TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hyde (2018): Video lecture on the science of gender differences and similarities ... 2
Hyde & Delamater (2017). Chapter 12: Gender and Sexuality .................................................. 3
Petersen & Hyde (2010). A meta-analytic review of research on gender differences
in sexuality............................................................................................................................................................... 9
Vanwesenbeeck (2009). Doing gender in sex and sex research ........................................... 10
Eagly & Wood (2013). The nature-nurture debates: 25 Years of challenges in
understanding the psychology of gender ......................................................................................... 14
Hyde, Bigler, Joel, Tate, & van Anders (2019). The future of sex and gender in
psychology: Five challenges to the gender binary. ...................................................................... 16
Cretella, Rosik, & Howsepian (2019). Sex and gender are distinct variables critical to
health ....................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Reilly (2019). Gender can be a continuous variable, not just a categorical one ........ 20
Guest lecture, literature ................................................................................................................................. 20
Guest lecture, lecture ....................................................................................................................................... 22
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). What is Gender Dysphoria? ............................ 23
Zucker et al. (2013). Memo outlining evidence for change for Gender Identity
Disorder in the DSM-5. .................................................................................................................................. 24
Davy (2015). The DSM-5 and the politics of diagnosing transpeople. ............................. 26
Kuyper & Wijsen (2013). Gender identities and gender dysphoria in the
Netherlands.......................................................................................................................................................... 28
Toates, C2.1 ............................................................................................................................................................ 29
Toates, C2.2 How sexual desire works .................................................................................................. 31
Toates, C9 Arousal ............................................................................................................................................. 33
Video Toates ......................................................................................................................................................... 35
Hyde & Delamater: Understanding Human Sexuality .................................................................. 36
Balon & Clayton (2014). Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder: A diagnosis out
of thin air. .............................................................................................................................................................. 37
Basson (2014). On the definition of Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder. ........ 38
Graham, Brotto, & Zucker (2014). Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder is a
diagnosis more on firm ground than thin air. ................................................................................ 39
Graham, Boynton, & Gould (2017). Women’s sexual desire: Challenging narratives of
“dysfunction.” ...................................................................................................................................................... 41
, Althof et al. (2017). Opinion paper: On the diagnosis/classification of sexual arousal
concerns in women ......................................................................................................................................... 44
◼ GENDER
HYDE (2018): VIDEO LECTURE ON THE SCIENCE OF
GENDER DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES
“NOT men are from mars, women are from Venus,
but: men are from earth, women are from earth”
MODELS ON DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN
The differences model: men(/boys) and women(/girls) are very different from each other.
→ The gender binary is prominent in media portrayals and psychological research.
Models of innate, biological causes: biological causes of different thinking in men and
women.
The deficit model: men and women are different, in which women are not quite as good as
men. E.g. ‘women do not have the math ability to succeed in science and engineering’.
STEREOTYPES OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ABILITIES
- Verbal: women stronger than men in verbal skills;
- Mathematical: men stronger than women;
- Spatial: men stronger than women.
However, about 50% of math graduates are women, this already shows these
stereotypes are not (completely) true. Also, meta-analysis state assessments
mathematics performance: no gender differences, but gender similarities. Also, cross-
cultural studies show that differences in performance can be explained by cultural
differences, not gender differences. Other research shows that other factors (SES,
parents’ education, school quality) predict math performance way better than gender
does.
WHY IS MATH SO IMPORTANT?
For the individual: math proficiency is crucial for access to prestigious, high-paying jobs
in science, technology, and engineering. Much demand for workers (we don’t want to
discourage women to do it).
For the nation: we can’t afford to waste 50% of our talent (women) in the global
economic competition.
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN DEPRESSION
Stereotype: depression is a ‘female problem’. This difference appears between 13-15
years of age. However, this had never been meta-analyzed. Meta-analysis: high odds
ratio already by age 12 (~ twice as many girls as boys meet depression criteria). Gender
,differences peaks at ages 13-15, declines in 20s and remains stable afterwards. OR of 2: -
- 1/3rd of depressed adults are men: stereotype of the female problem leads to
overdiagnosis of women’s depression, underdiagnosis of men’s depression, and more
reluctance of help seeking by men.
- Implications for theory:
→ previous theories gender difference depression focused on emergence in
adolescence (pubertal hormones, stress, peer sexual harassment victimization).
→ Best theory will also account for the narrowing of the gender gap in the 20s.
- Implications for research:
→ Single-sex designs (only using women) cannot be justified if 1/3rd of depressed
population is male.
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SEXUALITY
Larger effect sizes in gender differences in sexual behaviors (porn use, masturbation),
however there are still behaviors where differences are not that big. Also, for most
sexual attitudes it is quite similar across gender. Gender empowerment acts as a
moderator in some of the gender differences relationships with sexual
behaviors/attitudes.
THE GENDER SIMILARITIES HYPOTHESIS
The hypothesis: men and women are very similar on most (not all) psychological
variables. M-A: 78% of gender differences are small or close to 0.
COSTS TO OVERINFLATED CLAIMS OF GENDER DIFFERENCES
- Education: single-sex classrooms and schools, in the absence of empirical support
- Education: emphasis on girls’ depression leads us to ignore boys’ depression and
self-esteem problems
- Workplace: same job, different pay (dependent on gender)
HYDE & DELAMATER (2017).
CHAPTER 12: GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Gender binary: conceptualizing gender as having only two categories, male and female.
Gender role: a set of norms, or culturally defined expectations, that define how people
of one gender ought to behave.
Stereotype: a generalization about a group of people (e.g. men) that distinguishes them
from others (e.g. women).
Heterosexuality is an important part of gender roles, the feminine woman is expected to
be sexually attractive to men and in turn to be attracted to them. Violation of any part of
this role leads to the woman being viewed as masculine (also the other way around for
males).
, GENDER ROLES AND ETHNICITY
Intersectionality: An approach that simultaneously considers the consequences of
multiple group memberships, e.g. the intersection of gender and ethnicity.
→ Within this framework, it becomes clear that some groups experience multiple
disadvantages, such as poor Black women or lesbian women of color.
African Americans Emphasis on collective > individual.
Traditional images of black women include the Jezebel, who is
promiscuous and immoral; and the Mammy, who is fat and
asexual.
Contemporary hip-hop culture has added numerous
stereotyped images of black women: the Gold Digger, who uses
sex to gain economic rewards from men; Gangster Bitches,
who live in poverty-stricken, violent environments, focus on
survival, and use sex to feel good for the moment; and the Sister
Savior, who is strongly tied to African American religious
traditions, is virtuous, and avoids sex
Black men are believed to be hypersexual and to have great
sexual prowess.
Latinx Central focus: family.
Boys are given greater freedom, are encouraged in sexual
exploits, and are not expected to share in household work. Girls
are expected to be passive, obedient, virginal, and to stay in the
home.
Asian Americans Emphasis on academic achievement and the importance of
education. Also, family and group interdependence.
The Asian American man has been stereotyped as asexual,
whereas the Asian American woman has been stereotyped as
an exotic sex toy.
American Indians At least some Indian tribes traditionally had relatively
egalitarian gender roles. The process of acculturation and
adaptation to Anglo society seems to have resulted in increased
male dominance among American Indians.
Acculturation: the process of incorporating the beliefs and customs of a new culture.
Socialization: the ways in which society conveys to the individual its norms or
expectations for their behavior. Socialization occurs especially in childhood, as children
are taught to behave as they will be expected to in adulthood. Socialization continues in
adulthood, as society conveys its norms of appropriate behavior for adult women and men.
These norms extend from appropriate jobs to who initiates sexual activity.
Gender-socialization comes from multiple sources, incl. parents, peers, media.
PSYCHOLOGICAL GENDER DIFFERENCES
Aggressiveness: males are generally more aggressive than females.
Impulsivity: the tendency to act spontaneously and without careful thought.
Stereotypes hold that men are impulsive risk-takers and that women are less so.
, Communication styles: men and women differ in their style of communicating, both
verbally and nonverbally.
→ Norms about self-disclosure are changing. Traditional gender roles favored
emotional expressiveness for females, but emotional repressiveness and
avoidance of self-disclosure for males. There is, however, a contemporary ethic
of good communication and openness that demands equal self-disclosure from
males and females.
→ women are better than men at decoding such nonverbal cues and discerning
others' emotions.
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SEXUALITY
Differences do exist, but they are in a rather small number of areas-masturbation,
attitudes about casual sex, use of pornography, consistency of orgasm during sex, and
sex drive.
- Masturbation: men are more likely to have masturbated than women (at an earlier
age and more often).
- Attitudes about casual sex: men are considerably more approving of such
interactions, and women tend to be disapproving. Many women feel that intercourse
is ethical or acceptable only in the context of an emotionally committed relationship.
For many men, that is a nice context for sex, but it isn't necessary.
- Use of pornography: men considerably more likely to report using porn than
women.
- Arousal to erotica: men are more aroused by erotic materials, but the gender
difference is not large.
Penile strain gauge: a device used to measure physiological sexual arousal in the
male. Photo plethysmograph: an acrylic cylinder placed inside the vagina to measure
physiological sexual arousal in the female.
Lower correlation objective and subjective measures for women: men are aware of
their physiological arousal, but women can sometimes be unaware of their
physiological arousal.
- The orgasm gap: men are more consistent than women at having orgasms during
sex (with others). The gap is narrower for orgasm consistency during masturbation:
80% of men, compared with 60% of women. For women, having a female partner
can mean more orgasms.
- Sex drive: men, on average, have a stronger sex drive than women do. For thoughts
about sex: the differences from one man to the next, or from one woman to the next,
are far greater than the average difference between women and men.
POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS OF THE SEXUALITY DIFFERENCES
- Bogus:
One possibility is that many of these gender differences, typically documented by
self-report, are not true differences. Instead, it could be that people report what is
expected of them, shaped by gender norms.
→ When people were in the bogus pipeline condition and gave the most honest
