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Seminar in Sex Differences
Psych 160b – Fall 2014
Instructor: Ellen J Wright, PhDOffice Hours:Tu,W 9-10:30, or by appointment
Office Phone #: (best way to contact)
Office:Brown 128Class time: Monday 2-4:50, Shiffman 2
Graduate Teaching Fellow: JasmineBoshyan
Office and Office Hours: Brown 18B, office hours – Thursday 1:30-3, or by appointment
Email:
I. COURSE OUTLINE
September 8Introduction, Theories andPolitics, and Methods of Studying Sex Differences
September 15Gender Stereotypes– discuss the survey project
Submit request for Discussion Group Assignment and Topic
September 22Cognitive Sex Differences
Surveys are due for peer review; Submit surveys & modified informed consents to Ellen/Jasmine
September 29Biological Explanations of Cognitive Sex Differences, Stats review Collect Survey Data this week
October 6Psychosocial Explanations for Cognitive Sex Differences
October 13Brandeis Thursday
October 20Developmental Sex Differences – Disc – Balls Not Dropped (Camila, Rachel Z, Eliza, Rosie)
Survey Project due
October 27Sex Differences in Emotions and Interpersonal Sensitivity – Disc– Charlie’s Emotional Angels (Charlie, Lauryn, Katherine, Clara)
Topic, Design, Informed Consent, and Debriefing Due[1]
November 3Sex Differences in Attraction, Mate Preferences, and Marital Relationships – Disc – I’m sexy and I know it(Tali, Aliza, Gabe, Nadya)
November 10Sex Differences in Sexuality – Disc – Sexy Can I(Allie, Ashley, David, and Eric)
November 17Sex Differences in Adult Friendships and Parenthood – Disc–Pavlov’s Dawgs (Katie, Mariya, Jeanny, Matt)
November 24Sex Differences in Leadership– Disc – Lulu (Amelia, Jen, Sunjun, Yuying) - Rough Draft for Last Study Due[2]
December 1Sex Differences in Health and Health Behavior– Disc– Healthy Choice (Lisa, Ge, Jessica, Emily)
December 8Sex Differences in Psychopathology (Last Class)
Final Draft ofResearch Paper Due – December 17th
Course Notes:This course is an experiential learning (and counts as a writing intensive) course. Please see the experiential learning website and note the contact information.
Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences
781.736.2697
II. READINGS
Texts Available in the Bookstore: All readings not found in the books available at the bookstore are on electronic reserve on Latte. You can read these articles online or you can print out a copy for yourself.
Required: Halpern, D.F. (2012).Sex differences in cognitive abilities. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum 978-0-8058-2791-0
Lips, H.M. (2008).Sex and gender: An introduction (6thed.) Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
Course Guidelines:
I expect all my students will behave in a responsible manner, including attending class on time, prepared to participate fully and respectfully. Papers are to be prepared following APA guidelines in the Publication Manual, 6thEdition.
If you are a student with a documented disability at Brandeis University and if you wish to request a reasonable accommodation for this class, please see me immediately. Please understand that reasonable accommodations are not provided retroactively. If you are an athlete and will be away for any of the classes, please contact Jasmineor me immediately. I have done my best to schedule around the Jewish holidays, but this is not always possible.
Academic HonestyStudents are expected to be honest in all academic work. Academic dishonesty in any form (cheating, plagiarism, etc.) will not be tolerated, and suspected cases will be turned over to the Office of Campus Life for investigation and possible referral to the Student Judicial System, as required by University policy. See the Rights and Responsibilities handbook (section 5) for the University policies in this area. Please note that ignorance of these policies is not a sufficient excuse for violation of them. If you have any questions about my expectations, please ask me.
Class Communication We answer all email as quickly as we can, which may not be immediately. Please be patient. We both prefer email communications, as we will sometimes be working off campus.
Be sure to readall emails that come to you over the course email list: these may include changes, updates, clarifications, in short: “news you can use.” From time to time, based on class progress, the syllabus may be revised. Please check online for any updates.
Policy on Assignments: Major papers will be turned inthrough Latte, and will be accepted for full credit as long as it is uploaded by midnight the day it is due. Please check Latte afterwards to make sure it was uploaded correctly. Proposals (e.g., the survey/Informed Consent, or the Final Paper proposal and accompanying documents)will also be uploaded on Latte on an assignment link. Comments will be made using track changes. If you use Microsoft Works or Pages as your word processor, please save your files in a rich text format (.rtf) or .doc, as we can’t read the format that Microsoft Works uses. Please save any Acrobat Adobe documents as a .doc document to receive full credit. To achieve a measure of fairness, we will accept late take-home assignments. However, ALL late work will be penalized 5% per day. This penalty MAY be waived in light of documented and truly exceptional circumstances, which will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Grading and return of late work cannot be guaranteed on the same schedule as on-time submissions. No late work will be accepted after the last day the final paper is due without prior arrangement with your class Dean (likely involving an incomplete). The late policy is designed to be as fair as possible to all students, while recognizing that life events do sometimes interfere with even the best of intentions.
III. REQUIREMENTS:
A.Class participation (approximately 60 points, 5-points for each week)
Class discussions are the core of a seminar course. You are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings. This will be evaluated in light of two requirements:
1. Jasmine and I will post discussion questions for each topic on Latte each week. Each week, you are expected to post comments or your own questions about the reading on the Latte discussion for that week. You will also be able to read other students’ postings and interact this way.Deadline for posting: No later than 9 p.m. on Sunday before class. If you post after 9 p.m. you will not receive credit for posting that week.
2. You are also expected to participate in the in-class discussions on a weekly basis (part of the weekly 5 points for discussion).
B.Student-led Discussion (100 points)
For the seminars meeting from October 20th– November 17th, you will work in groups to prepare discussion questions on a topic of your choosing and you will lead the discussions of your questions during the first 30-45 minutes of class (no longer than 90 minutes). You can choose a topic related to gender issues for the pertinent date (from the list). Do NOT attempt to tackle the entire topic. Please let me know your group composition and topic by September 15th. If you don’t create your own group, I will tell you with whom you are working during that next week via email. Again, please submit your choice of topic to me by September 15th(and any date that would be difficult to accomplish) and I will announce the date on which your topic will be covered on September22nd.
The discussion questions for your topic (and any extra readings) should be available to other class members by 4 p.m. on the Thursday before the Monday class meeting. Please post them on Latte. If you wish to post additional articles/readings, please let Jasmine or me know and we will post it.
In planning your class discussion, I would encourage you to make creative use of demonstrations and/or data generated by class members. I will be happy to discuss with you any ideas you have for demonstrations or data collection in advance of your class presentation. I will also be glad to help you find readings relevant to your topic.Discussion presentations will be limited to 90 minutes, so plan accordingly. Please make every effort to include all class participants in the discussion time.
C.Survey Project(100 points, due October 20th)
Aim: This is a group project in terms of the design and data collection. The aim of this assignment is to acquaint you with a frequent method of data collection, get basic skills on developing and modifying surveys, give more experience to the data analytic techniques used with this methodology, and create a group paper.
The assignment: Design and administer a survey to determine people’s beliefs about specific characteristics of males and females (i.e., their stereotypes)AND examine whether males and females differ in these beliefs. Use the research literature on stereotypes to design your survey. Design your survey to allow you to assess some aspect of what differences your subjects believe exist (e.g., in ability, personality, friendships, or motivations) of males and females, or what differences they think should exist in the societal roles and status of males and females. DO NOTtry to deal with ALL these issues in your survey or it will be too long. A copy of your survey and your version of informed consent will be due on Latte bySeptember 22nd, and we will use that time in class to provide peer review of the survey. More information on the paper itself will be provided on line and in class soon.
Surveys used and approved previouslyare posted on Latte. Be sure to follow these guidelines in constructing your survey questionnaire and collecting your data. You MAY NOTbegin collecting your data until your survey and informed consent are approved by Jasmineor me. I have to ensure it follows the guidelines for ethical research (and is designed well enough to get results).
In conducting this survey, bear in mind that people are reluctant to voice ‘sexist’ beliefs, even though they may hold such beliefs. So, try to minimize social desirability when wording your questions.
Using your own modification of the verbal informed consent form posted on Latte, survey at least 20 adults (at least 10 males and 10 females). Survey whomever you are interested in, but make sure you survey half males and half females so you can answer the question of gender differences in the stereotypes you are studying. You may also survey different categories (e.g., undergraduates vs. working adults or the elderly). Keep the survey short (about 5-10 minutes) to increase the likelihood that people will agree to participate.
Theassignment will be uploaded on Latte. I will provide a form to help you organize the assignment.This will include information on the survey itself with research documenting the operational definitions of your construct and choice of items, the elements of a standard methods section, information about the psychometric properties of your survey, and a summary of your results that includes your ideas of what the findings mean. You must include a copy of your survey and an APA style reference section. Two links to APA guidesare provided on Latte.
D.Final Research Assignment (150 points, final due date for the assignment – December 17th)
You have your choice of one of two formats – an extensive literature review (along the lines of a Psychological Bulletin or a Psychological Reviewpaper), or a Research study (which may take the form of an unobtrusive observational study, an archival study, or an experiment)
Format 1: ReviewPaper: Write a critical review of the research literature on any area of sex differences. Make sure you don’t select too broad or too narrow a topic. A preliminary literature search will reveal whether your proposed topic is too broad (hundreds of citations) or too narrow (less than 10 citations). Aim for a topic that yields about 15-30 citations. To do this you may need to restrict your review to research published within a certain time-frame (e.g., the 2000s).
The paper structure should follow the following guidelines: 1. Define the topic area you will be covering and say why you think it is an important area to investigate (significance). 2. Present a critical analysis of the research that has been conducted on this topic. Summarize not only the research findings, but also have a section critiquing the studies you reviewed, considering their methodological strengths and weaknesses and attempting to reconcile discrepant results. 3. Finally, offer your explanation of any documented sex differences, drawing on one or more theories of gender that were covered in the course. Make some general suggestions for further research on the topic that would address unanswered questions. This format requires full APA style, with Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Paper Body, Conclusions, References, and any other necessary APA piece that fits your thesis.
Brief but useful guidelines for writing a literature review are posted on Latté. Again, representative papers from previous semesters are posted on Latté.
OR
Format 2: Research Study
If you choose format two, you have three options for methodology. The first option involves using unobtrusive observational methodology in some setting or settings. The second option involves using archival analysis methodology. The third option involves an experiment (which should involve some manipulated independent variable). With all three methods you must operationalize the variables you will be collecting anddevelop a coding scheme. With the unobtrustive and archival methods, you must establish inter-rater reliability. For all three, a full APA style paper is due at the end of the semester.
Observational study – choose some geographical area in which to observe unobtrusively sex differences in some behavior of interest. This may be sex differences in interpersonal relationships, emotional expressivity, parenting behaviors, childhood aggression, etc. You may choose the venue in which you will observe – The Museum of Science, children’s playgrounds, a senior center, a cafeteria, a movie theater, etc. You may choose situations in which there are mixed sex groups or those with same sex groups – remember that there may be differences in how behavior is interpreted or even how it is displayed depending on that variable. Be aware of your own biases and provide yourself with very strongly operationalized definitions of the behaviors you are measuring. You will also need to do at least a portion of this with a partner so you can establish inter-rater reliability.
OR
Archival analysis of media – Archival analysis is a form of the observational method whereby the researcher examines the accumulated documents or archives of a culture. In this case, we will stretch the meaning of this to include a sampling of some specific form of print media or other visual media (newspapers, comic books, popular magazines, advertisements, television shows, infomercials, cartoons, children’s books, the internet, and the like). Whichever form of media you choose, make sure you sample equally from forms intended to attract males and females. Topics may include (but are not limited to) portrayal of gender roles in the media, stereotype portrayal of gender roles, sex differences in body portrayal, sex differences in the coverage of elite athletes, etc. To do this assignment, you need to identify the content you will be exploring, and develop operational definitions of the content aspects, identify how you will sample the media. The articles of Down (1981), Browne (1998), and FurnhamMak (1999) provide some guides for accomplishing this assignment using advertisements and television shows, and may be adapted to apply to the print media. You may choose to subdivide by other independent variables (e.g., ads for children vs. ads for adults, TV programs or print media geared for different ethnic groups). For video media, keep time of day aired constant.
OR
Experimental Study – If you choose this methodology, you must collect data from approximately equal numbers of males and females, and at least one variable must be experimentally manipulated. If you can randomly assign your participants to conditions, this will strengthen the internal validity of your study. Rooms will be available in the library for conducting the study.
Further instruction and information will be available on Latté and will be presented in class.
Paper Structure: Your paper should take the standard form of an APA style research paper. That is, it must have the following parts: Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, References, Appendix, and potentially Tables and/or Figures. Remember your introduction should contain a critical literature review of the topic you have decided to study culminating in your hypotheses. Your methods section must have the appropriate subsections (Participants – with the archival analysis, the ‘participants’ will now reflect the media you sampled; Measures – this should include operational definitions of the behavior or the content you are going to analyze, the interrater reliability if applicable; Procedures – describe the procedures you will use in accomplishing this study). The Results section must contain a descriptive analysis of your dependent variable(s), and an inferential section in which you test your hypotheses. Your Discussion section must describe your findings in more approachable (rather than statistical) terms, the significance of your results in terms of what it adds to our understanding, the limitations of the study, and potential future studies that could address the limitations of what you (and the previous researchers) have accomplished. You should end with the standard summary/conclusion for the paper. Your Reference section comes next, followed by an Appendix (if necessary), then Tables and/or Figures that elucidate your results. All this should be done using APA style, links to which may be found on Latté. In addition, example papers from previous courses will be posted on Latté.