On the origins of sex differences in social behavior: Darwinian and non-Darwinian accounts.

Responds to the comments made by A. H. Eagly (1997), D. G. Cornell (1997), and M. Schaller (1997) on the author's 1996 article comparing the explanations given by social role theory and evolutionary psychology on human sex differences. The author restates the position adopted in his article and believes that there are certain misunderstandings from which the comments stem. He believes that one major point of confusion is between ultimate explanations (of origins) and proximate explanations (of causation). The author further believes that Schaller is thinking of causation or development and clarifies the original position he took in his article. The author believes that Eagly is focusing on proximate issues and he argues against that view, especially when discussing aggression, though he concedes her theories are worth considering in discussing other issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prenatal gonadal hormones and sex differences in human behavior.

Summarizes the literature on perinatal hormone influences in infrahuman mammals, reviews in detail studies on perinatal hormone influences on human behavior, and summarizes methodological procedures that have been used to compensate for problems inherent in research on clinical populations. Several studies provide evidence suggesting that some sex differences in human behavior may be related to prenatal hormone levels. In light of methodological advances and the growing number of studies in this area, it may soon be possible to define human hormone–behavior relations in sufficient detail to allow strong links to research on perinatal hormone effects in other species. Given recent identification of neural sex differences that may underlie behavioral sex differences in infrahuman mammals, such links could lead to greater understanding of the neural basis of sexually dimorphic behaviors in humans. (4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent dispositions for antisocial behavior in context: The roles of neighborhood dangerousness and parental knowledge.

This study examined an ecological perspective on the development of antisocial behavior during adolescence, examining direct, additive, and interactive effects of child and both parenting and community factors in relation to youth problem behavior. To address this goal, the authors examined early adolescent dispositional qualities as predictors of boys’ antisocial behavior within the context of parents’ knowledge of adolescent activities and neighborhood dangerousness. Antisocial behavior was examined using a multimethod latent construct that included self-reported delinquency, symptoms of conduct disorder, and court petitions in a sample of 289 boys from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds who were followed longitudinally from early childhood through adolescence. Results demonstrated direct and additive findings for child prosociality, daring, and negative emotionality, which were qualified by interactions between daring and neighborhood dangerousness, and between prosociality and parental knowledge. The findings have implications for preventive intervention approaches that address the interplay of dispositional and contextual factors to prevent delinquent behavior in adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Once again, the origins of sex differences.

Responds to comments by B. X. Friedman et al (see record 2000-05933-013), D. T. Kenrick and N. Li (see record 2000-05933-014), and E. Kleyman (see record 2000-05933-015) on the article by A. H. Eagly and W. Wood (see record 1999-05337-002) which examined the origins of sex differences in human behavior. Eagly and Wood argued that social structural theory can explain the origin of psychological sex differences. In the present article, Eagly and Wood defend their original article against criticism made by the aforementioned authors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cross-cultural analysis of the behavior of women and men: Implications for the origins of sex differences.

This article evaluates theories of the origins of sex differences in human behavior. It reviews the cross-cultural evidence on the behavior of women and men in nonindustrial societies, especially the activities that contribute to the sex-typed division of labor and patriarchy. To explain the cross-cultural findings, the authors consider social constructionism, evolutionary psychology, and their own biosocial theory. Supporting the biosocial analysis, sex differences derive from the interaction between the physical specialization of the sexes, especially female reproductive capacity, and the economic and social structural aspects of societies. This biosocial approach treats the psychological attributes of women and men as emergent given the evolved characteristics of the sexes, their developmental experiences, and their situated activity in society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Loneliness, social interaction, and sex roles.

43 male and 53 female undergraduates maintained the Rochester Interaction Record for 2 wks, providing information about social interactions of 10 min or more. Ss then completed the revised UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. For both sexes, loneliness was negatively related to the amount of time spent with females and to the meaningfulness of interaction with males and females. However, meaningfulness with males was more important than meaningfulness with females. Femininity was negatively related to loneliness for both sexes and partially mediated the above relationships. There were sex differences, however, in the extent to which variables overlapped in predicting loneliness. For example, a large group of nonlonely males was characterized both by having meaningful relationships with males and by spending time with females, whereas a 2nd group of nonlonely males was characterized simply by having meaningful relationships with males. The largest group of nonlonely females was characterized simply by having meaningful relationships with males, but another sizable group was characterized simply by spending time with females. Females doing both accounted for little of the variance. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The origins of individual differences in memory among the elderly: A behavior genetic analysis.

Used behavior genetic methods to investigate individual differences in memory performance. Memory and various cognitive and lifestyle variables were obtained from 93 monozygotic twin pairs and 67 dyzygotic twin pairs (aged 60–88 yrs) as part of the Minnesota Twin Study of Adult Development and Aging. Univariate analysis, used to determine the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on 4 measures of memory (word recall, immediate and delayed text recall, and figure memory), suggested that 55% of the variance in memory performance could be attributed to genetic factors. Bivariate analysis was used to determine the specific variables that mediate the genetic and environmental influences on memory. Results suggested that the relationship between memory and cognitive variables was genetic in nature, whereas the nature of the relationship between memory and lifestyle variables was environmental. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social learning theory of sex differences: Imitation is alive and well.

The hypothesis that sex role development depends in part on children's tendencies to imitate same-sex individuals more than opposite-sex models is central to most theories of sex typing. Yet E. E. Maccoby and C. N. Jacklin (1974), in a review of the literature, conclude that the hypothesis has been disconfirmed. It is argued here that the research on which Maccoby and Jacklin based their conclusion is weak both methodologically and conceptually. This article presents a modified social learning theory account of the contribution of imitation to sex role development. It is suggested that children learn which behaviors are appropriate to each sex by observing differences in the frequencies with which male and female models as groups perform various responses in given situations. Furthermore, children employ these abstractions of what constitutes male-appropriate and female-appropriate behavior as models for their imitative performance. Exp I, with 48 male and 48 female 8–9 yr olds, confirmed that children engage in these processes. Exp II, with 42 male and 42 female 8-yr-olds, extended the validity of the formulation. It was shown that a child's imitation of an adult is strongly influenced by the degree to which the child believes that the adult usually displays behaviors that are appropriate to the child's sex. Present results reinstate same-sex imitation as a viable mechanism of sex role development. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in family roles, socialization, and sex differences.

Sex differences in socialization experiences reflect adult role expectations that females will be mothers and males will be workers. However, because of smaller family size, longer life expectancy, and higher employment rates for women, motherhood has come to occupy less of a woman's adult life, and work outside of the home has come to occupy more. As awareness of these social changes increases, the sex-linked differences in socialization may be expected to diminish, with the result that sex differences in behavior will also eventually diminish. The research literature supporting this thesis is reviewed. This includes findings bearing on (a) changes in the role of women, (b) sex differences in socialization and behavior that appear to reflect traditional sex role expectations, and (c) the direct effects of maternal employment on sex differences in children. (59 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital roles, sex differences, and interpersonal attraction.

Tested the hypothesis that role and dispositional factors can alter the usual link between similarity and attraction. In 2 replications, 64 undergraduate females and 64 males with traditional or nontraditional attitudes toward sex roles and marriage (measured by the Marital Role Decisions Questionnaire) rated similar or dissimilar opposite-sex strangers on 3 attraction measures. Results show that sex and traditionality interacted with similarity in determining ratings of the strangers' general likability and personal role attraction (e.g., desirability as a dating partner), but not their functional role attraction (e.g., desirability as a debater on sex roles). The discussion suggests that previous attempts to find interactions have often failed because of a lack of correspondence between dispositional factors and similarity manipulations. Reinforcement and informational explanations could account for the overall findings, but communication factors of extremity and discrepancy could not. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender roles as mediators of sex differences in expressions of pathology.

Tested the extent to which gender role attributes and gender role ideology account for sex differences in internally directed psychological distress and in externally directed deviant behavior in a random sample of 2,013 adolescents. Results indicate that gender roles substantially mediate sex differences in both types of pathology: Masculine instrumental attributes reduce internalized distress, whereas feminine expressive attributes reduce externalized behavior problems. In addition, conventional gender role attitudes were positively related to externalizing problems among male adolescents, but were unrelated to pathology among female adolescents. These associations were largely equivalent across Black and White racial groups and across age groups (13–19 yrs). Two alternative theoretical models linking gender roles and pathology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social roles and social perception: Individual differences in attribution and error.

In a replication of the social roles experiment by Ross, Amabile, and Steinmetz (1977), 103 male and female 14-year-olds viewed a brief videotape that showed a randomly assigned "questioner" asking general knowledge questions of a "contestant," who answered most of them incorrectly. Subjects subsequently manifested the role-based attribution error of attributing significantly more knowledge and ability to the arbitrarily designated questioner than to the arbitrarily designated contestant, and this effect was stronger among girls than boys. Personality data were available on the subjects for when they were in nursery school and again at age 14 in the form of independent Q-sort ratings. Personality correlates of the role effect were stronger among boys but manifested a basically similar pattern among girls and suggested that those most prone to make this attribution error, far from being disadvantaged in social judgment, tended to be more socially engaged and competent as well as emotionally well adjusted. The role effect was also positively associated with self-esteem. Personality correlates of attributional generosity and the tendency to attribute high ability to stimulus persons were associated with generally positive interpersonal qualities and attitudes. Results were interpreted in terms of usually appropriate heuristic social competencies that, in special circumstances, may sometimes underlie attribution errors. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coital position and sex roles: Responses to cross-sex behavior in bed.

Explored the impact of changes in sex-role norms regarding heterosexual interaction in 119 undergraduates by varying both the coital position used by a couple in stimulus slides and the extent to which observers identified with stereotypic sex role norms. Females were more negative toward the couple having intercourse in the woman-above position than they were toward the couple in the woman-below position. Observers' degree of sex typing was unrelated to their reactions to the woman-above couple, suggesting that gender may still be more important than sex typing in determining responses to roles in the context of heterosexual interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The conditioning and generalization of changes in social perceptual dispositions.

This study examines hypotheses regarding the extent to which social perception may be effected by differential reinforcement and trait generalization. Ss are asked to judge photographs of faces as reflecting either one or the other of the following dimensions: safe-dangerous, good-bad, reliable-unreliable, and relaxed-tense. Selective response by E (saying "right" after the judgment "safe" was made," "wrong" after "dangerous") produced conditioning of the desired response and generalization to the other dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the origins of gender differences in marital quality: A behavior genetic analysis.

Numerous researchers have examined gender differences in marital quality, with mixed results. In this study, the authors further this investigation by looking for genetic and environmental sources of variation in marital quality. The 1st aim of the study was to replicate previous findings of genetic and nonshared environmental influences on marital quality. The 2nd was to explore the etiology of gender differences in marital quality. The Virginia Adult Twin Study of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders sample of twin men and twin women was used. Genetic and nonshared environmental factors were again found to influence marital quality. Findings also suggest small differences between men and women in the levels of genetic and environmental influence on variance in marital quality. The men's reports of marital warmth and conflict were influenced by the same genetic factors, but women's reports of marital warmth and conflict were influenced by different genetic factors. Results are discussed in the context of previous research on social support and implications for future studies of the etiology of marital quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquisition of avoidance dispositions by social learning.

In line with the experiments on social learning in animals by imitation, this experiment sought to determine whether rats could learn to respond to the non-behavioral cues of other rats. The "cue" was to hear the squeal of another rat in a painful (shock) situation. When the squeal of the rat was paired with shocking the S a CR could be elicited; not so without shock. Rats also responded differentially to the cue whether in a black or white alley, or whether they were or were not permitted to escape. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4EK12M. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sequential analysis of social interaction: Assessing internal versus social determinants of behavior.

Predictability and controllability of events influence attributions and affect in many research domains. In face-to-face social interaction, behavior is predictable from actor's own past behavior (internal determinants) and from partner's past behavior (social determinants). This study assessed how affect ratings are related to predictability of vocal activity from internal and social determinants. Time and frequency domain analysis of on–off vocal activity from 55 dyadic getting-acquainted conversations provided indexes of predictability from internal and social determinants. Greater predictability of vocal activity patterns from both internal and social determinants was associated with more positive affect. Future research should take internal as well as social determinants of behavior into account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prevalence estimates and adolescent risk behavior: Cross-cultural differences in social influence.

Prevalence estimates and prototype perceptions related to health risk behaviors were assessed in comparable samples of Danish and American adolescents (ages 13–15 years). Partly on the basis of observation and previous research, the assumption was made that the American sample would report more self-enhancement tendencies than would the Danish sample. Consistent with this assumption, which was supported by the data, 2 hypotheses were tested: (a) The Americans would overestimate the prevalence of the various risk behaviors (among their peers) more so than would the Danes and (b) those estimates would be more closely linked to their own risk behaviors for the American sample. Results supported both hypotheses; motivational explanations were proposed for both effects. In addition, perceptions of the prototypes associated with particular risk behaviors were assessed and were found to predict smoking behavior and willingness to engage in unprotected sexual intercourse for both samples. Implications for the study of adolescent risk behavior are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evolutionary origins of stigmatization: The functions of social exclusion.

A reconceptualization of stigma is presented that changes the emphasis from the devaluation of an individual's identity to the process by which individuals who satisfy certain criteria come to be excluded from various kinds of social interactions. The authors propose that phenomena currently placed under the general rubric of stigma involve a set of distinct psychological systems designed by natural selection to solve specific problems associated with sociality. In particular, the authors suggest that human beings possess cognitive adaptations designed to cause them to avoid poor social exchange partners, join cooperative groups (for purposes of between-group competition and exploitation), and avoid contact with those who are differentially likely to carry communicable pathogens. The evolutionary view contributes to the current conceptualization of stigma by providing an account of the ultimate function of stigmatization and helping to explain its consensual nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)