Posted by shar on February 20, 2001, at 1:55:17
In reply to UH-OH! Cam's Going to Respond to This, posted by Cam W. on February 18, 2001, at 9:53:38
Cam,
I agree with you about no gender difference in IQ, and believe that it is possible that men process information differently than women. Also, left-handed people process information differently from right-handed people. Also, serial killers process information differently than most "normals" (or maybe non-killers).I'm aware of findings on each of the items I mentioned, which is why I stated in a post above that a healthy dose of skepticism about sex difference findings couldn't hurt. When we look at physical (esp. brain) activity we don't know what's making what happen, and many researchers don't do much to control for possible covariants, so it could be completely spurious that a gender difference is found. Maybe gender is related to the real causal factor that has nothing to do with sex/gender.
As far as sex differences, there are two questions I wonder about. First, does it make sense that the observed difference really boils down to having that X or Y chromosome. Second, if we went to place where strict role behavior was absent, could we replicate the finding of a sex (gender) difference? Even at 1 year old, children have learned many social constraints and permissions, including ones related to gender. I believe a lot of the "gender differences" are developed due to roles people occupy, and what's needed to fulfill the prescribed behaviors.
It is too bad that replicating studies has gone out of style!
Shar
> Actual, while I believe that there is no differnece in general intellectual ability between the sexes, there are definitely differences in the way we process certain information. Even these differences are probably on a genetically-based continuum. Intellectualism can be subdivided into a number of areas (at least 7) and I do not understand all of the implications of this, but I am sure women (on the whole) excel at some and men at others. Still in a within groups model (eg all male or all female) there is a wide varience in intellectual ability. I do know that there are actual brain structure differences between the sexes, but I can't remember what they are, right now.
>
> Women flabbergast me with the number of lists they can juggle in their head, but ("I don't care if I am driving, just give me the damn map!") men are better at spatial orientation. There are a number of other examples of this.
>
> To keep this a med issue, I know that a number of neuropsychocologists have (and are) developing elegant tests to determine the extent of these differences and their relation to the effects of medication.
>
> My 2¢ - Cam
poster:shar
thread:54234
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010212/msgs/54438.html