Introduction

Sex

Inborn biological characteristics relating to reproduction, biological maleness or femaleness

Gender

Psychological experience and cultural role as man or woman

Doing gender

expressing gender to others, perceiving gender in others

Gender identity

A person’s internal sense of their own gender

Gender binary

Conceptualizing gender as having 2 distinct, opposing groups

Nonbinary

Describes gender categories that are not exclusively M/F, used as a gender category

Cisgender

A person whose gender identity matches gender assigned at birth

Transgender

A person whose gender identity differs from gender assigned at birth

Intersex

Umbrella term for indivudals with DSD

Trans

Umbrella term for transgender spectrum

Sexism

Discrimination or bias against people based on their gender (usually refer to discrimination against women)

• Old fashioned sexism: not considering a woman for a job

• Modern sexism: more subtle, automatically referring to a preschool teacher as “she”

Ambivalent sexism

A mix of two categories

• Hostile sexism: “Women are not as smart as men”

• Benevolent sexism: “Women should be treated like princesses”

Intersectionality

Falling into the intersection of 2 or more disadvantaged categories

• Ex: women of color

Feminism

Emphasizes that all people should be socially, economically, and legally equal

• Misconceptions: man haters, radical people, against religion/nature

Liberal feminism

Emphasizes equality of men and women

• Focus: similarities between men and women

• Possible to achieve equality from within the system

Cultural feminism

Emphasizes women’s unique qualities such as caretaking and nuturing

• Focus: women’s unique qualities have been devalued by patriarchal society and needs to be elevated

Radical feminism

Emphasizes male control and domination over women

• Focus: men (as a group) seek to subordinate women (as a group) so men can have power and dominate, need for radical change

Women of color feminism

Emphasizes intersection between racism and sexism, other types of feminism overemphasize gender

• Focus: issues related to poverty, racism

White privilege

White people have certain privileges just for being white

The research process

Theoreitical model —> forumulate specific hypothesis —> design the research —> collect data —> analyze and interpret data —> communicate results

Operational definition

The way a variable is measured

Cofounding variable

Characteristics other than central variable thats not equivalent under all conditions

Experimenter effects (research expectancy)

When some characteristics of the experiment affect the way participants behave

• Gender, race, clothing, personality, etc

Observer effects (research expectancy)

When the researcher’s expectations affect their observations and recording of the data

• Gender stereotypes can influence how participants are perceived

Participant expectancies

Participants may act in ways that are consistent with stereotypes

Publication bias

Bias in journal publication process

• Finding group differences

• Topic of research

• Disortion in secondary sources

Bias against female scientists

Research from female scientists are less likely to be shared online and citied

Publication bias

Bias in journal application process

• Finding group differences

• Topic of research

• Disortion in secondary sources