Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

 
Module 32 
Gender and Sex 
349
emotional health. Such self-perceptions matter because they infl uence motivation 
as well as academic and career choices. They even infl uence performance. For 
example, when women experience stereotype threat —the perception that a perfor-
mance measure is sensitive to gender differences—their performance declines 
(Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002; Keller, 2007; Carr & Steele, 2009). 
The content of men’s and women’s speech also differs. Women’s speech is more 
precise. However, their speech patterns lead others to view them as more tentative 
and less assertive. Women more often raise their pitch at the end of a sentence and 
add “tags” at the end of an opinion rather than stating the opinion outright. For 
example, instead of saying, “It’s awfully warm today,” a female speaker might say, 
“It’s awfully warm today, isn’t it? ”—which makes her appear less certain of her 
opinion. When females use such tentative language, they are judged to be less com-
petent and knowledgeable than they are when they speak assertively (Matlin, 1996; 
Popp, Donovan, & Crawford, 2003; Leaper & Ayres, 2007). 
Women’s and men’s nonverbal behavior differs as well in several signifi cant 
respects. In conversations with people of the other sex, women look at their partners 
signifi cantly more while listening than while speaking (thereby communicating coop-
eration), whereas men look at their partners about the same length of time while 
listening and speaking (thereby communicating power). In addition, women are gen-
erally better than men at decoding others’ facial expressions (Coats & Feldman, 1996; 
Burgoon & Bacue, 2003; LaFrance & Harris, 2004).
 COGNITIVE ABILITIES 
No general differences exist between men and women in overall IQ scores, learning, 
memory, problem solving, and concept-formation tasks. A few differences in more spe-
cifi c cognitive areas have been identifi ed, although more recent research has called into 
question the true nature of those differences—and even their existence (Halpern, 2000). 
When Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Jacklin carried out a pioneering study of sex 
differences in 1974, they concluded that girls outperformed boys in verbal abilities 
and that boys had superior quantitative and spatial abilities. Psychologists—and the 
public—widely accepted that conclusion as true. 
However, recent and more sophisticated analyses have questioned these earlier 
fi ndings. In a ground-breaking study, psychologist Janet Hyde and colleagues 
20
Men
Women
0
40
60
10
30
50
70
80
90
100
Percentage who rate themselves
above average
Emotional health
Competitiveness
Mathematical ability
Academic ability
FIGURE 5
Male fi rst-year college students 
are much more likely than female fi rst-
year college students to rate themselves 
as above average in academic ability, 
mathematical ability, and emotional 
health. 
(Source: From Astin, A. W., Korn, W. S., 
& Berz, E. R. (2004). 
The American freshman: 
National norms for fall 2004.
Los Angeles, CA: 
Higher Education Research Institute, Graduate 
School of Education, UCLA. © 2008 The 
Regents of the University of California. All 
Rights Reserved.)
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