Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

(a)
Areas more strongly activated in females to tools
(b)
Areas more strongly activated in males to plants
Neuroscience in Your Life: 
When Brain 
and Socialization Meet
FIGURE 6 
Diff erences in how men and women process information refl ect diff erences in 
learning and experience with those objects. In an fMRI study, (a) women showed greater 
activation in certain areas of the brain when they processed names for tools and (b) men 
showed greater activation in other areas of the brain when they processed names of plants. 
(Source: Garn et al., 2009.)
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Module 32 
Gender and Sex 
351
gender differences are complex, and we still do not have the full story on differences 
between men and women when it comes to their cognitive abilities (Hugdahl et 
al., 2006). 
Sources of Gender Diff erences: 
Where Biology and Society Meet
If the identifi cation of gender differences has presented a diffi cult challenge for 
researchers, the search for their causes has proved even more daunting. Given the 
indisputable fact that sex is a biological variable, it would seem reasonable to look 
at factors involving biological differences between men and women. It is also true 
that people are treated differently on the basis of their sex from the time they are 
born. Consequently, we must take into account both biological and social factors 
when we try to understand the source of gender differences. 
Although we’ll consider biological and environmental variables separately, nei-
ther alone can provide a full explanation for gender differences. Some combination 
of the two, interacting with each other, will ultimately provide us with an under-
standing of why men and women may behave differently.