PSYC108

Science of Psychology

Onur Yılmaz (MSc)

Department of Psychology 1
Eastern Mediterranean University
Sexuality and Gender

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• Those studying motivation – focus on sexual drives
• Those studying neuroscience – focus on brain, nervous system
and sexual organs
• Social & other psychologists – societal rules of sexual conduct

• 1) Discussing gender differences based on societal expectations

2) Sexual behavior | Sexual excitement
• 3) Diversity of sexual behavior

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MODULE 32: Gender and Sex

• Key terms
• Gender Roles
• Sexism & Sexual Harassment
• Gender Similarities & Differences
• Biological & evolutionary factors
• Social factors

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Key Terms
• Sex
• Biological, chromosomal and physiological characteristics
• Male, female & intersex
• Gender (Identity)
• Societal label – Sense and perception of being
• Women – Men
• Cisgender: Na-trans
• Agender: no gender identity – Gender neutral
• Transgender: Whose identity is different from what is typically
associated with their biological sex at birth (not a sexual orientation)
• Gender Roles
• Defined by a particular society 5
• What is an appropriate behavior
• Sets of expectations
 Consequences of Gender Roles
• Society’s expectations that indicate appropriate behavior (gender
roles) produce stereotypes
• Stereotypes
• Beliefs about individual members of a group
• On the basis of their mere membership in that group

• Stereotypes are reflected in sexism

• Negative attitudes/behaviors toward a person
• Based solely on that person’s gender

• Terms associated with being men & women

• Women: Affected, emotional, sensitive, weak
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• Men: Active, assertive, forceful, rude,
 Consequences of Gender Roles
Ambivalent Sexism
• Benevolent Sexism
• (+) Positive attitudes of protection, idealization & affection
• Subtly undermine / limit women
• Women are like flowers, they require water (provided by men)
• On the surface, it seems beneficial but in reality, harmful
• Hostile Sexism
• (-) attitudes of domination, degradation & hostility
• Obviously undermine (duh) / limit women
• Both on the surface and in reality is harmful
• Women are bad drivers
• Women are so emotional, they can’t keep their minds focused
• If you do not beat your girl, you beat your knee 7
• Kızını dövmeyen dizini döver
 Do Stereotypes Differ Cross-Culturally?
• Similarities across 25
different nations
(Williams & Best, 1990)

• Stereotypes put
pressure on people to
fulfill the stereotypes
• Lead people to
perform in accordance
with them

• Perpetuate gender
roles through out time 8
and space
Sexism on the Job
• Differences that exist on which jobs are appropriate for men and
for women

• Women are viewed as best suited for traditionally female-jobs

• Pink-collar jobs
• Secretary, nurse, cashier – female dominated professions
• Often feature low pay and low status

• Women expect greater success if they choose something

appropriate for their gender
• Hence, they hold lower expectations compared to men about
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entering and peak salaries
Sexism on the Job
• Such expectations are reflected in reality – statistics
• Women overall earn an average of 0.8$ for every dolar men make
• Black women earn 0.6, Hispanic and Latino women earn 0.5$

• Even when they are in the exact same position, they earn less

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Sexism on the Job
• Even when women are successful on the job
• Even when they are promoted into upper-level, high level positions
• They again face significant hurdles/obstacles in their efforts to move
up the corporate ladders

• These obstacles especially show itself for professional women who

become mothers
• Women: After they become mothers, they tend to be newly
perceived as warm but less competent

• Men: After they become fathers, they are most likely to be viewed as
both warm, competent and proud

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 Sexism on the Job
• Women eventually hit what has come to be called
• The Glass Ceiling
• Unstated but real, barriers within an organization
• Prevent women from being promoted beyond a certain level

• As of 2010, women:
• 91% of the education of men
• In 1990, it was 33%
• 70% their rate of employment
• 25% their rate of political
representation

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Sexual Harassment
• In addition to all pay inequities and limited job advancement
• They also face workplace sexism in the form of sexual harrasment

• Sexual Harassment
• Unwanted sexual attention
• Creation of a hostile or abusive environment
• Explicit coercion to engage in unwanted sexual activity

• 1 in 5 women report they have been sexually harassed at work

• 81% of middle & high school students receive some form harassment
• 30% of female graduates receive some form of harassment
• 60% experienced physical sexual harassment at some point in educ.
• Overall estimates, 1 of every 2 women will be harassed at some 13
point during her life
Sexual Harassment
• What causes sexual harassment?
• Sexual desire or desire for power?

• Often has less to do with men’s desire to have sex

• More to do with desire to demonstrate power

• Higher-status persons (in this case, men) who engage in

harassment seek to exert power over their victims (O’Donohue,
1997; Huerta et al., 2006)
• Boys (starting from childhood) sexually harass girls as they grow up
• Such behavior is rewarded through societal rules and social
mechanisms (aggression, forceful, egotistical, strong, solid, direct)
• OC – Reinforcement: Rewarded behavior is more likely to occur in the 14
future
• Showing power over others is reinforced – Therefore, repeated
Sexual Harassment
• Also, sexual harassment may stem from benevolent sexism
• Attitudes relating to gender that seem beneficial to women but in
reality, harmful

• A male employer
• may compliment a woman on her attractiveness
• Or offer her an easy job so that she won’t have to ‘work so hard’
• The reality
• Such comments or ‘favors’ undermine the employee’s sense of
competence and may feel she’s not being taken seriously

• Regardless of the motivation that lies behind sexual

harassment
• Consequences are shame, embarrassment, sense of helplessness
and powerlessness 15
• Physical and emotional consequences – work quality decline
• Less likely to believe that can attain higher positions
Gender Differences: Personality
1) Aggressive behavior
• By the time they are 2 years old, boys tend to display more
aggression than girls
• This higher level of aggression persists throughout the life
• Compared with men, women experience greater anxiety and
guilt about their aggressiveness
• More concerned about its effects on their victims

2) Self-esteem
• Women’s self-esteem influenced primarily by their perception of
their sense of interdependence and connection with others
• Men’s self-esteem stems more from assessment of their unique
characteristics, abilities and traits
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Gender Differences: Personality

3) Speech
• Men’s and women’s speech also differs
• Women are less assertive – seem more tentative
• E.g., instead of saying: «It’s so warm today» they may say
• «It’s so warm today, isn’t it?»
• Which makes her appear less certain of her opinion

• When people do not use tentative language or when people use a

more direct and assertive language
• They are perceived as more competent and knowledgeable

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Gender Differences: Personality
4) Nonverbal Behavior
• Eye contact

• Women: more eye contact while listening

• Signals: cooperation
• I am there for you
• A more caring position

• Men: less eye contact while listening

• Signals: power
• Higher status, less communication
• A more dominant position

• In addition, women are generally better than men at decoding 18

others’ facial expressions
Gender Differences: Cognitive Abilities

• An old pioneering study of gender differences (Maccoby &

Jacklin, 1974)

• Conclusion
• Girls are good at verbal skills
• Boys are good at quantitative & spatial skills (better at math)

• It was widely accepted by many authorities

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Gender Differences: Cognitive Abilities
• Hyde et al., 2008
• Examination of math performance of 7 million students (a huge sample)
• Students in grades 2 to 11

• Contrary to traditional beliefs

• There is no significant gender difference
• No general differences exist between men and women in
• Overall IQ scores
• Learning
• Memory
• Problem solving
• Concept-formation
• Spatial abilities 20
• Quantitative abilities (e.g., Math skills)
Gender Differences: Cognitive Abilities
• Pahlke, Htde, & Mertz, 2013; Hyde, 2005
• Examination of verbal ability
• Content analysis of 165 studies
• A sample of 1.5 million people
• There is no verbal gender differences

• Current evidence suggests that gender differences in cognitive

skills are very slight but not significant

• In short, no consistent nor meaningful differences appear to

exist between genders (Angier & Chang, 2005; Lubinski & Benbow,
2006; Hyde & Mertz, 2009; Fairfield, 2012)
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Gender Differences: Cognitive Abilities

• Abraham et al., 2013

• Differences exist in how the

brain processes the
information
• But not a difference in ability

• When participants were asked to

engage in a creative task, different
parts of their brain were activated

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 Explaining Gender Differences:
Social Environment
Socialization
• The process by which individuals learn the rules and
norms
• Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977)
• People are taught and rewarded for performing the
socially perceived appropriate behaviors
• Adults provide environments that differ in important
respects according to gender

1) Toys (Wood et al., 2002; Dender & stagnitti, 2011)

• Boys and girls are given different kinds of toys

• Boys are encouraged to engage in aggressive behavior 23

• Girls are encouraged to engage in caring behavior
 Explaining Gender Differences:
Social Environment
2) Parents Behavior towards their Children
• Fathers play more roughly with their infant sons
• Mothers tend to talk more to their daughters
• Different communication skills are consequent
3) Media
• Children’s books
• Girls in stereotypically nurturing roles
• Whereas boys have been given more physical and
action oriented roles in stories
• Television
• Men outnumber women on TV
• Women are cast in stereotypical roles: secretary,
housewife, mother
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• More television children watch, the more sexist they
become (Ogletree et al., 2004; Abelman, 2007; Dill &
Thill, 2007)
 Explaining Gender Differences:
Social Environment
4) Educational System
• Treat boys and girls differently
• Boys are 5 times more likely to receive attention from teachers
• Boys receive significantly more
• Praise, criticism, remedial help

• Boys: More likely to be praised for intelligence shown in their work

• Girls: more likely to be commended for their neatness & discipline

• Even in university classes

• Male students receive more eye contact
• Are called upon more frequently in classes
• More likely to receive extra help from their professors 25
Explaining Gender Differences:
Social Environment
All of these influences (socialization) produce gender schemas
• Gender Schemas
• A mental framework that organizes and guides a child’s understanding
of information relevant to gender
• Provide ideas about appropriate & inappropriate behavior
• Children begin to behave in ways that reflect society’s gender roles
• Affects decision making and evaluation of activities

• If a child is introduced an opportunity to sew a costume for a

school party
• The activity is evaluated with their gender schemas
• Instead of evaluating it in terms of the intrinsic components of the
process
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• Evaluation: Is it compatible with gender schemas?
• End result: Limitation in the range of experiences
MODULE 33: Understanding Human
Sexual Response: The Facts of Life

• Why, and under what circumstances, do we become sexually

aroused?

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The Basic Biology of Sexual Behavior

• The physical aspects of human sex are not all that different from
those of other species
• However, the meaning, values and feelings that human place on sexual
behavior take it to a special plane

• To fully understand this difference

• It is necessary to understand the basic biology underlying sexual responses

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 The Basic Biology of Sexual Behavior
• Genitals
• Male and female sex organs
At puberty (average age 12)
• Anrdogens
• Male sex hormones secreted by testes
• Deepens voice, hair growth
• Constant production = men are capable of
sexual activities most of the time (regard to
biological cycles)
• Estrogens
• Female sex hormones
• Not produced constantly – follows a cycle
• Greatest output =ovulation
• Chances of fertilization by a sperm-highest 29

• Ovulation: releasing eggs from ovaries

Psychological Aspects of Sexual
Excitement: What Turns People On?
• Although biological factors prime people for sex
• It takes more than hormones to motivate and produce sexual
behavior

• Humans are considerably more versatile

• Any object may stimulate sexual desire
• An object, sight, smell, sound or other stimulus can lead to sexual
excitement
• Resulting from prior associations

• People may be turned on by the smell of perfume or the sound of a

favorite song
• The reaction to a specific, potentially arousing stimulus is highly
individual 30
• What turns one person on may do just the opposite for another
 Psychological Aspects of Sexual
Excitement: What Turns People On?
• Some argue that major human sex organ is the brain
• What is considered sexually arousing in any society has little or
nothing to do with our genitals
• It is related to external stimuli
• A process of learning – labeling things as erotic or sexually stimulating

• There are no areas of the body that automatically produce sexual

arousal when touched
• When a physician touches a breast or a penis, the information sent to
the brain by the nerve cells is the same as that sent when a sexual
partner touches it
• Erogenous zones (unusually rich array of nerve receptors)
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• What differs is the interpretation given to the touch
• Sexual arousal is likely to occur only when a body part is touched what
people themselves (each individual is different) define as sexual
The Phases of Sexual Response:
Masters & Johnson, 1966
• Even though the kinds of stimuli that produce sexual arousal are
to some degree unique to each individual
• We all share some basic aspects of sexual responsiveness
• Sexual responses follow a regular pattern consisting of four
phases
• 1) Excitement & Plateau Phase
• Can last from 1-5 minutes to more than 1 hour
• Genitals are prepared for sexual intercourse
• Male: penis becomes erect when blood flows into it – seminal fluid
• Female: clitoris swells due to increased blood flow – vagina
becomes lubricated
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• The body’s preparation for orgasm
• Heartbeat rise and blood pressure rises, breathing increases
• 2) Orgasm
• An intense, highly pleasurable experience
• When reached, rhythmic muscular contractions occur
• Male expell semen (fluid containing sperm)
• Breathing and heart rates reach their maximum
• 3) Resolution stage
• Body returns to its resting state
• Reversing changes brought by arousal
• Genitals resume their unaroused size and shape heart rate and
breathing return to normal
• Refractory Period: after resolution, male can’t develop an erection
for a while

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