PSYC 367/WmSt 366:  Gender Issues in Psychology

Spring 2004            Virginia Norris, Ph.D.

All dates are subject to change.  Announcements in class supersede internet material.

CHAPTER 6

Perceptual & Cognitive Abilities: Gender Similarities & Differences
Introduction
Two Differences Not in Book
Differences in "Ways of Knowing"

INTRODUCTION

  • Book covers most areas where there are differences between women and men on cognitive abilities.
  • WOMEN may be better verbally
  • MEN, under certain circumstances, are better in
    • mathematics
    • spatial ability
TWO DIFFERENCES NOT IN BOOK
 
  • Perceptual Speed
    • DEFINITION
      • Involves comparisons of 2 strings of numbers or words to see whether they are identical
    • Women are consistently better than men at this
  • Motor Skills
    • Differences
    • Large Differences
  • Another Way to Think About These Cognitive Abilities
    • NOT SEX differences but GENDER differences
    • ECCLES-PARSONS


DIFFERENCES IN "WAYS OF KNOWING"

Goldberger, Clinchy, Belenky, & Tarule (1987). Sex and gender. Review of Personality and Social Psychology, 7
 

  • Introduction
  • Developmental epistemology
  • Perry (1970, 1981)
      • Stages
      • Basic dualism
      • Multiplicity
      • Relativism
    • Women’s Ways of Knowing
      • Voice
      • Perspectives
      • Silence
      • Received Knowledge
      • Subjective Knowledge: The Inner Voice
      • Procedure Knowledge: The Voice of Reason
      • Constructed Knowledge: Integrating the Voices
    • Implications
      • Confirmation of the self as a knower
      • Collaboration, community, and trust
      • First-hand experience
      • Sharing and Listening