PSY210H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Infant Mortality, Gender Role, Y Chromosome
Document Summary
Difference between gender and sex: gender is cognitive social difference, while sex is the actual biological and physiological difference. Typical gender differences: anatomical differences - those are the biological differences. Reproductive organs: male have penis and girls have vagina. Brain structure: males and female have different ways of lateralization, which is the extent to which brain function is organized across the two cerebral hemispheres. Male brain: most connections run between the front and back parts of the same brain hemisphere, which could account for the better spatial skills and motor (muscle control) Female brain: many more neural connections go from one hemispheres to the other one which can account for better verbal skills: cognitive differences - male and female differences in the ways we think. Men: better at manipulating objects, constructing 3-d forms, mentally mapping complex gures. Women: tend to write and speak earlier, have superior verbal ability in early school years.
