[Psy] Gender stuff~

[~SnowAngel~]

I originally planned to go into great detail for some specific things, but I think it'll be more fun to simply talk about everything~ Sometimes I'll add a link here to a post for a certain topic. We'll go from one topic to another to try and keep things together~ When I have the time, I'll go through my psy book for the theories, terms, and confirmation of what I describe. (I can describe a theory, but not name it XD)

The main idea that I wanted to bring up is gender differences, similarities, and stereotypes. I may even go into certain other topics like identity (people with DID can have multiple genders). You may also want to look into the culture related stuff when it comes to this since alot of cultural things are different.


Soo the first thing I want to say is that there is around 0-1% of differences between boys and girls. We're about 98% the same entirely, with 1% for DNA, and 1% for personality. Feel free to search for articles :P
http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2005-09-22_51 Of course, we can't really take into account things like experience, but the idea here is as far as abilities and being human. Soo why does it seem like we can't understand each other sometimes? :P
I think it's ultimately 4 things: DNA, culture, experience, peers.


stereotypes

Spoiler

Think about generally how a girl (or boy) should act, and get into details: Manners, interests, way of talking, hobbies, friends, jobs, etc. More than likely, you've just thought of a few stereotyped things related to your culture.

Soo let's consider a few stereotypes. What are some stereotypes for both genders that you can think of?
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Gender-Stereotypes.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26896.html
http://family.jrank.org/pages/686/Gender-Gender-Roles-Stereotypes.html

A stereotype for girls is that they are "girly" :P They're into things like love, knitting, sewing, cooking, children, ballet, clothes, shopping, talk, and so on.
A stereotype for guys is to be "manly". They're rough, don't show "soft emotions", can take a beating, strong, into violent stuff, sports, etc.

The biggest reason why we have these stereotypes is because our history in culture fits most of those things. Women did most of the cleaning, cooking, housework, raising kids, etc. They were not allowed to be educated, so they were seen as.. not so smart :P
The men fought wars, hunted, made money for the family, owned land, and were seen as more powerful. However, they were often outwitted by women sometimes~ :P


Now think of today. What are some things that either gender can do and be okay? You may think of something as odd since there aren't as many people around you doing something. ex: there's girls who play video games heavily, like computer stuff, mechanics, construction, being a cop, aren't very "sweet", can't cook, etc.
There's guys who like flowers, crafts, cooking, pink, being emotional, etc.

There might be some boundaries of what is seen as acceptable for either gender. ex: you might find it odd for a guy to be interesting in wearing skirts, having painted nails and into ballet. There might be a girl who "sits like a guy", has bad manners, is rough, likes sports, etc.
The way a person talks may also be different~


Sooo for now I want you to consider:
Why do girls/guys think the way they do?
What behavior are you comfortable seeing for either gender? What's too much? XD
What are some influences from your culture for either gender?
What do you think of this? Do you agree or disagree, why?
What do you think your life would be like if you were 100% the opposite gender?
other thoughts~

Conversations

There's an interesting theory about the differences of how guys/girls talk. (straight from my book~)

Rapport talk.

Is the language of conversation and a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships. Girls enjoy rapport talk and conversations that is relationship oriented more than boys do.

(ex, how are you, how's your family, what __ do you like? etc~ all personal "get to know you")


Report talk.

is talk that gives information. Public speaking is an example of report talk. Males hold center stage through report talk with verbal performances such as storytelling, joking, and lecturing with information.

(ex, I got this game the other day. Did you have practice at today? How is work/school?)

 

[DaRk_AnGeL_ZoA]

I personally hate stereotyping in general. I'm looked at strange because I don't listen to certain styles of music in fact I hate R&B, hip hop etc. because one of my closest friends is gay, It went from stereotyping to bullying that I took Home Economics (cooking) and Textiles (sewing) but enough of my rant........

I myself have to admit that I stereotyped a girl I liked and it nearly ruined our friendship, I thought she was into all that girly stuff be it turns out she just wanted someone to be there for her

hmm behavior like I dunno I don't normally open up to people until I know I can trust them but I guess some one who understands me is fine.

hmm influences from my culture are a joke me and my older bro both said we'd probably elope with a girl we love cause my parents have too high expectations....infact my parents don't even know about my bros gf he's had for 1 and a half years cause they wouldn't approve.

I'll carry on the rest another time

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Why do girls/guys think the way they do?
Media is quite the influence and friends too~ Thats basically society i guess? Theres also whatever dna stuff~ 1% of difference can do a lot considering how many personalities there are ;p
What behavior are you comfortable seeing for either gender? What's too much? XD
Hmm... ill just leave others to do as they wish... :x Im not normal so who am i to judge...
What are some influences from your culture for either gender?
Hmm... be polite to people whenever possible? Though thats more of friends than culture... i barely know whatever social rules there are and i dont care~ The other stuff is stereotypical randomness which i dont particularly care for either~
What do you think of this? Do you agree or disagree, why?
Depends~ But stereotypes cant cover everyone~
What do you think your life would be like if you were 100% the opposite gender?
Not too different i dont think? Well i wonder if i would actually care about looks Nahh~ I like mah sweats and t shirt ;p More comfortable~ Actually i would probably be quite different considering how friends might act due to the differences~
other thoughts~
RAWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR /me nibbles oh ushio's wing~

 

[~SnowAngel~]

soo it's at the top, but i'll put it here too~

Rapport talk.
Is the language of conversation and a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships. Girls enjoy rapport talk and conversations that is relationship oriented more than boys do.

(ex, how are you, how's your family, what __ do you like? etc~ all personal "get to know you")


Report talk.
is talk that gives information. Public speaking is an example of report talk. Males hold center stage through report talk with verbal performances such as storytelling, joking, and lecturing with information.

(ex, I got this game the other day. Did you have practice at today? How is work/school? I'm doing __. )



soo what do you guys think? Is it mostly true for you, a mix, etc~ keep in mind that this is from a psy book and is based on research~


I think that it's mostly true for the respective genders, but both do sometimes engage in the other type of talk.

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm how was school can sort of be rapport talk cant it? xD Or sort of borderline between the two~ Well i think i do report talk more than rapport... well i mix both actually xD

 

[SaikoMorino]

two heavy influences I know would be the way we were raised and the media. how we were nurtured by our parents and their perspective of raising a girl or boy would already be based on their society. as for media, since it is usually the most influential means of transferring ideas also becomes a hazard when depicting gender sensitive stuff

 

[~SnowAngel~]

all correct~ in fact my psy 102 teacher said that mothers tend to hold baby girls more closely and teach them more about behavior. In general, it's correlated that girls are taught to be more mature because of this~
mothers will hold boys more loosely, and respond a little less to false cries. Mothers will also use more physical punishment on boys then girls.

From that, it's theorized that boys punish others physically, while girls punish more verbally. While guys seem to use physical aggression more, girls use the equal amount of aggression verbally. They also cope with problems and stress a little differently, but it's not constant enough to be convincing yet~

ex: girls like to talk to other people about problems, get it all out, or drown out things if they can't/don't want to talk about it.
Guys do things that let them "turn off" their mind. (ex: video games, fishing, etc.) They seem like they're avoiding the issue, but they're really putting it away to either think about it later. (might not be always of course~)

Now there are cases where it's mixed or the opposite. But the dominant thing in our culture shows more of the above~

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There's also a pretty convincing idea of how memory works between genders~ I forgot the guy's name, but he said alot about how they remember. (it was like a crud comedy~)
He his idea was that girls organize memory like a tree, and guys like file cabinets.

In his idea, girls will talk/remember things that seem to have nothing to do with each other. This makes sense to her of course, but drives the guys crazy XD. ex: for things that she needs the husband to help with are things like: mow the yard, pickup kids from school, get a few groceries, fix a cabinet, annnd so on? XD (he gives a better example). All of this is in one sentence btw.

The way he describes it is that these memories are linked to one another based on something in common, or an emotion. Sooo it's not just like a branch from a tree, they are close enough to where she can jump from one idea to something random and be like "oh btw." (I might be getting it wrong~ maybe i'll find the audio about it again x-x)
He also says that they can mentally multi-task. He says that she can listen to the radio, read a book, do homework, and know exactly where in the house her kids are, all at the same time.


for guys, they can only process one thing at a time. He said that his abilities are like a computer program. When he's reading, he's not listening and misses what she said. He says that the guy has to run the "listening program" but he has to first reboot to acknowledge that he's being talked to. Sooo he can't listen and read at the same time, while understanding both.

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ummmm there's more about that guy i'll talk about later~ things about mental activity and emotions. oh btw, he says that if you like a memory with an emotion, you're more likely to remember. anyways~ I heard this on the radio one night XD

 

[SaikoMorino]

yeah liking memories with emotion makes you remember more. some even consider listening to music because of this. the more impact and emotion there is, the more memorable it is. Since we have multiple intelligences, some prefering visuals, audio and etc, making use of more than one form increases the likelihood of learning

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm so girls are more emotionally based than guys? Somewhat like that guys dont hit girls thingy :/ Multi tasking... hmm yeahhh seems like i dont get quite as much of other stuff if im focusing on something...

Connections... girls link thoughts with emotions and guys... dont? xD Idk... i have no idea what i link stuff with.... but i suppose its more physical stuff?

 

[SaikoMorino]

guys can also do the emotional linking. what I find weird though I when guys get into a fist fight and then develop higher respect for each other

 

[~SnowAngel~]

Hmm so girls are more emotionally based than guys?

not completely true~ There's been a study that shows more metabolic activity in the part of the brain involving emotion for girls. The ability for them to feel is the same. It's mostly cognitively how it's different. (aka, how they think, reason, etc.)

hmmmm there's also a study about academic ability. Some skills are proven that guys are better at. (visuospatial skills. math, science). But this is mostly from issues regarding a traditional education system.
Girls are overall better students than guys, only based on the educational flaw. Girls show more interest in academics and effort, while guys are more likely in need of help. guys are also called on to answer more often than girls.

all of this can be eliminated based on a different approach to education~ but i'll get into that once we talk about it in class XD


ummmm one thing i do want to mention is that girls are more pro-social than guys. They tend to act upon their empathy more than guys, and focus more on relationships. Guys will typically act upon skills needed, and focus on abilities. (ex, fixing something, helping move heavy stuff, etc.) Most of this is based on culture, and some of these gender differences have been exaggerated when given a meta-analysis. (studying alot of research and finding different results).


From what's given, the study of gender is still a young topic in need of more solid examples. Most of the "differences" were actually a gender bias, influenced by a popular book called "men are from mars,women are from Venus."
I'm not too sure about it~ I want to read it sometime just because :P


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sooo more about cognitive stuff later~
The main think is cultural pressure. Guys are told to "tough it up" with emotion and showed that it's not manly to be emotional, while girls are taught to express it more.
Think about crying or being angry~ it seems that girls are more suited for crying and one would be more empathetic. But if a man is crying, people would find that odd.

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Lol bonding through contact? Hmm or just that the other guy has the guts to fight... xD

Hmm theres also the fact that whatever woman went nuts and told the world that girls were in a spiral of despair or something? Without any actual evidence and then guys proved to be doing similarly so she just declared that all kids were depressed :/ But it left its mark on how teachers interact with female students and stuff i think...

Effort and stuff... well yeah... that seems to be some generalization that girls are better and then that makes it so girl do want to do better and guys just use it to explain their flaws? Idk... kind of like that asians are smarter thing? Though thats mostly culture cuz some asian parents go nuts if the kid doesnt do well...

Well theres that girls are weaker thing? Something about girls requiring more work to build up muscles like a guy... All that knight in shining armor thing where guys are supposed to protect girls and stuff... Girls are also supposed to be more emotional and guys are supposed to be able to deal with their problems themselves or whatever stuff society says...

 

[SaikoMorino]

i'm not sure samy :))) my psych prof was never able to go into it in detail

and yeah one more bad influence... education >.<

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Education... it sets the basis for students interaction?...

 

[SaikoMorino]

education strengthens the norms the major society has. after all, they were made to prepare students to come out in that society

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm and thus all the students who were loners in school will continue to be so... :/

 

[~SnowAngel~]

social interactions in school is a completely different study of psychology alltogether~ each school has it's own culture. In fact, you can have sub-cultures in just about any situation.

(the store, a church, your friends, family at home, etc.)
Basically, you act according to what you believe is appropriate. How you talk to a professor wouldn't be how you'd talk to a friend~


There are two main cultures of the world. Collectivism and Individualism. Collective values the group and other people more than individuals. Single people will adjects their own behaviors or beliefs based on the majority. (conformity).

Individualistic says that one person is of more value than a whole group, such as inspirational ideas. They are more likely to express emotions than collectivists, while collectives usually discourage showing emotion. (generally).


ummm culture is another topic i'll start elsewhere sooooooooo~


there are some good and bad things about each culture too~

 

[SaikoMorino]

while having those different cultures, I just wish we had less traditional ones

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Hmm... school is a major part of early development... and i would say it is mostly about conformity? Though i think my artsy school was somewhat more about the individual than others~

Sounds like how japanese people arent supposed to voice negativity so they find foreigners to talk to about the negative stuff...

 

[SaikoMorino]

another bias I guess would be on how boys and girls are punished

 

[burn22]

inbetween we're of no different.
it all boils down to character and attitude.

 

[SaikoMorino]

and hormones

 

[~SnowAngel~]

loooots and looots and LOTTTTSSSSSS of hormones~

hmmmm did you know that guys kinda have their own periods? XD
http://themotherhealth.blogspot.com/2009/04/men-have-periods-too.html

 

[Ghost Kitty~]

Lol that again xD

Hmm hormones... i was late with that stuff ._. Sheltered i suppose?... Was quite innocent until certain friends went nuts xD

 

[~SnowAngel~]

Lol that again xD

Hmm hormones... i was late with that stuff ._. Sheltered i suppose?... Was quite innocent until certain friends went nuts xD

late with hormones??? ummmmmmmmm actually no~ people can have different levels of hormones and even have one that is a disorder. some based on DNA. (X and Y chromosomes).

I'm not sure which is what~ but it'll just mention what i learned in class :P

First of all, both genders make the same type of hormones, but at different levels.
(not sure if these were DNA or hormones~)
The adrenal glands make the hormones that are more secondary. (or something like that~)

A girl can have masculine interests because of naturally more androgen. She'd prefer to hang around guys, be more athletic, etc.

Boys are about the same way. They can appear smaller/weak because of less androgen. They may even be at the point where they appear as a girl, or just have those interests. There's even a disorder that causes them to develop breasts naturally. (This often causes gender identity confusion, which is very serious x-x).

There's even some rare cases where a person will be born with both productive organs for either gender. Usually it's easier to raise them as a girl and discard the male parts. However, people often wish they were given that choice to make.
Still, can you imagine the problems they'd have? (Which bathroom to go to, who you're attracted to, etc.)
There are people that would kill themselves because of gender issues like that. x-x

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hmmmmmmm wonder if i should tell more about hormones? XD