1. Chapter 12 Gender Roles and Sexuality

3. Male and Female
Genetic: XX=female; XY=male
Gender roles: behaviors
Communality vs. Agency
Gender role norms: expectations
Gender-role stereotypes:
Overgeneralizations, inaccuracies
Gender typing: acquiring the role

4. Gender Differences
Verbal: Females slightly higher
Spatial: Males higher
Math: Males highest and lowest
Aggression and riskiness: males
Compliant, tactful, cooperative: females
Nurturant, empathic, anxious: females
Vulnerability: males

5. Figure 12. 1 A spatial ability task
Figure A spatial ability task. Are the two figures in each pair alike or different? The task assesses the ability to mentally rotate visual information and is a task on which average differences between males and females are quite large.
Figure 12.1

6. Social-role Hypothesis (Eagly)
Roles create stereotypes
Context and culture important
Changes occurring today
Psychological differences
Few and small
Important
Differential roles continue

7. Infancy
Differential treatment
Differential expectations
By 18 mo: categorical self
By 21/2 yr: gender identity
18-24 mo: gender toy preference

8. Childhood
3 yrs: gender stereotypes acquired
Gender rigidity until age 6
Gender constancy: by ages 4-6
Gender typed behavior by age 2 1/2
Greater by age 6
Stronger rules for boys

11. Adolescence
Gender intensification
Pubertal hormonal changes
Preparation for reproductive activities
Gender and peer conformity
Later adolescence more flexible thinking

12. Biosocial Theory
Money and Ehrhardt
Biological development
Presence of Y chromosome
Testosterone masculinizes brain and nervous system
Social influences and labeling at birth
Gender behavior through social interaction

13. Figure 12.3 Critical events in Money and Ehrhardt’s biosocial theory of gender typing

14. Psychoanalytic Theory
Oedipus (boy) and Electra (girl) Complex
Research supports
Identification with same-sex parent
Preschool years important
Importance of father for both
Stronger male reaction

15. Social Learning Theory
Differential reinforcement
Observational learning
Fathers differentiate most
Internalization of parent views
Peers, media, books, etc

16. Cognitive Theories
Kohlberg: self socialization
Stage-like changes
Gender identity: ages 2-3
Label themselves correctly
Gender stability: ages 3-4
Stable over time
Gender consistency: ages 5-7
Stable across situations

17. Gender Schema Theory
Information processing
Gender schemata by ages 2-3
In-group/out-group schema
Own-sex schema
Child looks for confirming information in the environment

19. Adulthood
Gender roles over the life-span
At marriage: greater differentiation
Birth of child: it increases more
Parental imperative
Middle age and older: Androgyny
Shift - does not mean switch

20. Figure Categories of gender-role orientation based on viewing masculinity and femininity as separate dimensions of personality.
Figure 12.5

21. Sexuality Over the Life Span
Infant sexuality: CNS arousal
Childhood
Learn about reproduction
Curiosity and exploration
Sexual abuse: like PTSD
Adolescence: sexual identity, orientation
Double standard: decline?

22. Table If one twin is gay (or lesbian), in what percentage of twin pairs does the other twin also have a homosexual or bisexual orientation? Higher rates of concordance (similarity) for identical twin pairs than for fraternal twin pairs provide evidence of genetic influence on homosexuality. Less-than-perfect concordance points to the operation of environmental influences as well.

23. Adult Sexuality
Most are married
Gradual declines
Individual differences
Married have more sex
Males sexual peak: age 18
Female sexual peak: age 38

24. Older Adults
Stereotype: Asexuality
Reality: decline
Diseases and disabilities
Social attitudes
Lack of a partner
Physiologically able in old age