Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities

“In the most intelligent races, as among the Parisians, there are a large number of women whose brains are closer in size to those of gorillas than to the most developed male brains. This inferiority is so obvious that no one can contest it for a moment; only its degree is worth discussion.

All psychologists who have studied the intelligence of women, as well as poets and novelists, recognize today that they represent the most inferior forms of human evolution and that they are closer to children and savages than to an adult, civilized man. They excel in fickleness, inconstancy, absence of thought and logic, and incapacity to reason.

Without doubt there exist some distinguished women, very superior to the average man, but they are as exceptional as the birth of any monstrosity, as, for example, of a gorilla with two heads; consequently, we may neglect them entirely.” – Gustave LeBon, 1879 Founder of Social Psychology

1800s-1910s Helen Thompson – 1903 – first scientific investigation of differences between men and women 1.Auditory & visual reaction time 2.Ability to hit a target 3.Rapidity of finger movement 4.Pain threshold 5.Ability to discriminate between heat and cold.

Variability hypothesis James Cattell Girls are injured more than boys by school life; they take it more seriously, and at certain times and at a certain age are far more subject to harm. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that to the average cost of each girl’s education through high school must be added one unborn child. Edward Thorndyke Review of their writing indicates that they believed women by nature were unsuited to rigorous intellectual endeavor and should be educated for homemaking, childrearing, or for nurturing and noncompetitive professions.

Leta Hollingworth The fact that variability was measurable, inspired Hollingworth to devise an experiment. Her position at the Clearing House for Mental Defectives provided her the chance to collect data on male and female variability. Dr. Hollingworth looked at 1,000 cases diagnosed at the Clearing House between 1912 and Results showed that males did exceed females 568 to 432. There did exist, however, an interesting age bias. For those over 16 years old at the time of admission, there were 78 males to 159 females. For individuals over 30 years old there were 9 males to 28 females. Hollingworth noted that females escape the Clearing House until beyond age 30 three times as frequently as males. Her reasoning was that girls are not recognized as mentally defective as often because "it is not unnatural for her to drop into the isolation of the home, where she can take care of small children, peel potatoes, scrub, etc". Thus they survive outside of institutions"

1890

Corsets

Women could not: -Vote - Throughout the nineteenth century, 95% of married women remained "at home." - On average, women earlier in the century gave birth to seven live babies in her lifetime. One-third to one-half would not survive to age 5. By 1900, the birthrate had dropped to an average of 3.5 live births. -Higher education - although women were not actually allowed to attend until Property belonged to their husbands or fathers.

World War I

Russian Revolution 1917

Women got the vote in the United States 1921

1920s

Margaret Meade Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935) and explored the subject more deeply in the next decade with Male and Female (1949).

Arapesh

Mundugumor

Tchambuli

Margaret Mead If those temperamental attitudes which we have traditionally regarded as feminine – such as passivity, responsiveness and a a willingness to cherish children – can so easily be set up as the masculine pattern in one tribe, and in another be outlawed for the majority of women as well as the majority of men, we no longer have any basis for regarding such aspects of behavior as sex-linked.

World War II

Women in the 40’s

1950’s

1960’s

The Chinese People have Stood Up! Chairman Mao Zedong formally declares the establishment of People's Republic of China during a ceremony at Tian'anmen Square, October 1, 1949.

The first Law passed by the new government was the marriage Law

Culture and art – women were seen as strong and competent

Maccoby and Jacklin

Unfounded beliefs about sex differences: Girls are more social than boys. Girls are more suggestible than boys. Girls have lower self-esteem than boys. Girls are better at rote learning and simple repetitive tasks; boys at higher level cognitive processing. Boys are more analytic than girls. Girls are more affected by heredity, boys by environment. Girls lack achievement motivation. Girls are more inclined to auditory; boys toward visual.

Open Questions of Difference: Tactile sensitivity Fear, timidity, and anxiety Activity level Competitiveness Dominance Compliance Nurturance

Maccoby and Jacklin 1974 “Fairly well established gender differences”: Women are better at verbal skills Males excel at visual spatial skills Males excel at Math Males are more aggressive.

Sex-related Cognitive Differences: Verbal Reasoning in Subjects over Age Sixteen # of Female Male No Researcher Results Superior Superior Difference Oetzel (1966) Vocabulary Verbal Prob Solving General Verbal Skill Abstract Reasoning Maccoby & Jacklin Verbal Abilities Droege ( Total

Spatial Abilities of Adolescents and Adults Male Female better better No Diff Total Visual Rod&Frame Hidden Fig306 9 Block Total

Janet Hyde – Meta-analysis Verbal Skills – 1% of variance Visual Skills – 5% of variance Math Skills – 5% of varaince Can be attributed to gender

Janet Hyde – 5% of differences can be attributed to gender

Explanations for differences in verbal skills Biological – none Social – possibly mothers do more pre-verbal mouthing of babies sounds.

Visual Spatial Skills Spatial visualization Embedded figures Spatial perception Rod and frame test Mental rotation Block Rotation

Embedded Figure Test

Block Rotation

Math Skills Benbow & Stanley 1980’s – Johns Hopkins Talent Search 50,000 7 th & 8 th grad children in top 3% nationall of SAT-Math test -Average - 30 point difference with boys higher -Most striking difference was Above 500 – 2.1boys:1 girl Above 600 – 4.1 boys: 1 girl Above 700 – 13 boys: 1 girl

Biological Explanations 1.Hormones 2.Brain organization Social Explanations 1.Training and experience 2.Gender role socialization 3.Self-confidence 4.Motivation

Hormone evidence Differences in women’s performance at different times of the month Differences in some tests on elderly women Seasonal fluctuations have been found in some men.

Brain organization evidence Some research has found women have a thicker corpus callosum Studies of auditory and visual laterality conclude that men are slightly more lateralized than women Studies of handedness suggest that women are more lateralized than men on this dimension

Socialization evidence In both sexes there is a positive relationship between experience and performance on visual- spatial, quantitative and verbal tasks. Parents, teachers and peers often reinforce stereotypes and children do better on gender appropriate tasks. Just because students are in the same class does not mean they receive the same attention. Males & females both display more confidence and better performance on tests they think their gender does better on. Both males & females are motivated to perform well in areas to which they attach value – important for future goals.

Eskimos – no difference

Temne very different