Absence Of Sex Differences Research Articles

Absence of Sex Differences on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts

Absence of Sex Differences on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts

Developmental Study of Person Perception in Boys and Girls

This study investigated children's person perception to determine if sex differences in perception are congruent with sex differences reported in children's peer interactions. Girls were predicted to be more knowledgeable and to differentiate more than boys about peer characteristics. 93 children from Grades 2 and 5 completed a questionnaire describing two stimulus children on nine items. The stimulus children, both of the same sex as the subject, were classified as a close friend or as not being known very well by the subject. Analysis provided evidence for the construct validity of the measure of person perception but gave no indication of sex differences. The absence of sex differences was interpreted as providing a caution against the inference of dispositional causes of sex differences in peer interaction without direct evidence for such dispositional causes.

Learning from pictures: the use of pictorial information by young children

Forty children from 4 to 8 years of age were asked to construct a wooden pyramid from the information contained in a series of nine photographs. A further 30 children attempted the task without pictorial assistance. The provision of pictorial information was associated with a significant improvement in the children's performance. Although all children made some use of the photographs, when available, the strategies displayed were quite different and these differences related systematically to task performance. In particular girls, from 5 years upward, were quite skillful in exploiting a medium to help them learn how to do a task. Boys derived some information from the pictures but preferred to work more independently, pursuing a trial and error strategy. The absence of sex differences in the nonpicture groups confirms that they can be attributed to differential use of media rather than to the nature of the task per se.

Sex Differences in the Perceptual, Visual-Motor, Linguistic and Concept-Formation Abilities of Retarded Readers?

Male and female retarded readers at two age levels (6.5 to 8.5 vears and 10.5 to 12.5 years) did not differ significantly on a number of perceptual, visual-motor, linguistic, and concept-formation abilities. The absence of sex differences is contrary to (a) the results obtained with normal children and (b) expectations based on recent theoretical speculations regarding sex differences in cerebral organization and specialization at the ages under consideration.

Evidence on the Relationship between Religion and Educational Attainment

After arguing that previous studies have been seriously flawed in a number of ways, birth cohort data from the 1973-1978 NORC General Social Surveys are used to examine the relationship between religious background and educational attainment for both males and females during the past half century. Analysis by detailed religious categories reveals that the influence of religion has not changed over time. Its influence does not operate differently for males and females, and this absence of sex differences has remained over time. A detailed comparison of Protestant-Catholic differences for five-year birth cohorts beginning prior to 1908 shows no clear advantage for either and no trend in the differences. Overall, the data indicate that during this century the net influence of religious background on educational attainment has never been very large.

Changes in Responsiveness to Babies during Adolescence

FELDMAN, S. SHIRLEY, and NASH, SHARON CHURNIN. Changes in Responsiveness to Babies during Adolescence. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 942-949. Interest in babies was assessed in 30 high school seniors (16-17 years old) and 32 college freshmen (18-19 years old) by means of measures which varied from passive perceptual responses to pictures, to more active-instrumental behavioral reactivity to an actual baby in the presence, and finally in the absence of an adult. Trait theory and sociobiology predict stable sex differences across adolescence, whereas role theory anticipates sex differences during early to mid-adolescence which phase out by late adolescence. In line with role theory, there was an absence of sex differences among college students in their responses to pictures of babies and to a live baby. It was the low level of interest exhibited by high school males (e.g., physical contact, touches baby, talks to infant, disinterest in baby) that accounted for the sex differences found among high school students and the age differences apparent among males. Findings were discussed in terms of role demands for males and females at different junctures of adolescence as a function of the development and consolidation of sex-role identity.

Urban Density and Altruism: Helping Strangers in a Canadian City, Suburb, and Small Town

Helping behavior was studied as a function of urban density. Four requests for help (for the time, for directions, for change of a quarter, and for the person's name) were solicited in three areas differing in population density (downtown in the Canadian city of Toronto, in the suburbs of the same city, in a small town outside of that city). On each measure the percentage of helping behavior decreased linearly as urban density increased. Normative data from New York City were also compared and found very similar to those from downtown Toronto. An absence of sex differences in either giving or eliciting help was noted.

Relationships among measures of preferred tempo and motor rhythm.

Male and female subjects (Ns = 100) performed an accuracy task involving consecutive arm swings at a self-paced tempo. Following this, the subjects performed a motor rhythm task keeping in cadence with audio-visual stimuli presented at their preferred tempo. Previous findings regarding the magnitude of individual differences in preferred tempo and within-individual variability were replicated, as was the absence of sex differences for these attributes. With regard to motor rhythm, the findings indicated that (a) constant and variable error, and not absolute error, were the appropriate measures of performance, (b) there were no sex differences either in spatial or temporal accuracy or in trial-to-trial consistency of performance, (c) substantial individual differences were present in rhythmic accuracy, as were moderate individual differences in variability, (d) neither rhythmic accuracy nor variability was appreciably related to preferred tempo, and (e) spatial and temporal accuracy are relatively independent components of rhythmic accuracy.

Stability and sex differences on the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory for students in grades two to twelve.

This study reassessed the presence or absence of sex differences and investigated the stability of self-esteem as measured by Coopersmith's Self-esteem Inventory over 6 mo. for Grades 2 to 12. The subjects were 591 students, 296 male and 295 female, enrolled in an urban central Maine school district. No sex differences were found on any of the subscales or total scale score on either the pretest or posttests by grade. Significant correlations, small to moderate in size, were found for all grades on two scales, general self and total self. The results and implications are discussed.

Sex differences in fetal gonadotropins and androgens

We investigated the hypothalamo-hypophyseo-gonadal system in human fetuses and neonates by serially sampling fetuses obtained either during spontaneous abortions, premature deliveries or under the conditions of the Eugenics Protection Law. Maternal specimens were obtained serially throughout pregnancy, at parturition and in the puerperium. The purpose of our study was to determine the presence or absence of sex differences in fetuses and neonates by determining plasma constituents. The subjects for determination were FSH, LH, hCG and its β-subunit, and androgens. We also attempted to determine the effects of LH-RH priming on the anterior hypophysics. We found fetal sex differences in FSH and testosterone levels, but were unable to detect any differences in the other materials determined. Furthermore we were able to detect an anterior pituitary response to LH-RH priming from the second trimester of pregnancy.

Absence of Sex Differences on the Children's Embedded Figures Test

An examination of the research literature on the Children's Embedded Figures Test indicates a consistent absence of sex differences. This observation is confirmed with a sample of 90 kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 Canadian children.

Nafenopin-induced hepatic microbody (peroxisome) proliferation and catalase synthesis in rats and mice. Absence of sex difference in response.

Nafenopin (2-methyl-2[p-(1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1-naphthyl)phenoxy]-propionic acid; Su-13437), a potent hypolipidemic compound, was administered in varying concentrations in ground Purina Chow to male and female rats, wild type (Cs(a) strain) mice and acatalasemic (Cs(b) strain) mice to determine the hepatic microbody proliferative and catalase-inducing effects. In all groups of animals, administration of nafenopin at dietary levels of 0.125% and 0.25% produced a significant and sustained increase in the number of peroxisomes. The hepatic microbody proliferation in both male and female rats and wild type Cs(a) strain mice treated with nafenopin was of the same magnitude and was associated with a two-fold increase in catalase activity and in the concentration of catalase protein. The increase in microbody population in acatalasemic mice, although not accompanied by increase in catalase activity, was associated with a twofold increase in the amount of catalase protein. The absence of sex difference in microbody proliferative response in nafenopin-treated rats and wild type mice is of particular significance, since ethyl-alpha-p-chlorophenoxyisobutyrate (CPIB)-induced microbody proliferation and increase in catalase activity occurred only in males. Nafenopin can, therefore, be used as an inducer of microbody proliferation and of catalase synthesis in both sexes of rats and mice. The serum glycerol-glycerides were markedly lowered in all the animals given nafenopin, which paralleled the increase in liver catalase. All the above effects of nafenopin were fully reversed when the drug was withdrawn from the diet of male rats. During reversal, several microbody nucleoids were seen free in the hyaloplasm or in the dilated endoplasmic reticulum channels resulting from a rapid reduction in microbody matrix proteins after the withdrawal of nafenopin from the diet. Because of microbody proliferation and catalase induction with increasing number of hypolipidemic compounds, additional studies are necessary to determine the interrelationships of microbody proliferation, catalase induction, and hypolipidemia.

Sex Differences in the Relationship of Cognitive Style and Intellectual Functioning in Disadvantaged Preschool Children

Summary The results of this study indicate that there are sex differences in the patterns of correlations among cognitive style measures and intellectual functioning in the absence of sex differences in performance on individual measures. That is, accuracy measures of reflection-impulsivity and field dependence-independence are positively related to intelligence for girls, but not for boys, suggesting that at the preschool level, at least, these cognitive style dimensions are not functionally equivalent for both sexes. Extrapolation from previous research suggests, however, that the dimensions may become functionally equivalent at later ages. Future research is needed which explores these relationships developmentally. In any case, the conclusion is warranted that in studies of cognitive styles, sex differences must be examined from a functional, as will as a descriptive, point of view.