Gender Differences In Traits Research Articles

Age and gender differences in personality traits from early childhood through adolescence.

Most research on personality development has employed self-report questionnaires and concerned individuals older than 10years. This is the first study to examine mean-level age differences in personality traits from early childhood to late adolescence in the non-Western cultural context. Personality was measured in two community samples of parent reports of 2-18-year-old children (N=4,330) and self-reports of 10-19-year-old adolescents (N=4,663) from Russia by the Inventory of Child Individual Differences-Short version (ICID-S) at the three levels of the hierarchy, the two higher order traits, the Big Five, and lower order traits. Across childhood, the Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism traits increased, and the Extraversion and Openness traits decreased. In adolescence, parent-reported Conscientiousness traits increased and Neuroticism traits decreased, whereas youth-rated Alpha and Agreeableness decreased in middle adolescence. There were small gender differences in trait levels and age trends. Parents and youths did not agree on gender differences in age trends for Neuroticism and Extraversion. The findings support personality maturation from early childhood to late adolescence, with the exception of increasing Neuroticism across childhood, and provide some evidence for the disruption in personality maturation in adolescence. Parents and adolescents may have different perspectives on personality development.

A multi-rater framework for studying personality: The trait-reputation-identity model.

Personality and social psychology have historically been divided between personality researchers who study the impact of traits and social-cognitive researchers who study errors in trait judgments. However, a broader view of personality incorporates not only individual differences in underlying traits but also individual differences in the distinct ways a person's personality is construed by oneself and by others. Such unique insights are likely to appear in the idiosyncratic personality judgments that raters make and are likely to have etiologies and causal force independent of trait perceptions shared across raters. Drawing on the logic of the Johari window (Luft & Ingham, 1955), the Self-Other Knowledge Asymmetry Model (Vazire, 2010), and Socioanalytic Theory (Hogan, 1996; Hogan & Blickle, 2013), we present a new model that separates personality variance into consensus about underlying traits (Trait), unique self-perceptions (Identity), and impressions conveyed to others that are distinct from self-perceptions (Reputation). We provide three demonstrations of how this Trait-Reputation-Identity (TRI) Model can be used to understand (a) consensus and discrepancies across rating sources, (b) personality's links with self-evaluation and self-presentation, and (c) gender differences in traits. We conclude by discussing how researchers can use the TRI Model to achieve a more sophisticated view of personality's impact on life outcomes, developmental trajectories, genetic origins, person-situation interactions, and stereotyped judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record

Crossover, Degendering, or…? A Multidimensional Approach to Life-Span Gender Development

Inspired by Sandra Bem and subsequent theorists, we examine gender as a multidimensional construct that differs across adulthood to test claims made by two different theories of life-span gender development—that men and women cross over and become more like the other gender with age, and that aging involves degendering or viewing gender as a less central aspect of the self. Self-report survey data from a U.S. sample of men and women recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (25–89 years, M age = 47.38, SD = 14.05) were used to investigate the extent to which stereotypically masculine traits; stereotypically feminine traits; androgyny; gender identification (i.e., identifying with one’s gender group and viewing this as a positive part of the self); and gender typicality (i.e., viewing oneself as a typical member of one’s gender group) differ between younger (i.e., under age 40), middle-aged (i.e., ages 40–59), and older men and women (i.e., age 60 and older) and by marital status. Results indicate that gender differences in stereotypically masculine and feminine personality traits exist, and that marital status moderates age and gender differences in traits. Among older men, those who are married are more likely to endorse stereotypically masculine traits, but also have higher androgyny scores than unmarried men. With age, both men and women perceive themselves as more typical examples of their gender group. Results are discussed as providing limited support for crossover theory, but not degendering.

Changes in sex ratios of a dioecious grass with grazing intensity: the interplay between gender traits, neighbour interactions and spatial patterns

Summary Dioecious plants frequently face sex‐related resource allocation trade‐offs. Differential traits of male and female plants can have important consequences that influence their direct and indirect interactions with neighbours and herbivores. Gender differences in traits have been considered to be inherently linked to sex‐biased ratios along environmental stress gradients. However, the mechanisms behind the variation in sex ratios with increasing biotic stress remain elusive. We linked the results of process‐based field experiments with fine‐scale spatial patterns of naturally established plants (both sexes) at different grazing intensities. We demonstrated that slow‐growing females were better defended against insects and small mammals but were more susceptible than males to competition from neighbours. In large‐herbivore exclosures, we found that sex‐biased spatial patterns at the microsite scale can be predicted from gender‐specific traits, with females more segregated from competitors (unpalatable grasses) than males. Traits related to growth/defence trade‐off in females, coupled with their higher competition costs than males, suggest that gender dimorphism in traits can directly influence species interactions and spatial organization. In the presence of large herbivores, female individuals were preferentially browsed despite their larger investment in antiherbivore compounds. The greater distance of females from unpalatable competitors was the main determinant of female‐biased consumption by domestic herbivores. Females growing close to neighbours successfully eluded browsing but also faced competition. Scaling up to a population level, population sex ratios drift from female‐ to male‐bias with increasing domestic grazing intensity. Synthesis: The sexual dimorphism in traits of a dioecious bunchgrass results in differential herbivory by natural enemies, differential competitive ability and differential spatial distribution of sexes. Domestic grazers disrupt this balance by shifting species interactions and their spatial organization. Changes in dioecious plant populations towards male‐biased sex ratios with grazing intensity could not be predicted solely by gender‐specific traits.

Gender Differences in Young Children's Temperament Traits: Comparisons Across Observational and Parent‐Report Methods

Evidence supporting the continuity between child temperament and adult personality traits is accumulating. One important indicator of continuity is the presence of reliable gender differences in traits across the lifespan. A substantial literature demonstrates gender differences on certain adult personality traits and recent meta-analytic work on child samples suggests similar gender differences for some broad and narrow domains of temperament. However, most existing studies of children rely only on parent-report measures. The present study investigated gender differences in temperament traits assessed by laboratory observation, maternal-report, and paternal-report measures. Across three independent samples, behavioral observations, maternal-report, and paternal-report measures of temperament were collected on 463 boys and 402 girls. Across all three methods, girls demonstrated higher positive affect and fear and lower activity level than boys. For laboratory measures, girls demonstrated higher levels of sociability and lower levels of overall negative emotionality (NE), sadness, anger and impulsivity than boys. However, girls demonstrated higher levels of overall NE and sadness than boys when measured by maternal reports. Finally, girls demonstrated lower levels of sociability based on paternal reports. Results are discussed in relation to past meta-analytic work and developmental implications of the findings.

Gender Differences in Reproductive and Physiological Traits in a Gynodioecious Species, Geranium maculatum (Geraniaceae)

Plant species with separate genders often exhibit gender differences in traits related to reproductive allocation. In gynodioecious species, females often produce more seeds than do hermaphrodites, leading to a higher reproductive cost. The mechanisms that allow females to meet the high costs of reproduction are currently under debate. In this study, we test the hypothesis that there are genetically based gender differences in physiological traits that enable females to finance these costs through higher photosynthetic carbon gain in the gynodioecious perennial Geranium maculatum. Females and hermaphrodites were compared in a greenhouse study that minimized environmental and selfing rate differences between the genders. We found that females produced smaller flowers but more of them and more fruits than did hermaphrodites. However, genders did not differ in their seed number, seed mass, fruit set, and reproductive allocation. In addition, genders did not differ in photosynthetic rate (A), leaf N, and water use efficiency inferred from leaf carbon isotope ratio (δ13C). Overall, G. maculatum shows no genetically based gender differences for most of the reproductive traits or any of the physiological traits measured. Our results suggest that for G. maculatum, the gender fitness differences previously identified in natural populations may be caused by gender differences in microhabitat and/or selfing rate.

A twin study of genetic and environmental contributions to gender differences in traits delineating personality disorder

The present study applied biometric genetic analyses to determine whether traits delineating personality disorders are influenced by gender-specific genetic and environmental influences. The sample consisted of 681 volunteer general population twin pairs (128 monozygotic male, 208 monozygotic female, 75 dizygotic males, 174 dizygotic females, and 96 dizygotic opposite-sex pairs). All twin pairs completed the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology (DAPP-BQ) which yields 18 basic and four high-order dimensions of personality dysfunction. Heritability analyses showed that all dimensions except Submissiveness in males, and Cognitive Dysfunction, Compulsivity, Conduct Problems, Suspiciousness, and Self-harm in females were significantly heritable. Sex-by-genotype analyses suggested that the genetic influences underlying all but four DAPP-BQ dimensions (Stimulus Seeking, Callousness, Rejection, and Insecure Attachment) were specific to each gender, whereas the influence of the environment was found to be the same in both genders across all dimensions. All four higher-order dimensions were also heritable across sex and in common to both genders except female dissocial personality dimensions in females, for which no heritable basis was found. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mate selection preferences: gender differences examined in a national sample.

Social psychologists have devoted considerable theoretical and empirical attention to studying gender differences in traits desired in a mate. Most of the studies on mate preferences, however, have been conducted with small, nonrepresentative samples. In this study, we analyzed data collected from single adults in a national probability sample, the National Survey of Families and Households. Respondents were asked to consider 12 possible assets or liabilities in a marriage partner and to indicate their willingness to marry someone possessing each of these traits. These data extended previous research by comparing men's and women's mate preferences in a heterogeneous sample of the national population and by comparing gender differences in different sociodemographic groups. The gender differences found in this study were consistent with those secured in previous research (e.g., youth and physical attractiveness were found to be more important for men than for women; earning potential was found to be less important for men than for women) and were quite consistent across age groups and races. However, the various sociodemographic groups differed slightly in the magnitude of gender differences for some of the mate preferences.