Gender Differences Between Personality And Personality

Since the beginning of time there has been a distinct division between the sexes. Through sheer definition there is a physical difference between the two but as time has passed there has been an indisputable recognition of the differences in personality and cognition. There are also undeniable differences in the life experiences had by the two sexes that

Feist, J., Feist, G. J., & Roberts, T. (2013). Theories of personality (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

There are four main differences between the genders: physical, cognitive, personality, and behaviors. Physical differences are the most obvious differences between genders. Those differences come from the primary and secondary sex characteristics. The primary sex characteristics of females are their ovaries and males have testes. As far as secondary sex characteristics, females tend to have wider hips and smaller bodies and males tend to have more facial hair and deeper voices. Some cognitive differences between males and females are that males are often more superior in visual-spatial abilities used in math, science, and map reading, and females are often more superior at writing, reading, and foreign

Gender differences have often been argued to be a result of either natural, biological differences or due to socialized differences. Although there are strong arguments for and against both sides, they each have their merits for viewing gender differentiation. The way in which biology or socialization affects an individual’s gender can be analyzed through sociological study. Kimmel and Holler examine both sides of this argument to analyze how individuals become gendered by different biological and social factors.

The idea that males and females are much more dissimilar than they are similar, the gender differences model, has been a part of media for years. The opposing view, the gender similarities hypothesis, states that in regard to psychological variables, the two genders are actually much more similar in most areas. This gender similarities hypothesis is supported by many studies, reviewed by Hyde in her article. Effect size, d, for gender differences is given by the mean score for females subtracted from the mean score for males divided by the average within-sex standard deviation. Negative d values favor females, and positive d values favor males.

Based on a theory proposed by Carl Jung, the test measures four aspects of personality tested using semantic differentials; Extrovert (E)-Introvert (I), Sensation (S)-Intuition (N), Thinking (T)-Feeling (F), and Judging (J)-Perceiving (P). Jung suggested that the foundation of one’s personality is rooted in four of these functions—iNtuition, Sensing, Thinking, and Feeling. This theory was further developed by Isabella Myers and her mother, Katherine Briggs during WWII as a measure to help women find jobs that would fit their personalities, and has been modified and used for professional and personal development (2015). Because the test was written with women in the workforce in mind, we thought there may be gender differences among types. Given the significance of each feature, we chose to focus our study on Jung’s original functions, S-N and F-T. Our hypothesis was that gender would have a significant correlation on personality type. More specifically, males would positively correlate with Sensing and Thinking attributes, while females would have a positive correlation with Intuition and Feeling. In Bak’s correlation, he found that there was a significant correlation between gender and the Thinking-Feeling aspect, and more specifically that men correlated positively with T, while women were more likely to be an F. We tested college age students, and assessed correlations for both age and gender.

Most theorists have argued that personality is a product of biological and environmental factors. To help individuals understand the different approaches used to analyze the theories of personality, many theorists have given emphasis to different personality and development. One has included four approaches to help individuals gain

“Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving” (American Psychological Association, 2017) and is both socially and culturally constructed. The psychology of personality deals with how and why people differ. There is no unifying theory to describe personality, although many descriptions and structures have been proposed. Theories of personality specify the central elements of personality and these are the characteristics by which people differ. Such theories include the psychodynamic, humanistic and trait perspectives.

In psychology the question of what factor affecting personality most has been constantly debated with many theories around the conclusion. The two factors concerning nurture or nature have been picked apart and compared and contrasted to see what might be a dominant factor. It still seems that one is not more overpowering than the other but the question still remains of what is the leading trait in personality? Personality is how we interact to the world around us and our behaviors we express. The underlying causes although and why each and every person is uniquely different with a personality all their own is from the nature and nurture perspective. Personality in a technical sense is described as the visible aspect of ones character and the

A popular, though controversial method for dealing with gender has been to compare the sexes and discern the differences between the two. In their book The Psychology of Sex Differences, Maccoby and Jacklin (1974) discovered four major differences between males and females: verbal, quantitative, spatial

One of the most important parts of a person’s personality is the gender the person identifies themselves with. Sometimes the gender a person

As current research increasingly provides evidence that contradicts previous studies of personality continuance, personality trait change research is delving into concentrated studies of gender-specific characteristic changes. Current research has documented that women have an expectation that personality traits will change over the course of middle age and also when studied in retrospect women believed that personality trait change did occur in middle age as detailed by Stewart, Ostrove, and Helson (2001).

The field of personality psychology is a very unique one as it tries to understand and describe the individual human being as a complex whole. It would seem easy to describe one personality by simply identifying one personal traits or behaviors but one cannot explain individuality without comparing it against other living organisms. Mc Adams (2009) states that the study of personality psychology requires that one attempts to construct a scientifically credible account of people psychological differences and search for biological and socio-cultural factors that explain these differences and commonalities. In order for us to understand these differences we need to start at the core of human nature; at its origins.

The following will reflect this researchers understanding and reflection on personality, how it defines one, what it means, and if one’s personality changes to fit certain situations. At the end this researcher may have a better insight into herself as well as the personalities of others. This insight can help her in her future endeavors.

Many people have tried to study the psychological differences between genders and found that there are very few. One such study, conducted by Janet Shibley Hyde, used meta-analysis to compare men’s and women’s reactions to certain social situations. Using the equation difference is equal to the mean score for males minus the mean score for women divided by the within-gender standard deviation, Shibley Hyde found that most differences were close to zero, difference was equal to or less than .1, and very few were large dissimilarities, where difference was above .66 (Shibley Hyde). She also found that differences varied according to social context.