Personality Differences in Gender

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

Anthropologist Margaret Mead addressed the differences in temperament found between men and women in her book Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935). In this study she concluded that sex has no bearing on social traits and the temperament of an individual. Her research looked at whether masculine or feminine traits are innate or learned. She also questioned whether men and women differ because of nature (heredity) or nurture (socialization). She concludes that cultural conditioning is more important than biology in shaping the behavior of women and men. The observed differences in temperament between men and women are not a function of their biological differences. Rather, they result from differences in the socialization

He argues in the book that the human mind makes a difference between men and women, but they cannot be judged because of their genders and mental and physical abilities. Thought the thoughts of males and females are entirely different because of internal biological differences society and culture play a part in the standards these genders should conform to fit in. Socialization to gender roles impacts the shaping of the male and female minds in society, and this Pinker did not emphasize. Gender is defined as the socially constructed behavior, roles, attributes and activities that our societies consider appropriate for women and men. The development process that shapes the mind begins in life early and heightens during adolescence stage for instance; researchers discovered that gender expectation negatively influences psychosocial development of girls. Thus inferring the fact that men and females cannot be judged by their mental and physical abilities is true but minus the influence of influences of cultural and religious biases the male and females mind would not be that different.

In order to do so, you need to see how people attach to certain things that are involved in their everyday lives. To me its kind of like comfort, comfort to me is a close friend or family member who know how to interpret with me. I’d feel more comfortable talking to a friend who is a female rather than male on certain subjects of a conversation. Although, reading into gender and research, you look into Androcentricity, overgeneralizing, gender blindness, double standards, and interference. Gender has a lot to do with various social aspects and affects the way we approach it sometimes. There’s a bias barrier within the five personal traits but that doesn’t mean it’s

In every society, there is a profound distinction between the sexes and their roles within said society. In most societies, this is a diverse network of associations that not only covers those features directly related to sex, such as anatomy and physiology, reproduction, the division of labor, and personality attributes.

Sociologists reject the idea that behavioural differences between men and women are biologically determined. Outline the key grounds for this rejection and discuss what this means for a sociological understanding of gender.

Sex and gender play a big part in american society today and are often misconstrued. These two topics have become progressive as people are starting to express their gender and sexuality in ways other than what is and has been considered the norm. Many people believe that sexuality and gender are synonymous with one another. Gender is socially constructed while sex is biologically determined. In society’s past, Americans often strayed away from discussing controversial topics, but with the rise of different ways of addressing people, it is deemed more important to understand. Along with the blurred lines of gender and sex comes sexuality, who someone is attracted to sexually. When people stray from society’s heteronormative mindset, they are often faced with many more challenges than the average hetero man or woman. People often have the preconceived notion that if something does not concern them, then they should not be involved in it. A person who could be your neighbor, co worker, or even child, may have to deal with the troubles of people confusing their gender identity with their sex. While also facing challenges that deal with the sex of the person they choose to love. Learning the difference between gender and sexuality will open the eyes of many people and see how the two are different but relate to one another very much.

Some of these gender roles and stereotypes have been created due to the differences in physique, thinking, personality, and behavior that is actually present between men and females. Physical differences are more visible to the eye due to the distinction between primary and secondary sex characteristics for each gender. Males have testes, deeper voices, a bigger body type, and more facial hair, where as women have a smaller body, higher voices, ovaries, and wider hips. (Rathus, 2010, p.448). Cognitive differences have to do with the brain and the way men and women

Women with strong masculine traits often receive similar criticism; women are expected to behave differently than men. One study found that in professional business environments women were more likely to disclose chronic illness and find social support, while men were expected to maintain composure and not stray from the task at hand (Munir, Price, Haslam, Leka, & Griffiths, 2006). To further highlight this difference between genders on the disclosure of personal information, women who score high in feminine traits are more likely to become emotionally invested and disclose personal information about themselves in conversations with acquaintances (Shaffer, Pegalis, & Cornell, 2001).

by society. With the exception of the flaw in role theory of human behavior being consistent, the

Both nature and nurture interplay to determine personality characteristics. Nature is heredity and passed on at conception. Nurture is that which is environmentally developed. It is innate that a baby will crawl, but he needs the support of his environment (diet, etc.) if he is to ultimately survive. Our behaviour is the result of a combination of inborn traits and the situations in which we find ourselves. There are five categorise which help influence personality differences. Genetically, offspring tend to take on some of the characteristics of their parents. However, this could be due to long term exposure to the personalities of their parents rather than their genetic coding. Whether a person is male or female determines what gender role they take on. ‘Women are expected to be nurturing, attractive, emotional, weak, and subordinate to men; whereas, men are the strong, rational, objective, and financial providers’ (Loue and Sajatovic, 2007). Ones family experiences can also influence a person’s behaviour. Family experiences like: ‘family size, birth order, differential parental orientations towards children’ etc. will impact on the emergence of personality as well as a person’s suitability to leadership roles (Morley and Moore et al., 2004, pp. 28-52). Culture plays a very strong role in determining what is believed to be acceptable and unacceptable

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.

In her paper on the biological differences in cognition between men and women, Doreen Kimura suggests that the social differences between genders arose out of biological necessity (Kimura 46). Even so, it is difficult to argue that social factors do play a large part in gender in society today. A closer look at both biological and social perspectives will reveal more about the processes that determine gender roles.

No one would argue the fact that men and women are physically different. The physical differences are rather obvious and most of these can be seen and measured easily. Men, who are essentially built for physical confrontation and the use of force, usually have greater upper body strength, build muscle easily, have thicker skin, and mostly use the left side of their brain. Women on the other hand, have a higher percentage of body fat, and a wider pelvis. Women also have four times as many brain cells connecting the right and left side of their brain. This provides physical evidence that supports the observation that men rely easily and more heavily on their left brain to solve one problem one step at

As evident from the generalized patterns found in differences in behaviour and outlook observed between the sexes, it may be tempting, as has been done in the past, to conclude that gender is an unavoidable aspect of human existence as determined purely from one 's genes. Indeed, human physiology is subject to sexual dimorphism; statistically significant differences in brain size and rate of maturation of specific substructures in the brain exist between males and females (Giedd, Castellanos, Rajapakese, Vaituzis, & Rapoport, 1997), yet these physical differences fail to explain how individuals form their concept of their own gender, and why they tend to conform to their perceived gender roles as defined by the society in which they live, when these roles are ever-changing. Thus, it is important to differentiate between the physical and nonphysical traits, and how the labels of femininity and masculinity should not confuse the two aspects. As defined by Unger (1979), “sex” would be used to refer to the biological differences in males and females, while “gender” describes socioculturally determined, nonphysiological traits which are arbitrarily designated as being appropriate for either females or males. With more recent awareness and interest in matters of gender nonconformity and individual gender identity, new research now explains how these concepts of gender are shaped by social influences (Perry