Sex Differences

Sex

is a person's biological identity: their chromosomes, physical manifestations of their identity and hormonal influences

Gender

is a person's social and cultural identity as a male or female

Gender typing

is a behavior, value or motive that members of a society consider more typical or appropriate for members of one sex

Gender-role standard

is a process by which a child becomes aware of his or her gender and acquires motives, values and behaviors considered appropriate for member of that sex

Expressive role

is a social prescription, usually directed toward females, that one should be cooperative, kind, nuturant, and sensitive to the need of others

Instrumental role

is a social prescription, usually directed towards males, that one would be dominant, independent assertive, competitive and goal-oriented

Visual/spatial abilities

is the ability to mentally manipulate or otherwise draw inferences about pictorial information

Self-fulfilling prophesy

is the phenomenon whereby people cause others to act in accordance with the expectations they have about those others

Gender identity

s one's awareness of one's gender and its implications

Gender intensification

is a magnification of sex differences early in adolescents; associated with increased pressure to conform to traditional gender roles

Gender segregation

are children's tendency to associated with same-sex playmates and to think of the other sex as an out-group

Social role hypothesis

is the notion that psychological differences between the sexes and the other gender-role stereotypes are created and maintained by differences in socially assigned roles that men and women play

Testicular feminization syndrome

is a genetic anomaly in which a male fetus is insensitive to the effects of male sex hormones and will develop female external genitalia

Timing of puberty effect

is the finding that people who reach puberty late perform better on visual/spatial tasks than those who mature early

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)

is a genetic anomaly that causes one's adrenal glands to produce unusually high levels of androgen from the prenatal period onward

Androgenized females

are females who develop male external genitalia because of exposure to male sex hormones during the prenatal period

Phallic stage

is Freud's third stage of psychosexual development (3-6 years of development) in which children gratify the sex instinct by fondling their genitals and developing an incestuous desire for the parent of the other sex

Identification

is Freud's term for the child's tendency to emulate another person, usually the same-sex parent

Castration anxiety

is in Freud's theory, a young boy's fear that his father will castrate him as punishment for his rivalrous conduct

Oedipus complex

is Freud's term for the conflict that 3-to-6 year boys were said to experience when they develop an incestuous desire for their mothers and a jealous and hostile rivalry with their fathers

Electra complex

female version of the Oedipus complex, in which a 3-to-6-year old girl was thought to envy her father for possessing a penis and would choose him as a sex object in the hop that he would share with her this valuable organ which she lacked

Direct tuition

is teaching young children how to behave by reinforcing "appropriate" behaviors and by punishing or otherwise discouraging inappropriate conduct

Observational learning

is learning that results from observing the behaviors of others

Basic gender identity

is the stage of gender identity in which the child first labels the self as a boy or girl

Gender stability

is the stage of gender identity in which the child recognizes that gender is stable over time

Gender consistency

is the stage of gender identity in which the child recognizes that a person's gender is invariant despite changes in the person's activities or appearance

Androgyny

is a psychological identity that includes both masculine and feminine characteristics or traits