The Application of Biological, Evolutionary, and Sociocultural Frameworks to Issues of Gender in Introductory Psychology Textbooks

The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of biological, evolutionary, and sociocultural frameworks to issues of gender in the 10 most popular introductory psychology textbooks in the U.S. The use of these metatheories is of interest to feminist scholars because they have implications for the extent to which students learn that gender and gender differences are fixed and innate or socially constructed. If gender and gender differences are seen as malleable, then efforts at social change to improve women’s status or men’s and women’s abilities or opportunities can be understood as promising endeavors. The relative use of these three frameworks differed dramatically across books, affording all scholars the opportunity to actively select those texts whose prominent frameworks best align with their course goals. The paper concludes with suggestions for which books offer the most thorough coverage of sociocultural frameworks.     

The mediating role of perceptual validation in the repentance-forgiveness process

This research focuses on one potential mechanism by which repentance leads to forgiveness. Two studies demonstrate that repentance leads to increased perceptual validation (social verification that one is correct about one's interpretation of an event) and, ultimately, more forgiveness. Participants reported more perceptual validation when they received repentance than when they did not (Studies 1 and 2), particularly repentance that included an acknowledgement of the transgression and the harm done (Study 2). In addition, in Study 2, acknowledgement of the transgression by a third party also had a positive effect on forgiveness. There was evidence that perceptual validation mediated the repentance-forgiveness relationship. These findings suggest that repentance facilitates forgiveness, at least in part, because it makes victims feel validated.     

Age differences in organization and recall: The effects of training in categorization

An alternating sort/recall task was employed to train fourth graders and college students in organizational strategies. Free-sorting Ss, at both age levels, sorted a group of words into two to seven categories. Analyses of final sorting patterns indicated reliable differences between the children and adults. The organizational schemes thus developed by the free-sorting Ss were taught, by means of a yoking procedure, to other Ss. Results indicated that the recall of fourth graders was improved when they were forced to learn the sorting patterns developed by the older Ss. Similarly, impairment in the recall of college students was observed when they were required to sort according to the organization employed by the fourth graders. These findings imply that changes in organization can result in changes in recall performance.     

A fully automated two-way locomotor training apparatus

A fully automated two-way locomotor training apparatus is described. The device employs two bilevel chambers that are separated by a length of straight alley. The rat is dropped from the distinctively cued upper level of one chamber onto the grid floor of its lower level. To escape shock, the rat must leave this lower level, traverse the alley segment, and jump into the upper level of the opposite compartment. Although the animal is required to traverse the same alley in two directions, its terminal response always carries it into a distinctive goal region where shock never occurs. A brief experiment is described that was designed to assess the effectiveness of this device in the acquisition and extinction of a locomotor escape response with rats.     

Ethnicity, education, and the temporal stability of personality traits in the East Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area study

We examined the influence of age, gender, Black vs. White ethnicity, and education on five indices of personality stability and change across an average interval of 8 years in the East Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area study. In the full sample (n = 505, aged 30–88), examination of structural, rank-order, ipsative, and mean level stability, as well as indices of reliable change suggested that NEO-PI-R personality traits showed moderate to high levels of stability over time. There were few age and gender effects on temporal stability but rank-order, ipsative, and mean level stability were lower among Blacks and individuals with lower education. Future research should explore additional demographic predictors of temporal plasticity in a diverse range of samples, and employ observer ratings to assess personality.     

Sex differences in the activity level of infants1

A gender difference in motor activity level (AL) is well established for children, but questions about the existence and nature of an infant sex difference remain. To assess these questions, we applied meta‐analytic procedures to summarize 46 infancy studies comprising 78 male–female motor activity comparisons. Our results showed that, as with children, male infants were more active than females. Objective measures of infant AL estimated the size of this difference to be 0.2 standard deviations, though subjective parent‐report measures estimated the difference to be smaller. We argue that this early sex difference in activity level is biologically based. However, socialization processes, such as gender‐differentiated expectations and experiences, in conjunction with further sex‐differentiated biological developments, amplify this early difference to produce the larger gender differences in activity found during childhood. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aggressive behavior in a confined troop of Japanese macaques: Effects of density,season, and gender

A troop of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) confined in a 2-acre outdoor corral increased from 107 to 192 individuals during the 5-year tenure of a project that assessed the effects of density, season, and gender on the expression of adult aggressive behavior. Two statistical subgroups of 16 males and 28 females that were adults at the start of the project and that survived until its completion were studied intensively. There were significant season and sex differences in all groups: males were much more aggressive than females, and males were most aggressive during the fall and and winter mating season; females were most aggressive during the spring and summer birth season. Only the 16 adult males increased their frequency of aggressive behavior as the population density increased. This increase was due to the greater number of potential antagonists available each year.