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Psychology 320: Gender Psychology

Lecture 30

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Announcement

I will hold additional office hours in preparation for the December exam:

Friday, December 10: 3:30-4:30Monday, December 13: 10:00-12:00, 1:00-3:00Tuesday, December 14: 10:00-1:00

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Intelligence, Cognitive Abilities and Emotion:

2. Are there sex differences in emotional experience?

3. Are there sex differences in emotional expression?

1. Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities? (continued)

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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:

2. identify universal emotions.

1. discuss sex differences in verbal ability, mathematical ability, and spatial ability.

3. discuss sex differences in the experience of positive and negative emotions and affect intensity.

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4. consider methodological limitations with respect to studies on sex and emotional experience.

5. review research findings regarding sex differences in emotional expression.

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Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities? (continued)

Research on spatial ability (continued):

Sex differences in spatial ability increase across age groups, but appear to be decreasing across time.

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Meta-analyses: ds for overall spatial ability range from +.13 to +.25.

Hyde (1981) maintains that sex accounts for less than 5 % of variance in spatial ability.

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• “Comprehensive” assessments of sex differences in cognitive abilities and cross-cultural assessments of sex differences in cognitive abilities are consistent with the research findings noted thus far:

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Grade 12 Profile: Sex Differences and Similarities for 15 Types of Tests (Cole, 1997)

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Are there sex differences in emotional experience?

Joan and John have just learned that their neighbor was in a car accident and lost her baby. One cries; the other does not.

Brenda and Mark have just witnessed two teenagers vandalize their car. One yells at the teenagers and chases them down the street; the other ignores the incident.

• Picture the following:

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• Ekman (1992) maintains that there is a set of universal emotions (i.e., basic emotions) that generalize

across sexes and cultures: happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, anger, and disgust.

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Ekman and Friesen’s (1971) Universal Emotions

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• Nevertheless, some research suggests that females and males differ in the frequency and intensity with which they experience these and related emotions:

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Simon and Nath (2004)

Asked respondents how many days in the previous week they experienced diverse emotions.

Found sex differences in the frequency with which positive and negative emotions were experienced. Social status (e.g., income level) accounted for the sex differences.

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Mean Emotional Frequency Scores for Females and Males (Simon & Nath, 2004)

Females Males p

All feelings 45.10 45.10 ns

Positive feelings 25.56 28.30 <.005

Negative feelings 18.55 16.80 <.05

Calm feelings 13.35 14.01 <.05

Excitement 13.20 14.29 <.005

Anxiety 8.13 7.22 .01

Sadness 4.74 3.73 <.001

Anger 4.66 4.75 ns

Shame 1.02 1.11 ns

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Diener, Sandvik, and Larsen (1985)

Asked participants to complete two measures of affect intensity: the Affect Intensity Measure and the General Behavior Inventory.

Found sex differences in the intensity with which emotions were experienced. Significant effects for age also emerged.

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Mean Scores for Affect Intensity (Diener, Sandvik, & Larsen, 1985)

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• The studies considered thus far employed retrospective measures of emotional experience. In contrast,

research using “online” measures suggest minimal sex differences in emotional experience:

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Larson and Pleck (1999)

Asked participants to record their emotional experiences using electronic pagers.

Found no sex differences in the frequency with which positive and negative emotions were experienced. Attributed findings from studies using retrospective measures to sex differences in the encoding of emotion.

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Frequencies of Positive and Negative Emotion Reported by Females and Males Using Online Measures

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Are there sex differences in emotional expression?

• A substantial body of research has demonstrated sex differences in emotional expression.

• Among the research findings that have demonstrated sex differences in emotional expression are the

following:

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Preschool children show no sex differences in emotional expression; however, consistent differences in emotional expression emerge by age six, with girls displaying more emotion than boys. These differences have been attributed to parents’ greater expression of emotion with daughters than sons (Adams et al., 1995).

Adolescent boys are more likely than adolescent girls to deny having ever had an emotional experience (Stapely & Haviland, 1989).

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Female undergraduates rate themselves higher on spontaneous emotional expression, whereas male undergraduates rate themselves higher on emotional control (Guerrero & Reiter, 1998).

Among non-student samples, adult women indicate that they engage in more emotionally expressive behaviour than adult men (Simon & Nath, 2004).

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Intelligence, Cognitive Abilities and Emotion:

2. Are there sex differences in emotional experience?

3. Are there sex differences in emotional expression?

1. Do females and males differ in their cognitive abilities? (continued)