Hyde and colleagues proposed five challenges to the gender binary in The Future of Sex and Gender in PsychologyLinks to an external site.(2019) that touch upon biological and social factors. The document, Explore More: Five Challenges to the Gender BinaryLinks to an external site., includes two empirical articles related to each of the five challenges. 

Choose one of the empirical articles to read. Use the Critical Reading Questions to support your reading.

The Challenge from Neuroscience (Dr. Daphna Joel, p. 172 – 174)

Joel, D., Berman, Z., Tavor, I., Wexler, N., Gaber, O., Stein, Y., . . . Assaf, Y. (2015). Sex beyond the genitalia: The human brain mosaic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112, 15468 –15473. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.150 9654112

Reich, C. G., Taylor, M. E., & McCarthy, M. M. (2009). Differential effects of chronic unpredictable stress on hippocampal CB1 receptors in male and female rats. Behavioural Brain Research, 203, 264 – 269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2009.05.013

The Challenge from Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (Dr. Sari van Anders, p. 174 – 176)

van Anders, S. M. (2010). Chewing gum has large effects on salivary testosterone, estradiol, and secretory immunoglobulin A assays in women and men. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 35, 305–309. http://dx.doi .org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.06.009

van Anders, S. M., Steiger, J., & Goldey, K. L. (2015). Effects of gendered behavior on testosterone in women and men. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112, 13805–13810. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1509591112

The Challenge from Psychology Research: Gender Differences and Similarities (Dr. Janet Hyde, p. 176 – 179)

Hyde, J. S., Lindberg, S. M., Linn, M. C., Ellis, A. B., & Williams, C. C. (2008). Gender similarities characterize math performance. Science, 321, 494–495. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1160364

Zell, E., Krizan, Z., & Teeter, S. R. (2015). Evaluating gender similarities and differences using metasynthesis. American Psychologist, 70, 10 –20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0038208

The Challenge from Psychology Research with Transgender and Nonbinary Individuals (Dr. Charlotte Tate, p., 179 – 181)

Tate, C. , Ledbetter, J.L., & Youssef, C.P. (2013) A two-question method for assessing gender categories in the social and medical sciences. Journal of Sex Research, 50 (8), 767-776, DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2012.690110

Olson, K. R., Key, A. C., & Eaton, N. R. (2015). Gender cognition in transgender children. Psychological Science, 26, 467–474. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797614568156

The Challenge from Developmental Psychology (Dr. Rebecca Bigler, p. 181 – 183)

Bigler, R. S. (2013). Understanding and reducing social stereotyping and prejudice among children. In M. R. Banaji & S. A. Gelman (Eds.), Navigating the social world: What infants, children, and other species can teach us (pp. 327–331). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199890712…

Wild, H. A., Barrett, S. E., Spence, M. J., O’Toole, A. J., Cheng, Y. D., & Brooke, J. (2000). Recognition and sex categorization of adults’ and children’s faces: Examining performance in the absence of sex-stereotyped cues. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 77, 269– 291. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1999.2554

Then, create a post in which you include the following information:

The challenge that you chose (e.g., The Challenge from Behavioral Neuroendocrinology)

The citation for the article you read (you can copy/paste from the google doc)

Summarize the key takeaways/arguments from your article. There should be at least two.

What perspective on gender development does your challenge take? Nature, nurture, or some combination? How do you know?

Identify the argument(s) you found the most compelling. Why do you find this/these argument(s) compelling? What evidence is being used to support the argument?

Identify the argument(s) that you felt would benefit from some additional support. What additional information would you need to find the argument(s) more compelling?

Part 2: will send after prt 1 is complete!

Your mission: find evidence that would bolster an argument your colleague found less compelling. 

What you’ll do:

• Read through your fellow group members’ posts.
• Identify two different colleagues to respond to. You need to either respond to someone whose post hasn’t been commented on yet or provide a unique perspective. 
• Search online (see our Canvas page on finding sources) to identify information that would bolster the argument.
• In each response, include:
• The argument that you’re addressing from your colleague’s post. 
• A summary of the evidence that you found

How/why it would bolster the argument and make it more compelling. Please be specific.

reply number 1 

The Challenge from Psychology Research: Gender Differences and Similarities

Hyde, J. S., Lindberg, S. M., Linn, M. C., Ellis, A. B., & Williams, C. C. (2008)

One main takeaway from this article is that males dominate in STEM careers over females. This is due to the fact that there are significantly less high school girls taking math and science courses than boys. Another point Hyde made was that males score higher than females in math classes such as calculus and physics. However, adequate statistical data for these results were only conducted by 10 out of 50 states that were contacted. These analyses were made in the 1970’s and 1980’s and there have been cultural differences that have occurred since then that require new analysis. Nature involves genetic and biological influence and nurture is caused by external factors. Therefore I believe this challenge takes on a combination of both nature and nurture because intelligence can be genetically passed down, however one can also be taught and influenced by external factors. One argument that stood out was that by the year 2000 there was an equal amount of high school girls taking calculus as there were boys. There is still a large gap in physics and engineering. Gender differences in math is not enough to explain the patterns in participation in STEM careers because few states reported detailed information on gender differences from state assessments. One unexpected finding was that state assessments fail to test complex problem-solving which is needed for STEM careers. In order to get more accurate data on which gender is dominating in STEM there should be an up to date analysis done by all states based on gender in math classes.

reply number 2

I chose the challenge from gender differences and similarities. A common stereotype regarding mathematics performance has indicated that girls and women lack mathematical ability and boys and men have much more knowledge in it (Hyde et al., 2008). The argument from the article by Hyde et al., (2008), states that there is no real gender difference in mathematical skills. The gender bias that boys were superior in mathematics contributed to why girls took fewer advanced math courses in high school than boys did (p. 494). However, by the year 2000, girls were taking calculus in high school at the same rate as boys and today earn almost half of the undergraduate degrees in mathematics (Hyde et al., 2008). I believe that there is more of a nurture component regarding mathematical performance in genders. For many years, up until recently, boys and men have been convinced they are superior at math. Because of this notion, parents and teachers have potentially placed an emphasis on those expectations. From a socioeconomic standpoint, you could even argue that rich, white boys and men have more of an advantage. Since parents typically place their children in stereotypical sports and activities, they may hold on to the notion that boys should be performing at higher standards in math and give them the resources to do so, using math tutors and clubs a means to heighten their test scores. One compelling argument listed was in regard to statistical findings. Hyde et al., (2008) mentions The No Child Left Behind legislation and how they mandate all states to conduct assessments yearly, which enables analyzation of gender differences. All 50 states were contacted and received a request detailing information on gender differences by grade level and ethnicities. Responses were received by 10 states and because of the geographic diversity of these states, it was representative of all 50 states. The effect sizes for gender differences which was represented by the 7 million students who were tested showed little gender difference in mathematical abilities (p. 494). There was one argument in particular that still goes unanswered. This was regarding why boys still score higher in the dimension of math that pertains to complex problem-solving. This area is vital in STEM careers but remains unexplained (Hyde et al., 2008).