Gender Psych Reading: The Gender Similarities Hypothesis

Gender similarities hypothesis

Males and females are similar on most but not all psychological variables

• Gender differences can vary in maginutide at different ages and depending on context

• More alike than they are different

“Men Are From Mars, Women are From Venus”

argued for huge psychological differences between women and men

“You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation”

argued for different cultures hypothesis

• Men and women’s patterns of speaking are so different that they belong in different linguistic communities

“The Psychology of Sex Differences”

reviewed 2,000 studies of gender differences including abilities, personality, social behavior, and memory

• Found lots of evidence for gender similiarities

• Concluded gender differences in 4 areas: verbal ability, visual-spatial ability, math ability, aggression

Gender meta-analysis steps

1. Locate all studies on topic being reviewed

2. Extract statistics from each report and compute effect size

3. Compute average weight for effect sizes

4. Determine if effect sizes are homogeneous

Measure of effect sizes

• d = effect size

• Mm = mean score for males

• Mf = mean score for females

• Sw = avg of sex-standard deviation

• Negative value = higher score for females

• Positive value = negative score for males

Interpretation of effect sizes

• 0.20 = small

• 0.50 = medium

• 0.80 = large

Magnititude of gender difference ___

did grow larger from childhood to adolescence

Deindividuation

Refers to state in which person has lost their individual identity

• People should feel no obligation to comply to gender roles