PSYC 305 Midterm Exam

include all true/ false, key terms, and main theories.

T/F Life experiences can cause biological differences between women and men

True: Performing male-typed behaviors can increase women’s testosterone levels, and performing female-typed behaviors can reduced men’s testosterone levels.

T/F There are only two biological sexes: male and female.

False: Biology offers several different types of intersectionality, in which the biological components of sex do not consistently fit the typical male or the typical female patterns.

T/F Throughout human history, there is evidence that some societies were true matriarchies in which women ruled society, controlled how it operated, and held more power than men.

False: There are no known human matriarchies. There are, however, many examples of matrilineal societies. There are, however, many examples of matrilineal societies.

Many people who believed in feminist principles do not identify as feminists.

True: Many people support the principles of feminism but reject the label, perhaps due to negative stereotypes of feminists.

The American Psychiatric Association considers transgender identity to be a clinically diagnosable psychological disorder.

False: The American Psychiatric Association no longer considers transgender identity a disorder. People may, however, receive a diagnosis of gender dysphoria if they experience clinically significant levels of distress about a mismatch between their gender identity and the sex that others assign them.

Sex

A term typically used to categorize people as male, female, or intersex.

Gender

The meanings that people give to the different sex categories. Includes broad sets of attributes and experiences (e.g., identities, traits, interests, roles, attitudes, stereotypes, and socialization practices) commonly associated with sex.

Sex binary

The conceptualization of sex as consisting of two opposite and nonoverlapping categories, such as male or female.

Gender binary

The conceptualization of gender as consisting of two opposite and nonoverlapping categories, such as masculine or feminine.

Intersex

A condition in which the biological components of one’s sex (chromosomes, hormones, and internal and external organs) do not consistently fit the typical female or typical male pattern.

Androgyny

Possession of high levels of both stereotypically male-typed and female-typed traits.

Intersex

When the biological components of sex (chromosomes, hormones, sex organs, etc.) do not consistently fit the typical female or male pattern

Nonbinary (or genderqueer)

Describes people who fall outside the sex and gender binaries and identify as neither man nor woman; an umbrella term capturing many forms of identity.

Masculinity

Possession of physical and psychological attributes typically associated with men.

Femininity

Possession of physical and psychological attributes typically associated with women.

Latinx

A gender-neutral term referring to someone of Latin American heritage.

Gender identity

Individuals’ psychological experience of their gender and how they identify their gender such as man, woman, nonbinary, or genderqueer.

Gender expression

Outward expression (masculine, feminine, androgynous, etc.)

Gender roles

Social roles associated to sex (male-typed “provider/protector”, female-typed “caretaker/homemaker”, androgynous, etc.)

Gender role attitudes

Individual’s beliefs of roles (from traditional to egalitarian)

Gender stereotypes

Attributes associated with different sexes (women are communal, men are agentic, etc.)

Cisgender

Describes people who experience a match between their sex assigned at birth and their psychological gender identity.

Transgender

Describes people whose psychological gender identity does not align with their assigned sex at birth.

Agender

Describes people who feel internally ungendered.

Gender fluid

Describe people whose gender identity shifts or changes flexibly rather than remaining constant.

Gay

Typically refers to a man who is attracted only (or primarily) to men.

Lesbian

Refers to a woman who is attracted only (or primarily) to women.

Heterosexual

Signifies being attracted to only (or primarily) to persons of the other sex (in a binary male—female system).

Asexual

Signifies having a lack of desire for sex or sexual partners.

Intersectionality

An approach that examines how social categories (sex, gender race, class, age, physical ability, sexual orientation), and the advantages and disadvantages associated with them, interact to shape people’s life experiences and opportunities.

Privilege

An automatic, unearned advantage that accompanies membership in certain social groups. (ex: cisgender, male, heterosexual)

Patriarchal

Describes a societal structure in which men/fathers occupy the leadership positions in the society and control how it operates.M

Matriarchal

Describes a societal structure in which women/mothers occupy the leadership positions in the society and control how it operates.

Equality

A principle in which each individual is treated the same, regardless of background.

Equity

A principle in which each individual is treated fairly, by taking background into account.

What was possibly the largest collective protest in history?

The Women’s Marches of January 2017

How many waves of Women’s Movements in the US were there?

3

First wave

First women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848 over economic and voting rights

Second Wave

The Feminine Mystique. “The problem that has no name”. Problems that faced middle-class (mostly White) women in the 1950s-60s

Third Wave

Focus on intersectionality

Feminism (feminist theory)

Movements for the social, political, and economic equality of women and men or, according to bell hooks, movements “to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.”

Types of feminisms

Liberal, Radical, Socialist, Black Feminism/Womanism, Cultural/ difference feminism, Third-wave, Transnational

What were things American women could not do before the 1970s:

Keep a job if pregnant, report workplace sexual harassment, run in the Boston Marathon, get a credit card, refuse to have sex with her husband

When did APA remove homosexuality as a disorder from the diagnostic manual?

1973

When did Supreme Court grant marriage rights to same-sex couples in all 50 US states?

2015

When did APA update its diagnostic manual so that transgender is no longer a diagnosable mental illness in itself?

2013

T/F: Gender researchers disagree about whether or no it is appropriate to study sex differences.

True: There is a long-standing debate among gender researchers about whether or not it is appropriate and ethical to study sex differences.

T/F: If a study finds that people of different sexes vary on some variable of interest (e.g., the frequency of smiling behavior), the researcher can therefore conclude that sex (being female, male, or something else) causes differences in smiling behavior.

False: Because sex and gender identity are not true independent variables—that is, they cannot be manipulated, nor can people be randomly assigned to occupy different levels of them—researchers cannot draw cause-and-effect conclusions from studies that compare people of different sexes.)

T/F: Qualitative methods (non-numerical methods that involve in-depth interpretations, such as case studies) are defined as nonscientific.

False: Qualitative methods are scientific. Science is a systematic, empirical way of investigating the world, and it consists of both quantitative and qualitative methods.)

T/F: Across most psychological variables, sex differences are generally small.

True: Sex differences on most psychological variables are in the close-to-zero and small ranges.)

T/F: Psychological science, if done correctly, can be truly objective and unbiased.

False: Psychological science is not truly objective because researchers always bring biases to their studies.)

Maximalist

Overemphasize differences between sex groups

Minimalist

Emphasize similarities between members of sex groups

Scientific method

A process by which researchers conduct systematic studies in order to test hypotheses derived from theory.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction about the outcome of a study, stated in terms of the variables tested.

The first step in the scientific method is typically generating this.

A hypothesis

Quantitative Research Methods

Allows researchers to turn variables of interest into numbers that can be submitted to statistical analyses.

What are the types of Quantitative methods?

Experimental, Quasi-experimental, Person-by-treatment, Ex post facto, Correlational

What is a Experimental research design?

A type of research design in which a researcher systematically manipulates one or more independent variables and uses random assignment to observe whether this causes changes in one or more dependent variables.

Quasi-experiments

Mimics experimental design but lacks control over one or more manipulations (ex: gender stereotyping in classrooms)

Person-by-treatment design

A quasi-experimental design involving at least one participant variable and at least one true independent variable with random assignment.

Participant variable

A naturally occurring feature of research participants (e.g, sex, personality, cultural background) that is measured in a study rather than manipulated.

Correlational Designs

Strength and direction of a relationship. Problem with these designs is that correlation does not equal causation.

Qualitative Research Methods

Researchers collect in-depth non-numerical information in order to understand participants’ subjective experiences

Types of Qualitative methods

Case studies, interviews, focus groups, ethnography

Case studies

In-depth, individualized investigation. Problem: generalizability

Generalizability

The extent to which findings apply beyond the study

Biases common in Sex and Gender Research

Researcher bias, Participant bias, female deficit model, sampling bias

Researcher Bias

Researchers’ background can influence outcome of study

Participant bias

Change answers to look better, over/under represent true answers

Female Deficit Model

Where women are lacking, Ex: do girls lack math abilities compared to boys?, Do women take on more of the burden at home. Negative connotations.

Sampling bias

Noninclusive sample. ex: all male sample. Only compare base on gender

Androcentrism

Idea that men are the default. plays into female deficit model. “women are exception”- need to explain

Postpositivism

Views empirical investigation as a useful method for acquiring knowledge but recognizes inherent biases.

Scientific positivism

Emphasizes the scientific method and proposes objective and value-free knowledge is attainable through empirical investigation

Critiques on scientific positivism

disagree with objectivity, still centered on androcentrism, subtle researcher bias persists

A researcher asks, "Why are girls worse at math than boys?" What

model of gender research does this question most closely resemble?

Female Deficit Model

This type of research design can identify relationships between

variables but cannot establish causation by itself

Correlational research

A researcher finds that gender role traditionality is related to

relationship satisfaction. Why can't the researcher conclude that gender

role traditionality causes relationship satisfaction?

Because correlation does not establish causation

T/F: Sex (whether a person is male, female, or intersex) is shaped entirely by biological factors.

False: Sex is shaped by complex interactions between nature and nurture.

T/F: Genetically female (XX) individuals who get exposed to high levels of androgens in utero can have male-typed genitalia at birth and are sometimes raised as boys.

True: Genetically female individuals with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) experience high levels of androgens in utero and are sometimes raised male, especially in countries that lack access to diagnosis and treatment.

T/F: All female individuals have an XX pair of chromosomes, and all male individuals have an XY pair.

False: While most girls have XX pairs and most boys have XY pairs, some female-identifying and male-identifying individuals have different combinations of chromosomes.

T/F: From twin studies, we know that gender identity is determined primarily by socialization (nurture).

False: Twin studies indicate that gender identity is determined by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

T/F: In the past decade, neuroscientists identified structural sex differences in the brain and linked them definitively to specific psychological sex differences.

False: Neurosciences do not fully understand the connections between brain structure and function, and hypotheses about human sex differences in brain functions remain speculations.

Genes

Basic units of heredity that carry instructions for shaping the offspring’s characteristics.

Gene-by-environment interaction

Genetic tendency emerges only under certain environmental circumstances or when an environment shapes traits or behaviors, or for individuals with a particular genetic makeup.

Epigenetics

The study of the biological mechanisms that guide whether or not certain genes get expressed.

Epigenetic marks

Molecular structures that sit on genes and instruct them to activate or deactivate

What determines a person’s biological sex?

Chromosomes, genes, hormones, internal sex organs, and external genitalia

The process for sex differentiation

Sex chromosomes - development of gonads - production of hormones - development of genitalia

Optimal sex

The binary (male or female) sex perceived to be most advantageous to assign to a newborn whose genitalia appear atypical at birth.

Optimal sex policy

Developed by John Money and his colleagues at John Hopkins University, which proposed that intersex infants should be socialized as either boys or girls beginning in the first 18 month of life.

David Reimer

Victim of optimal sex policy, born male got a botched circumcision, raised and socialized as female until adolescence when medically transitioned back to male.

When was the first vaginoplasty

1931

When was the first phalloplasty?

1946

Sex differences in the brain

Male brains are 11% larger in volume than female brains. Women have more volume and density in frontal pole cortex (decision making) and men have more volume and density in left hippocampus and left amygdala

Plasticity

Brain’s ability to reorganize and adapt physically in response to life experiences and environmental factors.

Why is plasticity high during adolescence?

Increase in hormones and puberty

Dynamic Systems Theory

Sex differences grow larger over time through interactions between caregivers and infants. See more gender differences as we age.

Neurosexism

Interpreting findings from neuroscience research in ways that reinforce gender stereotypes without valid supporting evidence.