Gender and Optical Illusions Essay examples

The structure of men and women’s brain differ, which is the underlying cause to the differing communication skills (“Men and Women”). A study was conducted to examine the structural differences of men and women’s brains and the results provided an explanation to why men and women behave differently (“Men and Women”).

Differences related to gender in spatial memory are most widely described and studied of cognitive sex differences. In 1974 Maccoby and Jacklin established that males usually perform better than females in measures of spatial performance, and this discovery has been constantly replicated in multiple studies covering various developmental stages (McGivern et al. 1997; Lewin et al. 2001) and spatial tasks (Dabbs Jr. et al. 1998; Driscoll et al. 2005).

According to Hetherington and Parke (2002), studies of brain imaging identified that in female bilateralism there were greater amounts of blood flow. The male brain reflects greater lateralization attributing to a higher success rate in spatial tasks and mathematics.

Assumptions about gender are embedded in scientific bias. In Cordelia Fine’s From Scanner to Sound Bite: Issues in Interpreting and Reporting Sex Differences in the Brain, the author examines four scientific issues that are overlooked about sex differences in the brain. She concludes that there are numerous misinterpretations of neuroimaging research that ultimately influence gender biases, and society should be cautious when reading these articles about sex differences.

Differences in brain structure between males and females result in important differences in perceptions, emotional expressions, priorities and behaviors. (*) Relationship traits, problem solving approaches, mathematical abilities, reactions to stress, language, emotions, brain size, pain perception, spatial ability and susceptibility to disorders are just some areas in which men and women react differently because of their differences in brain structure. (*) To some scientists and theorists these many influential biological differences between men and women make gender roles inevitable. (*)

But they couldn’t be more wrong. Victoria M. Indivero of Penn State News’s ‘Sex segregation in schools, detrimental to equality’ say,”Neuroscientist have found a few difference between male and female brains, but none have been linked to different learning styles.” And to further back up this claim, I have Gina Rippon of Neuroscience News’s ‘Are Female and Male brains really different.’Which states,”It can be shown that a ‘characteristically male’ density of dendritic spines or branches of a neuro cell can be changed to the ‘female’ form simply by the application of a mild external stress. Biological sex alone cannot explain brain differences; to do so requires an understanding of how, when, and to what extent external events affect the struggle of the brain.” So as you can see the gender of the host does not determine nor change any aspect on the brain. It all has to do with the uniqueness of the brain and what happens outside it to the rest of the body that determines exactly what is need for living and learning. For example, if someone had been in a traumatizing car accident, but he was a young boy, it would be best not to stick him into a classroom that is littered with pictures and pictures of cars because they are seen as ‘boyish’. The things we do and happen to us as people

Thus, concluding that the explanation of biological, psychodynamic and learning approaches does influence on gender development. Each of these approaches explains how gender is developed in their own way. From the biological approach, we found out that gender differences are seen as resulting from sex differences. In other words, women and men act, think and feel differently because of differences in how their brains work. These brain differences may result from chromosomal differences and may also be the result of hormonal differences.

“Men have better distance vision and depth perception, and usually better vision in lighted environments. Women have better night vision, see better at the red end of the light spectrum, and have better visual memory.” (Steadyhealth website, 2015, Difference between male and female structures (Mental and Physical))

There are many theories and approaches to gender in terms of biology and science in general, which aim to suggest or prove that gender is natural and inherent. The first of these is the effect of hormones, more specifically testosterone, which causes male behaviour patterns such as aggression, competitiveness and a higher sexual drive. Testosterone also helps in the development of the brain. The brain is divided into two hemispheres, a left and a right. The left side of the brain is specialised in language skills whereas the right hand side of the brain is used for more non-verbal such as spatial awareness skills. Shaywitz et al (1995) used MRI scans to examine the brain whilst males and females carried out language tasks of varying difficulties. It was found that females used both hemispheres of the brain to complete the task whereas males only used the

Other explanations for the variations include a large amount of estrogen hormones in females, which is the primary reason for the differences in the parts of a woman’s brain. According to Bruce Goldman, a science writer for the Stanford Medical School’s Office of Communication and Public Affairs, a woman’s hippocampus, a region of the brain that processes most learning and memorization, is generally bigger than a man’s and functions in a distinctive way. Better learning and memorization skills are especially important when it comes to schooling, which explains why every two men who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2010 were matched by three women achieving the same (Rosin 306). This is not the only variations between the brains of each gender; the corpus callosum, the white matter in the center of the brain that helps the left and right lobe “talk” to each other, is larger in females, thus the reason that womens’ brains unfailingly show stronger communication between hemispheres (Goldman). Activity between these halves are important for speech as well as comprehension. Different sizes of different parts of the brain are part of the reason why women are biologically more capable in certain fields of work than men.

As we all know, women and men are very different, exteriorly and interiorly. Our brains are wired differently, we process information differently, we react differently. Due to this fact, we multitask differently. Society normally says women have the upper hand when it comes to doing more than one thing at a time, and a lot of experiments can prove that statement to be true. In fact, I read quite a few that claimed that result but one specific example is an experiment I read on the Daily Mail website. Scientists in England conducted an experiment with 1,000 young men and women. They scanned each individual’s brain in an MRI machine and showed the differences. Females have stronger connections between the right and left sides of their

Looking at male and females we can see the noticeable physical differences between the two sex, but besides exterior differences, there are subtle but significant differences within the brain. Spasificly INAH3 which is called “third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus” which is typically about two to three times larger

Women use both the left and the right sides of their brains for emotions. This seems to be yet another reason it is much easier for women to express their emotions (princess-ami).

Studies have also been carried out into whether or not there are differences between male and female brain size and whether this affects how we relate to each other in terms of gender. Simon Baron-Cohen believes that male brains are wired towards systematic understanding and females are wired towards empathy. In addition he says that this is not necessarily always the case but the majority are wired in this way: “Both sexes have their strengths and weaknesses. Neither sex is superior overall.” (Baron-Cohen, S. 2003).

Knowing the differences in the brain begins to give some understanding on how and why females and males learn differently. There are many basic differences in learning. Like stated previously females are better at verbal skills which makes them better at reading and writing and causes them to use words as they learn, and males are better