● Gender vs. Sex Distinction
o Sex: a person’s biological maleness or femaleness
o Gender: Cultural expectations for femininity and masculinity
● Rigidity and Flexibility of Female and Male Stereotypes
o Are stereotypes more rigidly defined for one sex?
▪ Male Stereotypes tend to be much more rigidly defined than
female stereotypes
● Predominant Themes of Sex Stereotypes for Men and Women
o Don’t worry about descriptive/prescriptive distinction.
o What is the research-based overarching conceptual distinction?
● Hostile vs. Benevolent Sexism
o Don’t worry about modern sexism/neosexism.
o Know the definitions and what each form is characterized by
(examples).
▪ Hostile Sexism: Ex. Dominance-oriented paternalism, derogatory
beliefs about Women, or heterosexual hostility
▪ Benevolent Sexism: Ex. Women deserve special treatment, should
be set on a pedestal and should be revered
● Interaction between Race/Ethnicity and Gender
o Ex. Among what demographic group is married women’s
participation in the labor force highest?
▪ Black Women
o Body Satisfaction among African American Women
▪ African American Women hold more positive body images and a
less concerned with being or becoming overweight
o Self-evaluation in culture with predominant images of feminine
beauty that are white.
● Schema & Information Processing
o What is the definition for a schema?
▪ Mental representation of some aspect of the world
o Really understand what a schema is and how it applies to this course.
▪ Schemas can be helpful in processing information, but they can be
harmful in terms of making generalizations that are damaging to an
entire social group.
● Backlash Effect
o When people display counter-stereotypical behavior, they may be
penalized. This penalty reinforces stereotypical behavior
o If given examples, be able to identify what the backlash effect is.
● Prejudice vs. Discrimination
o What is the main distinction between these two terms?
▪ Prejudice (Attitude): The negative ecaluation of persons or their
activities because of their membership in a group
● Ex. Racism, sexism, heterosexism
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Discrimination (Behavior): behavior that holds people/groups apart
from others and results in different treatments for those people
● Ex. Hate crimes, unequal housing occupation, opportunities
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
o What is the definition?
▪ Ex. If you believe boys are not good at reading and do not like to
read, you might not give your male preschooler as many books to
read as your female preschool. This will result in your son being
worse at reading.
o Really understand what it is and how it applies to gender stereotypes.
Stereotype Threat
o Understand what stereotype threat is and how it applies conceptually.
▪ People feel threatened when they believe that their performance
will identify them as examples of their group’s negative stereotype
▪ This anxiety leads to decreased performance on those tasks
▪ Children begin to exhibit this phenomenon around ages 6-10 when
they become fully aware
▪ Ex. In one study, a group of women were given a test and told it
was measuring math ability and that women tend to do worse than
men. Another group of women was not given this prompt. Women
given the negative prompt do worse on average than both men and
other women not given the prompt
Bem Sex Role Inventory/Androgyny, Measuring Masculinity/Femininity
o How is the Bem Sex Role Inventory different from other tests of
masculinity and femininity?
● Recognizes that being masculine does not mean you cannot
be feminine
▪ BEM Sex Role Inventory
● Masculine →
Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory(Week 2)
o Don’t worry about studying later psychoanalytic theories like
Horney’s theory or feminist opinions of psychoanalytic theory.
o When in Freud’s psychosexual stages does the development of boys
and girls diverge?
▪ Stage 3
o Definitions and Distinctions between Id, Ego, Superego – What is the
role of each?
▪ Id= The individual’s biological drives, including sexual and
aggressive instincts. Non-rational system that acts strictly on the
pleasure principle
▪ Ego= Rational system that works on the reality principle. Keeps
you out of trouble and ensures survival
▪ Superego= the moral aspect of the personality
o Electra Complex vs. Oedipus Complex
▪ What does each complex supposedly result in?
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● Electra Complex(girls):
● Emotional bond with mother → notices lack of penis →
penis envy → blames mother, withdraws → replaces wish
for penis with wish for child → attraction to father,
jealousy of mother
o Realization → re-identification w/ mother →
feminine identification, sexual appeal= main source
of self-esteem, inferiority, contempt for other
women, wish for child, weak superego
● Oedipus Complex(boys):
● Intense attraction to mother → father= rival, hostility →
projects hostility on father → castration anxiety →
identification with father, no desire for mother →
masculine identification, contempt/fear of women, strong
superego
Social Structure Theories (Week 2)
o According to social structure theories, why do men and women do
different kinds of work?
▪ The differences between masculine and feminine gender roles
today come about because of the greater power and status accorded
to males than females in most societies
o How is this perspective different than other theories?
▪ argues the opposite of our basic assumptions
Evolutionary Theory (Week 2)
o Understand the basic tenets of evolutionary theory and what type of
evidence might support it (i.e., what would we expect to be true in the
real world if evolutionary theory is accurate?).
Biopsychosocial/Biosocial Model
o According to these theories, what causes societies to foster different
expectations for men and women and to channel them into different
roles in the first place? (Found in your textbook – 2 characteristics)
Social Learning Theory (Week 2)
o According to social learning theory, how are gender identity and
gender role developed?
o Understand reinforcement and observational learning.
▪ Observational Learning:
● Children develop gender roles by patterning their behavior
after models in the social environment
● Can occur from exposure to TV, books, people, etc.
● Children will become sex-typed by imitating the same sex
● Ex. 69% of toy commercials depicting only boys show
physical or verbal aggression, whereas no toy commercials
featuring only girls involve either physical or verbal
aggression
▪ Reinforcement
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● Girls and boys are rewarded for different behaviors and the
consequences of a behavior determine whether the child
performs it again
● Ex. reactions of family members/parents when a boy versus
a girl plays with a doll
● Research shows that we are less tolerant of and more likely
to punish cross-sex behavior among boys than among girls
Cognitive/Cognitive Developmental Theories (Week 2)
o How is this different from social learning theory?
o How are children viewed in this set of theories?
o Stages of Cognitive Development Relating to Gender
▪ At what age does each stage occur?
▪ What are the stages called and what characterizes them?
Techniques for Studying Biological Theories (based on genetics, hormones, or
the brain) (Week 2)
o Understand that we study each type of biological theory in different
ways (study these slides)!
o Ex. How do we study the effects of genes on masculinity/femininity?
How do we study the effects of hormones? The brain?
o Know that we cannot ethically manipulate hormone levels in humans
and must find other ways to study the effects of hormones.
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) (Week 2)
o Genetic disorder resulting in prenatal exposure to high levels of
androgens.
Brain Differences between Women and Men
o Know those listed in the slides!
Definitions and Distinctions between Sexual Orientation/Gender
Identity/Gender Roles
Logical Positivism vs. Social Constructionism (Approaches to Science)
o Definitions and distinctions between these approaches.
Independent and Dependent Variables, Randomization
o If I give you examples of studies, you need to be able to pick out what
is the IV, what is the DV, and did randomization occur? Does a given
study qualify as experimental?
Experimental Methods vs. Correlational Studies
Biases and Pitfalls in Studying Sex/Gender
o Understand the overall message of the slides on this topic and also
specific examples of different ways in which research is biased on this
topic.
o Understand why there is a pervasive tendency to look for differences
rather than similarities in research.
o Gender Bias at EVERY Stage of Research Process: Choosing
Research Topic, Formulating Research Question, Research Design,
Data Analysis and Interpretation
Objectivity and Subjectivity in Science
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o Don’t worry about “transformational psychology of gender”.
Statistical Significance
o Really understand what this term means and how it is different from
practical significance or effect size.
Longitudinal Studies
o Through these studies, we can get closer to understanding causality
than through cross-sectional/correlational designs!
Androcentrism, Ethnocentrism, Heterosexism, Anthropomorphism
o What does each term mean and understand their application.
Theories
o For a theory to be empirical, what is necessary? Falsifiability, Must
generate hypotheses, etc.
o What does falsifiability mean?
Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research Methods
o Advantages and Disadvantages of Each Approach
o Definitely understand the distinction and examples of each!
Examining More than Mean Scores
o Both text and lecture slides discuss the importance of understanding
MORE than just mean scores to evaluate sex differences.
o What are the 2 most important things to examine in addition to
mean?
o Distributional Characteristics, Statistical Significance
According to your textbook, what are the two basic questions for research on
sex and gender?
Dominance/Leadership
o What is the general pattern found in research on dominance and sex
patterns? What is the stereotype?
o What have the studies on dominance in racially mixed groups found?
o Under what situations are women more able to emerge as leaders in a
group?
Empathy
o On what measure of empathy have researchers found a fairly
consistently higher level for females?
Nurturance
o Is the general pattern different when men work in occupations
demanding nurturance or sensitivity?
o What has research found on men’s and women’s responses to a crying
infant?
▪ Are there physiological differences in responding?
Altruism/Helping Behavior
o In what situations are men more likely to help?
o In what situations are women more likely to help?
Hyde’s (2005) Study of Similarities/Differences – Findings
o Know the general findings.
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o What percent of gender differences in cognitive, social, and
personality variables are small or close to zero?
Maccoby & Jacklin’s (1974) Study of Sex Differences
o Know the general findings.
o In which areas were differences NOT found between the sexes?
Findings in the Lab vs. Findings through Naturalistic Observation
o Why do behavioral gender differences in the lab seem smaller than
such differences in real life?
Confounders in Research on Sex Differences
o What are the 2 important confounders in research on sex differences?
Dispositional vs. Situational Attributions
o UNDERSTAND what each of these means!
o Know the distinction between them and if given an example of a
scenario know whether an attribution is dispositional or situational.
Pay particular attention to CONTEXT or EXCEPTIONS for overarching
research findings of male or female superiority in some area. We always need
to break these concepts down further to truly understand differences.
Let me know if you have any questions! Again, I made every effort to be as
comprehensive as possible given the material so I am not in any way intending to be
tricky. I think that when you see the exam you will appreciate having used the study
guide even though it may seem to cover a lot of material. ☺