Abstract
This chapter presents an explanatory framework for studying sex and gender differences. Related to ontogeny and phylogeny are the concepts of proximate (or proximal) explanations and ultimate (or distal) explanations of various features (including behaviors) of an organism or species. Development refers to an attribute of an organism: individual organisms undergo sexual development. The process of evolution, on the other hand, refers to an attribute of larger groups: various animal and plant species have evolved varied forms of sexual reproduction. An individual organism's sexual development reflects the sexual evolution of its species. Sex differences within a species also reflect the sexual evolution of the species. Life history of a species is a baseline from which there may be very little or (as in the case of humans) significant variation. Cross-cultural studies can be an important means of studying differences that “ why culture differ.” There is considerable overlap and most individuals are, at least on some measures, more like the average of the “opposite” sex than the average of their own sex. Life-history theory is, thus, a multilevel discipline. It attempts to integrate studies of ontogeny with studies of phylogeny, proximate explanations with ultimate explanations, and research on similarity (homology and homoplasy) with research on differences.
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