Effects of sex,status, and mating cues on expected aggressive responses

The effect of sex, status, and mating cues on expected aggression was examined via three scenario‐based studies in which participants imagined themselves in a situation with a same‐sex instigator of a provocation. Participants were randomly assigned to receive a scenario, which included one of two levels of status of instigator (high, low), one of two levels of attractiveness of the instigator (unattractive, attractive), and one of two levels of provocation (apology, insult). Sex and dispositional aggressivity were also included in a full factorial design. Based on evolutionary psychology ideas, we anticipated that status and attractiveness would differentially influence expected aggression for men vs. women. Participants in Experiment 1 were instructed to imagine that they were alone, whereas participants in Experiments 2 and 3 imagined themselves in a situation that included mating‐related primes. In general expected aggression was greater for aggression‐prone participants and under conditions of provocation and/or a high‐status instigator. Experiments 2 and 3 found that, in the context of mate competition, sex differences in the effects of instigator provocation, status, and attractiveness emerged: greater aggressivity now only predicted more aggression for males but not females who were insulted; aggression was highest for females confronting an unattractive, high‐status instigator and for males confronting an attractive, high‐status instigator; females were more likely to aggress against a high‐status instigator, regardless of being in a steady relationship or a first date situation, but males were only more likely to aggress against a high‐status instigator in a first date situation. Aggr. Behav. 35:259–273, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Retaliation Against Sexual Assault: Self-Defense or Public Duty?

The present study explored the notion that females would react more positively toward retaliation against sexual assault than males. In a 2 × 2 design, female and male undergraduates read a vignette in which either a rape victim or her fiance retaliated against the rapist by shooting him (nonfatally). Results indicated that females regarded the retaliatory act as more morally justified than did males and were consistently more lenient in their legal judgments of the retaliator. Correlational analyses indicated that attributing retaliation to the motives of self-defense (for the victim) and "public duty" (for the fiance) may have mediated these judgments. Implications of these findings for the psychology of moral judgment and the legal system are discussed.     

Sex differences in feelings attributed to a woman in situations involving coercion and sexual advances.

This study investigated sex differences of feelings attributed to a woman in situations involving varying degrees of coercion and sexual advances. Sixteen vignettes (12 dealing with sex and coercion, 4 dealing with coercion only) were rated on 17 semantic differential scales by 59 undergraduates (44 females, 15 males) and 45 graduate students (18 females, 27 males). The 16 vignettes yielded factors of Sexual Flattery/Overtures, Sexual Aggressiveness, and Violence. Factor analyses of the 17 semantic differential scales yielded factors of Helplessness, Aversiveness, and Threat. High agreement was found between males and females in both the graduate and undergraduate samples on the relative intensity of feelings attributed to the woman across the sex/coercion vignettes for the three dimensions of Helplessness, Aversiveness, and Threat. Even more importantly, systematic differences between males and females on intensity of attributed feelings across the semantic differential factors were independently replicated using the graduate and undergraduate samples. Analyses of variance revealed that males showed significantly greater attributions on the factors Helplessness and Threat on scenes mainly dealing with sexual flattery/overtures, whereas they showed significantly less attributions on the factor Aversiveness on scenes dealing with sexual aggressiveness and rape. In short, while there was strong agreement between men and women, there were also replicated significant systematic differences with men overestimating the psychological impact of less intense incidents and underestimating the psychological impact on women of more intense incidents.     

Developmental analysis of human figure drawings in adolescence, young adulthood, and middle age.

Analyzed 195 human figure drawings (HFDs) of adolescents, young adults, and middle-aged adults in terms of developmental differences in anxiety signs, grouped into aggressive-hostile and insecure-labile categories, and according to sex-role stereotype, as measured by the Broverman Sex-role Stereotype Scale. Adolescent males and females were significantly more likely to obtain more anxiety signs than the two adult groups, although young adults and middle-aged adults did not differ from one another in HFD performance. The most reliable sex difference was that males reveal significantly more aggressive-hostile indices in the HFDs relative to females; no significant sex differences were obtained for number of insecure-labile indices. The degree to which one has adopted a conventional sex-role stereotype was not predictive of anxiety sign differences in HFD performance for either sex or for any age group.     

Are attentional resources a mediator for sex differences in memory?

The divided attention paradigm was used to investigate sex differences in encoding and retrieval processes of memory. Participants performed a memory and reaction time (RT) task under full attention and two divided attention conditions, that is, at encoding and retrieval. Results revealed that females recalled significantly more words than males under the full attention and divided attention at encoding conditions. Results further showed that secondary task costs were larger for males than females during divided attention at retrieval. Furthermore, regardless of sex, recall was best under full attention and worst under divided attention at encoding conditions. In relation to the RT task, RTs were shorter under full attention and longer under the divided attention at retrieval condition. Overall, these results show that females recall more words than males possibly due to a more severe effect of reduced attention during encoding than retrieval for males. The current findings thus suggest that a reduction in attentional resources may mediate sex‐related decreases in word recall.     

Sex Differences in Visual Recognition Memory: Support for a Sex-Related Difference in Attention in Adults and Children

The selectivity hypothesis of Meyers-Levy (1989) proposes that cognitive sex differences reflect underlying differences in information processing between males and females. Males are considered to be more likely to organize information in a self-related manner, whereas females are more likely to adopt a comprehensive approach to information processing. We tested this hypothesis in children (10–15 years) and adults using recognition memory tasks. Tests were devised which employed male-oriented objects, female oriented objects, or random objects. In both the child and adult samples, females performed significantly better than males on tests using random and female-oriented objects. Males performed at the level of females only when tested for recognition of male-oriented objects. These results demonstrate that this sex difference is present prior to puberty and support the concept of sex differences in information processing.     

Sex differences in response to physical and nonphysical instigators

One hundred and twenty subjects competed in a reaction-time task similar to that of Taylor (1967). Subjects were randomly assigned to a white noise, fine, or control condition. In the fine and noise conditions programmed opponents administered increasing provocation to subjects over a series of 24 trials. Control subjects were not provoked. As predicted, males retaliated with higher levels of noise than did females, while there were no sex differences in the fine condition. Contrary to prediction, sex of opponent had no effect. Subjects in all conditions tended to view the task as competitive but to devalue their opponent only in the noise condition. The prevalent assumption of female passivity in the face of instigation was rejected. Instead a dichotomy was proposed that while females are less likely than males to reciprocate to physical provocation, they are just as likely to respond to provocation of a nonphysical nature.Parts of this article were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, September 1975. Critical comments by Edward Donnerstein and Arnold Kahn on an earlier draft of this article are gratefully acknowledged.     

Sex differences in ADHD trajectories across childhood and adolescence

Previous studies have hinted at sex differences in developmental trajectories in ADHD symptoms; however, little is known about the nature or cause of these differences and their implications for clinical practice. We used growth mixture modelling in a community‐ascertained cohort of n = 1,571 participants to study sex differences in ADHD symptom developmental trajectories across the elementary and secondary school years. Participants were measured at ages 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15. We found that females were more likely to show large symptom increases in early adolescence while males were more likely to show elevated symptoms from childhood. For both males and females, early adolescence represented a period of vulnerability characterized by relatively sudden symptom increases. Females affected by hyperactivity/impulsivity may be more likely to be excluded from diagnosis due to current age of onset criteria. More attention should be paid to early adolescence as a period of risk for hyperactivity/impulsivity symptom onset or worsening.     

Interpersonal aggression as a function of subject's sex, subject's sex role identification, opponent's sex, and degree of provocation.

Ninety-five undergraduates served as subjects in an experiment where they could administer electric shock to an opponent and receive the same from an opponent. The independent variables were subject's sex, subject's sex role identification (as measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory), opponent's sex, as well as degree of provocation from the opponent. Aggression was defined as level of shock chosen by the subject for the opponent. The results indicated that masculine subjects facing a male opponent were more aggressive than individuals of other sex role identifications whether or not they were provoked. It was also found that masculine males were more aggressive than other males or anyof the females. Furthermore, opponent's sex influenced the males' aggressiveness but had no effect on the degree of aggression in females. Finally, aggression increased in all subjects following increases in provocation. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for pyschological androgyny.     

The Development and Sex-Related Use of Interruption Behavior

In this article the authors argue that claims of sex differences in interruption behavior should not be uncritically accepted as there are limitations in previous research that make such acceptance questionable. The frequency of interruption was examined over a portion of the early life span (Grades 4 and 9 and college). Twenty-minute structured conversations of 90 dyads (30 male, 30 female, and 30 mixed sex) were scored for four types of interruption, and both developmental and sex differences in interruption behavior were examined. Interruption frequency did not change over age or across dyads of different sex composition. Males did not interrupt any more than females did and females were interrupted by their partners as frequently as males were interrupted by theirs, with one exception: Grade 9females were interrupted more by their female partners. Interruptions were asymmetrically distributed in same-sex and opposite-sex dyads; however, the asymmetry in opposite-sex dyads was not predictablefrom sex of subject or sex of partner. That is, males did not interrupt females any more than females interrupted males. The authors conclude that wholesale acceptance of sex differences in interruption behavior is not warranted.     

Boys withdraw more in one-on-one interactions, whereas girls withdraw more in groups

Past research predicts that males will be more likely to withdraw in one-on-one interactions versus groups, whereas females will be more likely to withdraw in groups than in one-on-one interactions. Ninety-eight 10-year-old children engaged in a word generation task either in same-sex dyads or in groups. Boys completed significantly more words in groups than in dyads, whereas girls' performance was similar in the 2 social structures. Confirming the hypothesis, analyses of the dynamics of dyads and groups using time spent writing as a measure of effort demonstrated that boys withdrew more than girls in dyads, whereas girls withdrew more than boys in groups. Furthermore, in groups, girls were more likely than boys to focus on one individual. Causal explanations for sex differences in preferences for differing social structures are proposed.     

The Rorschach Index of Repressive Style and Scale Checking Style: A Study of Sex Differences

Males and females, subdivided into contrasting groups on the Rorschach Index of Repressive Style (RIRS), completed semantic differentials using themselves and their own art productions as the objects rated. Analysis was made of the relationship between sex and verbal style, and a scale checking style (use of end points versus use of intermediate points) believed to reflect a dimension of rapid, extreme decisions versus careful consideration of nuances. Results showed that males characterized by rich and fluid verbal processes tended toward cautious ratings (use of intermediate points) while females who were verbally free exhibited more extreme ratings (use of end points). It is concluded that a test variable may have different predictive significance in males and females, even though there is no sex difference in the magnitudes of the variables involved. There may be sex differences in the organization of cognitive processes.     

Sex differences in reinforcement and punishment on prime-time television

Prime-time television programs were analyzed for frequencies of positive reinforcement and punishment exchanged among performers varying in age and sex. Results indicated that most responses were given by and directed to adult males. Moreover, while adult males exhibited and received similar frequencies of reinforcement and punishment, adult females were likely to give and to be the recipients of more reinforcement than punishment. Proportional analyses which controlled for sex differences in frequencies of responses revealed that females more often exhibited and received reinforcement, whereas males more often exhibited and received punishment. Results are interpreted from a social learning theory perspective and the implications for children's learning of positive and negative behaviors are explored.     

Sex role orientation and dimensions of self-esteem among middle adolescents

A questionnaire study of 229 high-school students examined the relationship between sex role orientation and various dimensions of self-esteem. The results provide strong support for the masculinity model self-esteem, especially for females. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed the following: (a) females perceived themselves to be significantly more socially competent than males; (b) males perceived themselves to be more physically competent than females; (c) adolescents high on masculinity perceived themselves to be significantly more socially competent, physically competent, and to have higher general self-esteem than those low on masculinity; (d) males and females high on masculinity perceived themselves to be significantly more physically competent and to have higher general self-esteem than females low on masculinity, although males low on masculinity did not differ significantly from any of the other interaction groups. Regression analyses by gender revealed the following: (a) the contribution of masculinity to social competence was much greater for females than for males, (b) the contribution of masculinity to physical competence was much greater for females than for males, and (c) the contribution of masculinity to general self-esteem was much greater for females than for males. In summary, for males, gender may override the impact of sex role orientation, while among females the impact of sex role orientation may be accentuated.     

Mood Adjustment to Social Situations Through Mass Media Use: How Men Ruminate and Women Dissipate Angry Moods

Mood adjustment goals served to explain gender differences regarding media preferences. Before reacting to antagonism, females are likely to prevent aggression by dissolving aversive states through media consumption, whereas males could preserve aggression by choosing negative content. In a computerized procedure, participants (N = 86) were provoked by supervisor feedback to instigate angry moods. Half of the sample was led to anticipate a retaliation opportunity. In a purportedly separate study, participants were free to choose from online news while software unobtrusively logged their selective news exposure. The articles had been classified as positive or negative news in a pretest. When anticipating a retaliation opportunity, females spent more time reading positive news to dissipate their anger. Males expecting a retaliation opportunity spent more time on negative news to sustain their anger. Males’ generally lower news consumption, especially when anticipating a chance to retaliate, indicated anger rumination through news avoidance altogether.     

Relationship between affect and memory: motivation-based selective generation.

Two experiments examined the influence of anger and retaliatory motivation on memory for negative material. In the 1st study, 60 male undergraduates memorized words with positive, negative, and neutral semantic connotations. It was found that angered men who expected to retaliate against their provocateur recalled more negative words than other words, and more than Ss in all other affect and evaluation conditions. Angered men in the nonretaliation condition displayed no differences in negative word recall. The 2nd experiment investigated memory for details of a provoking experience. Angered men who expected to retaliate more accurately recalled the details of their provocation, but whether they were given the retaliation information before or after provocation had no bearing on memory for these details. Results are discussed in terms of a motivation-based selective generation hypothesis for the relationship between anger and memory.     

Why do males and females differ? Children's beliefs about sex differences

The present paper focuses on children's beliefs about sex differences and how these are related to age and gender. Seven, ten, and fifteen year olds (N=427) were asked to give explanations for their beliefs about sex differences. In strong agreement with previous research and the cognitive-developmental theoretical framework, marked age differences were found: younger children were more likely than older children to emphasize biological and physical factors. Significant gender differences were also found, especially for 15 year olds. Girls were much more likely to attribute sex differences to social factors, and boys to biological factors. These gender differences were interpreted as being indicative of different life experiences of males and females, with females being more likely to have experienced conflicts between their own values about sex-role behavior and those of society. Findings were also interpreted as being consistent with the recent emphasis on gender schema. Nevertheless, it was argued that theories of gender schema need to take more account of content—of the beliefs that people hold about sex roles—and, in particular, that more attention be given to exploring gender differences in beliefs.     

Spatial visualization and sex differences in quantitative ability

The hypothesis that sex differences in spatial visualization ability might account for sex differences in mathematical ability was supported for a group of 183 male and 81 female college students. With spatial visualization statistically controlled, no significant sex differences in Quantitative Scholastic Aptitude Test (QSAT) scores was found; including sex as a predictor variable increased the variance explained by less than 1%. Although the slope of the regression of mathematics on spatial visualization did not differ as a function of sex, males were somewhat more predictable than females. As the OSAT of both males and females high on spatial visualization was more predictable than the QSAT of those scoring less well, it appears that the sex difference in predictability is due to males having higher spatial ability than females.     

Gender displays in portrait photographs

Following the research of Goffman (1976) and Henley (1977) on sex differences in nonverbal behavior, 1,296 portrait photographs from high school and university yearbooks and from the media files of a university were analyzed for sex differences. Females smiled with a significantly greater frequency and expansiveness than males and head canted significantly more than males. Results supporting the hypothesis that males would face the camera more directly than females failed to reach the acceptable significance level. The prediction that persons working in opposite-sex roles would deintensify their gender displays failed to gain support.The author expresses appreciation to Bill Drell and Andrea Wilson for their assistance in data collection.