Psychology 320: Psychology of Gender and Sex Differences November 22 Lecture 28

1. Psychology 320: Psychology of Gender and Sex DifferencesNovember 22 Lecture 28

2. Office Hour InvitationsNovember 22, 11:30-2:30, Kenny 3102 12540126 31540115 41437104 44925105 46713111 51508109 71941090

3. Announcement Pavel (R-Z) will be at a conference on Monday and must reschedule his office hour next week to November 26, at 12:00-1:00 (Kenny 3508).

4. A little R&R …. (Review and Reflect)

5. “Last week I was sitting across from a very talkative 3 year old girl on the bus. She looked at me very intently for a few seconds and whispered to her nanny ‘that's a girl, see! She's wearing purple.’ I smiled at her, but inside I felt the same awkward, misunderstood loneliness that I've felt so many times when people are trying to establish what my gender is. My discomfort doesn't stem from being offended; I guess I'd just hoped that children would be more receptive to gender variance without having to label, and just respond to individuals as people. Sure, I'm a woman, womyn, however you want to spell it, but the concept of gender identity for each individual extends far beyond sex, sexual orientation, physical appearance and socially sanctioned gender dichotomies. No, I'm not transgendered, but why can't I exist in a space between two labels? Why should I be forced to ‘pick a side?’ Why should there be any labels at all- someone's always going to be left out? No amount of gender research, whether based in sociological, psychological, biological, or other fields will ever be able to assess and decipher gender for what it really is. We're talking about something that's so inherently part of every individual, their history, experiences, and influences, that most people aren't even aware of it because they fit the heteronormative mold upon which the gender dichotomy of male/female is based. I think that the lack of recognition that defines white privilege can be used here to parallel the lack of recognition to genders beyond the male/female gender dichotomy; gender privilege, if you will. Imagining other genders existing seems hard, impossible, when all you know is your own gender, whatever it is, and when it's comfortable. The point is, gender as it's taught is a construct, an umbrella term that tries to embody everyone into 2+ categories; at the end of the day all it leaves us with are categories, labels and generalizations that polarize to the greatest degree. The reality is that gender identity is just a feeling, just something that you know, something that is you." -- An anonymous class member

6. Intelligence and Cognitive Abilities 1. Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities?

7. By the end of today’s class, you should be able to: 1. discuss sex similarities and differences in: IQ scores, domain-specific knowledge, verbal ability and mathematical ability. 2. identify the age period during which sex differences in verbal ability emerge.

8. 3. identify trends across time in the magnitude of sex differences in verbal ability. 4. define and explain the “mathematical paradox.”

9. Course Content ... From This Point Forward The bulk of the remainder of the course will focus on questions surrounding sex differences. Although the research literature focuses on sex differences, one may interpret statistics that are relatively small as suggestive of sex similarities. In focusing upon sex differences, the research literature often fails to consider: (a) gender and (b) variance with respect to sex and gender.

10. Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities? • A large body of research has examined the cognitive abilities of females and males:

11. Research on general intelligence: • IQ: F = M. • Subjective estimates: M > F.

12. Research on general knowledge: • Current affairs, recreation, technology, geography, history: M > F. • Medicine, food/cooking: F > M. • Psychology, literature, business, art: F = M.

13. Research on verbal ability: • Wechsler’s verbal intelligence scale: F > M. • Reading fluency and comprehension: F > M. • Writing ability: F > M. • Verbal memory: F > M. • Synonym generation: F > M. • Spelling: F > M. • Speech articulation: F > M.

14. Stuttering: M > F. • Dyslexia: M > F. Note: research indicates that teachers “overestimate” the number of boys with reading disabilities. • Sex differences in verbal ability appear in early childhood and are consistent across age groups. • Sex differences in verbal ability have decreased across time (i.e. decades).

15. Meta-analysis: d for overall verbal ability is -.11. • Hyde (2012) maintains that sex accounts for only 1% of variance in verbal ability.

16. Research on mathematical ability: • Arithmetic computation: F > M. • Geometry: M > F. • Problem solving: M > F. • Grades in math classes: F > M. • Standardized mathematics tests (e.g., SAT, GRE): M > F.

17. By the end of today’s class, you should be able to: 1. discuss sex similarities and differences in: IQ scores, domain-specific knowledge, verbal ability and mathematical ability. 2. identify the age period during which sex differences in verbal ability emerge.

18. 3. identify trends across time in the magnitude of sex differences in verbal ability. 4. define and explain the “mathematical paradox.”