Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

2.
Gender stereotypes seem to be much less prevalent today 
than they were several decades ago. True or false?
3.
Which of the following statements about male-female 
differences in aggression is true?
a.
Males are physically more aggressive than females only 
during childhood.
b.
Male-female differences in aggression fi rst become 
evident during adolescence.
c.
Males are more aggressive than females throughout the 
life span.
d.
Females and males feel equally anxious about their 
aggressive acts.
4.
are frameworks that organize understanding 
of gender-specifi c information.
R E T H I N K
1.
The U.S. Congress has enacted laws prohibiting women in 
the armed forces from participating directly in combat in 
the interest of keeping them safe. Do you think such laws 
are protective or sexist? How might this be an example of 
“benevolent sexism”?
2.
From the perspective of a business executive : Evidence shows 
that sexism in the workplace is widespread. If you wanted 
to end sexism in organizational settings, can you think of 
ways to narrow the gap between men and women in 
terms of occupations and salary?
Answers to Evaluate Questions 
1.
gender r
oles;
2.
false; they ar
e still prevalent; 
3.
c; 
4.
gender 
schemas
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When I started “tuning out,” teachers thought I was sick—physically sick that is. They 
kept sending me to the school nurse to have my temperature taken. If I’d told them I 
was carrying on with Jennifer Lopez in their classes while supposedly learning my 
Caesar and my Latin vocabulary, they’d have thought I was—well, delirious. I was! 
(based on Coles & Stokes, 1985, pp. 18–19) 
Not everyone’s sexual fantasies are as consuming as those reported by this teenage 
boy. Yet sex is an important consideration in most people’s lives; although the phys-
ical aspects of human sex are not all that different from those of other species, the 
meaning, values, and feelings that humans place on sexual behavior elevate it to a 
special plane. To fully appreciate this difference, however, it is necessary to under-
stand the basic biology underlying sexual responses.
The Basic Biology 
of Sexual Behavior
Anyone who has seen two dogs mating knows that sexual behavior has a bio-
logical basis. Their sexual behavior appears to occur naturally without much 
prompting on the part of others. A number of genetically controlled factors infl u-
ence the sexual behavior of nonhuman animals. For instance, animal behavior is 
affected by the presence of certain hormones in the blood. Moreover, female ani-
mals are receptive to sexual advances only during certain relatively limited peri-
ods of the year. 
Human sexual behavior, by comparison, is more complicated, although the 
underlying biology is not all that different from that of related species. In males, for 
example, the testes begin to secrete