Possibly aimed at
young adults and the general adult reader, this gives an overview of 1980s research
on early childhood, parenting styles,
puberty, delinquency, domestic violence, marriage, divorce and on sex
differences as applied to work, creativity, love and communication
patterns. Rutgers psychology professor Anne Campbell edited the work of a team of psychologists, sociologists,
anthropologists and biologists.
Birth
sex ratio. Women’s hormone levels may help determine a baby’s sex by
influencing whether X or Y bearing sperm is successful in fertilisation. Lower
levels of hormones early and late in fertile period seem to favour males,
higher levels in middle of fertile period seem to favour females. Hormone
treatment for conception problems produces birth sex ration of 85M/100F.
European average 106M/100F, Korean 115M/100F; Caribbean and African blacks have
lower male births than Europeans. Mothers with AB blood have more sons.
Orthodox male Jews have male biased birth ratio; Talmud decrees no intercourse
until 12th day of cycle (7 days after end of period). More girls are born to
older couples and those married longer, may be related to frequency of
intercourse (declining with time and most likely when woman is most receptive).
Higher number of male births in wartime, couples less selective about time of
intercourse when man home on short term leave, plus greater sexual promiscuity.
Adopting
a sex role. Subtle and pervasive learning process. Children tend to model
themselves on same sex peer group. Influence of depictions on television:
female engineer’s daughter may not consider engineering because female
engineers are not common in life, books, TV or friends. Children are influenced
by position in birth order of family and by sex of older and younger siblings.
Mothers
at work: employed mothers spend less time on household chores. Children of
working mothers experience more varied adult interaction, activities and toys,
may also be given more responsibility and chores at an earlier age, more likely
to be given formal lessons (ballet, piano, sports) and fathers participate a
little more fully in house and child care. Parental splits. Divorce often means
less prosperity for the parent with custody of the children, may mean move to a
new neighbourhood, so loss of friends, neighbours, school.
Aggression
is affected by testosterone level. High testosterone level link to high aggression level, and vice
versa. Social non-acceptance of violence. Boys more often punished physically
for aggression than girls, learning that being hit is something to do with
being male (taking it like a man), find pain is brief and tolerable and that
physical force is a way of imposing your will on others. Girls are as aware of
how to be aggressive but choose more often not to display it unless there is
real point. TV depicts male violence more often than female, this fosters
aggression and sex stereotypes as to who is aggressive.
Skills
and aptitudes. Present differences in spatial abilities would predict 2M to 1F
architect, actual ratio 100M/1F. Ratio for science the same as for architecture. Women should outnumber men in law but do not.
Teachers in maths and science
expect boys to do better than girls, will spend more time with boys, give them
longer to answer questions, work harder to get correct responses, more likely
to call on boys for answers, which all promote confidence.
Moral
development. (1) Will I be punished? begins 3-6 yrs (2) Will I be rewarded?
begins 5-9 yrs (3) What will people think of me? begins 7-12 yrs (4) What if
everyone did that? begins 10-15 yrs (5) Should I feel obliged to do this?
begins 12 yrs up (6) Is it right according to universal principles? exceptional.
Boys and girls go through same developmental stages. Offence in court of most
girls is non-conformity to social model of accepted behaviour for young girls
(ie. promiscuity, cohabiting, associating with undesirable friends). In USA,
while in detention girls routinely checked for virginity, sexual disease and
pregnancy. Boys more often in court for ‘criminal’ offences. Court cases 1/6
girls, 5/6 boys; of those sentenced to custodial placement, 50/50 girls and
boys. Truancy, shoplifting, petty theft, drinking alcohol, using some drugs:
girls and boys alike. More serious crimes, many more boys than girls. Today
girls have more freedom, more likely to be in gang, which is when more
delinquency occurs with the need to win gang approval.
Violence. Man who batters wife is also likely to batter children. Pregnant women espec.
prone to being battered. American research found battered women may have little
confidence in their ability to live on their own or as a single parent or to be
financially independent, rather than be disposed to provoke abuse or attracted
to batterers.
Feelings:
men and women likely to feel same levels of anger, fear, etc.; women able and
willing to show this more than men. Communication: women better than men in
decoding emotional messages read from body languages but do not spot deception
as well; men better at spotting lies. Women less ability to deceive as used to
expressing emotion. Men see difference between face and body language.
Media
representation. Commercials: women consumers, men technical voice-overs. Women
more often depicted in family setting. News: women rarely written about, are
rarely the writers, rarely photographed except for gossip of page 3 type
pictures.
People
range from male men to androgynous (both factors in either sex) to female
women. The androgynous types of either sex are more flexible, better
psychologically adjusted; should we not use the terms masculine and feminine but
rather assess individual characteristics (eg. assertiveness, self-reliance,
tenderness, sensitivity)?
END
