Sex differences in psychology are differences in mental function and gender behavior, and are caused by complex interactions of biological, developmental, and cultural factors. Differences have been found in areas such as mental health, cognitive ability, personality, and tendency toward aggression. Such variations may be innate or learned and often very difficult to distinguish. Modern research tries to distinguish between these differences, and to analyze each ethical issue raised. Because behavior is the result of interaction between nature and nurture, researchers are interested in investigating how biology and the environment interact to produce such differences, although this is often not possible.
A number of factors combine to influence the development of sex differences, including genetics and epigenetics; differences in brain structure and function; hormone; or differences in psychological traits such as emotion, motivation, cognition, and sexuality. Differences in the socialization of men and women can decrease or increase the size of gender differences.
Video Sex differences in psychology
History
Beliefs about gender differences may have existed throughout history. In his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin proposed that, like physical characteristics, psychological characteristics evolved through the process of sexual selection:
In the distant future I see an open field for much more important research. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, which is necessary to acquire every mental strength and capacity with gradation.
Two of his later books, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relationships for Sex (1871) and Emotional Expression in Humans and Animals (1872) explored the subject of psychological differences between both sexes. The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection includes 70 pages on sexual selection in human evolution, some of which involve psychological features.
Maps Sex differences in psychology
Psychological properties
Development of gender identity
Individuals who are reassigned at birth offer the opportunity to see what happens when a child who is genetically one of the sexes is raised as the other. The infamous sexual engagement case is the case of David Reimer. Reimer was born biologically as a male but was raised as a woman following medical advice after a surgery that destroyed his genitals. Reassignment is considered a valid test that is primarily the concept of social learning of gender identity for some unique circumstances of the case. Despite hormonal therapy and surgery, Reimer fails to identify as a woman. According to his account and his parents, gender assignment has caused severe mental problems throughout his life. At the age of 38, Reimer committed suicide.
Some individuals have gender identities that are different from those defined at birth by their sex, and are referred to as transgender. These cases often involve significant gender dysphoria similar to David Reimer's experience. How this identity is formed is unknown, although several studies have shown that male-to-female transgenderism is related to androgen levels during fetal development.
Childhood play
Many different studies have been conducted on sex differences in the behavior of young children's play, often resulting in conflicting results. One study conducted on nineteen-month-olds revealed the male preference for "masculine" toy stereotypes, and women's preference for "feminine" toy stereotypes, with men showing more variance in play behavior. A study of thirteen-month-olds supports the theory that men and women usually prefer typed toys for their sex, but instead find women to show more variety than men. An additional study found that the gender gaps in toys can express themselves as early as nine months of age. Despite this obvious difference, a study of toddlers shows that boys and girls are equally active when playing, and both sex prefer toys that allow them to express this.
The specific causes of this gender difference have also been investigated. A study with 112 boys and 100 women found that differences in play behavior appear to be semi-correlated with fetal testosterone. Girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia and thus exposed to high androgen levels during pregnancy tend to play more with men's toys and fewer with typical women. However, some argue that the characteristics of the condition itself can also lead to the girls choosing different types of toys.
One study also claimed that the one-day-old girls stared at the face longer, while the suspended mechanical phone, rather than the face, kept the boy's attention longer, although the research has been criticized for having methodological deficiencies. Further studies can not replicate results in the same context.
Research has shown that when men's typical toys are labeled as suitable women, young girls become more likely to play with them. Several studies have concluded that many end up treating infants and toddlers differently based on their gender assumptions, even if boys and girls express the same behavior. Children raised by lesbian mothers are reported by parents to become more androgyny in the personality, suggesting that, if the reporting is accurate, education may affect certain gender traits.
Human-like play preferences have also been observed in guenons and rhesus macaques, although the co-authors of recent studies warn about over-interpreting data.
Sexual behavior
Psychological theories exist concerning the development and expression of gender differences in human sexuality. A number of these theories are consistent in predicting that men should be more in favor of free sex (sex occurs outside of stable and committed relationships such as marriage) and should also be more choosy (have higher number of sexual partners) than women:
Neoanalytic theories are based on the observation that mothers, compared to fathers, bear primary responsibility for parenting in most families and cultures; both male and female infants therefore form a strong emotional bond to their mother, a woman. According to feminist psychoanalytic theorist Nancy Chodorow, girls tend to maintain this attachment throughout life and define their identity in relational terms, whereas boys must reject this motherly attachment to develop masculine identity. In addition, the theory predicts that women's economic dependence on men in male-dominated societies will tend to cause women to agree more sex in committed relationships that provide economic security, and less so in ordinary relationships.
The sociobiological approach applies evolutionary biology to human sexuality, emphasizing reproductive success in shaping sexual behavior patterns. According to sociobiologists, because female parental investments in reproduction are larger than men, because human sperm are much more than eggs, and the fact that women have to devote sufficient energy to tell their offspring, women will tend to be far more selective in themselves. choice of spouse than men. It may not be possible to accurately test sociobiological theories in relation to promiscuity and free sex in contemporary society (USA), which is quite different from that of ancestral human societies where most natural selection for sexual characteristics has occurred.
According to the theory of social learning, sexuality is influenced by the social environment of society. This theory shows that sexual behavior and behavior are learned through the observation of role models such as parents and media personalities, as well as through positive or negative reinforcements for appropriate behavior or against existing gender roles. It predicts that gender differences in sexuality may change over time as a function of changing social norms, and also that the double standard of society in punishing women is heavier than men (who may actually be rewarded) for engaging in free or indecent sex will lead to significant gender differences in attitudes and behaviors related to sexuality.
Such social dual standards also describe social role theory, which shows that sexual attitudes and behaviors are shaped by the roles expected by men and women to be filled in society, and the script theory, which focuses on the symbolic meaning of behavior; this theory suggests that social conventions affect the meaning of certain acts, such as male sexuality that is bound more to individual pleasure and macho stereotypes (therefore predicting the sheer number of ordinary sexual encounters) and female sexuality that is tied more to the quality of committed relationships..
The Theory of Sexual Strategy by David Buss and David P. Schmitt is a theory of evolutionary psychology concerning the short-term and long-term marriage strategies of women and men who according to them depend on several different purposes and vary depending on the environment. Terri D. Conley et al. argues that other empirical evidence supports gender differences and smaller or non-existent social theories such as stigma, socialization, and double standards.
Intelligence
With the emergence of the concept of g , or general intelligence, some form of empirical measurement of differences in intelligence, is possible, but the results are inconsistent. Studies show no difference, or gain for both sexes, with most showing little benefit for men. One study found some benefits for women later in life, while others found that male excesses in some cognitive tests were minimized when controlling for socioeconomic factors. The average IQ difference between women and men is small in magnitude and inconsistent in direction, although male score variability has been found to be greater than for women, resulting in more men than women at the top and bottom of the IQ distribution.
According to the 1995 1995 Intelligence: Known and Unknown report by the American Psychological Association, "Most standardized intelligence tests have been constructed so there is no difference in overall scores between women and men." Arthur Jensen in 1998 conducted a study of gender differences in intelligence through tests that were "loaded heavily on g" but not normed to eliminate gender differences. The conclusion he quotes is "No evidence was found for gender differences at the average level g Men, on average, excel at some factors, women to others". The result of Jensen that no overall sex difference exists for g has been reinforced by researchers who assessed this problem with a battery of 42 mental ability tests and found no overall sex difference.
Although most tests do not show a difference, some do. For example, they found women perform better on verbal skills while men perform better on visuospatial abilities. One of the hallmarks of women is in oral eloquence where they have been found to perform better in vocabulary, reading comprehension, speech production and essay writing. Men have been specifically found to perform better on spatial visualization, spatial perception, and mental rotation. The researchers then recommend that general models such as fluid and crystallization of intelligence are divided into verbal, perceptual and visuospatial domains of g, because when this model is applied then women excel at verbal and perceptual tasks while men are on visuospatial tasks.
But there are also differences in the capacity of men and women in performing certain tasks, such as object rotations in space, often categorized as spatial capabilities. The traditional superiority of other men, as in the field of mathematics is less clear. Although women have lower performance in spatial abilities, they perform better at processing speeds that involve letters, numbers and fast naming tasks, object location memory, verbal memory, and verbal learning as well.
Memory
The results of research on gender differences in memory are mixed and inconsistent, with some studies showing no difference, and others showing the benefits of women or men. Most studies did not find gender differences in short-term memory, memory depletion rates due to aging, or memory of visual stimuli. Women have been found to have an advantage in remembering the auditory and olfactory stimuli, experiences, faces, names, and locations of objects in space. However, men show an advantage in remembering "masculine" events. A study examining gender differences in performance at the California Verbal Learning Test found that males perform better on Digit Span Backwards and at reaction times, while women are better at short-term memory memory and Symbol-Digit Modality Tests. Women have also been shown to have better verbal memory.
A study was conducted to explore areas within the brain that were activated during tasks of working memory in men versus women. Four different tasks increased difficulty given to 9 men and 8 women. Functional magnetic resonance imaging is used to measure brain activity. The lateral prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex and caudate are activated in both sexes. With a more difficult task, more brain tissue is activated. The left hemisphere is mostly activated in the female brain, whereas there is bilateral activation in the male brain.
Aggression
Although research on gender differences in aggression shows that men are generally more likely to display aggression than women, how much this is because social factors and gender expectations are unclear. Aggression is closely related to the definition of "masculine" and "feminine" cultures. In some situations, women exhibit the same or more aggression of men, though less physically; for example, women are more likely to use direct personal aggression, where others can not see them, and are more likely to use indirect aggression in public. Men are more likely to be targeted to show aggression and provocation than women. Studies by Bettencourt and Miller show that when provocation is controlled, gender differences in aggression are greatly reduced. They argue that this shows that norms of gender roles play a large role in the difference in aggressive behavior between men and women. Psychologist Anne Campbell argues that women are more likely to use indirect aggression, and that "cultural interpretations have" enhanced "evolutionary sex differences by a process of imposition that symbolizes the expression of aggression by women and causes women to offer exceptions (not justification) of their own aggression accounts".
According to the 2015 International Encyclopedia of social and behavioral sciences , the sex difference in aggression is one of the most powerful and oldest findings in psychology. Meta-analysis of the past in the encyclopedia finds men regardless of age engaging in more physical and verbal aggression while minor effects for women engage in more indirect aggression such as the spread of rumors or gossip. It was also found that men tend to engage in more unwarranted aggression at higher frequencies than women. This replicated another 2007 meta-analysis of 148 studies in the journal Child Development that found greater male aggression in childhood and adolescence. This analysis also corresponds to the Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology reviewing past analysis and finding greater use of males in verbal and physical aggression with greater differences in physical types. A meta-analysis of 122 studies published in the journal Aggressive Behavior found men were more likely to cyber-bully than women. The differences also show that women report more cyber bullying behavior during mid-teens while men show more cyber bullying behavior in late adolescence.
The relationship between testosterone and aggression is unclear, and causal relationships have not been shown conclusively. Several studies have shown that testosterone levels can be affected by environmental and social influences. This relationship is difficult to learn because the only reliable measure of brain testosterone is from lumbar puncture that is not performed for research purposes and many studies instead use less reliable measures such as blood testosterone. In humans, men engage in crime and especially violent crimes more than women. Involvement in crime usually increases in early adolescence to mid-adolescence that occurs simultaneously with increased testosterone levels. Most studies support the relationship between adult criminality and testosterone although the relationship is simple if examined separately for each sex. However, almost all juvenile delinquency and testosterone studies are not significant. Most studies have also found that testosterone is associated with behavior or personality traits related to criminality such as antisocial behavior and alcoholism.
In species that have high levels of physical competition and male aggression against females, males tend to be larger and stronger than females. Humans have the body's sexual dimorphism in general on characteristics such as height and body mass. However, this may discourage sexual dimorphism regarding the characteristics associated with aggression because women have large fat stores. Sex differences are greater for muscle mass and especially for upper body muscle mass. Male skeletons, especially on vulnerable, stronger faces. Another possible explanation, not intra-species aggression, is that sexual dimorphism may be an adaptation to the division of sexual labor with men who hunt. However, hunting theory may have difficulty explaining differences regarding features such as stronger protective skeletons, beards (not helpful in hunting, but they increase the perceived size of the jaw and perceived dominance, which may be helpful in male competitions within species), and greater male capability in interception (greater targeting ability can be explained by hunting).
There is an evolutionary theory of male aggression in certain fields such as the sociobiological theory of rape and the theory of high levels of torture against stepchildren (Cinderella effect). Another evolutionary theory that explains the gender differences in aggression is the male warrior hypothesis, which explains that men psychologically evolve for intergroup aggression to gain access to spouses, resources, territories, and status.
Personality characters
Cross-cultural research has shown gender differences in tests that measure social skills and emotionality. For example, on a scale measured by the Big Five personality traits, women consistently report higher Neuroticism, friendliness, warmth (extensionversion facets) and openness to feelings, and men often report higher assertiveness (an extraversional aspect) and an openness to the idea assessed by NEO-PI-R. Gender differences in personality traits are the greatest in a prosperous, healthy, and egalitarian culture in which women have more of the same opportunities as men. The difference in the magnitude of the sex differences between the more or less developed regions of the world is due to differences between men, not women, in these areas. That is, men in developing world regions are less neurotic, extroverted, meticulous and fun compared to men in less developed world regions. Women, on the other hand, tend not to differ in personality traits throughout the region. Researchers have speculated that poor environmental resources (ie, countries with low levels of development) can hinder the development of gender differences, while resource-rich environments facilitate them. This may be because men need more resources than women to reach their full development potential. The authors argue that due to different evolutionary pressures, males may have evolved to be more socially and socially responsible, while women evolved to be more careful and nurturing. The hunter-gatherer society in which humans originally evolved may be more egalitarian than agrarian-oriented societies later on. Therefore, the development of gender inequality may have acted to limit the development of gender differences in the personality originally developed in hunter-gatherer societies. As modern society has become more egalitarian again it may be that inborn sex differences are no longer restricted and therefore manifest more fully than in less developed cultures. Currently, this hypothesis is still untested, since gender differences in modern society have not been compared to hunter-gatherer societies.
Personality traits that are directly related to emotions and empathy where gender differences exist (see below) are Machiavellianism. Individuals who score high on this dimension are emotionally cool; this allows them to escape from others and values, and act selfishly rather than driven by influence, empathy or morality. In a large sample of US male students the average is more Machiavellian than female; in particular, men are more represented among very tall Machiavellians, while women are too numerous among the low Machiavellians. The 2014 meta-analysis by researchers Rebecca Friesdorf and Paul Conway found that males got a much higher score on narcissism than women and these findings were strong in previous literature. Meta-analyzes included 355 studies measuring narcissism among participants from the US, Germany, China, the Netherlands, Italy, Britain, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Australia and Belgium as well as measuring latent factors from 124 additional studies. The researchers note that gender differences in narcissism are not only measurement artifacts but also represent significant differences in latent personality traits such as a sense of rights and high authority.
Meta-analytic studies have also found men on average more assertive and have higher self-esteem. Women on average are higher than men in extraversion, anxiety, trust, and, especially, gentle thoughts (eg, parenting). Women were also found to be more sensitive to punishment and higher men in the search for sensation and behavioral risk taking. The deficit in business control also shows a very simple measure of effect in the direction of men.
A meta-analysis of scientific studies concludes that men prefer to work with things and women prefer to work with people. When interests are classified by the RIASEC type of the Holland Code (Realistic, Investigation, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional), Men show stronger Realistic and Investigation interests, and women show stronger Artistic, Social, and Conventional interests. Sex differences that benefit men are also found for more specific sizes of engineering, science, and math interests.
Empathy
The current literature finds that women show more empathy throughout the study. Women perform better than men in tests that involve emotional interpretation, such as understanding facial expressions, and empathy.
Some studies have argued that this is related to perceptions of gender identity and subject gender expectations. In addition, culture affects gender differences in emotional expression. This can be explained by the different social roles that women and men have in different cultures, and by the status and power that men and women have in different societies, as well as different cultural values ​​held by different societies. Some studies have found no difference in empathy between women and men, and show that perceived gender differences are the result of different motivations. Some researchers argue that because the differences in empathy disappear on tests where it is not clear that empathy is being studied, men and women are not different in ability, but rather in how empathy they want to appear to themselves and others.
A review published in the journal Neuropsychologia found that women are better at recognizing facial effects, expression and emotional processes in general. Men are only better at recognizing certain behaviors that include anger, aggression, and threatening cues. A 2006 meta-analysis by researcher Rena A Kirkland of the North American Psychological Journal found a significant gender difference that benefited women in the "Read mind" test. The "Reading mind" test is a measure of the ability of the theory of mind or cognitive empathy in which Kirkland's analysis involves 259 studies in 10 countries. Another 2014 meta-analysis in Cognition and Emotion journals , found overall female benefits in non-verbal emotional recognition in 215 samples.
Analysis of the journal Neuroscience & amp; Biobehavioral reviews found that there were gender differences in empathy from birth that remained consistent and stable throughout lifetime. Women are found to have higher empathy than men while children with higher empathy regardless of sex continue to be higher in empathy during development. Further analysis of brain tools such as event-related potentials found that women who saw human suffering had higher ERP waves than men. Other investigations with similar brain devices such as the N400 amplitude found N400 higher in women in response to socially positively correlated situations with self-reported empathy. Structural fMRI studies have found that women have larger gray matter volumes in the inferior posterior and inferior anterior parietal frontal cortex regions correlated with mirror neurons in the fMRI literature. Women are also found to have strong links between emotional and cognitive empathy. The researchers found that the stability of sex differences in these developments is unlikely to be explained by environmental influences but more likely to have some roots in human evolution and inheritance.
The evolutionary explanation for the difference is that understanding and tracking relationships and reading the emotional state of others is very important for women in prehistoric societies for tasks such as caring for children and social networking. Throughout prehistory, women are nurtured and are the primary caretakers of children so this may have led to evolving neurological adaptations for women to be more aware and responsive to non-verbal expressions. According to Primary Caretaker Hypothesis, prehistoric men do not have the same selective pressure as primary caregivers, therefore this may explain modern sex differences in emotional and empathy recognition..
Emotion
When measured by measures of intensity affect, women report greater intensity of positive and negative influences than men. Women also report more intense and more frequent experiences of influence, pleasure, and love, but also experience more shame, guilt, shame, sadness, anger, fear, and depression. Experiencing more frequent and intense pride for men than women. In frightening situations that are frightening, like being at home alone and watching a stranger walk into your house, the women report a greater fear. Women also report more fear in situations involving "male rude and aggressive behavior" (281) In situations of anger, women communicate stronger feelings of anger than men. Women also report more angry feelings in relation to frightening situations, especially situations involving male protagonists. Emotional contagion refers to the emotional phenomenon of a person who becomes similar to the emotions of those around him. Women are reported to be more responsive to this.
Women are stereotypically more emotional and men are more stereotypically angry. When they do not have substantial emotional information, they can base judgments, people tend to rely more on gender stereotypes. The results of a study conducted by Robinson and his colleagues imply that gender stereotypes are more influential when assessing the emotions of others in hypothetical situations.
There are documented differences in socialization that can contribute to differences in sex in emotions and differences in patterns of brain activity. An American Psychological Association article states that, "boys are generally expected to suppress emotions and to express anger through violence, rather than constructively". A child development researcher at Harvard University believes that boys are taught to close their feelings, such as empathy, sympathy, and other key components of what is considered pro-social behavior. According to this view, the difference in emotionality between the sexes is theoretically built only socially, not biologically.
The context also determines the emotional behavior of men or women. Context-based emotional norms, such as feeling rules or display rules, "prescribe emotional experiences and expressions in certain situations such as marriage or funerals," regardless of one's gender. In situations such as marriage or funerals, the activated emotional norm applies to and limits everyone in the situation. Gender differences are more pronounced when situational demands are small or nonexistent and in ambiguous situations. During this situation, gender norms "are the default options governing emotional behavior" (290-1).
Scientists in the field distinguish between emotional and emotional expression: Associate Professor of Psychology Ann Kring said, "It is not true to make a statement that women are more emotional than men, it's true to say that women show their emotions more than men." In two research by Kring, women are found to be more expressive than men when it comes to positive and negative emotions. These researchers conclude that women and men experience the same amount of emotion, but women are more likely to express their emotions.
Women are known to have anatomically different tear glands than men and have more prolactin hormones, present in the tear glands, as adults. While girls and boys cry almost the same number at age 12, at age 18, women generally cry four times more than men, which can be explained by higher levels of prolactin.
The women showed much greater activity in the left amygdala when encoding and remembering emotionally evocative images (such as mutilated bodies.) Men and women tend to use different neural pathways to encode stimuli into memory. Although the most emotionally well-remembered images are best remembered by all participants in one study, compared with emotionally neutral images, women remember images better than men. The study also found greater activation of the right amygdala in men and the left amygdala in women. On average, women use more left hemisphere when shown emotionally evocative images, while more men use their right hemisphere. Women also show more consistency between individuals for areas of the brain that are activated by emotionally disturbing images.
A worldwide survey in 2003 by the Pew Research Center found that overall women stated that they were somewhat happier than men with their lives. Compared to previous reports, five years earlier women were more likely to report progress with their lives while men were more optimistic about the future. Women are more concerned about home and family issues than men who are more concerned about problems outside the home. Men are happier than women about family life and more optimistic about the future of children.
Orientation of ethics and morals
Meta-analysis of the sex differences of moral orientation has found that women tend toward more caring morality while men tend toward more morality justice . This is usually based on the fact that men have a thinner utilitarian reasoning while women have more deontological reasoning largely due to the greater female affective responses and rejection of hazard-based behavior. A meta-analysis published in the journal 2013 Ethics and Behavior after reviewing 19 major studies also found women had greater moral sensitivity than men.
Mental health
Childhood behavioral disorders and adult antisocial personality disorder as well as impaired use of substances are more common in men. Many mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders are more common in women. One explanation is that men tend to internalize stress while women tend to internalize it. Gender differences vary at some level for different cultures. Women are more likely than men to show unipolar depression. One study of 1987 found little empirical support for some of the proposed explanations, including biological ones, and argued that when depressed women tend to reflect which may lower mood further while men tend to distract them with activity. It may evolve from women and men who are raised differently.
Men and women are no different on their overall psychopathology level; However, certain disorders are more common in women, and vice versa. Women have higher levels of anxiety and depression (internalized disorders) and men have higher levels of substance abuse and antisocial disorders (externalis disruption). It is believed that the division of power and responsibility set at each sex is essential to this predisposition. That is, women earn less money than men, they tend to have jobs with less power and autonomy, and women are more responsive to the problems of people in their social networks. These three differences can contribute to female propensity for anxiety and depression. It is believed that socializing practices that promote self-esteem and high self-mastery will benefit the mental health of women and men.
One study interviewed 18,572 respondents, aged 18 years and over, about 15 phobic symptoms. These symptoms will result in a diagnosis based on the criteria for agoraphobia, social phobia, and simple phobias. Women have significantly higher prevalence rates of agoraphobia and phobias; However, no differences were found between men and women in social phobia. The most common phobias for women and men involve spiders, insects, mice, snakes, and altitude. The greatest difference between men and women in this disorder is found in agoraphobic symptoms "out of the house alone" and "alone", and on two simple phobic symptoms, which involve the fear of "harmless or dangerous animals" and "storms", with relative more women are experiencing phobias. There is no difference in the age of onset, reporting fear at the phobic level, telling the doctor about symptoms, or recalling past symptoms.
One study interviewed 2,181 people in Detroit, aged 18-45, tried to explain gender differences in exposure to traumatic events and in the development or emergence of post-traumatic stress disorder after this exposure. It was found that the lifetime prevalence of traumatic events was slightly higher in men than in women. However, after exposure to traumatic events, the risk of PTSD is twice as high in women. Believed this difference is due to the greater risk that women experience to develop PTSD after a traumatic event involving violent attacks. In fact, the chances of a woman developing PTSD after attacking violence were 36% compared with 6% of men. PTSD duration is longer in women as well.
Women and men are equally likely to develop symptoms of schizophrenia, but onset occurs earlier for men. It has been suggested that the sexual anatomy of the brain is dimorphically, the differential effects of estrogen and androgens, and the heavy exposure of adolescent boys to alcohol and other toxic substances can cause early onset in men. It is believed that estrogen has a protective effect against the symptoms of schizophrenia. Although, it has been shown that other factors may contribute to delayed onset and symptoms in women, estrogen has a great effect, as can be seen during pregnancy. In pregnancy, estrogen levels increase in women, so women who experience recurrent episodes of schizophrenia usually do not experience damage. However, after pregnancy, when estrogen levels decline, women tend to suffer postpartum psychosis. Also, psychotic symptoms are aggravated when, during the menstrual cycle, estrogen levels are at their lowest point. In addition, estrogen treatment has produced beneficial effects in patients with schizophrenia.
Pathological gambling has been known to have a higher prevalence rate, 2: 1, in men to women. One study chose to identify gender-related differences by examining male and female gamblers, who used the gambling aid line. There are 562 calls placed, and of this number, 62.1% are male, and 37.9% are female. Male gamblers are more likely to report problems with strategic forms of gambling (blackjack or poker), and female gamblers are more likely to report problems with nonstrategic forms, such as slots or bingo. Male gamblers are also more likely to report longer gambling durations than women. Women gamblers are more likely to report receiving mental health care unrelated to gambling. Male gamblers are more likely to report drug problems or be arrested for gambling. There is a high level of debt and psychiatric symptoms associated with gambling observed in both groups of men and women.
There are also differences about gender and suicide. Men in Western societies are far more likely to die from suicide even though women have more suicide attempts.
The "extreme male brain theory" views autism as an extreme version of male-female differences regarding "systemic" and empathetic abilities. The "printed brain theory" argues that autism and psychosis are contrasting disorders in a number of different variables and that this is due to unbalanced genomics that support the father's gene (autism) or maternal genes (psychosis).
Cognitive behavior control
Women tend to have greater basal capacity to exercise inhibitory control of unwanted behavior or habits than men and respond differently to contextual factors of the modulation environment. For example, listening to music tends to significantly increase the inhibitory rate of response in women, but reduces the inhibition rate of response in men.
Possible cause
Biology
Genetics
Psychological properties can vary between sexes through sex. That is, what causes properties may be related to the sex of individual chromosomes. Conversely, there are also "sex-influenced" (or sex-conditioned) traits, in which the phenotypic manifestation of a gene depends on the sex of an individual. Even in women who are dominant homozygous or recessive, the condition may not be fully expressed. The characteristics of "confined to sex" are characteristics expressed only in one gender. They may be caused by genes on an autosomal or sex chromosome.
There is evidence that there are sex-related differences between male and female brains. Epigenetic changes have also been found to cause sex-based differentiation in the brain. The extent and nature of these differences are not fully characterized.
Brain structure and function
When it comes to the brain there are many similarities but also a number of differences in structure, neurotransmitters, and functions. However, some argue that innate differences in neurobiology of women and men have not been conclusively identified.
The structured adult male brain is 11-12% heavier and 10% larger than the female brain. However, since the relative differences in body size ratio of brain-to-body mass do not differ between the sexes. Other research suggests that the larger male brain size can only be partially calculated by body size. The researchers also found greater cortical thickness and cortical complexity in women and a larger female cortical surface area after adjusting for brain volume. Given that cortical complexity and cortical features are positively correlated with intelligence, the researchers suspect that these differences may have evolved for women to compensate for smaller brain size and equalize cognitive abilities overall with men. Women have larger neuropiles or spaces between neurons, which contain synapses, dendrites and axons, and the cortex has neurons that accumulate more closely in the temporal and prefrontal cortex. Women also have greater cortical thickness in the parietal temporal and inferior posterior areas compared with men independent of differences in brain or body size.
Although statistically there are sex differences in white matter and the percentage of gray matter, this ratio is directly related to brain size, and some argue that sex differences in percentage of gray and white matter are caused by differences in average size between men and women. Others argue that this difference persists after controlling brain volume.
In the 2013 meta-analysis, the researchers found the average male had a larger gray matter volume in the bilateral amygdalae, hippocampi, anterior parahippocampal gyri, posterior cingulate cingulate, precuneus, putamen and temporal pole, the area of ​​the posterior cingulate gyrus and anterior left, and areas of the bilateral cerebellum VIIb, VIII and Crus I lobe, leaving VI and the right Crus II lobes. On the other hand, women on average have larger gray matter volumes in right frontal poles, inferior and frontal glands, pars triangularis, planum temporale/parietal operculum, anterior cingulate gland, insular cortex, and Heschl gyrus; bilateral and precuneus thalamus; left parahippocampal gypsum and lateral occipital cortex (superior division). Meta-analysis found larger volumes in the most prominent women in areas in the right hemisphere associated with language in addition to some limbic structures such as the right insular cortex and the anterior cingulate gyrus.
The 2013 Amber Ruigrok metabolism also found greater gray density in the average left amygdala of males, hippocampus, insula, pallidum, putamen, claustrum and right brain. Meta-analysis also found a greater gray matter density on the female left frontal pole.
According to the review series of the journal Neuroscience Progress in Brain Research, it has been found that males have larger and longer Sylvian temple and temple planets while women have significantly larger proportional volumes to total brain volume in superior temporal cortex, Broca's area, hippocampus and caudate. The midsagittal & amp; the fiber number in the anterior commissure linking the temporal pole and the mass intermedia connecting the thalamus is also greater in women.
In the cerebral cortex, it has been observed that there is a greater intra- nerve brain connections in the male brain and is larger between the nerves (between the left and right hemispheres of the cortex brain ) neural communication in the female brain. In the cerebellum, regions of the brain that play an important role in motor function, males exhibit higher connectivity between the hemispheres, and women exhibit higher connectivity in the cerebral hemispheres. It has the potential to provide a neural basis for previous studies that show certain sex differences in certain psychological functions. Women on average outperform men on emotional recognition and nonverbal reasoning tests, while men outperform women in motor and spatial cognitive tests.
In the work of Szalkai et al. have calculated the structural (ie anatomical) connections of 96 subjects of the Human Connectome Project, and they have shown that in some deep graphic-theoretical parameters, women's structural connections are significantly more connected than men. For example, the female connectome has more edges, a higher minimum bipartite width, larger eigengap, a larger minimum vertex cover than a male. Minimum bipartite width (or minimum balanced slice (see Cut (graph theory))) is a measure of the quality of a well-known multistage interconnect computer network, illustrating the possibility of congestion in network communications: the higher this value, the better is the network. The larger Eigengap shows that the female connectome is a better expander graph than the male connectome. The better the property develops, the higher minimum bipartite width and the larger the minimum vertex cover, will show superiority in network connectivity in the case of female braingraph. Szalkai et al. also shows that most of the differences in theoretical charts remain valid if large brained women and small brains are compared: that is, theoretical differences in graphs are due to sex, rather than differences in the brain volume of the subject.
Hormones
Testosterone appears to be a major factor contributing to sexual motivation in male primates, including humans. The elimination of testosterone in adulthood has been shown to reduce sexual motivation in both male and male primates. Human men who had their testicular function suppressed with anatomy GnRH displayed decreased sexual desire and masturbation two weeks after the procedure. It is also suggested that testosterone levels in men are related to the type of relationship in which they are involved. Men who are involved in polyamorous relationships exhibit higher testosterone levels than men who are involved either in single-partner relationships or single men.
Research on the hypothesis of ovulatory shifts explains differences in preferences of female pairs throughout the ovulation cycle. Non-pills using ovulating heterosexual women (high estrogen levels) are shown to have a preference for male aromas with low fluctuating asymmetry levels. Certain studies also show that ovulating heterosexual women display a preference for masculine faces and report greater sexual attraction to men other than their current spouse, although this has been questioned. A meta-analysis of 58 studies concludes that there is no evidence to support this theory. A different meta-analysis supports the partial hypothesis, but only in terms of "short-term" appeal. Further studies of Finnish twins found that the influence of "context-dependent" factors (such as ovulation) on women's appeal to masculine faces was less than 1 percent. In addition, a 2016 paper shows that possible changes in preference during ovulation will be moderated by the quality of the relationship itself, even to the point of inversion for the sake of the current female partner.
Culture
The fundamental gender differences in genetics, hormones and the structure and function of the brain can manifest as distal cultural phenomena (eg, men as main fighters in warfare, female readers especially romance novels, etc.). In addition, differences in the socialization of men and women may have the effect of decreasing or increasing the magnitude of gender differences.
Controversy
In January 2005, Lawrence Summers, president of Harvard University, inadvertently provoked a public controversy when some participants discussed with reporters some of the statements he made during his lunch presentation at an economic conference at the National Economic Research Bureau. In analyzing the disproportionate number of men against women in high-end science and engineering work, he suggested that part of the difference may be due in part to the conflict between entrepreneurs' demand for high time commitment and the disproportionate role of women in raising children. He also suggested that well documented greater variability among men (compared to women) on a cognitive ability test may be due to intrinsic factors, adding that he "does not want anything better than proved wrong". The controversy generated a lot of media attention; it contributed to Summers' resignation the following year, and led Harvard to make $ 50 million for hiring and hiring women faculty. Stimulated by this controversy, in May 2005, Harvard University psychology professors Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke debated "The Science of Gender and Science".
In 2006, Danish psychologist and Danish intelligence researcher Helmuth Nyborg was temporarily suspended from his position at Aarhus University, having been accused of scientific misconduct in connection with the paper documentation reviewed by colleagues in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. i>, where it shows IQ profits 3.15 points from men over women. This led to a review of his work by the investigative committee. Nyborg was defended - and the university was criticized - by other researchers in the field of intelligence.
In July 2012, IQ researcher Jim Flynn was widely misquoted in the media for claiming that women had surpassed men on IQ tests for the first time in a century. In a lecture in 2012, Flynn responded by denouncing media reports as distortions, and made it clear that the data showed a rough parity between the sexes in some countries on the Raven Matrix for boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 18. Women, he argued, had earlier scored lower than men on the Raven test, but attained equality with men in these countries as a result of exposure to modernity by entering the profession and allowed greater access to education. Flynn states that minute variations that appear statistically are negligible and are not caused by differences in cognitive abilities.
Definitions
Psychological sex differences refer to emotional, motivational or cognitive differences between the sexes. Examples include the greater tendency of men to violence, or the belief that the female brain desperately needs empathy.
The terms "sex differences" and "gender differences" are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes to refer to differences in male and female behavior as either biological ("sex differences") or environment/culture ("gender differences"). This difference is difficult because of the failure to parse one from the other.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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