User:Nhaley11/Sex differences in psychology

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Sex differences in psychology are differences in the mental functions and behaviors of the sexes and are due to a complex interplay of biological, developmental, and cultural factors. Differences have been found in a variety of fields such as mental health, cognitive abilities, personality, emotion, sexuality, and tendency towards aggression. Such variation may be innate, learned, or both. Modern research attempts to distinguish between these causes and to analyze any ethical concerns raised. Since behavior is a result of interactions between nature and nurture, researchers are interested in investigating how biology and environment interact to produce such differences.

A number of factors combine to influence the development of sex differences, including genetics and epigenetics; differences in brain structure and function; hormones, and socialization.^[

The formation of gender is controversial in many scientific fields, including psychology. Specifically, researchers and theorists take different perspectives on how much of gender is due to biological, neurochemical, and evolutionary factors (nature), or is the result of culture and socialization (nurture). This is known as the nature versus nurture debate.

Definition

Psychological sex differences refer to emotional, motivational, or cognitive differences between the sexes. Examples include greater male tendencies toward violence, or greater female empathy.

The terms "sex differences" and "gender differences" are at times used interchangeably, sometimes to refer to differences in male and female behaviors as either biological ("sex differences") or environmental/cultural ("gender differences"). This distinction is often difficult to make due to challenges in determining whether a difference is biological or environmental/cultural. (EDIT MADE) Although this may be the case, many individuals will use sex to refer to the biological and gender as a social construct. (EDIT END)

Gender is generally conceived as a set of characteristics or traits that are associated with a certain biological sex (male or female). The characteristics that generally define gender are referred to as masculine or feminine. In some cultures, gender is not always conceived as binary, or strictly linked to biological sex. As a result, in some cultures there are third, fourth, or "some" genders.

Emotion

When measured with an affect intensity measure, women reported greater intensity of both positive and negative affect than men. Women also reported a more intense and more frequent experience of affect, joy, and love but also experienced more embarrassment, guilt, shame, sadness, anger, fear, and distress. Experiencing pride was more frequent and intense for men than for women.^{[page needed]} In imagined frightening situations, such as being home alone and witnessing a stranger walking towards your house, women reported greater fear. Women also reported more fear in situations that involved "a male's hostile and aggressive behavior". Emotional contagion refers to the phenomenon of a person's emotions becoming similar to those of surrounding people. Women have been reported to be more responsive to this. (EDIT START) In fact, it was found in a study that men had stronger emotional experiences while women had stronger emotional expressivity, when it came to anger. Additionally, in a previous study, it was also reported that men had a higher physiological response to stimuli meant to induce anger. (EDIT END) (EDIT START) It is important to note, however, that emotional experience and emotional expressivity are two different things. In another study, it was found that "the emotional responses elicited by emotional videos were inconsistent between emotional experience and emotional expressivity. Men had stronger emotional experiences, whereas women had stronger emotional expressivity" where in this case emotional experience is the physiological arousal one faces due to an external stimulus and emotional expressivity is the "external expression of subjective experience." (EDIT END)

There are documented differences in socialization that could contribute to sex differences in emotion and to differences in patterns of brain activity.

Context also determines a man or woman's emotional behavior. Context-based emotion norms, such as feeling rules or display rules, "prescribe emotional experience and expressions in specific situations like a wedding or a funeral", may be independent of the person's gender. In situations like a wedding or a funeral, the activated emotion norms apply to and constrain every person in the situation. Gender differences are more pronounced when situational demands are very small or non-existent as well as in ambiguous situations. During these situations, gender norms "are the default option that prescribes emotional behavior".

Professor of Psychology Ann Kring said^[when?], "It is incorrect to make a blanket statement that women are more emotional than men, it is correct to say that women show their emotions more than men." In two studies by Kring, women were found to be more facially expressive than men when it came to both positive and negative emotions. These researchers concluded that women and men experience the same amount of emotion, but that women are more likely to express their emotions.

Women are known to have anatomically differently shaped tear glands than men as well as having more of the hormone prolactin, which is present in tear glands, as adults. While girls and boys cry at roughly the same amount at age 12, by age 18, women generally cry four times more than men, which could be explained by higher levels of prolactin.

Lead

- This article is well-articulated and thoroughly explains how sex differences can influence various factors of one's life. There is a focus on psychological and cognitive traits that differ based on sex, and the original article provides the history on this topic and possible causes as well.