1. 1 Psychology 320: Gender Psychology Lecture 4

2. 2 Research Methods 1.What research methods do psychologists use to study gender? (continued)

3. 3 4. Case Studies  Designed to examine, in depth, the life of one person or the lives of a small group of individuals.  Assessment techniques include: direct observation, interviews, surveys, analysis of written text. What research methods do psychologists use to study gender? (continued)

4. 4  Example of a case study: Ehrhardt, Epstein, and Money (1968) Assessed 15 girls diagnosed with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a condition that results from embryonic exposure to elevated levels of androgens. Participants showed: lower levels of anticipation of marriage, preference for career over marriage, less preference for doll play, less interest in infant care, a preference for boy’s clothes, and a great interest in outdoor activity.

5. 5 5. Meta-Analytic Studies  Designed to statistically combine the results of multiple studies.  Involves 3 steps: (a) Obtain all published studies contrasting females and males on the characteristic of interest. (c) Average the effect sizes across all studies. (b) Compute an effect size for each study.

6. 6  There are two commonly used measures of effect size: r and d. r is the correlation between the classification variable (i.e., female vs. male; dichotomous score) and participants’ scores on the characteristic of interest (i.e., the DV; continuous score). 1. r

7. 7 r values may be obtained directly from published reports. r values may also be computed from t- test values and F-test values (i.e., statistics that allow for group comparisons). In general, r values obtained from meta-analyses are interpreted as follows: r =.10 or -.10 reflects a small effect size. r =.25 or -.25 reflects a moderate effect size. r =.40 or -.40 reflects a large effect size.

8. 8 2. d d is the number of standard deviation units obtained between the mean score of females and the mean score of males. In general, a positive d indicates that males score higher than females on the characteristic of interest. In contrast, a negative d indicates that females score higher than males on the characteristic of interest.

9. 9 In general, d values obtained from meta-analyses are interpreted as follows: d =.20 or -.20 reflects a small effect size. d =.50 or -.50 reflects a moderate effect size. d =.80 or -.80 reflects a large effect size. d may exceed +1.00 and -1.00 in magnitude.

10. 10  Example of a meta-analytic study: Byrnes, Miller, and Schafer (1999) Examined risk-taking tendencies of female and male participants. Obtained all published studies contrasting females and males on risk taking between 1967 and 1994, n = 150. Computed d value for each study; averaged d values across all studies.

11. 11 Average d-value obtained across all studies: d =.13. However, gender differences varied for distinct risk- taking behaviours: Smoking: d = -.02 Drinking/drug use:d =.04 Sexual activities:d =.07 Physical activityd =.16 Gambling:d =.21 Driving: d =.29 Intellectual risk takingd =.40 Risky experiment: d =.41

12. 12 Moreover, the magnitude of d varied across age groups, with an overall decrease in the gender gap with increasing age: 3-9 years: d =.19 10-13 years:d =.26 14-17 years:d =.11 18-21 years:d =.24 Older than 21: d =.05

13. 13 Research Methods 1.What research methods do psychologists use to study gender? (continued)