Study Guide Questions – Psych/WS 340

Exam #1

Describe four levels of explanation that can be applied in scientists’ attempts to explain sex differences in behavior and individual differences in masculinity and femininity.

What is the difference between the words “sex” and “gender”?

What is meta-analysis? What are some of the strengths and possible pitfalls of conducting meta-analyses?

What is the “normal distribution”? Describe the mean, variance, and standard deviation of a distribution. What is the d statistic? What does the term “effect size” refer to? What would classify as “small,” “medium,” and “large” effect sizes?

What do “essentialists” hold about sex differences and about masculinity and femininity? What is “social constructionism,” and what are its main assumptions about human knowledge and the scientific method? Contrast essentialist and social constructionist positions on the following topics: science and knowledge, sexuality and sexual orientation, cognitive abilities, aggression, the traits of masculinity and femininity, sex difference in work and occupational preferences.

Summarize research evidence on sex differences in the following domains: Personality; risk taking; social behaviors such as aggressiveness, helping, and conformity; sexuality; cognitive abilities; mental illness; occupational preferences; self-concept; activity levels and physical traits; childhood behaviors such as play styles, toy choices, and playing with boys versus girls.

Questions on Eagly’s “Science and Politics” article: What was the 1970s consensus on sex differences? What were the conclusions of Maccoby and Jacklin’s (1974) classic review? What are the advantages of quantitative reviews (i.e., meta-analyses)? List several theories that try to explain sex differences in behavior. Are sex differences “small”? Are sex differences smaller or larger than other kinds of “effects” studied by psychologists? What is the “common language effect size”? What does the word “artifact” mean, and are the sex differences found by psychological research “artifactual”? Do research findings on sex differences confirm or disconfirm common gender stereotypes?

Questions on Sandra Bem’s “mind of the perceiver” article: What is Bem’s view of biological sex differences and whether they exist? What does the term “sex typing” refer to? What is a “schema”? What are the basic propositions of Bem’s gender schema theory? According to gender schema theory, why do males and females behave differently? What are the antecedents of gender-schematic processing? Does Bem take an essentialist or a social constructionist view of masculinity and femininity?

Questions on Spence and Buckner’s “defining the undefinable” article: What was Constantinople’s (1973) critique of m-f testing? Do two-dimensional scales of masculine instrumentality and feminine expressiveness have problems? If so, what are they? Are there many different personality traits that are gender-related, according to Spence and Buckner? What are “sex roles,” and do instrumentality and expressiveness scales assess sex roles, according to Spence and Buckner? Describe the three models of masculinity and femininity listed by Spence and Buckner: the unifactorial model, the two-factor model, and the multifactorial model.

Describe the tradition of bipolar, unidimensional M-F scales begun by Terman and Miles. What were the assumptions made by the researches who developed these scales? What were some of the correlates of M-F scales (i.e., what did people’s M-F scores correlate with)? What were some of the problems with bipolar M-F scales?

Describe Bem’s and Spence, Helmreich, and Stapp’s two-dimensional scales of masculinity and femininity. What did these scales assess? Describe the four-way classification system developed by Bem. Describe Bem’s feminist assumptions and her proposal that androgyny defined a new standard of mental health and gender-role flexibility. Describe some of the studies that Bem conducted to study the behavior of sex-typed and androgynous individuals. Describe research on the relation between masculine instrumentality, feminine expressiveness, and psychological adjustment. What were some problems with the two-dimensional approach to masculinity and femininity?

Describe the four levels of explanation presented in Figure 3.1 in the text.

What are the basic assumptions of Darwin’s theory of evolution? What does it mean to say that natural selection is an unthinking “algorithm”? Describe the individual-centered versus the gene-centered view of evolution. What is the “selfish gene” view of evolution? Define and describe “kin selection” and “inclusive fitness.” At a basic biological level, what is the fundamental difference between male and female animals? Describe parental investment theory, and what implications do the differing parental investments of males and females have for their behaviors? What is “sexual selection” and how does it differ from the more general concept of “natural selection”? How do peacocks tails illustrate sexual selection? Are there human traits that may have been molded by sexual selection? In what sense are females the “limiting resource” in reproduction? Can evolutionary theory explain individual differences in masculinity and femininity as well as sex differences in physical and psychological traits?

Did Darwin know about Mendel’s classic experiments on genetics? What is DNA, how does it work, and what is a good metaphor for is function in guiding development? What is a “mutation”? What is an “allele”? Describe some differences between the X and Y chromosomes in humans. What does it mean for an allele to be “dominant” or “recessive”? Why do males suffer more from certain kinds of disorders, such as hemophilia? What is the sex-determining gene, and what is its function? When to the two early androgen surges occur in male development? What does it mean to say that the “default” sex of a human fetus is female? Contrast the “organizing” versus “activating” effects of sex hormones. Describe the basics of how sex develops in human early in fetal development—e.g., the Wolffian and Mulerian ducts and how their development is influenced by hormones.

What’s the difference between male and female brains in terms of size and neuron density? What is lateralization, and why are men thought to have more lateralized brains than women? What is the Geschwind and Galaburda theory of the influence of testosterone on brain development? Does the corpus callosum differ in men and women? Does the hypothalamus differ in men and women?

Describe the social learning approach to gender development. How do classical and operant conditioning influence gender-related behaviors? Describe modeling theory (or the theory of observational learning), and what is the difference between the “acquisition” and “performance” of a behavior? Describe Kohlberg’s cognitive-developmental theory of gender. Describe Bem’s gender schema theory. How does gender schema theory deal with Bem’s earlier notions of traditionally masculine, traditionally feminine, and androgynous individuals?

Define the word “stereotype.” What are common gender stereotypes? Are gender stereotypes “black-and-white” or probabilistic. Describe Alice Eagly’s social role theory of gender. How does this theory explain observed sex differences in behavior? How might this theory be extended to explain individual differences in masculinity and femininity.

Define the term “self-fulfilling prophecy.” How does this concept apply to gender? Describe the Skrypnek and Snyder (1982) experiment on self-fulfilling prophecies.

Define Clause Steele’s notion of “stereotype threat.” How might stereotype threat influence male and female performance on math tests?

What is self-presentation theory, and how does it apply to gender? Describe several studies that demonstrate how masculinity and femininity may be “acts” that we perform in some situations but not others.

Kenrick and Luce’s chapter on “an evolutionary life-history model” of gender describes four behavioral domains in which large sex differences have been observed across cultures. What are they? According to Kenrick and Luce, what are some problems with traditional social scientific accounts of gender differences? What are some behavioral domains in which there are gender similarities, according to Kenrick and Luce? What are the basic assumptions of evolutionary psychology, according to Kenrick and Luce? What is Kenrick and Luce’s definition of a “life history”? What’s the difference between “somatic effort” and “reproductive effort”? Kenrick and Luce describe a sunfish that has two types of males: a larger territorial male and a smaller “sneak copulator.” What’s the difference between these two kinds of males? What is “sexual selection,” and what does it result from, according to Darwin? According to Kenrick and Luce, why is it common for the males and females of many species to mature at different rates? Describe parental investment theory and how it may apply to sex differences. Describe Kenrick and Luce’s hypothesis that male sexual attractions are linked to age-related changes in female fertility. What features of male aggression, according to Kenrick and Luce, indicate evolutionary and biological factors are at work? According to Kenrick and Luce, why are age differences in mate preference more pronounced in traditional societies than in modern industrial societies? What social circumstances lead to polyandry, polygyny, and monogamy, according to Kenrick and Luce? Define the concept of biological “preparedness.”

Exam #2:

Questions on the PBS documentary, “Sex Unknown”: What were John Money’s views about the malleability of gender identity in the 1950s and 1960s? Describe briefly the life history of Bruce/Brenda? Why was a genetic boy (Bruce) reassigned to be a girl and reared as a girl (Brenda)? How successful was this sex reassignment? Describe both scientific and ethical issues related to how John Money reported the “John/Joan” (i.e., Bruce/Brenda) case study. What role did Milton Diamond play in uncovering the eventual outcome of the John/Joan case? What was Anne Fausto-Sterling’s view of the proper treatment of intersex babies and children? According the documentary, what differences have been found in the brains of men and women?

Give three reasons why sex hormones are called sex hormones.

Describe the difference between “weak” versus “strong” forms of determinism.

Describe problems with using data from animal experiments on the effect of hormones on behavior to make inferences about the causes of human behavior.

Questions from Chapter 4:

List ways in which sex hormones influence the development of nerve cells and nervous tissue.

What is the spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus, and how is it influenced by androgens.

How do sex hormones, particularly androgens, affect the behavior of rodents and primates? What kinds of behavior seem to be most influenced by androgens?

How do sex hormones influence the brain structure and songs of songbirds?

What are CAH females? What causes them to have elevated androgen levels prenatally? How do these elevated androgen levels in CAH girls and women affect their behavior? What are possible environmental explanations for the “masculinized” behaviors of CAH girls and women?

What is androgen insensitivity? How do genetic XY males who are androgen insensitive look and act? Are there both environmental and biological explanations for the “feminized” behavior of androgen insensitive XY individuals?

What is reductase deficiency, and why does this syndrome lead genetic males sometimes to appear female at birth but then to develop a male appearance at puberty? How do reductase-deficient XY individuals behave after puberty?

What is DES, and do women who were exposed to DES prenatally behave any differently from non-exposed women?

What is Turner Syndrome? How does it affect hormone levels and behavior in affected individuals? What does it tell us about the role sex hormones play in gender development?

Describe correlational studies on the relationship between testosterone levels and human behavior. What behaviors are linked to testosterone levels? Is the evidence direct or indirect that differences in testosterone levels cause sex differences in human behavior? Is there any evidence that prenatal (as opposed to adult) levels of testosterone influence gender-related behaviors in adult humans?

Describe some physical body characteristics that are thought to be related to prenatal testosterone levels. Are these physical characteristics related to any behavioral traits in people?

Are estrogens related to any kinds of human behavior? Summarize the research evidence on this topic.

What is pelvic field defect (or more properly, “cloacal exstrophy”)? How were boys born with this birth defect often treated in the past? What has research on these boys suggested about the effects of prenatal androgen levels on gender identity?

Describe the famous “John/Joan” case. What does it tell us about the effects of nature and nurture on gender identity?

Summarize four kinds of evidence that help social scientists decide if there are biological factors that produce behavioral sex differences (such as differences in physical aggressiveness).

What kinds of evidence suggest that there are biological factors that contribute to human sex differences in aggression?

What kinds of evidence suggest that there are biological factors that contribute to human sex differences in certain kinds of visual-spatial ability?

What kinds of evidence suggest that there are biological factors that contribute to human sex differences in various kinds of sexual behavior?

How do behavior genetic studies try to “partition” individual differences into genetic, shared environmental, and unique environmental components? How do data from twins and adopted children allow behavior geneticists to estimate genetic and environmental influences on individual differences (for example, in intelligence or in masculinity-femininity)? Define the concept of heritability. Define shared environments. Define unique environments. What is the approximate heritability of intelligence? What is the heritability of various kinds of gender-related personality traits (i.e., measures of masculinity and femininity), such as dominance (instrumentality), nurturance (expressiveness), and gender-related interests.

According to Richard Udry’s research, which women are most molded by variations in gender socialization – those who were exposed to how or high testosterone levels prenatally? Does Udry’s research suggest that nature, nurture, or both nature and nurture are important in molding women’s gender-related behaviors?

Questions from Chapter 5:

Describe the evolution of three different research perspectives on gender socialization that evolved during the 20^th century: the social learning perspective, the “self-socialization” and cognitive-developmental perspective, and the peer socialization perspective.

Describe research on boys’ and girls’ toy preferences. Describe ways in which boys and girls play differently? What are some theoretical explanations for sex differences in children’s play and in toy preferences?

What were the findings of Lytton and Romney’s (1991) meta-analysis of studies on how parents treat boys and girls differently? How differently do parents treat boys and girls?

Describe Leaper’s (2000) study of how sons and daughters play with their mothers and fathers.

Do parents use punishment differently with their sons and daughters?

Describe “Baby X” studies and their results.

How do parents react to sex-typed and non-sex-typed play in their children? Who are stronger “gender police” with their children – mothers or fathers? Who “polices” gender more strongly with same-sex peers – boys or girls?

What are ways in which teachers influence children’s gender-related behaviors? Do classrooms tend to be “masculine” or “feminine” environments? Describe possible ways in which classrooms are biased against girls and are biased against boys. What are some ways in which boys and girls behave differently in classroom settings? Describe evidence on whether teachers treat boys and girls differently in the classroom.

How do preschool boys and girls influence the gender-related behaviors of their peers? What is “sex segregation,” and how does it influence children’s behavior? What are possible explanations for childhood sex segregation?

After early childhood, what are ways in which boys and girls are treated differently by their parents and by the broader culture in which they grow up? Do parents have difference academic expectations for their sons and daughters? Describe Eccles research on this topic.

Do children model their parents’ gender-related behaviors? If so, which parent do they model? Do boys with absent fathers tend to develop differently from boys with fathers present?

Describe some of the gender stereotypes that are promulgated by the mass media. Is there any evidence that gender portrayals in the mass media affect the behavior of boys and girls?

Summarize Lawrence Kohlberg’s cognitive-developmental theory of gender. When do various kinds of gender understanding occur during childhood – e.g., the ability to label oneself as male or female, the ability to understand that gender is stable over time? How do gender stereotypes develop as children get older?

Is “gender constancy” – the mature understanding that sex is stable over time and place – necessary for children to show sex-typed behaviors? What are some of the ways in which children’s ability to correctly label gender influences their behavior?

Describe Lippa’s “booster rocket” metaphor and how it applies to various stages of gender development in children.

Describe Kay Bussey and Albert Bandura’s (1992) study on how gender knowledge and sex-typed behaviors change in children between ages 3 and 4.

What are two important influences on children’s gender knowledge? Are parents’ gender stereotypes linked to their children’s sex-typed behaviors? What is the relationship between social class, gender stereotypes, and sex-typed behaviors in children?

Describe several kinds of research that show that men and women may behave consistently with gender stereotypes, at least in certain circumstances.

What is a “token” man or women, and how may being a “token” – for example, the only women in an all-male jury – influence people’s behavior?

What are some circumstances and environments that may serve to “prime” gender stereotypes in people?

What is a self-fulfilling prophecy? What is behavioral confirmation? How do these concepts apply to gender-related behaviors.

What is stereotype threat? Describe some research on stereotype threat.

Describe Alice Eagly’s social role theory. What are three main ways in which men’s and women’s roles differ? How do gender roles encourage expressive behaviors in women and instrumental behaviors in men? Describe Eagly and Steffen’s (1984) study on how low- and high-status roles influence our perceptions of people’s instrumental and expressive traits.

Describe the “different-status explanation” for men’s and women’s behavior.

What are some ways in which the nonverbal behaviors of men and women differ, and how may these differences reflect status differences between men and women?

Questions for Chapter 6:

What is a “just so story”? Why are evolutionary explanations of sex differences sometimes (derisively) termed “just so stories”?

What are “nature” and “nurture” explanations for why CAH girls and women behave differently from non-CAH girls and women?

What are “nature” and “nurture” explanations for why parental socialization has “effects” on children’s behavior and explanations for why parents and their children are similar on gender-related behaviors?

List some criticisms of research on “self-fulfilling prophecies.”

Why did Janet Shibley Hyde argue that social factors must largely account for the 20-to-1 ratio for the number of male and female engineers? What is the counter-argument for why this difference could be due largely to biological differences between men and women?

Describe Camilla Benbow and Julian Stanley’s research on SAT math scores in gifted boys and girls.

Who is Edward O. Wilson, and what has he argued about the nature of science?

Describe some criticisms of “stereotype threat” research.

Describe some criticisms of “Baby X” experiments.

Give both “nature” and “nurture” explanations for sex differences in aggression and provide some evidence for each position.

What are intersex individuals, and what is Anne Fausto-Sterling’s estimate of the number of intersex people? What do intersex people tell us about the nature of “male” and “female”?

Why do behavior genetic findings on “common environmental effects” on individual differences in masculinity and femininity suggest that there is something wrong with classic accounts of gender socialization?

What is an “epigenetic” model of development and how does is apply to gender development?

What is the “rectangle analogy,” as applied to nature and nurture?

Question’s on Michael Bailey’s “biological perspectives” article: What are three different components of sexual orientation? Which component of sexual orientation does Bailey think most influenced by biological factors? What do the terms “determinism” and “materialism” refer to? According to Bailey, is “genetic” the same as “biological” or “innate”? According to Bailey, are biological and social constructionist views of sexual orientation necessarily incompatible? What is the neuroendocrine theory of sexual orientation and what is evidence in favor of it? Describe research on CAH girls and its implications. What are “sexually dimorphic traits,” and how are they related to sexual orientation? Describe Simon LeVay’s study on the brains of homosexual and heterosexual men. What is “heritability,” and how is it assessed? What is the familiality and heritability of sexual orientation, according to Bailey?

Questions on the Eagly et al. chapter on “social role theory”: According to social role theory, how do differences in men’s and women’s behavior originate? What is sociological and anthropological evidence on sex differences in the division of labor and sex differences in social status? What are the origins of sex differences in occupations and status, according to Eagly et al.? What is the difference between an “injunctive norm” and a “descriptive norm”? Describe common stereotypes about men’s and women’s personality traits. What is the “fundamental attribution error” and how does it apply to people’s explanations for why men and women differ? What is the relation between sex differences in the division of labor and common stereotypes about men and women, according to Eagly et al.? What is the relation between gender roles, status, and agentic and communal traits? What are “self-fulfilling prophecies” and what is some evidence for them in relation to gender? Describe research on how men and women are judged and treated who deviate from traditional gender roles. How do gender roles affect the self-concepts of men and women? Do meta-analytic results about various kinds of sex differences generally conform to lay people’s ideas about how the sexes differ? How do gender roles interact with the practice of medicine by male and female doctors?

Questions on Dorren Kimura’s “Sex and Cognition” chapters: According to Kimura, why do egalitarian ideologies sometimes lead to bias against biological explanations? According to Kimura, if something is “biological,” does this mean it cannot be modified by environmental factors? What does “self-selection” refer to, and how does it apply to research on sex differences? What are “natural selection” and “sexual selection”? What are some behavioral sex differences, according to Kimura, that may result from natural and sexual selection? Describe the process of sexual differentiation in male and female fetuses? What are the Wolfian and Mulerian ducts? What are testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, and 5-alpha-reductase, and what is their interrelationship? What are androgen receptors? Describe androgen insensitive individuals. Describe research on XY individuals with a genetic deficiency in 5-alpha-reductase. What are “organizational effects” of hormones? Describe the results of research on rats that have had their gonads removed. What is alpha-fetoprotein, and what effect does it have on fetuses? What are the effects of exposing female monkeys to androgens either early or late in fetal development?

Questions on Anne Fausto-sterling’s “Myths of Gender” chapters: How does Fausto-Sterling criticize sociobiological accounts of rape? Describe Darwin’s theory of evolution, Mendelian models of genetics, and the “modern synthesis” in evolutionary theory. Describe how evolutionary processes can be influenced by chance events as well as by natural selection. What is “inclusive fitness” and how is it related to the “problem of altruism” in evolutionary theory? Describe different components of “sexual selection”—i.e., female choice and inter-male competition. Describe Mayr’s vs. Wilson’s view of natural selection and courtship processes. What is “parental investment theory,” and how does the existence of polyandry create problems for this theory? According to Fausto-Sterling, what are the “essences” of males and females, as described by sociobiologists?

Questions on the Fagot et al. “theories of gender socialization” chapter: Describe three stages to research on gender socialization in the 20^th century. Describe ways in which parents perceive and treat their sons and daughters differently. Describe Lytton and Romney’s (1991) meta-analysis of studies of how parents treat boys and girls differently. According to Fagot et al., when are boys and girls most likely to be treated differently, and what are weaknesses in research on how boys and girls are treated differently. Why do Fagot et al. caution that the question of how parents treat boys and girls differently is “still open”? How do teachers treat boys and girls differently, according to Fagot et al., and why do they do so? Describe research on gender segregation among nursery school children, and how are boys who play with girls and girls who play with boys treated differently? Describe some hypotheses about why children show gender segregation. Does the ability to label gender affect children’s tendencies to segregate by gender, to select gender-typed toys, and to be aggressive? What are possible consequences of playing in predominantly male and female peer groups?

Exam #3:

Chapters from Kingsley Browne’s Biology at Work:

Chapter 5: Describe David Lubinski’s “Theory of Work Adjustment” model of work satisfaction; how does it apply to the work choices of men and women? Describe Holland’s RIASEC model. What RIASEC occupational types and Basic Interest Scales show sex differences? Describe the “data-ideas” and “people-things” dimensions of occupational preferences; are there sex differences on these dimensions? What fields and which scientific disciplines show the largest differences in male and female participation rates? Browne discusses the stereotype that “basketball players are tall.” How does he apply this example to “stereotypic” female occupations? Summarize research on how girls and boys (and men and women) differ in their math/science education and achievement. Summarize Lubinski and Benbow’s research on sex differences in mathematically gifted students. What are some of the explanations that Browne offers for why women don’t persist in science classes as much and men, particularly at the college level. How much do women participate in blue-collar jobs, and has this rate been stable over recent years? According to Browne, why may gender stereotypes have more of an impact on people’s participation in blue-collar jobs as opposed to participation in more “educated” jobs in mathematical and scientific fields? Why is sexual harassment more likely to occur in blue-collar occupations? List factors (interest, abilities, job attribute factors) that may depress women’s participation in blue-collar occupations. Does Browne think there is a single factor or multiple factors that lead to sex differences in occupational outcomes? Does Browne think that in a totally fair society without gender discrimination, men and women would equally participate in all occupations?

Chapter 6: What is the most commonly reported recent statistic (from 1999) for the female-to-male ratio in earnings? According to Browne, does most of the female-male pay pay occur within occupations or across occupations? What’s the implication of the within-occupation vs. across-occupation findings for explanations of male-female pay gaps? Briefly describe the statistical technique of multiple regression and how it is used to study the factors that influence (or more properly, are related to) income. What were the results of studies on male-female pay gaps among lawyers and among engineers? Browne poses the question, “If discrimination is not the primary contributor to the gender gap [in pay], what is?” What is his answer to his question? Summarize research on the number of hours men and women work. Summarize research on the riskiness of men’s and women’s jobs and mortality rates in stereotypically male and female jobs. Summarize research on sex differences in job-related education. What role does math ability play in one’s “worth” in the current job market, according to Browne? How does this difference in math ability relate to sex differences in pay? Why is “nurturance” somewhat devalued as a skill in the job market, according to Browne? Are there sex differences in “productivity” (what is “productivity”)? Describe research on sex differences in the publication rates of male and female academics. According to Browne, do men and women have somewhat different criteria for what a “good job” is? Describe the different job attributes that are relatively more important to women, and the job attributes that are relatively more important to me. Browne describes the male-female ratio of pharmacists in the U.S. and how it has changed over time. How does he explain this change, and what points does he draw from this example? Describe research on men’s and women’s willingness and success in bargaining for higher pay. What effects does marriage have on men’s and women’s pay, and what are explanations for these effects? Why is there a tendency, according to Browne, for couples to value and support men’s career more than the women’s? Why does Browne argue that “complete convergence” in men’s and women’s wages is unlikely to occur, even in a totally fair and nondiscriminatory society?

Felice Schwartz’s article on “management women and the new facts of life”:

Schwartz argues that female employees are more costly than male imployees, in certain ways. How and why? How does maternity affect the careers of some management women, according to Schwartz? What are some “counterproductive expectations and perceptions” that women may bring to the workplace, according to Schwartz? What’s the source of these expectations and perceptions? Why is the metaphor of a “glass ceiling” for corporate women sometimes misleading, according to Schwartz? Why are women becoming a more “valuable commodity” in the job market, according to Schwartz? What are four things companies should do for management women to help “clear the path to the top” for them? Schwartz distinguishes between “career only” women who don’t have children and “career-and-family” women who want to pursue both a career and motherhood. How can companies accommodate carerr-and-family women, according to Schwartz? What are the prices that accrue to companies that retain “career-and-family” women, according to Schwartz? What kinds of work flexibility do working mothers require, according to Schwartz?

Thornhill and Palmer’s chapters from A Natural History of Rape:

Chapter 3 (Why Do Men Rape?): What are two ways males can get access to mates, according to Thornhill and Palmer? Why would intense sexual desires have been more selected in men than in women, according toThornhill and Palmer? How might rape and sexual coercion result from sexual selection, according toThornhill and Palmer? What’s the evolutionary “payoff” for men to rape and sexually coerce women? What’s the difference between an “ultimate cause” and a “proximate cause” of behavior? What’s the “holdover view” of the evolution of rape? What do the terms “selection” and “gene drift” refer to? What is a “mutation-selection balance,” and why don’t Thornhill and Palmer view this to be a good explanation for rape? One explanation for rape is that it “may be an evolved male mechanism whose primary aim is not fertilization in the represent, but control—for the ultimate purpose of fertilization in the future.” What weaknesses with the previous explanation do Thornhill and Palmer identify? What’s the difference between an evolutionary “adaptation” and an evolutionary “by-product”? Give examples of how rape could be either an adaptation or a by-product. Do Thornhill and Palmer believe it is currently possible to decide between the “adaptation” and “by-product” views of rape? What are some characteristics of male sexuality, according to Symons and others, that may foster male rape? Thornhill and Palmer discuss male scorpionflies. What about these insects leads Thornhill and Palmer to conclude that rape is an adaptation in these insects? What are the two methods of obtaining mates in scorpionflies? What are some of the “costs” and “rewards” of rape, according to Thornhill and Palmer? What are some of the potential adaptations that may exist that are related to the male propensity to rape, according to Thornhill and Palmer (see p. 65)? When are men most likely to rape? What is the mate-deprivation hypothesis of rape, and what is evidence for and against this hypothesis? Which women are most likely to be the victim’s of rapists, according to Thornhill and Palmer? Can the typical characteristics of rape victims be explained in terms of evolutionary theory? Are rapists aroused by violence per se, according to Thornhill and Palmer? In evolutionary terms, why might men rape their wives, according to Thornhill and Palmer? Do evolutionary theories – including theories of rape – argue that environments have an influence on behavior, according to Thornhill and Palmer? What are some of the environmental conditions that may influence whether male scorpionfiles and human males rape? Does the “condition dependent” view of rape offer hope that rape can be reduced or eliminated? What are possible evolutionary explanations for female resistance (both full and partial) to rape, according to Thornhill and Palmer?

Chapter 12 (Conclusion): What are the “false” reasons Thornhill and Palmer list for why their friend was raped? What are “sexual selection” and “parental investment”? According to Thornhill and Palmer, what are two female adaptations for mate selection? In evolutionary terms, why is rape a horrendous experience for the victim? What are the answers that Thornhill and Palmer offer for each of the following questions: Why does the mental trauma of rape victims vary with the victim’s age and marital status? Why does the mental trauma of rape vary with the kind of sex acts performed? Why does the mental trauma of rape decrease as physical injuries increase? Why do young males rape more often than older males? Why are young women raped more often than older women or girls? Why is rape more frequent in some situations, such as during wars? Why does rape occur in all known cultures? Why are some instances of rape punished in all known cultures? Why are some people (e.g., some husbands) suspicious of the victim’s claim to have been raped? Why have attempts to reform rape laws met with only limited success? Why does rape exist in many species? Why does rape still occur among humans? How can rape best be prevented?

Chapter 7, Gender, Nature, and Nurture:

What does Lippa mean by a causal cascade? What is a causal thicket? Why is it hard, according to Lippa, to partition "causes" of gender into two clear categories labeled "nature" and "nurture"? What is the point of Figure 7.1, which portrays various parallel tracks of gender development?

What does Eleanor Maccoby mean when she argues that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" in relation to the effects of gender socialization and biological predispositions on gender-related behaviors?

Describe several different "causal cascades" in gender development. According to Lippa, what is one way that nature has a “head start” over nurture in development? List several ways in which the "nature" and "nurture" of gender may differ for boys and girls (see bottom of. p. 201).

List several ways in which girls' and women's behavior may be more influenced than males' behavior is by social factors (see top of p. 202).

What was the point of the Martell, Lane, and Emrich simulation of the effects of different degrees of gender bias in job promotions (p. 203)? List several examples in gender development where "small advantages may build over time" (p 204).

Lippa argues that the term gender serves as a kind of shorthand for two different phenomena. What are these two phenomena? A study by Lippa, Martin, and Friedman (2000) found that masculine individuals are more likely to die at any given age than feminine individuals are. How does Lippa (pp. 206-207) relate this study both to sex differences and to individual differences in masculinity and femininity?

What does Lippa mean when he says that "what appears to be a 'sex difference' from one perspective may appear, from another perspective, to be largely a difference between subgroups of men and women?"

Lippa presents a "thought experiment" on page 208 in which you are asked to imagine two societies: one which has very strong gender roles and the other which does not. What was the point of this thought experiment?

Describe Sandra Bem's approach to rearing her children. How did Bem feel about traditional gender socialization? Based on the chapters you read from Bem's book, what were the outcomes of Bem's unorthodox approaches to gender socialization?

What does Lippa mean when he says that childhood sex segregation may be a "fulcrum" in the causal chain leading to the development of sex differences? According to Lippa, is it likely that parents or teachers can totally eliminate childhood sex segregation? Why or why not?

Describe various ways in which classroom settings may be biased against girls. Describe various ways in which boys may be "at risk" in school settings.

What are possible advantages and disadvantages to single-sex classrooms? What are possible ways to encourage girls to take more math and science classes?

How is the nature-nurture debate relevant to the topics of sexual harassment and rape? What are "gender neutral" strategies to combat sexual assault and rape? What are sex-differentiated strategies to combat sexual assault and rape?

List some possible ways in which men and women are "mismatched" in their mating and sexual styles.

List ways in which parenting behaviors and styles differ in mothers and fathers.

List ways in which family roles tend to differ for husbands and wives.

How do men and women, on average, approach love and sex differently? Do men and women behave differently in close relatioships? Do men and women, on average, deal differently with stress and conflict in a relationship?

Until the late 19^th century, were mothers or fathers typically awarded custody of children following marital breakups? What was the attitude toward child custody that developed after the late 19^th century? In recent times, do men or women more often get custody of children after breakups?

How are the demands of parenthood different for working fathers and mothers? What is meant by the phrase "mommy track"? What are some other public policy questions that interact with the issue of special work roles for women?

Describe women's level participation in elective offices in various countries. What are factors that have traditionally kept women from attaining political power? Describe the "gender gap" in political attitudes and voting habits that social scientists have documented.

Describe women's level of participation in the military. According to public opinion polls, what sorts of military jobs do most people feel should be open to women? Does the public have reservations about women participating in some roles in the military? What is the difference between "equal rights" and "equal outcomes" in relation to men's and women's participation in the military?

Note: There will be questions on the two chapters assigned from Bem’s An Unconventional Family. The person in change of the on-line reserve tells me that chapters are available on-line at the this time (Sunday, May 25). There are also hard copies available for 2-hour checkout at the main desk in the CSUF Library.

Regarding cumulative questions: Questions will primarily focus on the following topics: the various theories of gender we’ve discussed throughout the class (e.g., evolutionary theory, hormonal theory, social role theory, cognitive developmental theory, social learning theory, gender schema theory); meta-analytic findings on sex differences (What sex difference have been documented by research? How “big” or “small” are these differences?); the development of different conceptions of masculinity and femininity (e.g., the bipolar approach to M-F, Terman and Miles’s early work; criticisms of bipolar M-F scales; the two-dimensional conceptions of M and F; masculine instrumentality and feminine expressiveness; Bem’s notion of androgyny; criticisms of the two-dimensional approach; multifactorial and social constructionist views of M and F; M-F in terms of interests and Lippa’s notion of gender diagnosticity).

As part of your review for the final exam, you should review all your notes for the class and review the main text.