1. 1 Psychology 320: Psychology of Gender and Sex Differences Lecture 27

2. 2 Office Hour Invitations November 27 th, 1:30-2:30, Kenny 2517 15416118 23355092 24725111 25370123 30670103 30855118 47960109 51672103 73164097 78737095

3. 3 Announcement Psychology 320 is continuing to partner with the College of Health Disciplines to offer you the opportunity to participate in interdisciplinary Parisian Salons:

4. Preventative Medicine What we do: Discuss important issues that affect health care and society Apply the social determinants of health Meet students from different disciplines! Free Food! This month’s topic questions: Does non-western medicine place a greater emphasis on preventative medicine? Could genetic testing help in preventing diseases such as high blood pressure or diabetes? What should MSP cover? Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 5:30-7:30pm at Mahoney and Sons Please note that there is only space for 25 students – so come on time! Check us out on Facebook!

5. 5 Intelligence and Cognitive Abilities 1. Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities?

6. 6 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 ages at which sex differences in verbal ability emerge.

7. 7 3. identify trends across time in the magnitude of sex differences in verbal ability. 4. define and explain the “mathematical paradox.”

8. 8 From last class ….

9. 9 “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

10. 10 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.

11. 11 Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities? A large body of research has examined the cognitive abilities of females and males:

12. 12 Research on general intelligence:  IQ: F = M.  Subjective estimates: M > F.

13. 13 Research on general knowledge:  Current affairs, recreation, technology, geography, history: M > F.  Medicine, food/cooking: F > M.  Psychology, literature, business, art: F = M.

14. 14 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.

15. 15  Dyslexia: M > F. Note that research indicates that teachers “overestimate” the number of boys with reading disabilities.  Meta-analysis: d for overall verbal ability is -.11.  Stuttering: M > F.  Sex differences in verbal abilities are consistent across age groups, but appear to be decreasing across time.  Hyde (1981, 1988, 2012) maintains that sex accounts for only 1% of variance in verbal ability.

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

17. 17 Intelligence and Cognitive Abilities 1. Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities?