Psychobiology of Sex Differences

Office Hours:

Course Reading Materials

Recommended but not required books

Course Overview

This course is about the roles that sex chromosomes and hormones play in creating sex differences in the brain and behavior; and, it is also about how developmental processes, cultural socialization, stereotypes, prejudice, and the gendered nature of our environments play a role in the creation of sex differences.

Course Schedule

Assignments

Book Reviews - Three at 200 points = 600 points

Students will be writing three book reviews for this class, one each on the books You Just Don't Understand by Tannon, Men and Marriage by Gilder, and Enemies of Eros by Gallagher. Each of these reviews should be between 3-5 pages long. If you are not familiar with the writing style for scientific book reviews, please take the time to read several book reviews in the journal "Science" which is available in the Marist College Library. Here is a short example to get you started. Each of these book reviews will be worth 200 points.

Presentation - 200 points

Students will be divided into several teams of students for the final class project in this course. Each group will be assigned a topic about midterm and asked to prepare a "position paper" presenting the pros and cons of both sides of the issue. During the final exam period for this course, each team will present both sides of the issue. Half of the students on each team will be randomly selected to present one side of the issue and the other half of the students will present the other side. Participation in this project is worth 200 points. Points will be awarded both for the quality of preparation and for the quality of the presentation.

Journal - 200 points

Students taking this course ought to reflect on what they are learning after every class period and are to keep a journal of reflections. It is strongly suggested that this journal include your reaction to articles in the popular press that are more relevant because of ideas presented in this course. At the end of the semester students are required to turn in ten of these entries (in legible form, please type them up and correct your spelling.) Please do not try and reconstruct your thoughts at the end of the semester, it is important to work on this throughout the course. 

 	Book Reviews - 3 at 200 points = 600 points
	Presentation -  		 200 points
	Journal                          200 points
                                   --------------
				        1000 total points

Grades


940 - 1000 points		A	
910 - 939			A -	
880-  909			B +
840 - 879			B 	
810 - 839			B -
780 - 809			C +
740 - 779			C	
710 - 739			C -
640 - 709			D		
 0 -  639			F

General goals and objectives

1. By the end of the semester the student will be able to demonstrate that she/he can discuss major issues in gender research, describe methods for measuring sex roles, define natural selection, define sexual selection, dicuss problems associated with models for human sex differences, describe the genetics of gender, discuss major hormonal affects on the brain, summarize communication style differences between the sexes, describe and compare developmental and learning theories relevant to gender differences, discuss cultural variables influencing gender differences, summarize major findings on stereotyping, discuss gendered environments, and describe how developmental rate may influence sex differences in spatial and verbal skills.

2. During the course of the semester students will develop skill at recording introspective data obtained from self-reflection, making behavioral observations, writing reports, collecting, evaluating, and organizing information from a wide variety of sources and at thinking critically about the interaction between memes and genes which results in observed sex differences.

3. The student will come to appreciate the multi-faceted nature of gender differences and realize that "different" does not imply a rank-ordered scale of "better" and "worse."

4. This class should also provide us with things to reflect on, laugh about, and general enjoy about the human condition.