Sex, Gender, and Personality
The Science and Politics of Studying Sex and Gender
- Study of sex differences is controversial
- Some worry that findings of sex differences might be used to support political agendas or status quo
- Some argue that findings of sex differences merely reflect gender stereotypes rather than real differences
- Some argue that any discovery of sex differences merely reflects biases of scientists, rather than objective reality
- Some advocate stopping research on sex differences because findings of sex differences might conflict with ideas of egalitarianism
- But others argue that scientific psychology and social change will be impossible without coming to terms with real sex differences that do exist
History of the Study of Sex Differences
- Prior to 1973, there was little attention paid to sex differences
- 1974, Maccoby and Jacklyn published a book, The Psychology of Sex Differences
- Set off an avalanche of work on sex differences
- Maccoby and Jacklyn presented an informal summary of research
- Researchers developed more precise quantitative procedures for examining conclusions across studies and thus for determining sex differences: Meta-analysis
Calculation of Effect Size: How Large Are the Sex Differences?
- Effect size or d-statistic: Used to express the difference in standard deviation units
- Effect size can be calculated for each study of sex differences, then averaged across studies to give an objective assessment of the difference
- Effect size (d): .20 = small, .50 = medium, .80 = large; positive d means men higher, negative d means women higher
- Even the large effect size for the average sex difference does not necessarily have implications for any one individual
Minimalists and Maximalists
- Minimalists describe sex differences as small and inconsequential
- Maximalists argue that the size of sex differences should not be trivialized—small effects can have important consequences
Sex Differences in Personality
Five-Factor Model
- Extraversion or Surgency
- Women score slightly higher on gregariousness (d = .15)
- Men score slightly higher on activity level (d = .09)
- Men score moderately higher on assertiveness (d = .50)
- Sex difference in assertiveness is revealed in the social behavior in mixed-sex groups (men interrupt more than women)
- Agreeableness
- Women score higher on trusting (d = .25), tender-minded (d = .97)
- Women smile more than men (d = .60), but this may reflect submissiveness and low status rather than agreeableness
- Aggressiveness
- Men are more physically aggressive, as assessed on personality tests, in fantasies, and manifest behavior (moderate to large effect sizes)
- Profound consequences for everyday life
- Men commit 90 percent of homicides worldwide
- Men commit more violent crimes of all sorts
- Sex difference in violent crimes accompanies puberty, peaking in adolescence and the early 20s
- Conscientiousness
- Women score slightly higher on order (d = .13)
- Emotional Stability
- Men and women are similar on impulsiveness (d = .06)
- Women score higher on anxiety (d = .28)
- Openness to Experience: No sex differences
Other Dimensions of Personality
- Self-esteem—results from meta-analyses
- Across ages, effect size is small, with males scoring higher (d = .21), but
- Young children (ages 710) show slight difference (d = .16)
- As children age, the gap widens: 1114, d = .23; 1518, d = .33
- In adulthood, the gap closes: 1922, d = .18; 2359, d = .10
- Sexuality: Many large differences
- Interest in casual sex, d = .81
- Number lifetime sex partners desired, d = .87
- "People-things" dimension—vocational interests
- Men are more toward "things" end, women are more toward "people" end
A Closer Look: Sex Differences in Depression
- In childhood, there are no sex differences
- After puberty, women show depression two to three times than that of men
- Rumination—repeatedly focusing on one's symptoms or distress; women ruminate more, which contributes to the perseverance of depressive symptoms
- Largest sex difference is in ages 1844; then sexes start to converge again
Masculinity, Femininity, Androgyny, and Sex Roles
- 1930s, researchers assumed sex differences on various personality items were attributable to differences along the single dimension of masculinity-femininity
- But perhaps someone could score high on both masculinity and femininity—this led to concept of androgyny
The Search for Androgyny
- 1970s, researchers challenged the assumption of the single dimension, instead arguing that masculinity and femininity might be independent, separable
- Two new measures were developed to assess two dimensions, now assumed to be independent
- Those who scored high on both labeled androgynous, to reflect the notion that a person could have both masculine and feminine characteristics
- Researchers who developed measures believed androgyny was ideal
- Many criticisms of new measures and underlying ideas
- Contrary to researchers' assumptions, both constructs are multidimensional, containing many facets
- Several studies documented that masculinity and femininity describe a single bipolar trait—i.e., not independent
- Researchers who constructed measures changed views
- Spence: Measure doesn't assess sex roles, but instead personality traits of instrumentality and expressiveness
- Bem: Measure assesses gender schemas and cognitive orientations that lead people to process social information on basis of sex-linked associations
Gender Stereotypes
- Three components: Cognitive, affective, behavioral
- Content of gender stereotypes: Attributes we believe men and women possess
- Similar across cultures—e.g., women are perceived as more communal and oriented toward the group, whereas men are perceived as more instrumental, asserting independence from the group
- Stereotypic sub-types of men and women
- Some argue that people do not hold single gender stereotype; rather, cognitive categories differentiated into sub-types of men and women
- Empirical data are lacking
- Prejudice and gender stereotypes
- Gender stereotypes can have important real-life consequences for men and women
- Consequences can damage people in health, jobs, odds of advancement, and social reputations
Theories of Sex Differences
Socialization and Social Roles
- Socialization theory: Boys and girls become different because boys are reinforced by parents, teachers, and media for being "masculine," and girls for being "feminine"
- Bandura's social learning theory: Boys and girls learn by observing behaviors of same-sex others
- Some research supports socialization and social learning theories of sex differences
- Cross-cultural evidence for different treatment of boys and girls
- Problem: Simple theory that causal arrow runs one way (parents to children) is open to question
- Problem: No account of origin of sex-differentiated socialization practices
- Social role theory: Sex differences arise because men and women are distributed differently into different occupational and family roles
- Some research supports social role theory
- Problem: No account of origins of sex-differentiated roles
Hormonal Theories
- Hormonal, physiological differences cause boys and girls to diverge over development
- Following puberty, there is little overlap in the levels of circulating testosterone (with men having about 10 times more)
- Sex differences in testosterone is linked with traditional sex differences in behaviors, such as aggression, dominance, career choice, and sexual desire
- Problem: Research suggests link between hormones and behavior is bi-directional
- Problem: No account of origins of hormonal differences
Evolutionary Psychology Theory
- Sexes are predicted to differ only in those domains in which people are recurrently faced with different adaptive problems (problems must be solved to survive and reproduce)
- Research supports many predicted sex differences, especially in sexuality
- Problem: No clear accounting of individual and within-sex differences
An Integrated Theoretical Perspective
- Integrated theory of sex differences would include all levels of analysis into account (socialization, hormonal, evolutionary), because they are compatible
Summary and Evaluation
- Some sex difference are real and not artifacts of particular investigators or methods
- Some sex differences are constant over generations and across cultures
- But the magnitude of sex differences vary greatly
- When questions about sex differences are posed, a person must ask: In what domains?
- Domains that show larger sex differences include assertiveness, aggressiveness, interest in casual sex, but there is an overlap in each domain
- 1970s saw the rise and fall of concept of androgyny—masculinity and femininity found to be independent, now termed instrumentality and expressiveness, respectively
- Cross-cultural work reveals universality of gender stereotypes, which correspond in many ways to actual sex differences
- Traditional theories of sex differences have emphasized the social factor
- Recent hormonal theories suggest the social factor does not tell whole story
- Evolutionary psychologists argue that men and women differ in those domains in which they recurrently confronted sex-linked adaptive problems
- Needed is integrative theory that includes each of these levels of analysis—social, physiological, and evolutionary
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education