Gender: Culture or Genes?

Arguments for culture

Arguments for genetics

In Western culture it is more susceptible for women to wear make up, dresses, heels. Male breastfeeding in the Aka Pygmy people of Central Africa (Hewlett, 2000) In the Aka community women are the primary caregivers but there is a significant level of flexibility -  Aka fathers will slip into roles usually occupied by mothers without any loss of status  Top jobs in the tribe invariably go to men: the kombeti (leader), the tuma (elephant hunter) and the nganga (top healer) in the community are all male. The Chambuli tribe where men showed some ‘feminine’ behaviour such as being passive and women showed some ‘masculine’ behaviour such as being dominant, shaving their heads, taking control of trading relationships.

Men are most likely to have a beard.  Rough and Tumble play occurs almost entirely in males. It is found cross-culturally and across species suggesting a clear link between biology and gender behaviour. Berenbaum and Snyder (1995) found girls with CAH showed more preference for boys’ toys. Beach (1974) found female dogs who were exposed to male hormones were more likely to urinate like male dogs. MRI scans suggest young women reach full brain developmental maturity between 21 and 22 years of age; young men reach full brain developmental maturity at 30 years of age. MRIs it was found women considered emotional events more emotionally stimulating than men.

Gender and profession

Even though it seems like genders are completely equal nowadays, stereotypical gender roles still exist. For example women tend to choose professions that include communicating and collaborating with others or where they can have a positive effect on them. Even in school, girls do better in social sciences and languages while boys are better in physics or math. From an early age environment and parents influence their children. It is shown in one of the studies that looked at nine-month old babies that had to choose toys. After completing this study, researchers concluded that girls did choose pink toys, while boys chose the blue ones. However it's not correct to assume that children know their gender right away, they usually are influenced by parents buying them toys that are stereotypical.  A better study that shows gender differences in an early age is a study where researchers examined  babies that were just few months old and had to look at a picture of a face or a mechanical objects. Girls looked at faces longer and boys looked at mechanical objects longer, which kind of explains why today different genders choose different kinds of jobs. 


Image 1

Image 1 is a diagram that shows number of female and male employees in the UK in 2008. It is clear that males tend to choose career paths that are more technical such as Engineering, while females tend to choose to be nurses or teachers. 

Gender roles are constantly being influenced by nature vs. nurture.  Biologically,  these influences are usually genes that are inherited from parents and evolution. Psychologically, these influences are stereotypical gender roles surrounding us. When a child is little, he looks at the gender that he thinks he is and starts acting in the same way which influences his behaviour as a boy or a girl. 

It's strange how some researchers state that gender differences are caused in an early age and are completely biological and that male and female brains don't have any differences. I think that that is completely wrong because gender is influenced by both biological and sociological factors and we can't just say that genders are different just because of their genes. That's because society shapes gender roles too as well as influence what profession a person may choose. 

Cognitive Learning

Learning is hard and it takes a lot of effort to remember new information. When trying to learn something a person should change up the place he is studying, time, etc.. It's good to test yourself after reading or studying something new, so the information learned is not forgotten that easily. Highlighting and reading usually doesn't help, it's better to organise your time and not study right before the exam. Procrastination also doesn't help one get a better grade, so one should start studying and preparing for an exam or a project right away so there is more time to develop the project further and make it better. It's also good to take breaks and do everything inconsistently. It's better to mix things up and not only learn one subject at a time. Various learning is better. You should stop studying before finishing.

Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. This proves that knowledge is connected to our true beliefs. Therefore, when trying to learn something new, we have to understand and believe in the information in order to really know it. 

Knowledge and Belief

When can we claim to know something?

To know:

• Žinoti
• Wissen 

We can claim to know something if we learned about it in the past or experienced it or if someone told us about it. Also when we can explain something clearly with knowledge to someone who doesn't know anything about it. In History we use primary sources to justify something, in ,math  we show our work. 

People usually tend to think that if they understand something, they know it, which is usually not true. Knowledge is justified by true beliefs. We can only believe if we have evidence for it, in other words if we have a proper justification for it. 

Hoe do we know? (nature of knowledge) 

• Justified
• True
• Belief 
• If one has no beliefs 

Epistemology is a study of knowledge that include the nature of knowledge and the extent of human knowledge 

To what extent do animals have language?

Language - is a system that helps one to express thoughts and feelings by sounds and signs and form relationship with other language. Language is not always verbal, some animals communicate using sign language. It is also helps the animals to detect danger or  warn other animals of the danger. Principles for combining words into meaningful sentences. It is also a combination of different sounds and collection of words. 

I think that animals have language, because without language they couldn't express their feelings and emotions, communicate with other animals by movement and sounds, form relationships or protect themselves and their families. 

Animals can't speak because they don't have physical ability, however animals like parrots can imitate sounds that they remember.

Language and Sense Perception

How do language and sense perception connect?

It is clear that somehow language and sense perception is connected. Usually when we perceive information through our senses, when can describe it or when someone describes something we can easily imagine it. Therefore, language is usually the tool with witch the sense perception is described. In order to better understand the sense perception and convey it to others, language is needed.

Metaphors for Sense Perception

Temperature (touch):

• He has a hot date tonight 
• An icy stare

Touch and Texture:

• Things are going smoothly 
• A painful lesson in life

Light (sight)

• Deep dark secret
• A rainbow of flavours 

Taste:

• Bittersweet memories 
• Ain't she sweet

Smell:

• The sweet smell of success 
• I smell a rat 

What is the Role of Sense Perception in Science

How is sense perception used in your science class?

• Smell
• Smell of different chemicals; iodine, sulphur
• Burning chemicals
• Sight 
• Observing a colour change; when observing the rate of the enzyme activity
• Touching
• Feeling different surfaces
• Temperature
• Feeling different temperatures; cold or hot water in the beaker 
• Sound
• Speed of sound in the experiment 

Perception problems: 

• Capgras Syndrome 
• E.g When a man says that his mom looks like his mom but isn't his mom (there's something wrong with the connection between face recognition and the amygdala) 
• Blindsight 
• A person can't say what he she sees, but can guess and 60% could recognise Emotional expressions 
• Asymbolia 
• Accurate report, quality, location, relative severity of pain 
• No emotional connection to pain 

Response to pain is emotional and psychological

Natural and Human sciences are not as related