PSYC 3480 Chapter 1: PSYCHOLOGY 3480; CHAPTER 1
26 Jan 2016
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Document Summary
Sex used to refer either to whether a person is female or male or to sexual behaviour. The words sex and gender have often been used interchangeably to describe differences in the behaviours of men and women. Gender roles describes the concept of cultural beliefs applied to individuals on the basis of their socially assigned sex. Use gender to refer to the meanings that societies and individuals give to female and male categories. Use sex to refer to the classification of individuals as female or male based on their genetic makeup, anatomy and reproductive functions. This approach shows that mean and women are basically alike in their intellectual and social behaviours; any differences that do occur are small and inconsistent, and produced by socialization, not by biology. Aka the beta approach most feminist theory and research dealing with gender differences has taken this approach. This viewpoint, aka alpha bias, emphasizes the differences between women and men.
