Gender Differences

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Introduction Part 1

.To begin, it is important to understand  that gender differences have been an important aspect of psychological research

. Throughout this research, several assumptions on gender differences have been established by researchers such as: Lynn & Kanazawa in (2011); These include:

.Women- Favour over men with verbal abilities; language development, comprehension etc.

.Men- Have superior spatial abilities, as well as higher arithmetical abilities; spatial perception, speed perception and science, mechanics etc.

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Introduction Part 2

. It is important that we establish why we need to know the differences and similarities between genders, such as:

. The growing need of assurance as to which gender is superior in certain areas of intelligence, thus ending the debate of the sexes.

.As it is through intelligence and cognitive abilities that certain opportunities of life are determined by. By this I mean, the allocation of jobs to individuals will be easier to establish based on the findings of gender differences, making the workplace more efficient.

For today’s debate, my group and I will be debating in favour of gender differences in cognitive abilities.

. To support the claims previously stated, as well as our own, we will be analysing specific studies and theories in an attempt to support our argument, And so Alex will now analyse biological differences between gender.

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Argument 1: Part 1

Another piece of evidence to support our argument comes from an investigation in which latent cognitive abilities were analysed in children aged 2-7 in 2015.  Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to verify the measurement invariance of the WPPSI-IV factor model in boys and girls.

Then the magnitude of gender differences in the means and variances of the abilities was estimated.

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Argument 1: Part 2

Multiple-indicator multiple-cause models were implemented to explore whether the magnitude of these differences varied across age. Some gender differences were found across the two genders.

•Girls aged 2 to 7 years showed an advantage in general intelligence

Girls aged 4 to 7 years demonstrate an advantage in processing speed.

•A male advantage in visual processing emerges at age 4 years.


These results indicate that gender differences in cognitive abilities emerge in early childhood, which may contribute to gender differences in later educational outcomes.

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Argument 2: Part 1

In regards to education, a meta analysis by Daniel and Susan  Voyer (2014) examined 369 samples from 308 studies, reflecting grades of 538,710 boys and 595,332 girls.

These studies were used to analyses the specific areas of education that each gender perform higher in.

The study found the differences in grades between girls and boys were largest for language courses and smallest for math and science.

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Argument 2: Part 2

The female advantage in school performance in math and science did not become apparent until junior or middle school, according to the study, published in the APA journal Psychological Bulletin®.

The degree of gender difference in grades increased from elementary to middle school, but decreased between high school and college.

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Argument 2: Part 3

It is Important to note:

.Seventy percent of the samples consisted of students from the United States, as well as other countries including the UK

All studies included an evaluation of gender differences in teacher-assigned grades or official grade point averages in elementary, junior/middle or high school, or undergraduate and graduate university

Daniel Voyer’s study furthers our argument that there are in fact differences in gender, and in this case his argument focuses on said differences within education.

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Gender Differences

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