psychology 320: psychology of gender and sex differences lecture 10

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Psychology 320: Psychology of Gender and Sex Differences

Lecture 10

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Office Hour InvitationsOctober 7th, 11:30-12:30 Kenny 2517

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Announcement

The Vancouver International Film Festival is showing an award winning documentary on sex trafficking:

http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/2011/xslguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=0939

Monday, October 3, 8:45 PMTuesday, October 4, 12:20 PMWednesday, October 12, 10:45 AM

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1. What theories and research characterize the history of gender psychology? (continued)

History of Research on Gender Psychology

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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:

1. describe major shifts in theory and research on sex and gender between 1954 and present day.

2. describe contemporary measures (i.e., operational-izations) of gender.

3. discuss the relationship between gender and psychological adjustment.

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5. discuss social changes in levels of masculinity and femininity across time in North America.

4. define and explain the “masculine superiority effect.”

6. interpret gender diagnosticity scores.

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What theories and research characterize the history of gender psychology? (continued)

E. 1954 – 1982: Sex Typing and Androgyny (continued)

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Questionnaire 2: PAQ(Spence & Helmreich, 1978)

• Score 1: Masculinity score.

• Score 2: Femininity score.

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PAQ: Descriptive Statistics (Spence & Helmreich, 1979)

Scale Range Mean for Females* Mean for Males*

Masculinity 0-32 20.1 22.4

Femininity 0-32 24.0 21.4

*SDs not available.

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PAQ: Correlations Among M, F, and Adjustment Measures (Spence et al., 1979)

ScaleSelf-Esteem Neuroticism Acting Out

Males Females Males Females Males Females

Masculinity .66** .68** -.53** -.41** -.09 -.01

Femininity .23** .20** -.06 -.06 -.17* -.02

*p<.01, **p<.001

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• Recent research has produced findings that are consistent with Spence et al.’s (1979) findings:

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Correlations Among M/F, Self-Esteem, and Ego Strength (Woo and Oei, 2006)

Scale Low Self-Esteem Ego Strength

Masculinity -.61* .72*

Femininity -.11 -.02

*p<.001

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• Research (e.g., Holt & Ellis, 1998) supports the validity of the BSRI and PAQ among contemporary

populations.

• Data collected between 1970 and 2000 (e.g., Leuptow et al., 2001; Spence & Buckner, 2000; Twenge, 1997) demonstrate:

(a) consistent sex differences in femininity.

(b) reduced sex differences in masculinity.

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Correlation Between Women’s BSRI-M Scores and Year of Study Publication

(Twenge, 1997)

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995

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F. 1982 – Present: Gender as a Social Category

• Since 1982, research on sex, gender, and psychology has proliferated.

• Two trends are apparent in this research:

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1. Gender as a multidimensional construct.

Many contemporary theorists argue that gender is not adequately represented by a two-dimensional model (e.g., instrumental vs. expressive traits).

Rather, gender reflects highly diverse content, including traits, physical characteristics, and interests.

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Consistent with this perspective, these theorists view masculinity and femininity as prototypes: abstract sets of features commonly associated with masculinity and femininity.

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E.g., Helgeson (1994):

Feminine prototype Traits: Caring, soft-spoken, social, delicate, shy.Physical characteristics: Well dressed.Interests: Likes art, concerned with appearance,.

Masculine prototype Traits: Self-confident, dominant.Physical characteristics: Muscular, tall, hairy face.Interests: Likes sports, fitness, cars, concerned with work.

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Lippa et al. (1990, 1995) developed a multi-dimensional measure of masculinity and femininity referred to as gender diagnosticity (GD).

GD scores indicate levels of masculinity and femininity on the basis of an individual’s traits, physical

characteristics, and interests.

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GD scores are not highly correlated with scores on the BSRI or the PAQ.

GD scores of 0 and 1 indicate high levels of femininity and masculinity, respectively.

GD scores are computed statistically, by combining an individual’s scores on diverse indices of masculinity and femininity (e.g., preferred occupation, hobbies, level of dominance).

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1. What theories and research characterize the history of gender psychology? (continued)

History of Research on Gender Psychology