Chapter 7, PSYC 2550

Gender Similarities Hypothesis

Poses that there are few large differences between genders, with many domains showing no differences and most showing small differences.

Cognitive abilities

Mental skills such as attention, reasoning, remembering, solving problems, speaking, and interpreting.

Intelligence

The general capacity to understand ideas, think abstractly, reason, solve problems, and learn.

Intelligence quotient (IQ)

A standardized score representing an individual’s level of intelligence compared to peers.

Phrenology

A discredited study that linked brain size and skull shape to mental abilities and personal attributes.

Essentialism

The belief that human differences stem from inherent qualities within individuals.

Eugenics

A movement aimed at controlling the genetic quality of the human population by preventing reproduction of those deemed genetically inferior.

Visual spatial abilities, gender differences ?

Abilities favoring men to a medium degree, demonstrating sex differences.

Mental rotation abilities, gender differences ?

Historically favored men significantly, but differences have reduced when adjusting for female empowerment.

Greater male variability hypothesis

The prediction that men have more variability in cognitive performance scores, leading to higher representation in extremes.

Reading comprehension

The earliest meta-analysis found no overall sex difference, but recent studies suggest a reading advantage for girls.

Writing ability, gender differences ?

Research shows that girls generally have an advantage over boys in writing.

Autism Spectrum Disorder, gender differences ?

A developmental disorder that occurs in 1 in 68 births in the USA, more commonly in boys (5:1 ratio compared to girls).

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), gender differences ?

A condition more prevalent in males compared to females.

Alzheimer’s Disease, gender differences ?

Occurs in 11% of individuals over 65 years in the USA, with a prevalence of 2 women for every man.

Nurture vs. Nature

Debates surrounding the influence of social factors versus genetic factors on cognitive abilities and differences between genders.

Cross-cultural variation

The observed differences in the size and nature of cognitive sex differences across cultures.

Spatial relation, gender difference?

• small male advatangae that decreases into adulthood 

Spatial visualtization

• shows small male advantages these do not emerge until the teenage years 

Spatial location memory

small favor towards women, but studies are inconsistent 

Verbal, gender differences

small, mostly females more than male

Greater male variability in math ability, in relation to gender equality

This variability does not emerge in some countries and tends to decrease as those countries show greater evidence of gender equality.

Alleles on the X chromosome

Variant forms of genes that may explain sex differences in lower tails of ability distributions, such as the disproportionate numbers of boys and men with intellectual disabilities.

Cross-cultural variation in cognitive sex differences

Several large studies have shown a significant amount of variation in the size of cognitive sex differences across different cultures.

Mental rotation gender differences

Boys consistently outperform girls in mental rotation tasks, but the reasons for this are not clearly understood.