Wednesday Class Cancelled Next Week

• Nov. 27th: Helping (Chapter 10)• Nov. 29th: Aggression (Chapter

10-11)• Dec. 4th: Psychology & The Law

(Chapter 11)• Dec. 6th: Attraction & Close

Relationships (Chapter 9 & 12)• Dec. 11th Exam Review/Real-

World Problems

From the Body to Gender

Dr. Sanchez

Gender

• We are hardwired to notice sex– Single most remembered characteristic

• This may lead us to assume many sex differences.

• However, men and women are more alike than they are different

• Differences between men and women are smaller than inter-group differences

Bem’s Typology

• Sex (biological) v. Gender (social)• In 1970s, Sandra Bem argued that

people were not necessarily sex = gender

• Instead, masculine, feminine, a mix of both, or neither– Androgynous– Undifferentiated

• Psychologically gendered on a continuum

1970’s research

• Men and women fell into sex-typed quadrants

• She found relatively few androgynous people

• How did she measure it?• Predetermined list of attributes

known to be gender-stereotyped!

Bem Sex Role Inventory

• Confident• Leadership• Athletic• Opinionated• Decisive• Risk Taking• Aggressive• Masculine

• Compassionate• Likes Children• Agreeable• Cheerful• Nurturing• Modest• Gullible• Feminine

Contemporary Research

• Given no other choice, men and women sex typed themselves

• Better idea is to let people report the attributes they identify with.

• Then, men and women report the same, positive traits

• More positive than gender-typed

Gender similarities/difference

• What gender differences are real? • What is real?

– Product of gender-role socialization?– Product of hormones/genetic-make-up?– Product of biased research designs?

• Researchers underestimate the social context in creating gender differences.

Personality Trends (1931-1993)

• Assertiveness (Twenge, 2001)– Sociocultural– Meta-Analysis

• Social Status– Education/Work Opportunities

Women’s Assertiveness (Twenge, 2001)

Degrees Awarded to Women

Median Age of Marriage

World War II

Social Role Theory (Eagly, 1987)

• Origin of sex differences • Differences evolve from societal

roles• Divisions of labor create gender-

role expectations• Socialization Reinforcements

– Rehearsing, Anticipating and Preparing for such roles

Personality Trends

• Shift suggests that women are becoming more instrumental

• Shifts in assertiveness mirror historical climate

Stereotype Threat

• The fear of confirming a negative stereotype (Steele & Aronson, 1995)– Viewing stereotypical ads– Making gender salient– Diagnostic test of their ability

• Increased anxiety• Psychological disengagement • Working memory =

– Attentional resources in a particular moment on one task while suppressing non-relevant information

Schmader & Johns (2003)

Moderator

• Definition: A variable that interacts with another variable to change its effect

• High levels of gender identification increase ST for women

Successful Interventions

• Teaching about stereotype threat (Johns, Schmader, & Martens, 2005)

Mathematical Performance

• Small difference favoring males (Hyde & Linn, 1988)

• Mathematical expectations• Likelihood to take advanced math

courses• SAT-Math Scores

VERBAL PERFORMANCE

• Small gender differences favoring women (Hyde, 1981)

• Verbal disabilities• Verbal vocabulary in childhood• Analogies• SAT-V

Consequences of GRE/SAT Gap

• Women receive better grades than men in college

• Receive lower GRE/SAT scores• Female underprediction effect

How big are gender differences?• .80 = LARGE DIFFERENCE• .50 = MODERATE

DIFFERENCE• .20 = SMALL DIFFERENCE

ON SIMILARITIES (Hyde, 2005)

Gender Norm Violations

• Backlash = punishments and/or negative judgments for gender-role inconsistent behavior– Disapproval, Rejection, Dislike– Losing Status

• What are the consequences fear of backlash?

Backlash as Identity Misclassification• Fear of Identity

Misclassification– Being perceived as a social

identity that you are not

• Men’s fear of being perceived as “gay”

• Feminine = indicator of sexual orientation

Study

• All heterosexual men• Engaged in feminine/masculine

task• Confirm heterosexuality v. No

confirmation• Public v. Private

Bosson et al. (2005)

Fear of Backlash for Women• Harsh sanctions for gender role

violators• Competence v. Likable

– Women who self-promote are seen as more competence but less hireable and less socially attractive

– Men who self-promote are seen as more hireable and competence (no trade-off)

– Men not seen as socially less attractive (no-trade-off)

Backlash

• Creates a vicious cycle of gender stereotyping

• Double bind