Sex differences on the serial color-word test

The Serial Color-Word Test was administered to nonclinical volunteers of three age strata (17-29, 30-45, 46-65 yr.). Sex differences on the 17 variables of the test were explored for each age stratum. Only six significant intersex differences were found. In all age strata women scored significantly higher on linear regression of reading times in one of the last two subtests, i.e., R4 or R5.     

Sex and age differences on the Raven's matrices

This study examined the effects of sex and age on scores on a matrices test among university and college students aged 17 to 51 yr. Sex differences in mean scores were nonsignificant. The general decline with age was linear and negative, significantly so for women (n = 132), not for men (n = 74). Significant decrements occurred from the age of 26 yr. upwards for women only. The findings suggest that loss of intellectual capacity on the Raven's Matrices can be attributed to age.     

Sex differences on televised toy commercials

Televised toy commercials were observed during the 1977 (N=44) and 1978 (N=47) Christmas holiday seasons; children shown in the commercials were classified by sex and activity or passivity. In 1977 53 boys and 37 girls were observed; 71 boys and 35 girls were shown in 1978. There were significantly more boys than girls in the 1978 sample of commercials; more commercials contained boys than girls, and there were more boys than girls per commercial. Girls were more likely to appear in a passive role than boys were in the 1977 commercials. There were significantly fewer mixed-sex commericals than expected in 1977, but not in 1978. Percentages of commercials representing 12 toy categories and percentages of boys and girls appearing within each category are described; differences between years are discussed.     

Sex differences in the adolescent brain

Adolescence is a time of increased divergence between males and females in physical characteristics, behavior, and risk for psychopathology. Here we will review data regarding sex differences in brain structure and function during this period of the lifespan. The most consistent sex difference in brain morphometry is the 9–12% larger brain size that has been reported in males. Individual brain regions that have most consistently been reported as different in males and females include the basal ganglia, hippocampus, and amygdala. Diffusion tensor imaging and magnetization transfer imaging studies have also shown sex differences in white matter development during adolescence. Functional imaging studies have shown different patterns of activation without differences in performance, suggesting male and female brains may use slightly different strategies for achieving similar cognitive abilities. Longitudinal studies have shown sex differences in the trajectory of brain development, with females reaching peak values of brain volumes earlier than males. Although compelling, these sex differences are present as group averages and should not be taken as indicative of relative capacities of males or females.     

Sex differences in the perception of touching

Sex differences in the perception of touching were investigated by having 25 male and 25 female college students rate how likeable a touch would be under different conditions. The women produced a more favorable affect than the men when they touched, and women were perceived as liking to be touched more than men. Perception of touching in general was correlated positively with Self-esteem for men, negatively with Machiavellianism for women, and positively with Trust for women. Results were discussed in terms of traditional sex-typing of touching behavior.     

Sex differences in the processing of flankers

The study of sex differences in cognition has often focused on differences in spatial processing. Recently, sex differences in selective attention have been observed by Bayliss, di Pellegrino, and Tipper (2005), showing that women are more influenced than men by irrelevant spatial cues. The current study elaborates on this finding and tests whether sex differences in the processing of irrelevant information also occur in a simpler task, in which there is no need to redirect visual attention and no need to remember multiple spatial stimulus–response associations. Here, attention is studied using a novel combination of a go/no-go task and a flanker task. A total of 80 neurotypical participants were studied, and it was found that responses in women were more strongly affected by flanker information than were responses in men. This suggests that these sex differences were not due to difficulties with spatial reorientation, or remembering spatial stimulus–response relationships. The findings are discussed in the context of the hunter–gatherer theory of sex differences.     

Sex differences in the generalization of attraction

The effects of intergroup evaluations on intragroup attraction were assessed in a situation involving two-person teams that were all of the same sex. Male (N=123) and female (N=118) group members separately reported their political views to another dyad and then received either unfavorable, favorable, or no feedback regarding their team as a whole on the basis of this information. The results indicated that females evidenced more anger in response to the out-group's unfavorable feedback than did males. These anger responses were related to attraction to ward a teammate for males but not for females. Moreover, males evidenced less attraction toward an in-group member after receiving unfavorable rather than favorable intergroup evaluations, whereas females did not. On the other hand, only for females was attraction to ward a teammate related to the perceived similarity of that individual within experimental conditions. Apparently, the greater cognitive orientation of females as compared to males to ward another ingroup member resulted in their being less susceptable to the influence of situationally induced affect.This research was performed as part of the author's doctoral dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology, Purdue University. Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association held in Boston, 1977.It should be noted that the views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not reflect those of the Army or any other government agency.     

Sex differences among children on embedded tasks

100 8-yr.-old children (50 boys and 50 girls) were evaluated on the Children's Embedded Figures Test to determine whether there are differences in disembedding ability between boys and girls. Analysis indicated that the boys were superior to the girls on the test as a whole, but this superiority is the result of boys' greater ability to detect a triangular figure and not, on the contrary, their ability to detect the outline of a house.     

Sex differences in the self-concept in adolescence

This paper examines an aspect of the self-concept — salience of the self or self-consciousness — which has generally been neglected in the past. In an empirical study of nearly 2,000 children and adolescents, it was found that striking sex differences emerge during the adolescent period. Girls are considerably more self-conscious than boys, more vulnerable to criticism, and more concerned with promoting interpersonal harmony. Overall, adolescent girls are increasingly “people-oriented” while boys stress achievement and competence. It is suggested that these differences reflect the social definitions of sex roles.     

Sex differences in the naming of children's genitalia

Children's knowledge of human genital anatomy was examined retrospectively. Of the 223 adults who responded to a questionnaire on this subject, 39.8% of males and 29% of females learned correct anatomical names for male genitalia as children. In contrast, only 6.1% of females and 17.7% of males learned correct names for female genitalia. Most respondents learned either euphemisms or no names for female genitalia as children. Whereas male respondents acquired a complete vocabulary for male genitalia by a mean age of 11.5 years, female respondents did not complete their anatomical vocabulary for female genitalia until a mean age of 15.6 years. The importance of recognizing that children have erotic experiences and that they need a vocabulary for describing their feelings is discussed.     

Sex differences in the clinical expression of depression

Recent epidemiological studies have established that the lifetime prevalence rate of depression is greater in women than in men. It was the purpose of the present study to investigate the possibility that the true prevalence of male depression is underestimated because males have learned through social rejection that it is inappropriate for them to openly express depressive feelings. Consistent with this notion that men only express depressive symptoms consonant with their traditional male sex role, a discriminant function analysis performed on the self-reported symptomatology of depressed patients revealed that men were more likely to report sex role appropriate symptoms such as work-related problems and somatic concerns. Since other self-presentational concerns may contribute to the sex difference in depression, it is suggested that future research directly examine the ways in which men experience and express symptoms of depression.An earlier draft of this article was presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Baltimore, Maryland, April 1984. This research was supported in part by a grant from the Medical Research Council of Canada, awarded to the first author, and Grant No. 6606-1768-46 from the Health Services and Promotions Branch of Health and Welfare Canada, awarded to the second author. The authors would like to thank Dr. Paul Grof, Kaely Hutchinson, and the staff and patients of Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital for their help and cooperation with the project.     

Sex differences in the time course of emotion

Conventional wisdom holds that women are more "emotional" than men. However, research evidence suggests that sex differences in emotion are considerably more complex. The authors tested hypotheses about sex differences in the engagement of the approach and avoidance motivational systems thought to underpin emotional responses. The authors measured reported emotional experience and startle response magnitude both during the presentation and after the offset of emotional stimuli that engage these motivational systems to assess whether men and women differ in their patterns of immediate response to emotional stimuli and in their patterns of recovery from these responses. Our findings indicated that women were more experientially reactive to negative, but not positive, emotional pictures compared to men, and that women scored higher than men on measure of aversive motivational system sensitivity. Although both men and women exhibited potentiation of the startle response during the presentation of negative pictures relative to neutral pictures, only women continued to show this relative potentiation during the recovery period, indicating that women were continuing to engage the aversive motivational system after the offset of negative emotional pictures.