soc 155B quiz #1 Flashcards
(20 cards)
hostile sexism (HS)
• the most commonly identified form of sexism, in which women are objectified or degraded, like saying cleaning is a “woman’s job”.
•Attitude toward women, who are often viewed as trying to control men through feminist ideology or sexual seduction (sexist in a rude way/more openly)
• Examples:
o Women seek to gain power by getting control over women
o Once women get men to commit to her, she usually tries to put him on a short leash
Benevolent sexism (BS)
Benevolent sexism is delivered in a positive disguise but still ends up being just as harmful to women. It might even be worse because it presented in a casual, manner. For example, when a guy asks his girlfriend if she can fold his clothes because she’s “better at chores than he is.”
• Attitude toward women that feels favorable but is actually sexist because it casts women as weak creatures in need of men’s protection. (Your sexist but in a “nicer” way)
• Examples:
o In an emergency men and women should be reused first
o Women should be cherished and protected by men
• Hostile and benevolent sexism positively correlate
Social identity theory:
o Social identity theory: suggests that when groups have equal status and power differences are not stable, competition is enhanced as each gender tries to find a way of gaining positive and distinction (to show that “we” are better than them)
o The idea that we favor more those within our in-group and we try to show our in-group is better than others. (to strengthen our self esteem)
o Example:
• Participants assigned to a group with one person who shared their preference and one who did not and had distribute money on 3 options
• Maximize joint profit
• Maximize in group profit
• Maximize difference (lowest $ for out group)
• Finding suggest that participants first choose to maximize there in-group bias, then maximize the difference (treat out-group badly) and then choose equality
o This support the idea that we think highly of in-groups members and poorly of out-groups members in order to strengthen our self esteem
What is Janet Hyde’s central conclusion from her meta-analytic study? Which gender differences were large?
In a meta- analysis of 124 studies, Hyde finds 78% of gender differences across all psychological and physical traits measured by searchers are either close to zero or small (no gender differences),
o With the Exception of:
• Throwing velocity,
• Masturbation and attitudes about casual sex and
• Physical aggression
o **So overall she finds that there are no sex differences between a men and women with the expectation of the 3 things stated above, we as a society exaggerate and create sex differences because men and women. These exaggerations are based on widely shared cultural beliefs about gender (AKA stereotypes). We modify our bodies, attitudes, and behaviors to fit these stereotypes, but by doing so we make it seem like there are sex differences when there really aren’t
• example: long distance swimming not seen as a sport that requires athletic ability, for his reason many women hide there athletic abilities but this in return creates gender differences. As men seen as more athletic when women are just as athletic but since they had there abilities to fit into society’s norms they create real sex difference’s
With whom do children most often play?
Research shows that children prefer to play with same sex individuals (as infants there is not difference but at 2 years there is)
o Girl separate themselves from boys first rather than the reverse
What are some of things that Karin Martin’s (1998) study of preschools showed?
o When children freely pick partners they pick same sex partners, in playgrounds around the world, when their play is not organized and supervised by adults, children typically congregate in same sex pairs and groups (children segregate themselves)
Agentic
(men): a mode of being in which the individual focuses on achiving his or her own needs
• Stereotypes of men stress agency (looking out for one slef, seeking to fulfill ones own goals, being task oriented)
• dominant, rational, competent, powerful, able
Results from Williams & Best (1990) cross-cultural study of gender stereotypes (broadly)
o List of 300 personality traits (know as adjective check list), participants rated each trait on the list as “more frequently associated with men than women,” “more frequently associated with women than men,” or “no differentially associated with the two sexes (no difference)
o Findings confirmed the stereotypes of male-female stereotypes in the U.S
• Men perceived as bad but bold as women as wonderful but weak
• In terms of social role theory, women’s wonderful traits suit them for nurturing others and there weak traits reinforce their lower status in a gender hierarchy
• My contrast men’s bold traits suit them to the roles of protector and provider and there bad traits reinforce there power and status
• In all nations the stereotypical male traits were higher in power then women stereotypes. Similarly in all nations stereotypical female traits where higher on motives related to nurturing and caring for others and avoided power unlike men traits
o Gender stereotypes fall along 2 key dimension (agentic Vs. communal), men are for doing, women are for caring. Positive and negative valence for both groups (men are “bad but bold”, women are “wonderful but weak). Untimely women are liked but women are respected
Implicit bias
refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner (automatic)
Explicit bias
refers to the attitudes and beliefs we have about a person or group on a conscious level (we have more control over these)
System 1 processing
automatic pilot, critical for survival, it sorts through a lot of information quickly and provides us with out intuitions
• Unwanted mindfulness is one of the coast of system 1
System 2 processing
does the hard mental work involved in directing our attention and resources when we are not on automatic pilot
Results from IAT research investigating gender attitudes and stereotypes (broadly)
Implicit measures show that women are liked by both sexes (Provided they are not in charge) but this does not men they respect them more
• Men get more respect on IAT test then women because people associate men with careers, status and power
o Implicit attitudes towards women are strongly unfavorable if they are in charge
• Both men and women showed more negativity towards female than male authority figures
• However, using self reports women report more liking toward female authority figure than men did
o Both men and women associate men with power and with positions of authority and status, whereas women are more associated with lower status support positions
o Both genders show evidence of male-career and male-meth stereotypes
o On average men display a very weak in group bias or neutral implicit attitude, where’s women show an extremely strong in group bias (have much more positive associations for women than men)
• What led to favorable attitudes towards women? It has to do with peoples love for there mother, men view women favorable for the emotional attachment they have for there mother
o Behaving in stereotype- inconsistent ways is okay (women can be competent/agentic, men can be nurturing) as long as they also behave in a way that is consistent (women have to be nurturing, and being competent is a plus, men have to be competent and being nurturing is a plus)
o ***Overall, women are more liked one such test for the respect they have for there mothers but this is not the case when women are in charge, then are disliked
Cultural stereotypes
widely shared beliefs/perceptions, we know what they are even if we don’t personally agree with them
Personal stereotypes
these are idiosyncratic (individual) personal beliefs, may not be consistent with the dominant belief
Basic logic of Status Construction Theory (Ridgeway 1998in lecture; Ridgeway 2001)
Suggest that the sheer presence of a categorical differences between men and women, combined with men’s early structure/role advantages, produced status beliefs
• Researchers asked study participants to work in pairs
• They were told that there partner differed from them in a particular trait (“personal response style”
• They were also told that they would make more or less money than the other person (one response group was made more that the other)
• Influence hierarchies developed according to how much there were paid
• Participants formed beliefs that “most people” in the better paid response style group were more competent, respected, leader like, and status worthy (participants formed status beliefs favoring the economically advantaged group)
What are status beliefs?
Ridgeway argues that gender stereotypes are status beliefs which are consensual
• Expectation state theory defines status beliefs as widely held cultural beliefs that link greater social significance and general competence, as well as specific positive and negative skills with one category of social distinction compared to another (high status=positive attributes)
What does it mean to say they are consensual and why is it important?
It means that these beliefs are consciously made, (we are aware that we make them)
• In Ridgeways (1998) study both participants in both groups agreed that that the economically advantaged group was more worthy of respect
• Important to show how we associate status with power, more status= more prestige and positive attributes
What are diffuse vs. specific gender status beliefs?
Diffuse status beliefs: beliefs that give men more credit
• Men are believed to be more competent at most task in general and thus more worthy of respect
• Specifc gender status beliefs: any valued attribute implying task competence
• Men are believed to be more competent at specify male task (construction, engineering)
Communal
(women): living a life that connects to others
• Stereotypes of women emphasize communality (having consideration for others, seeking connections, exhibiting empathy and understanding)
• supportive, loving, kind, helpful, nicer
