together to produce a structure called an **oveotestis**. **'Super Males'** is where an XYY pattern is found, which usually leads to the male being taller and also raises the possibility of learning disability. This pattern has been subject to a great deal of publicity, with claims being made that such people are 'super-males' with strong aggressive tendencies, based on the finding that such men are relatively more likely to end up in prison. **'Super Females'**: Occasionally females are born with one or more extra X chromosomes. They are more likely to have a learning disability and some have menstrual irregularities and are sterile. But there have been cases of women with an XXX configuration having children. Again, there are a few rare cases of women having XXXX and even XXXXX patterns, and these are usually associated with severe developmental problems and serious learning disability. **Gender Identity Disorder**, which refers to people who are uncomfortable with the biological sex to which they have been assigned. As noted earlier, one treatment option is to have surgery to change their biological sex to fit their psychological gender. **Sexual orientation** refers to whether people prefer to have other-sex or same-sex persons as partners for love, affection, and sex. For instance, **Heterosexuals** prefer other-sex partners (male and female); **homosexuals** prefer same-sex partners; and **bisexuals** are accepting of other-sex and same-sex partners. **Gender role**: refers to the expectations that go along with being male versus female. For instance, we typically expect men to be strong, independent, and competitive, and to keep their emotions hidden. These are features of the male gender role. By contrast, we typically expect women to be caring, emotionally expressive, polite, and helpful: features of the female gender role. In other words, we expect men to be **masculine** and we expect women to be **feminine**. **Masculinity** includes the traits, behaviors, and interests that society has assigned to the male gender role. A masculine trait is self-confidence; a masculine behavior is aggression; and a masculine interest is watching sports. **Femininity** includes the traits, behaviors, and interests assigned to the female gender role. A feminine trait is emotional; a feminine behavior is helping someone; and a feminine interest is cooking. **Sex typing** (which really should be referred to as gender typing) is the process by which sex-appropriate preferences, behaviors, skills, and self-concept are acquired. How does a girl become feminine and a boy masculine? People who adhere to the gender role that society assigned them are ***sex-typed***. A male who thinks, feels, and behaves in masculine ways and a female who thinks, feels, and behaves in feminine ways are each **sex-typed**. A male who acts feminine and a female, who acts masculine, are each said to be **cross-sex-typed**. Someone who incorporates both masculine and feminine qualities is ***not sex-typed*** and is often referred to as **androgynous**. **Gender issues** arise when there is inequality, inequity or differential treatment of an individual or group purely on the basis of the social expectations and attributes of their sex. This is done normally as a result of old attitudes persisting in situations where they are no longer valid. Gender issues are characterized by ***gender discrimination***, whereby one sex is disadvantaged while the other is favored, or ***gender oppression***, whereby one gender dominates the other unjustly or even cruelly through the use of power and domination. Such practices create ***gender gaps***, through customary practices, religious biases, social consumptions, myths or taboos resulting in one gender discriminated against to such an extent that it is prevented from getting its fair share of resources or services. **Gender mainstreaming** entails identifying and addressing gender issues in all development projects and programs irrespective of the sector or type of project, and at all stages of development from planning and implementation to monitoring and evaluation. **Gender Integration** is a process of taking gender relations into account in all areas of activity in an organization, a community or at national level, and consciously acknowledging unequal power relations between women and men in society. It also leads to consciously working towards the promotion of gender equality and the advancement of women. **Women in Development (WID):** is a development approach that focuses on the specific needs of women and seeks to address them separately. **Gender and Development (GAD):** is an approach that takes into account the different needs of women and men and aims to create gender equity and equality between them. Both WID and GAD seek to improve the disadvantaged position of women. **Gender equity** connotes ensuring that development policies and programs leave women no worse off, either economically or in terms of their social responsibility. ***Equity*** is measured through the human cost of various activities, such as a fair share of benefits and responsibilities; equity aims to give women equal treatment under the law, equal access to education, and equal remuneration for work. Finally, one last term to discuss is **feminism**. The definitions of feminism are vast and varied. At the most fundamental level, a feminist is someone who believes women and men should be treated equally. The defining feature of feminism is the belief in equality for women and men. Although most people endorse this belief, feminism is perceived negatively. It is because at **first**, some people perceive **feminists as women who hate men**, (a stereotype that has been refuted). **Second**, feminism often includes the belief that society needs to make changes for equality to occur and can include the impetus/force to take action to make these changes. It becomes latter the idea that is more controversial. When feminism is equated with activism, the term becomes less appealing. Women typically believe that equality for women as a group should be promoted (probably by someone else), but they do not need any group efforts to aid their own achievements. 2. The study of gender, in particular the study of sex differences, is a politically charged topic. With gender, scientists are often in one of two camps: those who believe there are important **differences between the sexes** and those who believe the **two sexes are fundamentally the same**. There are also people in another block who believe we should or should not compare women and men rather **focusing on the context where these happened and interpreted** as well. People who believe the two sexes are fundamentally the same are known as the **minimalists**. The minimalists believe there are very few differences between women and men, and if the context was held constant, differences would vanish. That is, any differences in behavior observed between men and women might be due to the roles they hold or the situations in which they find themselves. By contrast, the **maximalists** believe there are fundamental differences between men and women. However, they argue that **"difference"** **does not mean "deficit"**. Theorists such as **Carol Gilligan and Nancy Chodorow** point out that woman's views of the world and ways of relating to the world are ***different from but not inferior to those of men***. In 1982, Gilligan published In a Different Voice, in which she claimed that "women and men have fundamentally different ways of viewing morality, but that women's view of morality is equally valuable to the view held by men". Maximalists argue there are two very different and equally valuable ways of relating to the world. **Constructionists** argue that it is fruitless to study gender because gender cannot be divorced from its context. Constructionists maintain that ***gender is created by the perceiver***: Facts about gender do not exist; only interpretations do. Constructionists challenge the use of the scientific method to study gender because they maintain *you cannot view the world objectively*; our history, experiences, and beliefs affect what we observe. Constructivists argue that the *empirical method is not untainted by social forces* and that *science is not as value free as some expect*. Constructionists argue that psychologists should not make sex comparisons because such studies assume gender is a static quality of an individual. They maintain that gender is a dynamic social construct that is ever changing, a social category created by society. Researchers who make sex comparisons might describe women as more empathic than men. Constructionists would focus on the empathy involved in the interaction, the factors that contributed to the empathy, and how empathy becomes linked to women more than men. Constructionists would examine the explanations as to why empathy was illustrated more in women in this particular situation. Constructionists are concerned that the study of sex comparisons ignores the variability within women and within men. The study of sex comparisons also ignores the situations and circumstances that influence men's and women's behavior. Constructionists argue that whether women and men are similar or different is the wrong question to ask. Questions that ought to be asked revolve around ***how social institutions, culture, and language contribute to gender and to gendered interactions***. 3. The scientific method rests on **empiricism**. Empiricism means information is collected via one of our major senses, usually sight. One can touch, feel, hear, or see the information. This information, referred to as **data**, usually takes the form of thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. For example, to examine the way in which men and women think about themselves and the world, the way men and women experience and express emotions, the way men and women interact with other people, and the way men's and women's bodies respond to stress. Statements about these observations, or data, are called **facts**. A collection of facts can be used to generate a **theory**, or an abstract generalization that provides an explanation for the set of facts. For a theory to be scientific, it must be falsifiable, meaning there must be the possibility it can be disproved. Creationism, for example, is not a scientific theory because there is no way to disprove it. Intelligent design is a new term that has been applied to the study of religion as a way to explain the origin of humankind. Although the term was developed to sound scientific, it also is not a scientific theory because it is not testable---that is, there is no observation or experiment that can be performed to support or refute religion. A theory is used to generate a **hypothesis**, a prediction that a certain outcome will occur under a specific set of conditions. A hypothesis is tested by creating those conditions and then collecting data. The statements made from the data, or facts, may either support the hypothesis, and thus the theory, or suggest the theory needs to be modified. Let's take an example. One theory of the origin of sex differences is social role theory. According to social role theory, any differences in behavior we observe between men and women are due to the different social roles they hold in society. We can apply this theory to the behavior of nurturance. One hypothesis would be that women are more nurturant than men because their social roles of mother and caretaker require more nurturant behavior than the social roles men possess. This hypothesis suggests that men and women who are in the same social roles will show similar levels of nurturance. We could test this hypothesis in two ways. We could compare the levels of nurturance among women and men who have similar roles in society---stay-at-home moms and stay at home dads. We could measure their level of nurturance by how they interact with babies in a nursery. These observations would be the data. Let's say we find that stay-at-home moms and dads spend the same amount of time holding the babies, talking to the babies, and playing with the babies. These are facts, and they would support our hypothesis that men and women who possess the same social roles behave in similar ways. Basically two major methods of research are highly conducted in this area. These are Correlational and experimental studies. A **correlational study** is one in which you observe the relation between two variables, usually at a single point in time. For example, we could correlate job characteristics with nurturant behavior. We would probably observe that people who held more people oriented jobs displayed more nurturance correlational study can simply tell us whether there is relationship (positive or negative) or not and the extent to which the variables are related (weak, moderate, strong and perrfect). The value of a correlation can range from −1 to +1. Both −1 and +1 are referred to as perfect correlations, which means you can perfectly predict one variable from the other variable. A second research method is the **experimental method**. In an experiment, the investigator manipulates one variable, called the **independent variable**, and observes its effect on another variable, called the **dependent** **variable**. To keep these two concepts straight, remember that the dependent variable"depends on" the independent variable. The most important point experimental study is random assignment. **Random assignment** means each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to each condition. **Difficulties in Conducting Research on Gender** The study of gender has some unique difficulties that other research domains do not face. Other difficulties inherent in scientific research are particularly problematic in the study of gender. At each stage of the research process, the researcher, who is sometimes the experimenter, can intentionally or unintentionally influence the outcome. Biases may be detected in the question asked, the way the study is designed, how the data are collected, how the data are interpreted, and how the results are communicated. Participants in experiments also can influence the outcome by their awareness of gender-role stereotypes, their desire to fit or reject gender-role norms, and their concerns with self-presentation. That is, participants care about how they appear to the experimenter and to other participants. **Women's contribution** In the field of psychology, the issue of gender was overlooked by different researchers over the years. In connection to this, Feminists have long argued that the field of psychology or social sciences in general overlook and distort the study of women in a systematic manner that results favorably to men. The inclusion of the variables of sex and gender can be examined in three separate time frames and conceptualizations. 1. **Woman as problem:** even though Psychology is defined as a science of human and animal behavior it has focused almost exclusively on the behavior of men or male animals. In other words, the first method of examining woman was to categorize them as lacking. Much early research that included female subjects came to the conclusion that women were inferior in Historical Development of the Psychology of Women some way. Additionally, if females were included in the sample, neither sex nor gender differences were reported, which discounted the influence of these factors and, in essence, was an indication of the belief that men were the norm when considering various psychological factors. And again, if women were included in the studies, biased results indicated that women were by nature inferior. For instance, Sir Francis Galton's work in the 19th century focused on individual differences and concluded that ''women tend in all their capacities to be inferior to men'' (cited in Lewin & Wild, 1991, p. 582). However, generally speaking, most early research never investigated comparisons between women and men at all 2. **Female-male differences and similarities:** the second wave of feminism, the second approach to studying women was employed; at this stage, much psychological research assumed profound differences between women and men. This consensus supported male superiority and domination, a societal structure very much in place at the time. Some male researchers studied sex differences and largely interpreted them to demonstrate female inferiority. 3. **Feminist study of women's lives:** The third method to approach gender research that which utilizes a feminist perspective is more often being Psychology of Women employed today. History is now viewed as contextual and is sensitive to gender as well as culture. When research is conducted, various factors embedded in this contextual approach should be examined. Feminist researchers are concerned with the particulars of women's experiences how and why women come to act, think, and feel the way that they do. Although not an easy answer, it is giving credence to the perspective of woman as a multidimensional and complex being. Indeed, psychologists have improved their research practices in response to such criticisms. Specifically, there has been an increase in the prevalence of female researchers and a decrease in the number of all-male samples, and research is more likely to be reported using nonsexist language (Denmark, Rabinowitz, & Sechzer, 2005). Despite this progress, there is still much room for significant improvement with regard to the conduct of nonsexist research in various fields. Some feminist researchers propose that the utilization of more innovative research methodologies will aid in establishing a less gender biased arena in the field of psychology. One example proposed by Kimmel and Crawford (2001) involves moving away from tightly controlled laboratory experiments that manipulate independent variables to determine changes in dependent variables, emphasize objectification and dehumanization, and often fail to study people in their natural environments. Several feminist researchers propose the following alternatives (Tolman & Szalacha, 1999): 1\. Devote specific attention to women's issues. 2\. Conduct research that focuses on and empowers women thereby eliminating inequities. 3\. Observe individuals in their natural environment in an attempt to understand how they experience their everyday lives as an alternative to manipulating people or conditions. 4\. Avoid thinking simplistically in terms of the causal relationship between two variables and conceptualize the relationship in an interactive, mutually influential way. 5\. Consider innovative methods for studying human behavior. 4. **Early studies of gender differences** The tradition of gender differences research has a long history in psychology, much of it predating the modern feminist movement and some of it clearly antifeminist in nature. In the late 1800s, for example, there was great interest in differences in the size of male and female brains and how they might account for the assumed lesser intelligence of women (Hyde, 1990; Shields, 1975). In the last several decades the mass media and the general public have continued to be captivated by findings of gender differences. For example, John Gray's book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (1992), which argues for enormous psychological differences between women and men, has sold more than 30 million copies and has been translated into 40 languages (Gray, 2007). Deborah Tannen's book You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation (1991) argue for the different-cultures hypothesis: those men's and women's patterns of speaking are so fundamentally different that they essentially belong to different linguistic communities or cultures. That book was on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly four years and has been translated into 24 languages (AnnOnline, 2007). Both works and dozens of others like them argue that males and females are, psychologically, vastly different. Yet as early as 1910, feminist researchers such as Helen Thompson Woolley wrote well-reasoned criticisms of the prevailing research. A watershed book on psychological gender differences was Maccoby and Jacklin's The Psychology of Sex Differences (1974). Having reviewed more than a thousand studies, they concluded that the following differences were fairly well established: 1. Girls have greater verbal ability than boys. 2. Boys outperform girls in spatial ability. 3. Boys perform better than girls on tests of mathematical ability. 4. Males are more aggressive. They also challenged the long-standing traditional emphasis on gender differences and concluded that some beliefs in gender differences were unfounded, including such beliefs as: 1. Girls are more social than boys. 2. Girls are more suggestible (imitating and conforming). 3. Girls have lower self-esteem. 4. Girls are better at low-level cognitive tasks, boys at higher-level cognitive tasks. 5. Boys are more analytic. 6. Girls are more affected by heredity, boys by environment. 7. Girls have less achievement motivation. 8. Girls are more responsive to auditory stimuli, boys to visual stimuli. ***Chapter Two*** 1. **Gender socialization and Gender stereotyping** 5. According to gender-role socialization, different people and objects in a child's environment provide rewards and models that shape behavior to fit gender-role norms. Agents in the environment encourage ***women to be communal and men to be agentic***, to take on the female and male gender roles. Boys are taught to be assertive and to control their expression of feelings, whereas girls are taught to express concern for others and to control their assertiveness. This encouragement may take the direct form of reinforcement or the indirect form of modeling. Gender-role socialization may not only contribute to actual sex differences in behavior but could also contribute to the appearance of sex differences. The issue is one of response bias. Women and men may distort their behavior in ways to make them appear more consistent with traditional gender roles. This may explain why sex differences in empathy are larger for self-report measures than more objective measures. However, evidence also exists for a response bias in spatial ability. When the embedded figures test (a measure of spatial ability) was described as measuring empathy, feminine females performed better than masculine females. Gender-role socialization may explain sex-related differences in the expression of emotion. Women's concerns with relationships may lead them to express emotions that strengthen relationships and inhibit emotions that could harm relationships. Thus women may express sadness to another person because they believe sharing such an experience will increase the closeness of the relationship. Women may be reluctant to express anger directly toward another person because of the potential damage to the relationship. Men, by contrast, are motivated to express emotions that yield power and control and reluctant to express emotions that suggest low power and vulnerability. Sadness and fear are low-power emotions, whereas anger and pride are high power emotions. Now we turn to the question of who? or what? in the environment is the socializing agent for gender roles. Sources of gender-role socialization include parents, teachers, peers, neighbors, and the media. 1. **Differential Treatment of Boys and Girls:** Parents are prime candidates for contributing to gender-role socialization. The family is a concept more easily used than precisely defined. Although researchers tend to restrict their consideration of family influences to the mother and father (and far more often to the mother), family dynamics are typically much broader in their operation, including not only siblings but often extended networks of grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and even biologically unrelated caretakers. Often the messages coming from these various sources are inconsistent, and thus the researcher is faced with yet another challenge when trying to assess the impact of socialization sources on the acquisition of gender stereotypes. Recognizing these difficulties, we must nonetheless rely on the available literature, which does show clear evidence of parental influence on gender role and stereotype acquisition. Parents can use both direct and indirect means to teach gender stereotypes to their children: they can be explicit in saying that girls and boys have different traits, or they can implicitly convey the same message in their choice of presents or activities. Even the parents' choice of colors and room decorations in a child's early years can encourage the development of sex-differentiated concepts. Numerous studies show that parents themselves have stereotypic beliefs about boys and girls, for example, with regard to their possession of motor skills. Further research has shown that parents who more strongly endorse gender stereotypes convey their beliefs with specific expectations about their children's performance in relevant domains (e.g., English versus math). More significantly, these expectations are realized in the actual performance of their children and in their children's self-perceptions of competence. Parents, of course, vary in the degree and type of stereotypic information they convey. Mothers who are employed, for example, are less likely to have stereotyped beliefs than are mothers who work only in the home, but even this relationship appears to be moderated by other factors, including socioeconomic status and father's involvement in childrearing. 2. Another source of influence on children comes from outside the home, in particular, from the peer group. The differences in girls' and boys' early peer groups could certainly lead to differences in behavior. Boys play in larger groups, which have the potential for conflict and aggression. In boys' groups, the potential for the expression of anger is high, but the potential for the expression of emotions that make us vulnerable, such as fear and sadness, is low. Girls play in small groups, which minimize conflict and emphasize cooperation. In girls'groups, the potential for the expression of emotions that foster relationships, such as sadness and fear, is high. Peers also contribute to aggression through modeling and reinforcement. Whereas aggression in younger children is associated with being rejected by peers, there is some evidence that aggression can confer status among preadolescents and adolescents. Some social cliques are based on aggression. Aggressive behavior may come to be viewed as powerful and attractive. The aggressive adolescents who become more popular may be characterized by what has been referred to as **proactive aggression** compared to **reactive aggression.** Reactive aggression is an angry, impulsive response to threat or provocation more clearly tied to the frustration aggression hypothesis. Proactive aggression, by contrast, is unprovoked, planned, goal directed, and socially motivated. Reactive aggression has been associated with peer rejection and peer victimization, but proactive aggression has not. Proactive aggressive groups may gang up on and target a specific individual. These children expect to be rewarded for their behavior. Reactive aggression is associated with anger and physiological arousal, but proactive aggression is associated with a noticeable lack of physiological arousal making it all the more disturbing. 3. The school functions as another primary agency for developing gender orientations. Teachers criticize children for engaging in play activities considered inappropriate for their gender, which further serves to link gender attributes with social normative sanctions. As in the case of parents and peers, teachers foster, through their social sanctions, sharper gender differentiations for boys than for girls. School is the place where children expand their knowledge and competencies, and form the sense of intellectual efficacy essential for participating effectively in the larger society. The self-beliefs and competencies acquired during this formative period carry especially heavy weight, because they shape the course of career choices and development. Even as early as middle school, children's beliefs in their occupational efficacy, which are rooted in their patterns of perceived efficacy, have begun to crystallize and steer their occupational considerations in directions congruent with their efficacy beliefs. Stereotypical gender occupational orientations are very much in evidence and closely linked to the structure of efficacy beliefs. Girls' perceived occupational efficacy centers on service, clerical work, caretaking, and teaching pursuits, whereas boys judge themselves more efficacious for careers in science, technology, computer systems, and physically active pursuits. The gender bias in the judgment and cultivation of competencies operates in classrooms, as well as in homes. Teachers often convey in many subtle ways that they expect less of girls academically, and are inclined to attribute scholastic failures to social and motivational problems in boys but to deficiencies of ability in girls. Even for teachers who do not share the gender bias, unless they are proactive in providing equal gender opportunities to learn quantitative and scientific subjects, the more skilled male students dominate the instructional activities, which only further entrenches differential development of quantitative competencies. Thus, for example, computer coursework for children, designed to reduce gender differences in computer literacy, superimposed on a pervading gender bias, raises boys' self-efficacy about computer use but lowers girls' self-efficacy and interest in computers. Clearly, concerted effort is required to counteract the personal effects of stereotypical gender role socialization and the social perpetuation of those effects. Generally, we can say that schools and teachers at school will have a greater effect in gender role development. When lessons prepared and presented to students, play grounds for students, examples given and story tells might be influenced the cultural views of the schools and the teacher. As a result, these things will greatly influence the gender role development of children. For instance, girls and boys play with different toys. It is more acceptable for girls to play with stereotypical boy toys than it is for boys to play with stereotypical girl toys. As masculine toys have been found to have more educational value than feminine toys, the question is whether the difference in boys' and girls' toys is related to sex differences in cognition. 4. Superimposed on the differential modeling, tutelage, and social sanctioning by parents and peers, which leave few aspects of children's lives untouched, is a pervasive cultural modeling of gender roles. Children are continually exposed to models of gender-linked behavior in readers, storybooks, video games, and representations of society on the television screen of every household. Males are generally portrayed as directive, venturesome, enterprising, and in pursuit of engaging occupations and recreational activities. In contrast, women are usually shown as acting in dependent, un-ambitious, and emotional ways. Male and female televised characters are also portrayed as differing in agentic capabilities. Men are more likely to be shown exercising control over events, whereas women tend to be more at the mercy of others, especially in the coercive relationships that populate the primetime fare. The exaggerated gender stereotyping extends to the portrayal of occupational roles in the televised world. Men are often shown pursuing careers of high status, whereas women are largely confined to domestic roles or employed in low-status jobs. The gender stereotypes are replicated in television and radio commercials as well. Women are usually shown in the home as consumers of advertised products. Men, in contrast, are more likely to be portrayed as authoritative salesmen for the advertised products. The presence of women has increased in all forms of media---books, television, commercials. Females are increasingly portrayed in non-stereotypical roles on television and in books, but not at the expense of giving up traditional roles. Advertisements continue to depict women as sexual objects and often depict women and men in traditional roles. 6. A stereotype is a schema or a set of beliefs about a certain group of people. **Gender role** **stereotypes** are the features we assign to women and men in our society, features not assigned due to biological sex but due to the social roles that men and women hold. Attitudes toward men's and women's roles have been referred to as **gender ideologies**. A **traditional** **gender ideology** maintains that men's sphere is work and women's sphere is the home. The implicit assumption is that men have greater power than women. An **egalitarian** **gender ideology** maintains that power is distributed equally between women and men, and women and men identify equally with the same spheres. There could be an equal emphasis on home, on work, or on some combination of the two. Most people's attitude toward men's and women's roles, lie somewhere between traditional and egalitarian. Thus here identified a third gender ideology is **transitional**. A typical transitional attitude toward gender roles is that it is acceptable for women to devote energy to both work and family domains, but women should hold proportionally more responsibility for the home, and men should focus proportionally more of their energy on work. 5. There are ethnic and cultural differences in attitudes toward men's and women's roles. For instance, a study conducted by Carter, Corra, & Carter, (2009) black women seem to have less traditional gender-role attitudes than Black men or White women and men. Whereas Black and White men have similar attitudes toward women's involvement in politics, Black men have a more favorable view than White men toward women working outside the home. The fact that Black women have been employed outside the home for a longer period of time than White women due to economic necessity may account for some of these differences. Attitudes toward gender roles are more traditional in other cultures compared to the United States. For example, historically, women and men in China have held very traditional roles. The Confucian doctrine of the Chinese culture emphasizes the lower status of women compared to men; one doctrine is ***"The virtue of a woman lies in three obediences: obedience to the father, husband, and son".*** This will probably make Chine's women's are more of conservative in gender roles. In addition, Chinese male might think it more inappropriate for men to express emotion than others did. Additional example in a stud finding showed that Asian women who worked outside the home did not perceive employment as a distinct role but as an extension of their domestic role, which is to place the family's welfare above that of the individual (Suh, 2007). Even though education is greatly valued in Asian cultures, the value for women and men is not the same. The value of education for women is to make them suitable partners and mothers (Hall, 2009). 6. Gender stereotype in the work place often leads to discrimination. Gender discrimination has many severe consequences ranging from unequal pay for women for equal work to the lack of promotions to sexual harassment. These negative effects still prevalent in the work place despite the many laws that have been implemented to prevent the discriminatory effects of gender stereo typing, and despite the court system that is supposed to uphold those laws. Accordingly, other measures need to take place in order to rectify the problem. An important aspect of paid work that has implications for women's and men's psychological and physical well-being is discrimination. There are two kinds of discrimination: **access discrimination** and **treatment discrimination**. **Access discrimination** occurs when hiring decisions are made. If women or men are not offered a job or are offered a lesser job because of their sex, this is access discrimination. Some high-status jobs are certainly less accessible to women than to men. For example, women are less represented than men in the judicial and legislative branches of government, although important strides have been made. There are a variety of reasons as to why there are a small number of women in some occupations, one of which is access discrimination. One approach to access discrimination is ***affirmative action***. However, affirmative action policies are controversial. Proponents argue that affirmative action remedies deficits in the past due to discrimination by giving underrepresented persons more of an opportunity. Opponents are concerned that under-qualified persons receive jobs, which then disadvantage more qualified applicants. The issue is far from resolved. **Treatment discrimination** occurs after the person has the job and takes the form of reduced salary or reduced opportunities for promotion. In 2004, the largest class action suits regarding treatment discrimination of women were brought against Wal-Mart. Women earned less than men in the same positions and were less likely than men to be promoted, despite the same or better qualifications and service. In 2011, the Supreme Court rejected the class action lawsuit of the nearly 1.5 million women but did not deny that sex discrimination occurred (Liptak, 2011). A recent law was passed that closed a corporate loophole in treatment discrimination cases. The **glass ceiling** is a form of treatment discrimination that refers to barriers to the advancement of women and minorities in organizations. 7. **Gender bias** is a sign of partiality among male and female or favoring either the of the two sex category without any reasonable ground to do so. This gender bias can be expressed more on role assignments and providing opportunities. With regards to **Prejudice**, it is a feeling of hatred without any rationality to others. **Sexism** is one's attitude or feeling toward people based on their sex alone. Disliking a doctor because she is female or a nurse because he is male are examples of sexism. That is, the beliefs reflect either a high or low regard for someone because of his or her sex. Even though it seems like sexism has declined over the past several decades, and perhaps it has. But today, there is a more subtle version of sexism. Swim and colleagues (1995) distinguished between traditional and modern sexism. Traditional sexism includes endorsement of traditional roles for women and men, differential treatment of women and men, and the belief that women are less competent than men. Traditional sexism reflects an open disregard for the value of women. Few people today would publicly express such feelings. Modern sexism, by contrast, includes the denial of any existing discrimination toward women, an antagonism to women's demands, and a resentment of any preferential treatment for women. In short, modern sexism implies that one is not sympathetic to women's issues and indirectly endorses the unequal treatment of men and women. Modern sexism is associated with underestimating women's difficulties in obtaining jobs traditionally held by men. Modern sexism is also associated with the use of sexist language and with the inability (or unwillingness) to detect sexist language when asked to do so. **Hostile versus Benevolent Sexism** In our current situation we can consider Sexism as a negative feeling toward women. But sexism, like any other affective attitude, can consist of negative or positive feelings. Now let's see the two forms of sexism. **Hostile sexism** is just as it sounds: feelings of hostility toward women. It is a negative attitude toward women, in particular those who challenge the traditional female role. **Benevolent sexism**, by contrast, reflects positive feelings toward women, including a prosocial orientation toward women (e.g., the desire to help women). Both hostile sexism and benevolent sexism are rooted in patriarchy (i.e., justifying the superiority of the dominant group), gender differentiation (i.e., exaggerating the differences between men and women), and sexual reproduction. The reason why we benevolent sexism is negative because the implicit message is that women need help and protection. The behavior appears prosocial but really legitimizes women's inferior position. It is difficult to reject benevolent discrimination because: 1. The behavior provides a direct benefit to the recipient, 2. The help provider will be insulted, 3. Social norms dictate that one should accept help graciously, and 4. It is difficult to explain why help is being rejected. So what is fairly advisable now is if you are male on a date with a female, try offering benevolent discrimination as a reason for splitting the bill. Although there are some commonalities that underlie hostile and benevolent sexism, there also are some differences. Hostile sexism, but not benevolent sexism, is associated with a social dominance orientation---maintaining a position of dominance and superiority over others. Hostile sexism is also associated with the endorsement of rape myths (e.g., women can resist rape if they want to. 7. **Psychological Approaches to Gender and Sexuality** **Specific Models** Here we will provide two examples of research building specific theoretical models to deal with specific questions. 1. **[Stereotypes and power]:** Susan Fiske (1993) has proposed a model of the ways in which power and stereotypes influence each other. Two processes are involved: a. Stereotyping exerts control or power over people, pressuring them to conform; therefore, stereotyping maintains the status quo. b. Powerful people tend to stereotype less powerful people far more than the reverse. Given that gender is an important status or power variable, you can read \"men\" for \"powerful people\" and \"women\" for \"less powerful people.\" The theory is even broader than that, though, and extends to other categories such as ethnic groups. ***Let\'s consider the first process***, in which gender stereotyping exerts control of males and females. Stereotypes can be prescriptive \-- that is, they say how people of a certain group should behave. Adolescent boys should excel at athletics. Girls should not be aggressive. If one fails to meet the demands of such stereotypes, the penalties can be severe, such as social rejection by the peer group. Stereotypes, therefore, exert control over people. ***Turning to the second process***, the powerful group (men) tends to stereotype the less powerful group (women) more than the reverse. Less powerful people generally are motivated to pay attention to the idiosyncrasies /peculiarities of powerful people because those powerful people control outcomes for the less powerful. Servants know a great many details about their employers and their preferences, for example, but the reverse is unlikely. Powerful people pay less attention to others and consequently rely on simple stereotypes. Powerful people pay less attention to the less powerful in part because the less powerful have little control over them. 2. **[Men who sexually aggress against women]:** Some theorists argue that too much rape research has focused on women who have been raped, when the real emphasis should be on the aggressors. Only by gaining a scientific understanding of them will we be able to reduce the occurrence of rape. Neil Malamuth and colleagues (1991) developed a model of the factors that predispose a man to engage in sexual coercion with women and then tested it against data obtained from a large, national sample of male college students. According to their model \-- and the data supported it \-- four factors predispose a man to engage in sexual coercion: i. **Hostile home environment** \-- Violence between parents or battering or sexually abusing the child increase the chances that the boy will engage in sexual coercion. ii. **Delinquency** \-- Being involved in delinquency leads a boy to associate with delinquent peers who, for example, encourage hostile attitudes and rationalizations for committing crimes and reward a tough, aggressive image. iii. **Sexual promiscuity /undiscriminating sexual behavior** \-- Often in the context of the delinquent group, the young man comes to believe that sexual conquests bring him status within the peer group, and coercion may seem to be a reasonable way to achieve his goals. iv. **A hostile masculine personality** \-- This personality constellation involves deep hostility toward women together with negatively defined, exaggerated masculinity\--masculinity characterized as rejecting anything feminine, such as nurturance, and emphasizing power, control, and macho characteristics. ***Chapter Three*** 2. **Gender Development and the Relationship Between Gender and Behavior** 8. Gender development is the process by which an individual forms gender identity as male, female and androgynous. In the process of gender development different factors are expected to exert their own influence over individuals' sense of masculinity, femininity or androgyny. Gender development is a fundamental issue, because some of the most important aspects of people's lives, such as the talents they cultivate, the conceptions they hold of themselves and others, the societal opportunities and constraints they encounter, and the social life and occupational paths they pursue, are heavily prescribed by societal gender typing. It is the primary basis on which people get differentiated, with pervasive effects on their daily lives. Gender differentiation takes on added importance, because many of the attributes and roles selectively promoted in males and females tend to be differentially valued, with those ascribed to males generally being regarded as more powerful, effectual, and of higher status. Although some gender differences are biologically founded, most of the stereotypical attributes and roles linked to gender arise more from cultural design than from biological endowment. 8. There are some factors that influence gender development. Among these some are biological factors, social factors and cognitive factors. Let us see these factors here under. **Basic Dimensions of Sex in biology** As we defined in chapter one, the term **sex** refers to whether you are biologically female or male. In contrast, **gender** refers to all the psychological and social traits associated with being male or female. In other words, after we establish that you are male or female, gender tells us if you are masculine or feminine (as defined by the culture in which you live). *What causes the development of sex differences?* At the very least, classifying a person as female or male must take into account the following biological factors: 1. **Genetic sex** (*XX* or *XY* chromosomes), 2. **Hormonal sex** (predominance of androgens or estrogens), 3. **Gonadal sex** (ovaries or testes), 4. **Genital sex** (clitoris and vagina in females, penis and scrotum in males). To see why sex must be defined along these four dimensions, let's trace the events involved in becoming female or male. Biological theories of sex differences identify genes and hormones, as well as the structure and function of the brain, as the causes of observed differences in cognition, behavior, and even gender roles. 1. **Genetic sex** (*XX* or *XY* chromosomes) Genetic sex is determined at the instant of conception: Two ***X* chromosomes** initiate female development; an *X* chromosome plus a ***Y* chromosome** produces a male. A woman's ovum always provides an *X* chromosome, because she has two *X'*s in her own genetic makeup. In contrast, one half of the male's sperm provides *X* chromosomes and the other half *Y'*s chromosomes. This genetic distinction now allows an alternative definition of sex to the traditional obvious observational means (boys are born with a penis, girls with a vagina) and is called **chromosomal sex**. Even at conception, variations may occur because some individuals begin life with too many or too few sex chromosomes (Crooks & Baur, 2008). For example, in ***Klinefelter's syndrome*** a boy is born XXY, with an extra *X* chromosome. As a result, when he matures he may appear feminine, have undersized sexual organs, and be infertile. In ***Turner's syndrome***, a girl is born with only one *X* chromosome and no *Y* chromosome. As an adolescent, she may appear boyish, and she will also be infertile. Once an egg is fertilized it begins to divide to produce more cells. First a hollow ball of cells develops, and soon this begins to fold and differentiate to construct an embryo. For the first six weeks of development, male and female embryos are the same -- except at the genetic level. At this point both have the capacity to develop into either a boy-form or a girl-form, since both build up two structures: one with the capacity to generate a male reproductive system (called the **Wolffian system**); one with the capacity to generate a female reproductive system (called the **Müllerian system**). But at around the third month, things begin to change. Where the embryo has an XY (male) pairing of sex chromosomes, two kinds of hormones are produced. One stimulates the Wolffian male-reproductive-system-to-be, to make it begin to grow, and, at the same time, the other inhibits the Müllerian female-reproductive-system-to-be, to make it degenerate. Where the embryo has an XX (female) pairing of sex chromosomes, there is hardly any secretion of hormones to control the production of the girl's reproductive system, and it is the Müllerian female-reproductive-system-to-be which develops. Biologically speaking, femaleness is the default state -- an embryo develops a female reproductive system unless it is masculinized by hormonal action. 2. **Hormonal sex** (predominance of androgens or estrogens) While genetic sex stays the same throughout life, it alone does not determine biological sex. In general, sexual characteristics are also related to the effects of sex hormones before birth. (Hormones are chemical substances secreted by endocrine glands.) The **gonads** (or sex glands) affect sexual development and behavior by secreting **estrogens** (dominant female hormones) and **androgens** (dominant male hormones). The gonads in the male are the **testes**; female gonads are the ***ovaries***. The adrenal glands (located above the kidneys) also supply sex hormones. Interestingly, everyone normally produces both estrogens and androgens. Sex differences are related to the ***proportion*** of these hormones found in the body. In fact, prenatal development of male or female anatomy is largely due to the presence or absence of **testosterone,** one of the androgens secreted mainly by the testes. For the first 6 weeks of prenatal growth, genetically female and male embryos look identical. However, if a *Y* chromosome is present, testes develop in the embryo and supply testosterone. This stimulates growth of the penis and other male structures. In the absence of testosterone, the embryo will develop female reproductive organs and genitals, regardless of genetic sex. It might be said, then, that nature's primary impulse is to make a female. Without testosterone, we would all be women. One avenue of research that has enabled us to study the influence of hormones on behavior is the study of **intersex conditions**. Intersex conditions are ones in which there is some inconsistency between the individual's chromosomal sex and phenotypical sex. Either the person's physical appearance with respect to sex organs is inconsistent with the chromosomal sex or the person's physical appearance is ambiguous. One of the most common intersex conditions is congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a genetic disorder resulting from a malfunction in the adrenal gland that results in prenatal exposure to high levels of male hormones and a lack of cortisol. Girls with CAH may be mistaken for boys because their genitals are somewhat masculinized (e.g., enlarged clitoris); boys do not have any adverse effects on their genitals but may suffer other ill effects from an excess of androgen. 3. **Evolutionary theory of Gender** Evolution is the process through which humankind, as a species, is seen to have originated. It is this process which is seen to have constituted the basic qualities that all human beings possess. It was Darwin's great achievement to put the ideas of evolution -- ideas that had been around for some time -- on to a scientific basis. This he achieved through his observations of the natural variety of living species. His evolutionary theory proposes that change among living things happens through the combination of the natural occurrence of 'sports' -- offspring which are different from their parents -- and their subsequent struggle for survival. Those individuals which are well adapted to their environment tend to survive and reproduce. Those which are not tend to die before they can reproduce, and hence their 'blood-line' dies out. In this way living things adapt to their environment, generation by generation. Darwin called this '**natural selection**', the process by which nature selects the 'fittest' to survive. All in all, according to evolutionary psychology the gender and/or sexual difference explained as follows. **Sexual Behavior** The observed sex differences in behaviors that historically presented men and women were due to ***different challenges***. One such domain is sexual behavior. **First**, men and women face different **challenges** during **pregnancy**. Because conception takes place inside of the female, *males face the challenge of establishing paternity /fatherhood*. The challenge that *females face is to safely get through nine months of pregnancy* and the *period of lactation /production of milk*. Thus ***males will behave in ways to increase their chances of paternity*** and ***females will behave in ways to ensure the survival of themselves and their infants***. **Second**, women and men face different ***challenges to successful reproduction***. For women to reproduce successfully, it is in their best interests to be selective in ***choosing a man who has the resources to help ensure the survival of themselves and their children***. For men to reproduce successfully, it is in their best interests to have sexual intercourse with as many women as possible and to mate with women who are more likely to be fertile (i.e., young). - Because males and females face different challenges in ensuring the survival of their genes, sex differences in sexual behavior have evolved. Males prefer to have sex with as many fertile women as possible, and females prefer to have sex with a male who can provide economic resources to ensure the survival of their children. - Because men are in competition with one another over women, men behave in aggressive ways especially when trying to establish dominance or when competing with rivals. - Women's greater investment in children could be one explanation for the evolution of the hunter gatherer society. The structure of that society has been linked to some sex differences in social behavior and cognition. - Evolutionary theory suggests that the hunter-gatherer society developed from women's stronger investment in children compared to men. With women caring for children, men were left to hunt. The hunter-gatherer society has been linked to sex differences in both social behavior and cognition. **In terms of social behavior**, ***men behave aggressively*** because ***aggression was required to hunt and feed the family***; **women evidence nurturance because nurturance was required to take care of children**. - ***Women*** became ***emotionally expressive and sensitive*** to the emotions in others because they were the primary ***caretakers of children***. - ***Men*** learned to ***conceal /hid their emotions*** because a ***successful hunter needed to be quiet and maintain a stoic demeanor to avoid being detected by prey***. **In terms of cognition**, ***men's greater spatial skills and geographic knowledge*** could have stemmed from their venturing farther from the home than women when hunting. ***Women's greater ability to locate objects*** could be linked to their having to ***keep track of objects close to home***; foraging for food, in particular, required women to remember the location of objects. - Evolutionary theory has a deterministic tone but is really interactionistic, as evidenced by the fact that cultural factors can override earlier evolved tendencies. According to social role theory, differences in women's and men's behavior are a function of the different roles women and men hold in our society. This is a variant of gender-role socialization theory. Whereas gender-role socialization theory focuses on the individual and the environmental forces that shape the individual, social role theory focuses on society and how societal role structures shape behavior across groups of people. That is, social role theory focuses on the more abstract social conditions of society rather than on the concrete ways that individuals behave toward women and men. According to social role theory, the way labor is divided between women and men in society accounts for why women become communal and men become agentic. Men are primarily responsible for work outside the home, which leads to an agentic orientation. Women, even when employed, are primarily responsible for domestic labor and taking care of children, which leads to a communal orientation. When the roles that women and men hold are similar, sex differences are minimized. Is there a role for biology? Yes, of course. Social role theory argues that the biological differences between women and men (i.e., women bearing children, men being larger) lead to the assignment of these different roles. As we have discussed above, social learning theory, gender-role socialization, and social role theory all emphasize the effect of the environment on the child's skills and behaviors. In contrast, cognitive development theory states that the acquisition of gender roles takes place in the child's head. It stresses the active nature of the child's thoughts as he organizes his role perceptions and role learnings around his basic conceptions of his body and his world. An assumption of cognitive development theory is that the child is an active interpreter of the world. Learning occurs because the child cognitively organizes what she or he sees; learning does not occur from reinforcement or from conditioning. That is, the child is acting on her or his environment; the environment is not acting on the child. Cognitive development theory suggests there are a series of stages of development that eventually lead to the acquisition of gender roles. First, children develop a **gender identity**. By age 2 or 3, children learn the labels boy and girl and apply these labels to themselves and to other people. The labels are based on superficial characteristics of people rather than biology. If someone has long hair, she must be a girl; if someone is wearing a suit, he must be a man; and if you put a dress on the man, he becomes a she. That is, children at this age believe a person's sex can change--- including their own sex. A boy may believe he can grow up to be a mother. Upon recognition that there are two groups---males and females---and that the self belongs to one of those groups, evaluative and motivational consequences follow. The evaluative consequence is a preference for the group to which one belongs. The motivational consequence is to learn about one's own category and identify ways in which the two categories differ. Even at the age of 18 to 24 months, children's knowledge of these gender categories is linked to sex-typed behavior. Children who used more gender labels (i.e., man, woman, boy, girl) were found to engage in more sex-typed play. And, sex-typed play at age 2 predicts greater sex-typed play at age 8. Children do not consistently use the labels boy and girl correctly until ages 4 and 5. Children learn **gender constancy** by age 5. That is, they can categorize themselves as female or male and realize they cannot change their category. But even at age 5, children may not use biological distinctions as the basis for categorization. They are more likely to classify people as male or female by their size, strength, or physical appearance. According to cognitive development theory, gender identity determines gender role attitudes and values. Once children acquire their gender identity, they have a high internal motivation to behave in ways consistent with their self-concept. The child identifies the self as female or male and wants to behave in ways consistent with this self category. Their self-concept as female or male expands as they take in new information from the environment. 9. 9. There is a sex difference in brain size: Male brains, like male bodies, are larger and heavier than female brains. Some methods for statistically adjusting for body size suggest that the sex difference in brain size remains, but others do not (Hines, 2002, 2004). The sex difference in brain size also is substantially smaller than the sex difference in height. Nevertheless, suggestions that the larger male brain produces greater male intelligence have persisted for over a century. Currently, intelligence tests are designed to show negligible sex differences, although sex differences on intelligence tests tended to be trivial even before this sex equality was designed into them (Loehlin, 2000). Within each sex, intelligence correlates positively with brain size (*r* =.20--.35; Vernon, Wickett, Bazana, & Stelmack, 2000), but the relevance of these correlations to sex differences is questionable given the lack of a sex difference in intelligence. In addition, female brains appear to be packed more densely than male brains, as indicated by a higher percentage of gray matter, greater cortical volume, and increased glucose metabolism, thought to reflect increased functional activity. It would be important to understand that sex differences in intellectual functioning requires more than comparisons of overall brain size. **Spatial Skills** If women are stronger in verbal skills, men seem to have some advantage in certain spatial. Some studies investigating the spatial abilities of men and women have found no significant differences, though meta studies show a male advantage in mental rotation and assessing horizontality and verticality, and a female advantage in spatial memory. A proposed hypothesis is that men and women evolved different mental abilities to adapt to their different roles in society. This explanation suggests that men may have evolved greater spatial abilities as a result of certain behaviors, such as navigating during a hunt. Similarly, this hypothesis suggests that women may have evolved to devote more mental resources to remembering locations of food sources in relation to objects and other features in order to gather food. Results from studies conducted in the physical environment are not conclusive about sex differences, with various studies on the same task showing no differences. For example, there are studies that show no difference in \'way finding\'. One study found men more likely to report having a good sense of direction and are more confident about finding their way in a new environment, but evidence does not support men having better map reading skills. Women have been found to use landmarks more often when giving directions and when describing routes. Additionally, a study concludes that women are better at recalling where objects are located in a physical environment. Women show greater proficiency and reliance on distinctive landmarks for navigation while males rely on an overall mental map. Mental rotation, the ability to see dimensional objects in your mind and to be able to match the original object with a picture of a rotated view of the same object, is the primary spatial skill at which males are frequently better than females. Perceptual speed is a visual task where girls have the edge. This task involves matching objects, pictures, and the like. One area in school where this skill is important is in proofreading. Girls are better at finding errors than are boys. Performance in mental rotation and similar spatial tasks is affected by gender expectations. For example, studies show that being told before the test that men typically perform better, or that the task is linked with jobs like aviation engineering typically associated with men versus jobs like fashion design typically associated with women, will negatively affect female performance on spatial rotation and positively influence it when subjects are told the opposite. Experiences such as playing video games also increase a person\'s mental rotation ability. A study from the University of Toronto showed that differences in ability get reduced after playing video games requiring complex mental rotation. The experiment showed that playing such games creates larger gains in spatial cognition in females than males. The possibility of testosterone and other [androgens](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen) as a cause of sex differences in psychology has been a subject of study. Adult women who were exposed to unusually high levels of androgens in the womb due to congenital [ ] adrenal [ ] hyperplasia score significantly higher on tests of spatial ability. Many studies find positive correlations between testosterone levels in normal males and measures of spatial ability. However, the relationship is complex. 10. Friendship is an area of research where the differences between females and males are overemphasized compared to the similarities. There are numerous ways in which men's and women's friendships are quite similar. Yet it is true that women's friendships are closer than those of men, and friendships with women are closer than friendships with men. There are some differences in the nature of men's and women's friendship that may explain these sex differences. **Sex Differences** During childhood, the nature of female and male friendship becomes increasingly distinct. By adolescence, girls spend time talking with their friends, and boys spend time sharing activities with their friends. Boys view friendship as instrumental: A friend is someone with whom you do things. Girls view friendship as more emotional: A friend is someone with whom you connect. The female emphasis on self-disclosure and the male emphasis on shared activities persist in adulthood. The primary difference in the nature of men's and women's friendships is that an activity is the focus of men's interactions and conversation is the focus of women's interactions. This difference first appears during childhood and then persists through adolescence and adulthood. **Sex Similarities** Despite these differences, there are important similarities between women's and men's friendships. One way in which women's and men's friendships are similar is in terms of what women and men want from a friend. Both men and women want a friend who is trustworthy, a source of support, and a source of fun and relaxation. Men and women are equally likely to perceive themselves as similar to their friends. Despite the fact that women engage in more self-disclosure with friends compared to men, both women and men spend a substantial amount of time in casual conversation with their friends. Women and men may differ in how important they perceive a feature of a friendship to be, but they often agree on which attributes of a relationship are more or less important. 11. Male and female have a difference in health and mortality. Among these some are presented here under. Women may have a greater genetic resistance to some diseases compared to men. Women may be genetically predisposed to better health because they have a second X chromosome. The X chromosome carries more information on it than the Y chromosome. In females, an abnormality on an X chromosome is not necessarily a problem because a second X chromosome is there to suppress it; the abnormality is usually recessive. Thus a female will simply be a carrier of the abnormality but will not manifest it. The male, however, has a Y chromosome, which cannot override an abnormality of an X chromosome. This may explain why more males than females suffer some congenital disorders, such as hemophilia, meningitis, muscular dystrophy, and mental retardation. Why does heart disease increase in women after menopause? One theory is that women are protected from heart disease before menopause because of their ***higher levels of estrogen***. With menopause, estrogen levels drop. Although the decline in estrogen that accompanies menopause ***does not influence blood pressure, diabetes, or body mass index, it may lead to changes in cholesterol*** (i.e., decreasing the good cholesterol and increasing the bad cholesterol), and it may alter the blood clotting process. The female--male mortality gap begins before birth. While males are conceived for every 100 females, the rate of miscarriage (premature expulsion of fetus) and stillbirth (the birth of dead fetus after 28 weeks) is higher for males. Although about 105 live males are born for every 100 live females, more male babies die in infancy (Arias, 2004) and thereafter throughout life. Starting with the 30-to-34 age group, women outnumber men. Between ages 65 and 69, only 84 males survive for every 100 females. At age 85 and beyond, women outnumber men more than two to one (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). At the turn of the 20th century, life expectancy in the United States was about 51 years for women and 48 years for men. Since then, the gender gap has widened. Life expectancy at birth now is about 80 for women and 51=2 years less for men. The gender gap exists for both blacks and whites. White women tend to outlive white men by five years (80.5 versus 75.4), and black women, on average, outlive black men by nearly seven years (76.1 versus 69.2) (Hoyert, Kung, & Smith, 2005). Both **biological and lifestyle explanations** have been proposed to account for the sex difference in longevity. One biological explanation for women's greater longevity is that their **second X** chromosome protects them against certain potentially lethal /dangerous diseases such as hemophilia and some forms of muscular dystrophy that are more apt to occur in individuals (men) who have only one X chromosome. Another biological reason for women's greater life spans may be their **higher estrogen level**, which, prior to menopause, may provide protection against heart disease (Gaylord, 2001). Differences in the **lifestyles** of women and men also influence sex differences in longevity. Men are more likely to **engage in risky behaviors** such as ***aggression, risk-taking, smoking, and alcohol consumption***, which contribute to their higher incidence of deaths resulting from homicide, accidents, lung cancer, and cirrhosis of the liver. Men also are overrepresented in dangerous occupations. On the other hand, women are more likely than men to be overweight and physically inactive. These factors contribute to a host of medical conditions, including heart disease, many kinds of cancer, and stroke---the three leading causes of death for both women and men. Also, while the frequency of men's smoking has declined, that of women's has increased. The result is that a smoking-related death from cancer, including lung cancer, has increased for women while decreasing for men (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2002). Women, however, make greater use of preventive health services and are more likely to seek medical treatment when they are ill. This may help explain why women live longer than men after the diagnosis of a potentially fatal disease. Women also are more likely than men to have extensive social support networks of family and friends, another factor related to living longer (Etaugh & Bridges, 2006). Around the world, woman and men with higher incomes and more education have longer life expectancies and better health (Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging, 2005; Schneiderman, 2004). Some of this difference can be accounted for by a higher incidence of risk factors such as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, and physical inactivity among the poor and working class. Additionally, people with lower incomes are less able to afford decent medical care or even adequate food, and they experience higher levels of chronic stress as a result of such experiences as financial difficulties and job loss. The combination of all these factors shortens life expectancy and increases rates of illness and disease (Chen, 2004; Schneiderman, 2004). Women spend 64 of their years in **good health and free of disability**, compared with only 59 years for men. But because women live longer than men, it is women who more often live many years with chronic, often disabling illnesses (Crimmins, Kim, & Hagedorn, 2002). This phenomenon, known as the **gender paradox**, can be summed up in the saying: ''Women are sicker; men die quicker.'' The gender paradox is found in every country in which these statistics have been gathered (Beers & Jones, 2004; Mannheim Research Institute, 2005). Women have higher rates of chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, thyroid conditions, migraine headaches, anemia, urinary incontinence, and more than 80 autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, and lupus (Carlson, Eisenstat, & Ziporyn, 2004; Fairweather & Rose, 2004; National Institutes of Health, 2004). A person may have one or more chronic diseases without being disabled. The key issue is whether the chronic condition restricts daily life or reduces the ability to take care of oneself. As one might expect, the chance of developing a disability increases with age. About 18 percent of women ages 16 to 64, but 43 percent of women aged 65 and over, have at least one functional limitation (''Women and Disability,'' 2004). The degree of disability resulting from chronic conditions is assessed by measuring how well individuals can carry out two groups of activities: 1\. **Activities of daily living (ADLs)**, which include basic self-caring activities such as feeding, bathing, toileting, walking, and getting in and out of a bed or chair 2\. **Instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs)**, which go beyond personal care to include preparing meals, doing housework, shopping, doing laundry, attending social activities, using the telephone, taking medication, and managing money (Unger & Seeman, 2000) Older women are more likely than older men to have some difficulty with both ADLs and IADLs (National Center for Health Statistics, 2004). African American women are more likely than other women to report chronic and/or disabling conditions, followed by Native American, white, and Latina women. Asian American women are only half as likely as other women to suffer from disabilities (Canetto, 2003; Carlson et al., 2004; Kelley-Moore & Ferraro, 2004). Life satisfaction is often lower for women who have serious health problems. More than 40 percent of women with disabilities report lower life satisfaction, compared with 18 percent of women with fair or poor health and 6 percent of all women (Commonwealth Fund, 1993). But chronic illness need not prevent a woman from enjoying her life. In the Women's Health and Aging Study, 35 percent of women with moderate to severe disabilities reported a high sense of happiness and personal mastery and low levels of anxiety and depression (Unger & Seeman, 2000). **Mental Health** Older women, compared to older men, experience more frequent negative emotions and a lower sense of well-being (Canetto, 2001). However, the psychological health of women tends to improve as they get older (Jones & Meredith, 2000). For example, in one study of African Americans, Chinese Americans, Norwegians, and American nuns (Gross et al., 1997), older women showed fewer negative emotions and more emotional control than younger women. Gender differences in depression decline or even disappear by age 80 because men's depression rates increase sharply after age 60, while those of women remain the same or decrease (Barefoot et al., 2001; Canetto, 2001; Kasen, Cohen, Chen, & Castille, 2003). Similarly, women's neurotic tendencies decline as they age, but this is not the case for men (Srivastava, John, Gosling, & Potter, 2003). 12. There are some sex differences in personality. For instance, questionnaire and interview assessments suggest that males are more aggressive than females, whereas females are more nurturing than males (for reviews, see Hines, 2002, and 2004). Hormones could contribute to these differences. ***Aggression and Dominance*** Hormonal explanations for male violence often center on the male hormone, testosterone, which has been linked to frustration, impatience, impulsivity, high levels of physical activity, and sensation-seeking. The most aggressive behavior seems to be linked to a combination of high testosterone and low cortisol. The testosterone appeared to account for the sex differences in aggressive behavior. Hormones also interact with situational factors, such as a threat to status or competition, to produce aggressive behavior. Cross-culturally, pre-pubertal boys consistently showed higher levels of aggression, competitiveness, dominance-seeking, and rough-and-tumble play than girls. For instance, data from the Six Culture Study and additional African samples (Whiting & Edwards, 1988) indicated sex differences in aggression and dominance, but contrary to earlier findings, aggression did not decrease with age, and it was more physical among the oldest boys. In playground observations in Ethiopia, Switzerland, and the United States (Omark, Omark, & Edelman, 1975), boys were more aggressive than girls, and similar patterns were found in four African countries! (Blurton Jones & Konner, 1973). Observers in four nonindustrial cultures found more frequent aggression in boys than girls (Munroe, Hulefeld, Rodgers, Tomeo, & Yamazaki, 2000). Although both girls and boys to some degree segregated themselves by sex, aggregating with same-sex peers was more closely related to boys' episodes of aggression. Mothers in the Six Culture Study reacted similarly to boys' and girls' aggression, but in Okinawa and the United States, some differential aggression training substantiated fathers' roles in socializing boys' aggression (Minturn & Lambert, 1964). In western European countries, acceptance of verbal aggression was similar for boys and girls, but boys were more accepting of physical violence (Ramirez, 1993), and girls were more emotionally and verbally aggressive (Burbank, 1987). 13. - There are differences in the styles women and men exhibit when interacting in small groups. Women engage in more positive social behavior (e.g., agreement), and men engage in more task behavior (e.g., providing or asking for information) and negative behavior (e.g., disagreement). - These differences are influenced by whether the group is composed of same-sex or other-sex persons. In the presence of the other sex, men and women accommodate to each other. - These differences also are a function of the nature of the task. Both women and men exhibit more task oriented behavior in areas in which they have expertise. These differences also are more commonly found in laboratory studies of people who do not know each other. Interaction styles among people in ongoing relationships may be influenced by factors other than sex. - Men's language is more direct, to the point, and instrumental, whereas women's language is more indirect, elaborative, and affective. - Sex differences in language are moderated by a host of variables, including the sex of the interaction partner and the length of the interaction. - Women's and men's language becomes more similar in mixed-sex than same-sex dyads /couples, providing some evidence of accommodation. - There are fairly robust sex differences in nonverbal behavior. - Women smile more, gaze /look more, are better able to express an emotion, and are better able to read another person's emotions. - The sex difference in touch depends on many factors, including the target of the touch, the age of the participant, and the relationship between the two people. One reason findings are so variable is that touch has many meanings; it can be used to indicate status or to express intimacy. - Women are more easily influenced than men because people adopt a more agreeable interaction style with women than men. And, agreement leads to influence. - Men are more likely than women to emerge as leaders in laboratory studies where participants are often strangers and have only a brief opportunity to interact. - Women are more likely to display a transformational style of leadership, whereas men are more likely to display a transactional style of leadership. The transformational style is most effective. - Female leaders are judged more harshly than male leaders when they display agentic characteristics---in part because agentic characteristics imply a lack of communion in women (but not men). This finding holds for male rather than for female perceivers. - Despite the fact that women are more likely than men to use a transformational leadership style, the style that has been shown to be most effective, people still prefer to have men than women as their bosses. ***Chapter Four*** 3. **Theoretical Perspectives of Human Sexuality** 10. **Sexuality**: A core human dimension that includes sex, gender, sexual identity and orientation, eroticism, attachment and reproduction, and is experienced or expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, practices, roles, and relationships. Sexuality is a result of the interplay of biological, psychological, socio-economic, cultural, ethical, and religious/spiritual factors. Particularly, sex refers to physical activities involving our sex organs for purposes of reproduction or pleasure, as in having sex. Sex also relates to erotic feelings, experiences, or desires, such as sexual fantasies and thoughts, sexual urges, or feelings of sexual attraction. The term ***human sexuality*** refers to the ways in which we experience and express ourselves as sexual beings. Our awareness of ourselves as females or males is part of our sexuality, as is the capacity we have for erotic experiences and responses. Our knowledge of the gender roles in our culture also has a profound influence on us. The study of human sexuality draws on the scientific expertise of anthropologists, biologists, medical researchers, sociologists, and psychologists, to name some of the professional groups involved in the field. These disciplines all make contributions, because human sexuality reflects biological capabilities, psychological characteristics, and social and cultural influences. For instance, ***Biologists*** inform us about the ***physiological mechanisms*** of sexual arousal and response; ***Medical science*** teaches us about Sexual Transmitted Infections (STIs) and the biological bases of sexual dysfunctions; ***Psychologists*** examine how our sexual behavior and attitudes are shaped by perception, learning, thought, motivation and emotion, and personality; ***Sociocultural*** theorists examine relationships between sexual behavior and religion, race, and social class; and ***Anthropologists*** focus on cross-cultural similarities and differences in sexual behavior. **As noted earlier, the topic of human sexuality is already covered by a number of different academic disciplines. However, each of these has its particular focus and perspective.** 11. **Biological Perspectives** **Biology primarily looks at the physiological aspects of sexuality. It is concerned with the anatomical structures, the biochemistry of hormones, the nature of the sexual response, the formation of gametes and the process of fertilization. On a larger scale biology also examines the genetic diversity offered by sexual reproduction as well as mate selection as it relates to natural selection, evolution, and species survival.** **Therefore, biological perspectives view sexuality as *it is a physiological activity or the bodily response to one's sexual desire for pleasure and/or reproduction* that has controlled by the brain and nervous system. This means, the brain and central nervous system, including the five senses, play roles of varying importance in human sexual arousal and response. More specifically the sex hormones including testosterone, the estrogens, progesterone, oxytocin and vasopressin play crucial roles in regulating human sexuality. Such as Testosterone (stimulates development of male sexual characteristics), Estrogens (promote the development and maintenance of *female* sexual characteristics), Progesterone (stimulates the *uterus* to prepare for pregnancy), Oxytocin (causes *increased contraction* of the *womb during labor* and *stimulates the ejection of milk* into the ducts of the breasts) and Vasopressin (promotes *water retention* by the kidneys and *increased blood pressure*)** 12. **Evolutionary Perspectives** 14. **Sociobiology** Sociobiology is defined as the application of evolutionary biology to understanding the social behavior of animals, including humans. Sexual behavior is, of course, a form of social behavior, and so the sociobiologists try, often through observations of other species, to understand why certain patterns of sexual behavior have evolved in humans. In terms of evolution, what counts is producing lots of healthy, viable off spring that will carry on one's genes. Evolution occurs via natural selection, the process by which the animals that are best adapted to their environment are more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass on their genes to the next generation. How do humans choose mates? One major criterion is the physical attractiveness of the person. The sociobiologist argues that many of the characteristics we evaluate in judging attractiveness--- for example, physique and complexion---are indicative of the health and vigor of the individual. These in turn are probably related to the person's reproductive potential; the unhealthy are less likely to produce many vigorous off spring. Natural selection would favor individuals preferring mates who would have maximum reproductive success. Thus, perhaps our concern with physical attractiveness is a product of evolution and natural selection. We choose an attractive, healthy mate who will help us produce many off spring. In addition to natural selection, Darwin also proposed a mechanism that is not as much a household word, sexual selection. ***Sexual selection*** is selection that creates differences between males and females. It consists of two processes: 1. Competition among members of one gender (usually males) for mating access to members of the other gender, and 2. Preferential choice by members of one gender (usually females) for certain members of the other gender. In other words, in many---though not all ---species, males compete among themselves for the right to mate with females; and females, for their part, prefer certain males and mate with them while refusing to mate with other males. Further, sociobiologists assume that ***the central function of sex is reproduction***; this may have been true historically. 1. ***Evolutionary psychology*** A somewhat different approach is taken by evolutionary psychology, which focuses on psychological mechanisms that have been shaped by natural selection (Buss, 1991). If behaviors evolved in response to selection pressures, it is plausible to argue that cognitive or emotional structures evolved in the same way. Thus, a man who accurately judged whether a woman was healthy and fertile would be more successful in reproducing. If his off spring exhibited the same ability to judge accurately, they in turn would have a competitive advantage. One line of research has concentrated on sexual strategies (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). According to this theory, In short-term mating, a female may choose a partner who offers her immediate resources, such as food or money. In long-term mating, a female may choose a partner who appears able and willing to provide resources for the indefinite future. A male may choose a sexually available female for a short-term liaison but avoid such females when looking for a long-term mate. According to the theory, females engage in intrasexual competition for access to males. Drawing originally on Darwinian theories of evolution, they explain sexuality in terms of reproductive strategies that evolved to ensure survival of the human species. According to this perspective, women optimize their chances of passing on their genes by choosing a mate offering the best genetic inheritance for her offspring and living in monogamous union with him; while men optimize theirs by pursuing and impregnating as many women as possible. Most contemporary evolutionary theorists accept that ***reproduction is no longer the central theme*** around which modern men and women organize their sexual relations. The sex act is nowadays easily separated from its reproductive consequences by the use of effective contraception, and sexuality has evolved in humans to serve functions other than those solely related to procreation. Yet socio-biology is still used by some to provide an ideological justification for uncontrollable male lust /desire. Despite their differences, all the early sexologists held a common belief that ***sex is an overpowering natural force*** needing either to be contained, channeled, and controlled to allow the orderly working of society, or else released to free us from damaging repressive forces. The preoccupation with sex as driven by biological forces was to last well into the middle of the twentieth century, when Alfred Kinsey's two groundbreaking surveys of the sexual practices of 20,000 men and women in the USA were published (Kinsey et al., 1948, 1953). Kinsey's surveys probably exerted greater influence on ideas about sexuality than any work since that of Sigmund Freud. Yet although he was dismissive of hormones as definitive in explaining sexual response, his approach was still essentially naturalistic. An entomologist by training, Kinsey's scientific interest for the first twenty years of his career was in ***cataloguing and classifying insects***, wasps in particular. When he turned his attention to humans, his attempts to develop ***taxonomy of sexual practices*** very much reflected his background in biology. ***Kinsey explanation of sexuality*** was in moving away from the ***distinction between 'normal' and 'pathological'***. He described sexual expression in terms of ***diversity rather than uniformity*** and offered not only an empirical dimension to the study of sexuality, but also a service to the American people. Form Kinsey's great work thousands of Americans can learn the existence of different ways sexual expressions and personal habits that they had previously believed to be shameful, unnatural, and abnormal (such as masturbation), were in fact practiced by large numbers of fellow countrymen. As a result, they can normalize their experience and sexual engagement. Although these ideas still hold sway /affect today, particularly in place constructions of sexuality, and in certain settings, Kinsey's ***work did much to remove the categories of 'abnormal' and 'unnatural'*** from discussions of sexual behavior. 13. **Psychological Perspectives** There are four major theories in psychology that are relevant to sexuality: ***psychoanalytic theory***, ***learning theory, social exchange theory, and cognitive theory***. Psychoanalytic Theory Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory has been one of the most influential of all psychological theories. Because Freud saw sex as one of the key forces in human life, his theory gives full treatment to human sexuality. Freud termed the sex drive or sex energy libido, which he saw as one of the two major forces motivating human behavior (the other being Thanatos, or the death instinct). 15. **Psychoanalytic Perspective /Essentialist theories: sexuality as instinctual and innate** The concept of sex as a biological imperative /crucial was reflected in much of the language used by early sexologists. Freud, for example, describes sex as a **'drive'** and Havelock Ellis as an **'impulse'**. Implicit in the use of these terms is the notion of an uncontrollable natural energy in men and women (but particularly men) urgently seeking release. For Freud, the sex instinct, being the natural drive for survival of the species, was the prime motivational force of human life. He held that we are born with infinite capacity for sexual expression, and he used the term **'polymorphous-perverse'** to describe this potential. Freud believed that the range of sexual possibilities open to us was far greater than that lived out in everyday practices. His view was that adult patterns of behaviour are based on a blueprint laid down in the earliest years of life. For Freudian theorists, the whole process of civilization consists largely in the 'sublimation' of infantile sexual instinct to other ends than those they seemed designed to serve, so that they are revealed only through the unconscious mind in dreams, fantasies, and jokes. Hence sexuality is always linked with anxiety, stemming from a fear that the banished impulses might break through the barrier of repression. Thus for *Freudian analytic theory*, **repression of some sex drives is the cause of psychological disequilibrium and neurosis**. Paradoxically, Freud's own attitude towards many of the forms of sexual behaviour that he claimed so fearlessly to confront, including masturbation, homosexuality, and many aspects of women's sexuality, was one of distaste, leading to contradictions for which his work has been criticized. The constant reference in Freud's work to sexua

Gender & Sexuality - Psychology of Gender and Human Sexuality PDF

Document Details

Tags

Related

Summary

Full Transcript

Upgrade to continue