Psyc 3480
Chapter 5 Notes
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Chapter focuses on gender comparisons on cognitive abilities and attitudes about acheivements
Linda Marsa wrote an article in 2007 highlighting the differences bwtween Men and women
She focuses on architecture of the brain and how it is hardwired
Her article fails to highlight the fact that the psychiatrist Nancy Andreasen whom she quoted
places emphasis on the similarities between men
Research on Gender comparisons can be affected by the ff
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Biased samples
 Almost all research done on gender comparison was done on white college men and
women
 They are not representative of men and women all over the world
 Results collected can be affected by the demographic of the people being studied
Researcher and Participant expectation
 If the researcher and or participant has any preformed notions, this will affect the
outcome of results
 Stereotypes affect the results
Proper measurement and creation of distribution graphs
 If better analysis are made most of the time the distribution frequency will overlap
Researchers seldom find differences between both genders
 There is usually little difference found between both genders if proper research is
performed
Cognitive differences
 There is not much cognitive differences found between male and female
 Specific areas of study may have produced some differences
 Areas like memory, spatial ability, verbal ability and mathematics ability have been
studied slightly
Analysis Approach
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Researchers initially used the Box score approach to analyze multiple research
This approach is also called the counting approach.
They read all the research and tally outcomes of each paper
This approach produced inaccurate analysis of the results produced
Meta analysis
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The creation of meta analysis in later centuries proved very useful
This approach uses statistical analysis and combines all the studies.
It takes into account the variability of the scores
Meta analysis yields numbers known as the effect size (d)
The closeness of d to 0 shows similarity
The further away d is from 0 shows difference
Cognitive Abilities
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Cognitive abilities that show no consistent difference are as follows
General Intelligence
 Measured with IQ scores
 These tests are formed based on no gender differences
 Media reports women as better multitaskers however research has not been performed
to prove this theory
Complex Cognitive Tasks
 Both genders are equally competent
 Similar in creative tasks
 Speculations about learning styles but tangible research has not been performed
Areas with Modest differences in gender abilities
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Memory ability
 Women found to have higher ability in word list, face recognition, life events, and object
recognition
Verbal ability
 Women performed slightly higher than men before the age of 2 then after they both
become the same
 Women were found to be higher in certain scenarios for example when the words
begun with an S
Reading disability
 Males were twice as likely to have a reading disability
 Teachers find males 4-5 times more than likely because the pick on the kids who are
active and less attentive
 Females may be good at hiding their disability hence they miss out on the opportunity
to develop
Math Abilities
 Females performed better in math courses than males
 Males scored higher on SAT Math than females
 The SAT math is not indicative of how females will perform in college math
Spatial ability
 Males scored slightly higher than females in Mental rotations and spatial perceptions
(water level test)
 With perfect and ample amount of instructions these differences were eliminated
GENDER COMPARISON USING BIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Genetics
Recessive nature of x
chromosomes does not account
for cognitive differences in
spatial tasks
Sex Hormone
Hormone production does not
change the morphology of the
brain, improving a specific task
for a specific sex and not for the
other
Brain Structure
There is no lateralization of
brain hemispheres. The left side
of the brain controls language
processing and the right side of
the brain controls spatial
processing. One side of the
brain does not favor spatial
tasks in one gender more than
the other.
The explanation of gender differences is based on the following
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Experience
Attitude
Behavior
Chapter 6
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Gender differences are largest when people are present
The social constructionist perspective (Ideals constructed through the collaboration of others)
makes us understand how different cultures have different ideal behaviors for men and women
Research shows that there is no difference between talkativeness between both genders
Altruism means providing help to others without expecting any reward in return
Becomes dangerous in the sense of heroism= risking one’s own life
Females were at a higher percentile for altruism
Nurturance= providing care to someone who is less competent
Females scored higher during self reporting
Males scored higher on physical aggression
Females score higher in relative aggression