Different Behaviors, Different Brains? HOME VARIATION PATHOLOGY GENDER & SEXUAL ORIENTATION

GENDER & SEXUAL ORIENT- ATION A Brief Gendered History Structure, Hormones, & Something Else? Individual Variation Pathology Bibliography & Links

"Sex-Typical" Behaviors This is indeed a touchy subject. By "sex-typical" we mean the behaviors that are ON AVERAGE observed in either males or females. (Click here to read about the danger of applying stereotypes to conclusions about gender) Scientists have found that, in general, men and women behave and think slightly differently. Men may be more willing than women to engage in risky behaviors. Women may be better at tasks that involve verbal ability and fine motor skills. Two individuals may have the same overall intelligence but have differing patterns of ability. This is not to say that one is better than the other, simply that there are differences (and, of course, sometimes large degrees of overlap and similarity). For example, researchers have found that women tend to outperform men on the following tasks: verbal fluency mathematical calculations Men have been found to outperform women on the following tasks: spatial tasks (rotating objects) mathematical reasoning (thanks to the Scientific American article on this page) Are these differences based on hormones? HOME || VARIATION || PATHOLOGY || GENDER || SEXUALITY || LINKS