Gender Differences

This was a research paper for a course entitled Feminist and Multicultural Theologies. I unpack what gender complementarianism is, examine its history, and compare it to how Scripture and earlier Christian Tradition understood gender. This allows me to establish that gender complementarianism is a recent innovation in secular and Christian thinking about gender, and that it can be described as a "trajectory" from Scripture and Tradition on gender, influenced by social, ideological, and intellectual developments in secular societies. I then pursue a critique of gender complementarianism, arguing that it is an "unsatisfactory trajectory" because it has troubling implications for orthodox theology, is not borne out by empirical experience and observation, and has harmful effects on human beings and societies and on ethical development.

Recent studies indicate the presence of a gender-by-category interaction in the naming abilities of both Alzheimer’s patients and normal subjects (Laiacona, Barbarotto and Capitani, 1998; McKenna and Parry, 1994). In particular, males appear to be better than females at naming nonliving things and females better at naming living things. Similarly, in a recent study of semantic fluency, males retrieved more names of tools than females and females more names of fruit than males (Capitani, Laiacona and Barbarotto, 1999). Such findings have important implications for our understanding of category-specific disorders. The current study examined the naming latencies of normal subjects to pictures of living and nonliving things. We confirm a gender-by category interaction across both subject and item, with females being slower than males to name nonliving things and males slower to name living things. This finding could not be explained by differential difficulty of items or differences in ...

This essay analyzes the origin of sexuality and its relationship with the institution. The issue is addressed from the perspective of psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan), anthropology (Claude Lévi-Strauss) and philosophy (Foucault, Butler, Zupančič, Žižek). From the analysis of sexual difference as “real/impossible” a perspective comes to light: sex it is not a symbolic construct and not even an extra-symbolic reference, but what marks the irreducible (contradiction) limit of the symbolic order.

This paper aims to identify predictors of consumer ethnocentrism in the food market. An online survey was conducted in a sample of 1000 Polish consumers, which was representative by sex, age, education level, urban–rural divide, and region. The 10-item CETSCALE was applied. In a retrograde stepwise regression model, consumer ethnocentrism in the food market was positively related to tradition and conformity Schwartz values, to the pride of being Polish, and to such product characteristics as the country of origin, distance from the producer, and natural content. It was negatively related to the universalism value and to being a student. To gain further insights into the predictors of consumer ethnocentrism in the food market for either gender, separate regressions were conducted among men and women. Three predictors affected positively and significantly consumer ethnocentrism in the food market both among men and among women, namely the tradition Schwartz value, pride of being Polish, and importance attached to distance covered by the food product from the producer to the shop, which is related to the preference for local food. Moreover, consumer ethnocentrism among men was dependent on their food choice motive–environmental friendliness, whereas consumer ethnocentrism among women was affected by the importance attached to the product’s country of origin, and it was negatively related to women’s younger age.

We explore different contexts and mechanisms that might promote or alleviate the gender effect in risk aversion. Our main result is that we do not find gender differences in risk aversion when the choice is framed as a willingness-to-accept
(WTA) task. When the choice is framed as a willingness-to-pay (WTP) task, men are willing to pay more and thus exhibit lower risk aversion. However, when the choice is framed as a willingness to accept task, women will not accept less than men. These findings imply gender differences in the endowment effect. We also find that the effect size of the gender difference in risk aversion is reduced or eliminated as the context changes from tasks framed as gambles to other domains; and that attitudes toward gambling mediate the gender effect in gambling framed tasks.

This study aimed at exploring gender differences in reading habits of university students in Pakistan. The data was collected through a questionnaire from 1050 male and female students of three universities located in Punjab province. The results show that the reading habits of male and female students were somewhat different depending upon their objective, liking, timing of study and other factors. Female students exhibited comparatively more positive attitude towards reading as compared to their male counterparts. It is recommended that teachers at universities must play an active role in motivating, guiding and supervising students for developing positive reading habits especially among male students. Libraries of higher education institutions should be well equipped with a variety of printed and electronic reading materials, and must provide students with conducive reading environment.

Cumulative evidence has shown that four dimensions can be differentiated in the experience of test anxiety: worry, emotionality, interference, and lack of confidence. To investigate whether these dimensions show specific relationships with ways of coping, a study with 162 students (75 male, 87 female) examined how students cope with anxiety and uncertainty in the run-up to important exams. Coping strategies included task-orientation and preparation, seeking social support, and avoidance. Results showed that overall test anxiety was related to seeking social support. When dimensions of test anxiety were inspected individually while controlling for interdimensional overlap, however, results showed a specific pattern of relationships: (a) worry was related to task-orientation and preparation and inversely related to cognitive avoidance, (b) emotionality was related to task-orientation and preparation and seeking social support, and (c) interference was related to avoidance and inversely related to task-orientation and preparation, whereas (d) lack of confidence was related to avoidance only. Although some gender differences emerged, the findings indicate that the main components of test anxiety display different relationships with coping. Moreover, they confirm that it is important to differentiate between worry and interference because these dimensions, albeit closely related, may show opposite relationships with ways of coping.

The present study examines the use of creaky voice in the Spanish of two groups of Spanish-English bilinguals, namely, U.S. heritage speakers of Mexican Spanish and English L2 learners of Spanish. In American English, creaky voice is used utterance-finally, especially among young women, while it has rarely been found in Mexican Spanish. Participants’ H1-H2 values in utterance-final position were calculated to measure the degree of creaky voice and the values were compared to those of monolingual speakers of Mexican Spanish. Results showed that while monolinguals did not use creaky voice, both heritage speakers and L2 learners did, especially the female speakers. The findings imply that, like other linguistic features, voice quality can be transferred from one language to another.

This research examined how individuals’ gendered avatar might alter their use of gender-based language (i.e., references to emotion, apologies, and tentative language) in text-based computer-mediated communication. Specifically, the experiment tested if men and women would linguistically assimilate a virtual gender identity intimated by randomly assigned gendered avatars (either matched or mismatched to their true gender). Results supported the notion that gender-matched avatars increase the likelihood of gender-typical language use, whereas gender-mismatched avatars promoted countertypical language, especially among women. The gender of a partner’s avatar, however, did not influence participants’ language. Results generally comport with self-categorization theory’s gender salience explanation of gender-based language use.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare sensory processing styles of men and women to investigate another possible gender differences.
Methods: A sample of 360 participant (180 men and 180 women, age range 20-60 years, age-mean= 36 years) from Tehran, completed Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (Brown & Dunn, 2002). This Self-Questionnaire evaluates person’s behavioral responses to everyday sensory experiences, and shows four categories of sensory processing style (sensation seeking, low registration, sensation avoiding and sensory sensitivity) based on neurological thresholds and behavioral responses.
Results: Data was analyzed through independent t-test method. Significant gender differences were found for sensation seeking: Women showed a higher score in sensation seeking than men (p=0.002, t=3.049). This means that women in this study had higher neurological threshold and more active behavioral response comparing to men. There were not significant differences between men and women in three other sensory processing styles (low registration, sensation avoiding and sensory sensitivity).
Conclusions: The findings prepared another aspect of gender differences. It also suggests that gender differences in sensory processing style be considered in psychotherapy, consulting and other related planning for intervention.

Beziehungsqualität und Kooperation in Kindergarten und Schule stellen eine wesentliche Komponente für einen erfolgreichen Bildungsverlauf dar. Michael Glüer untersucht empirisch den geschlechtsspezifischen Einfluss der Beziehungsqualität zu sekundären Bezugspersonen auf die kindliche Kooperations- und Bildungsbereitschaft. Der Autor bietet einen Einblick in den aktuellen Forschungsstand zur Erfassung und Entwicklung von Bindungs- und Beziehungsqualität, Kooperations- und Bildungsbereitschaft zu ErzieherInnen und LehrerInnen in Kindergarten und Schule in Abhängigkeit vom kindlichen Geschlecht.

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between test-anxiety and academic achievement among adolescents in Sanandaj, Iran. The respondents comprised of 400 students (200 boys and 200 girls) in the age range of 15-19 years old that were randomly selected from nine high schools in Sanandaj, Iran. A self administered questionnaire was used for data collection which includes a Test-Anxiety Inventory (TAI)(Abbolghasemi, 1988), Grade Point Average (GPA) score and personal information. ...

A focus of interest among researchers and educators is to find teaching methods adjusted to developmental aspects in early childhood. Teaching that generates significant learning and creates motivation, interest and enjoyment in young children is a real challenge in contemporary education. The effectiveness of using puppets in early childhood has been demonstrated in clinical areas as having the potential to create communication, increase involvement and change attitudes. However, there is limited research literature relating to the use of puppets as a teaching method, and therefore a methodology based on measurement and evaluation is lacking in this field. This article presents partial results of a broader study that examined the influence of an intervention program integrating a puppet as a mediation tool on learning motivation, and enhancing literacy achievements in regular and special kindergarten children. One of the aims of this research was to evaluate, from mediators' perspectives, the use of puppets as a mediation tool for kindergarten children. This evaluation was carried out by means of personal interviews with each of the mediators at the end of the intervention program. From the interviews it became apparent that the mediators considered the puppets to be an effective tool for young children's developmental aspects, by means of which they could relate to cognitive, emotional, and social realms. Mediation using puppets facilitated learning processes, while using puppets, children's cooperation level increased, as did interest, attention span and their involvement in learning interaction was evident. The puppets contributed to the mediators' self-confidence and to their sense of professionalism. During the puppets mediation, the mediators felt that they were teaching in a clear manner, and they felt they were being interesting and. interactive. By using puppets, they succeeded in creating a close personal connection with the children. These findings have an applicable contribution in presenting the effectiveness of the puppet as a mediation tool for use in kindergarten and with special needs children. Keywords: puppets, mediation tool, kindergarten, special education

Problem Statement: Individual differences in education have great
importance. Such differences become particularly crucial in disciplines, such as mathematics and geometry. One of the most frequently investigated individual differences is gender-related. Gender differences in mathematics may be different depending upon the particular area of mathematics. Therefore, gender differences in geometry performance and geometry efficacy deserve attention.
Purpose of Study: Present study aimed to investigate gender differences in mathematics course achievement, geometry course achievement and geometry self-efficacy.
Methods: A total of 199 high school sophomores voluntarily participated in the study. Mathematics and geometry end-of-the-year GPAs were obtained from official student records. Students responded to a set of brief demographic questions asking their gender in addition to the Self-efficacy Scale toward Geometry (SESTG). Data were screened for the assumptions of parametric statistics. In order to test mathematics and geometry end-of the-year achievement differences simultaneously, between men and women, a between-subjects MANOVA was used. A second MANOVA was used to test three dependent variables of self-efficacy beliefs simultaneously in a non-orthogonal design. Independent variable was gender (men and women).
Findings and Results: Results showed that there was a significant
multivariate effect of gender on the combined dependent variables. There was a large association both between the dependent variables and gender. The results of univariate F analyses indicated that there were significant gender differences on both mathematics achievement and geometry achievement. Women achieved significantly higher than men. A second one-way between-subjects MANOVA was performed on the three dependent variables that were the subscales of the SESTG. Independent variable was gender. Results showed that there was not any significant multivariate effect of gender on the combined dependent variables.
Conclusions and Recommendations: Variables that may have an effect on mathematics or geometry achievement are multi-faceted. The present study focused on only one of such variables, namely gender. We investigated the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs in geometry and geometry achievement and found that the two variables were significantly related. The present study also shows a significant relationship between mathematics and geometry achievement level. Results also show that there are not any significant multivariate gender differences on the subscales of the geometry self-efficacy beliefs.
Keywords: Gender differences, mathematics course achievement level, geometry course achievement level, geometry self-efficacy beliefs
Acknowledgement(s): A part of this paper was previously presented at 18. National Educational Sciences Congress, İzmir, October 1-3, 2009.

Aim: To compare declared sexual identity to sex-of-rearing in individuals with disorders of sexual differentiation.Methods: All 84 patients ≥5 years old in a pediatric psychosexual development clinic were assessed for sex-of-rearing and sexual identity. Diagnoses included 1) male-typical prenatal androgen effects but an absent or severely inadequate penis - 45 patients with cloacal exstrophy or aphallia; 2) inadequate prenatal androgens and a Y-chromosome - 28 patients with partial androgen insensitivity (pAIS) mixed gonadal dysgenesis (MGD), hermaphroditism, or craniofacial anomalies with genital ambiguity; 3) inappropriate prenatal androgen effects and a 46,XX karyotype - 11 patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH).Results: Of 73 patients with disordered sexual differentiation and a Y-chromosome, 60 were reared female 26 of the 60 (43%) declared female identity while 32 (53%) declared male identity including 18 (55%) with cloacal exstrophy, six (55%) with MGD, four (40%) with pAIS, one (50%) with aphallia, one (100%) with hermaphroditism, and two (67%) with craniofacial anomalies; two (3%) declined to discuss identity. Nine of 11 patients with CAH and a 46,XX karyotype were reared female and two reared male; six (55%) declared female identity and five (45%) declared male identity. Of 84 total patients, 69 were reared female, but only 32 lived as female, while 29 lived as male; four patients refused to discuss sex-of-living; parents of four patients rejected their declarations of male identity. All 15 patients reared male lived as male including two genetic females.Conclusion: Active prenatal androgen effects appeared to dramatically increase the likelihood of recognition of male sexual identity independent of sex-of-rearing. Genetic males with maletypical prenatal androgen effects should be reared male.

The aim of this study was to identify Overtraining Syndrome (OTS) sex differences in undergraduate music students. It is part of a bigger research study about OTS. It reports results of 3 longitudinal observations, across one semester, in which were measured 4 psychobiological OTS’s indicators: a) Psychological symptoms of OTS, b) health alterations, c) blood pressure, and d) cortisol. In order to observe sex differences, tendencies analyses and t-test were conducted (n=24). Results showed women and men process stress in different ways. Women presented elevated cortisol levels; more psychological and physiological symptoms than their male companions; and they were not able to regulate blood pressure at the end of the semester. Women musicians are more vulnerable to present OTS.

Abstract- Electronic commerce (online shopping) is
increasing in popularity nowadays due to the popularity of
computer usage and the prevalence of internet. Electronic
commerce can produce numerous benefits to both sellers and
consumers. Hence, the study of online consumer behavior can
generate a better online atmosphere to facilitate greater profit
to sellers and better online purchasing experience to
consumer. Gender has universal characteristics, regardless of
culture and time period. In this study, the gender differences in
different aspects of online consumer behavior is concerned
and investigated.

Keywords: gender difference, online consumer behavior,
consumer buying process.

Despite the amount of research on family-work conflict and burnout, there persist questions about their relations and which coping strategies are the most effective. In this paper we address this issue from a gender perspective with a sample of 131 dual-earner couples developing both individual and couple analyses. The results at individual level yield gender differences when each of the two burnout components is explained. The main predictor of emotional exhaustion is work-family conflict while family-work conflict is the main predictor of depersonalization, especially for men. Regarding coping strategies, behavioural coping is negatively related to male depersonalization. However, behavioral and emotional coping increases both burnout dimensions in women, particularly if family-work conflict is high. At couple level, findings confirm the relationship between conflicts and burnout and the moderating role of behavioural coping to explain emotional exhaustion.

The present study is an attempt to explore the relationship between autonomy and career decision making among high school students. It is explored in the current study by statistical measure chi-square test. No significant relationship is found between autonomy and career decision making among high school students. Therefore it may be concluded from the findings that there may not be any relationship between autonomy and career decision making among high school students. Some recommendations are provided for understanding autonomy and its role in career decision making.

Проведён краткий обзор гендерных исследований в китайской лингвистике, начало которых датируется концом 70-х – началом 80-х гг. XX столетия. В гендерных исследованиях в китайском языкознании рассматривается широкий круг вопросов: взаимосвязь языка и пола, особенности мужского и женского произношения, отражение гендерной дискриминации в иероглифике и языке, гендерные различия в общении, гендерная дифференциация языка.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze development of gender linguistics in China. A brief overview of gender research in Chinese linguistics which began in the end of the 1970s – beginning of the 1980s is given in the paper. A wide range of topics is discussed in gender-related articles in China: relationship between language and gender, pronunciation characteristics of men and women, gender discrimination in Chinese characters and language, gender differences in communication, gender differentiation of language.

In this chapter we explored age and gender effects in several spatial abilities. Spatial cognition is not a unitary function but may be better thought of as that which includes a wide range of abilities. For this reason research dealing with the broad topic of individual differences in this domain should adopt tasks tapping distinct aspects. In particular, the metric vs. nonmetric nature of spatial information and the level of activity and strategic control that the spatial processes require may determine selective patterns of age and gender differences. A continuum can be outlined from perceptually-driven spatial tasks to memory-based passive tasks to memory-based active tasks. In our research, elderly and young people, half males and half females, were compared on spatial tasks consistent with this assumption. We devised tasks measuring perceptual metric discrimination, passive metric memory, memory for spatio-temporal sequences (Corsi Block Tapping Test) and mental rotation. The results showed age decrements in tasks requiring active manipulation and strategic control (mental rotation and Corsi test), in line with the limited-resources view of aged cognition. Further, a male advantage emerged in more active and metric tasks, i.e. mental rotation and memory for distance. The results are discussed in relation to the passive/active distinction in Working Memory processes and to differences in spatial strategies.

Previous literature shows a concern in the education sector regarding the influence of gender differences on users’ attitudes towards learning technologies. The present research aims to extend the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the e-learning context and investigate the effect of gender on technology adoption in a Middle Eastern country. A total of 302 Computer Science undergraduate students at a public university in Iraq took part in the study. In addition to TAM’s variables, perceived satisfaction and e-learning self-efficacy were integrated into the proposed model as direct predictors of behavioral intention towards acceptance of Learning Management Systems (LMSs). Gender divide, on the other hand, was included as a moderator of the relationship between the model constructs. The proposed framework explains substantial variance in behavioral intention (53.1%). Gender differences, however, had only a slight moderating effect on the relationship between e-learning self-efficacy and LMS acceptance. Self-efficacy had a stronger impact on the intention to use LMSs among men than among women. The potential implications of the present research are discussed further.

Objetivo. Conocer los síntomas psicológicos de mayor prevalencia, las diferencias por género y la incidencia de casos en una muestra de estudiantes universitarios del Ecuador. Método. Estudio descriptivo, epidemiológico y comparativo por género, de corte transversal por medio de la Escala de Salud General de Goldberg (GHQ-28). Participaron 444 estudiantes de tres universidades del Ecuador (57% mujeres y 43% hombres), entre 17 y 34 años (M= 21.4 años, DE = 2.2). Resultados. Los síntomas psicológicos de somatización y disfunción social predominaron en la muestra. Además, se encontraron diferencias por género t(442) = 2.24; p < 0.05, con mayor concentración en los hombres. El 24% de los participantes cumplieron los criterios de caso probable, debido a los síntomas presentes en ellos, y requieren supervisión e intervención psicológica. Discusión. Un segmento de la población universitaria ecuatoriana es vulnerable a las alteraciones de salud mental; además, el género incide en el diferencial de síntomas psicológicos, con mayor presencia en hombres que en mujeres.