Jolinn
06-10-05, 02:08 PM
Something I came across !
Probing Question: Are gender differences predetermined?
Thursday, June 9, 2005
By Melissa Beattie-Moss
Research/Penn State
In the Vienna of 1924, Sigmund Freud wrote, "Anatomy is destiny."
Fast-forward to the 21st century culture of genome-mapping, Web-
surfing and gender-bending. How well, we might ask, is Freud's
famous dictum holding up? When it comes to gender research, science
has discovered gray areas where Freud saw black and white.
Psychology professor Sheri Berenbaum has an unusual window on the
issue of genetics and sex roles. As director of the longest-running
behavioral study on children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
(CAH), Berenbaum does research that gives her an understanding of
gender -- with all its subtleties and complexities -- that is
sometimes missed by the majority.
CAH is a relatively rare enzyme deficiency (affecting one in 15,000
newborns) that begins in gestation and causes the adrenal glands to
overproduce masculinizing sex hormones, androgens. The typically
virilized genitals -- enlarged clitoris and fused labia -- of female
infants with CAH can even create confusion about their sex at
delivery.
This unusual anatomy is not their destiny for long: Nearly all girls
with CAH have corrective surgery in infancy, along with daily (and
lifelong) hydrocortisone medication that regulates androgen levels.
Since most grow up with a normal female appearance, can we assume
that they will make typically "feminine" choices throughout their
lives? More broadly, is there evidence that any human behaviors
are "male-typical" or "female-typical?"
Decades of studies have generally answered that question in the
affirmative, explained Berenbaum. From a young age, girls and boys
are apt to choose different kinds of toys, splitting stereotypically
into the "truck" and "Barbie doll" camps. Boys tend toward more
active and aggressive play than girls, and fare better than girls in
tests of spatial, navigational and mathematical abilities.
Female strengths usually include better verbal skills, precision
manual dexterity, emotion decoding and "landmark memory," defined as
the ability to recall objects and their locations within a confined
space. (Yes, there's research backing up the cliche about men
staring into the fridge, asking "Honey, where's the ketchup?")
If you believe that socialization -- the molding power of our
environment -- is the main cause of gender differences, consider
this: Berenbaum's data on girls with CAH point to the power of sex
hormones, particularly those we're exposed to prenatally, in shaping
our choices and aptitudes as children.
As a group, the girls in Berenbaum's study tend to prefer toys more
typical for boys, show more interests in sports, have better spatial
ability, and show less interest in infants and dolls than girls
without CAH. Despite the hormone-balancing medication they've
received since birth, exposure to high androgen levels during brain
development in-utero seems to have a lasting masculinizing effect.
"The question is 'How does that happen?'" asked Berenbaum. "It's
very complex. Despite some of my own data, I certainly wouldn't make
a direct equation that hormones cause you to like trucks." And, she
added, laughing, there's no dishwashing gene.
"Yes, there's evidence that biology does influence behavior that
shows sex differences," said Berenbaum. "It's also true that, for
all behaviors studied, the distributions for males and females
overlap on a continuum. Nevertheless, the differences are observed
consistently."
Don't rule out the impact of socialization on gender though,
cautioned Berenbaum. "What happens to most people is that we start
out with small biological differences which send us off on different
environmental trajectories. Socialization then magnifies the
differences until they become bigger over time."
"Let's take interest in babies, for instance," she added. "Say as a
girl you have a slightly increased predisposition to be interested
in babies. So you hang around babies. You get comfortable with
babies. You get lots of rewards for hanging around babies -- getting
paid and praised for babysitting -- so after a while, a slight
preference becomes a strong interest because it's magnified by the
experiences you have."
That close dance between nature and nurture may be what "makes it
hard to answer this question" as Berenbaum put it. A self-described
feminist who believed, as a grad student in the 1970s, that gender
differences would be leveled by changing social norms, Berenbaum is
quick to point out that genes -- like anatomy -- are not necessarily
destiny.
"I think that some people are afraid to think that genes influence
behavior because it therefore means we can't change it, but that's
not correct. I would argue that if we know the genes that influence
a certain behavior, it might be easier to change them with an
environmental intervention because we would know what we'd be
targeting."
With training and support, we can strengthen cognitive and
behavioral skills across the gender divide, said Berenbaum. "No
matter what the cause of the difference, you can change it by the
right intervention. You can teach men to be more emotionally
sensitive. You can teach women to have better spatial abilities."
Conversely, negative social messages have an undermining
effect. "If, before giving a math test to women, you tell
them, 'Women don't do as well on this test as men do,' they don't do
as well compared to when you don't give them that message. So it
seems that when you set up negative expectations, it lowers their
performance."
Why are people so fascinated by gender differences in the first
place? "Part of the reason we care about whether women are in math
and science careers," hypothesized Berenbaum, "is because those
careers pay more money and have more prestige than typically female
careers. If we valued women's careers more maybe this would not be
such an issue."
"While I think the differences are real," she concluded, "what we
should work on is saying it's OK to be whatever you are. Differences
still matter because we still value males and females differently."
***
Sheri Berenbaum, professor of psychology, has directed behavioral
studies of children and adults exposed to high prenatal levels of
androgens since 1985. She can be reached at sberenbaum@<hidden>
For more Probing Questions, and other features about research at
Penn State, visit Research/Penn State magazine at
http://www.rps.psu.edu/ online. To submit a Probing Question for an
answer by a Penn State expert, e-mail editor@<hidden>
Contact
Emily Rowlands
ejr159@<hidden>
http://www.rps.psu.edu
814-865-3477
http://live.psu.edu/story/12338
Probing Question: Are gender differences predetermined?
Thursday, June 9, 2005
By Melissa Beattie-Moss
Research/Penn State
In the Vienna of 1924, Sigmund Freud wrote, "Anatomy is destiny."
Fast-forward to the 21st century culture of genome-mapping, Web-
surfing and gender-bending. How well, we might ask, is Freud's
famous dictum holding up? When it comes to gender research, science
has discovered gray areas where Freud saw black and white.
Psychology professor Sheri Berenbaum has an unusual window on the
issue of genetics and sex roles. As director of the longest-running
behavioral study on children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
(CAH), Berenbaum does research that gives her an understanding of
gender -- with all its subtleties and complexities -- that is
sometimes missed by the majority.
CAH is a relatively rare enzyme deficiency (affecting one in 15,000
newborns) that begins in gestation and causes the adrenal glands to
overproduce masculinizing sex hormones, androgens. The typically
virilized genitals -- enlarged clitoris and fused labia -- of female
infants with CAH can even create confusion about their sex at
delivery.
This unusual anatomy is not their destiny for long: Nearly all girls
with CAH have corrective surgery in infancy, along with daily (and
lifelong) hydrocortisone medication that regulates androgen levels.
Since most grow up with a normal female appearance, can we assume
that they will make typically "feminine" choices throughout their
lives? More broadly, is there evidence that any human behaviors
are "male-typical" or "female-typical?"
Decades of studies have generally answered that question in the
affirmative, explained Berenbaum. From a young age, girls and boys
are apt to choose different kinds of toys, splitting stereotypically
into the "truck" and "Barbie doll" camps. Boys tend toward more
active and aggressive play than girls, and fare better than girls in
tests of spatial, navigational and mathematical abilities.
Female strengths usually include better verbal skills, precision
manual dexterity, emotion decoding and "landmark memory," defined as
the ability to recall objects and their locations within a confined
space. (Yes, there's research backing up the cliche about men
staring into the fridge, asking "Honey, where's the ketchup?")
If you believe that socialization -- the molding power of our
environment -- is the main cause of gender differences, consider
this: Berenbaum's data on girls with CAH point to the power of sex
hormones, particularly those we're exposed to prenatally, in shaping
our choices and aptitudes as children.
As a group, the girls in Berenbaum's study tend to prefer toys more
typical for boys, show more interests in sports, have better spatial
ability, and show less interest in infants and dolls than girls
without CAH. Despite the hormone-balancing medication they've
received since birth, exposure to high androgen levels during brain
development in-utero seems to have a lasting masculinizing effect.
"The question is 'How does that happen?'" asked Berenbaum. "It's
very complex. Despite some of my own data, I certainly wouldn't make
a direct equation that hormones cause you to like trucks." And, she
added, laughing, there's no dishwashing gene.
"Yes, there's evidence that biology does influence behavior that
shows sex differences," said Berenbaum. "It's also true that, for
all behaviors studied, the distributions for males and females
overlap on a continuum. Nevertheless, the differences are observed
consistently."
Don't rule out the impact of socialization on gender though,
cautioned Berenbaum. "What happens to most people is that we start
out with small biological differences which send us off on different
environmental trajectories. Socialization then magnifies the
differences until they become bigger over time."
"Let's take interest in babies, for instance," she added. "Say as a
girl you have a slightly increased predisposition to be interested
in babies. So you hang around babies. You get comfortable with
babies. You get lots of rewards for hanging around babies -- getting
paid and praised for babysitting -- so after a while, a slight
preference becomes a strong interest because it's magnified by the
experiences you have."
That close dance between nature and nurture may be what "makes it
hard to answer this question" as Berenbaum put it. A self-described
feminist who believed, as a grad student in the 1970s, that gender
differences would be leveled by changing social norms, Berenbaum is
quick to point out that genes -- like anatomy -- are not necessarily
destiny.
"I think that some people are afraid to think that genes influence
behavior because it therefore means we can't change it, but that's
not correct. I would argue that if we know the genes that influence
a certain behavior, it might be easier to change them with an
environmental intervention because we would know what we'd be
targeting."
With training and support, we can strengthen cognitive and
behavioral skills across the gender divide, said Berenbaum. "No
matter what the cause of the difference, you can change it by the
right intervention. You can teach men to be more emotionally
sensitive. You can teach women to have better spatial abilities."
Conversely, negative social messages have an undermining
effect. "If, before giving a math test to women, you tell
them, 'Women don't do as well on this test as men do,' they don't do
as well compared to when you don't give them that message. So it
seems that when you set up negative expectations, it lowers their
performance."
Why are people so fascinated by gender differences in the first
place? "Part of the reason we care about whether women are in math
and science careers," hypothesized Berenbaum, "is because those
careers pay more money and have more prestige than typically female
careers. If we valued women's careers more maybe this would not be
such an issue."
"While I think the differences are real," she concluded, "what we
should work on is saying it's OK to be whatever you are. Differences
still matter because we still value males and females differently."
***
Sheri Berenbaum, professor of psychology, has directed behavioral
studies of children and adults exposed to high prenatal levels of
androgens since 1985. She can be reached at sberenbaum@<hidden>
For more Probing Questions, and other features about research at
Penn State, visit Research/Penn State magazine at
http://www.rps.psu.edu/ online. To submit a Probing Question for an
answer by a Penn State expert, e-mail editor@<hidden>
Contact
Emily Rowlands
ejr159@<hidden>
http://www.rps.psu.edu
814-865-3477
http://live.psu.edu/story/12338