Is there any research assessing whether men or women rate members of the opposite sex with greater internal consistency? That is, the standard deviation of attractiveness ratings for a certain person of the opposite sex is, on average, less when looking at a certain gender?
Michael Bishop
I would rename and rephrase your question. "Do men's opinions about people's attractiveness differ to a greater or lesser extent than women's opinions?" I would also like to point out that what people say when asked for a rating may be different from how they respond to a person in real life. Also, men may agree more on certain aspects of attractiveness and less on others.
Answers
Artem Kaznatcheev
There is a lot of literature on this and there are many subtle points in it, but I will try to summarize some of the general themes.
In general, subjects are very consistent in evaluating pictures of others by attractiveness (thus eliminating the popular notion of "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"). For example, Cunnigham et al. (1995) found a correlation of 0.9 between individual ratings and average female photo ratings. This correlation remains high even if the score and the photo were from different cultures. Moreover, men and women tend to find the same attractive facial features(that is, heterosexual men and women consider women to be beautiful). Johnston & Franklin (1993) allowed 20 men and 20 women to use a genetic algorithm to create women's faces that they considered beautiful. With the exception of the lower lip (women preferred a larger lower lip), there were no statistical differences between the qualities of the faces created by men and women.
However, women have higher variance in sex object ratings(opposite sex for heterosexual, same sex for homosexual women) than men (Jankowiak et al. 1992; Townsend & Wasserman 1997). But this must be taken with a grain of salt, because ratings attractiveness have a much higher spread in the ranking of men than women. Schulman & Hoskins (1986) found that female photo scores had a statistically significant lower variance than male photos for both males and females. Thus, the effect may be partly that both genders are worse at assessing the attractiveness of men.
Of course, the most difficult thing is to judge attractiveness in oneself. Rand & Hall (1983) found that women had a correlation5 between their perceptions of attractiveness and ratings of male judges. Men are far worse, with only a self-attractiveness correlation score and female judge scores of only .1 (almost random).
The story gets even more complicated because women react differently to how they load features when creating rankings, depending on whether they are looking for a short-term or long-term partner (Widerman & Dubois 1998) and even where they are in your menstrual cycle (Penton-Voak & Perrett 2001).
Due to the complex interplay of all these factors (and more!) I don't think there is (yet) one definitive and final answer to your question.
Links
- Cunningham M., Roberts A.R., Burby, Anita P., Drewen P.B. and W. S. "Their Concepts of Beauty Broadly Match Ours": Consistency and Variability in Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Female Physical Attractiveness. Journal of Personality and social psychology, 68: 261-279.
- Jankowiak, WR, Hill, EM, & Donovan, JM "The influence of sex and sexual orientation on judgments of attractiveness: an evolutionary interpretation." Ethology and Sociobiology 13(2): 73-85.
- Johnston, W.S. and Franklin, M. "Is there beauty in the eye of the beholder?" Ethology and Sociobiology 14(3): 183-199.
- Penton-Voak, I.S. and Perrette, D.I. "Male Facial Attractiveness: Perceived Personality and the Shift in Women's Preferences for Masculine Features During the Menstrual Cycle". Advances in the Study of Behavior 30: 219-259.
- Rand, C. & Hall, J. "Sex Differences in Accuracy of Self-Perceived Attractiveness." Social Psychology Quarterly, 46: 359-363.
- Townsend, JM, & Wasserman, T. "Perceptions of Sexual Attractiveness: Sex Differences in Variation." Archives of Sexual Behavior 26(3): 243-268.
- Wiederman, MW, & Dubois, SL "Evolution and sex differences in preferences for short-term partners: results from a policy capture study" Evolution and Human Behavior 19: 153-170.
Unlike the opinion of feminists about the complete identity of the two sexes, with the exception of the function of childbearing, biology adheres to an opinion, devoid of political correctness, about the existence of fundamental differences between the male and female sexes, which manifest themselves not only in the function of reproduction, but also in the adaptive capabilities of the organism. These differences are genetically determined, and they cannot be leveled by external influences.
8.2.1. Biological feasibility of the existence of two sexes
In the previous section, it was shown that the formation of the floor is a multi-stage process, fraught with errors. Why did evolution take the path of creating such a complex mechanism? What is the biological reason for the existence of sexual reproduction?
Asexual, vegetative reproduction is much easier. With it, each descendant is an exact copy of the parent organism. For example, all peppermint plants - a plant that is intensively cultivated for the needs of the food and perfume industries - are descendants of a single plant that was accidentally discovered at one time among wild mint plants. Vegetative reproduction is advisable when the conditions of existence are constant.
In reality, the habitat is constantly changing, so for the survival of the descendants, they need new properties that the parents did not have. This is achieved in the process of formation of germ cells (meiosis), during which a combination of individual sections of chromosomes occurs and the possibility of the emergence of organisms with new combinations of traits is created. This method of reproduction, with development from an unfertilized egg (parthenogenesis), also exists among higher vertebrates, for example, some lizards. Even greater variability of offspring is provided by reproduction with the participation of two individuals. For example, in snails, each individual produces both male and female germ cells. When they meet, they exchange sexual products. With sexual reproduction of hermaphrodites, a wide variety of offspring is provided, and the rate of reproduction of the population is directly proportional to the number of individuals.
This proportionality is absent in the vast majority of species in which there is a division into males and females. The rate of reproduction depends only on the number of females. A change in the number of males has very little effect on the rate of reproduction of a species or population. However, males make up about half of the total number of individuals. The biological expediency of the existence of such a number of individuals, on the presence of which the rate of reproduction does not depend, is not obvious.
It is possible to remove 90 percent or more of the males from a population without affecting the number of offspring and therefore the rate of reproduction of the population. However, of the approximately 4,500 species of mammals, only hyenas have taken this path. In hyenas, males that are born are destroyed, one is left alive, which is used only as a donor of germ cells, and outside the breeding season, he leads the life of an outcast. In the vast majority of mammalian species, as well as other classes of vertebrates - birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and cyclostomes (lampreys and hagfish) - males make up half of all individuals. So why are males needed if the rate of reproduction of the species does not depend on their number?
Moreover, males sometimes cause obvious harm to offspring, for example in lions. The community of lions is called a pride. It consists of one male, several females and immature offspring.
The lion is called the king of animals for a reason. First of all, he sleeps 16 hours a day. He does not go hunting, the females bring him the best pieces. Moreover, he does not participate in territorial conflicts that arise between females of different prides, as a result of which animals sometimes die. The entire contribution of the lion to social life is limited to the fertilization of females and the expulsion from the pride of males who have reached puberty. In addition, the lion, of course, drives away competitors, that is, young lions who do not have their own pride. When he is defeated in a fight with an opponent, the winner begins to own the pride by killing all immature cubs. And, despite such an unsightly social role of males, newborn males are not killed, as is customary among hyenas.
Using Occam's principle, we come to the conclusion that if in the vast majority of species males make up about half of the individuals, then males are needed for something.
The two sexes differ in the energy costs for the reproduction of one offspring. The costs of the female individual are several orders of magnitude higher than the costs of the male.
First of all, it is necessary to answer the question - what is the difference between males and females? In most species, males and females differ in appearance. These differences are so great that often, when a previously unknown animal species is discovered, male and female individuals are mistakenly described as representatives of different species. Man is no exception. It can be assumed that a Martian, for example, is likely to consider a man and a woman to be representatives of different species. Differences in the following parameters are obvious: body size, body proportions, pigmentation, amount muscle tissue, distribution of adipose tissue, distribution of hairline. Differences in external structure also suggest different functions of the two sexes, not limited to different reproductive roles. Even in those species in which fertilization occurs in the external environment, it is always possible to accurately indicate which of the two is female and which is male. For example, some reef fish can undergo sex changes. In the absence of males, one of the females becomes a male. What gives grounds to assert that those reproductive products that this individual threw out earlier were eggs, and now it throws out spermatozoa?
The two sexes differ in the energy costs for the reproduction of one offspring. The costs of the female individual are several orders of magnitude, i.e., hundreds of thousands and millions of times higher than the costs of the male.
8.2.2. Genetic stability and individual plasticity of females
The theory explaining the biological expediency of the existence of two sexes was proposed by our compatriot V. A. Geodakyan (V. A. Geodakyan himself speaks not about the energy, but about the informational difference between the two sexes. Since the concept of information is less obvious than the concept of energy, here we proceed from energy differences between the sexes). This theory explains the facts well and predicts many others, many of which have already been discovered.
Since the rate of reproduction is directly proportional to the number of females in the population, females are maximally adapted to the existing conditions of existence. At the same time, the number of males is always excessive, since the rate of reproduction depends very little on the number of males. Therefore, the male sex is a "testing ground" of evolution.
The genetic diversity of males is higher than that of females.
Even Charles Darwin noted a greater variety of forms among males in all species. Due to a more intense mutational process and some other genetic features, the genetic diversity of males is much greater than the genetic diversity of females. Most of the genetic changes in the new generation of males are unsuccessful. Accordingly, a significant part of the males will die or leave no offspring (in the evolutionary sense, this is the same thing). However, in a small part of the males, the changes that have occurred will be suitable for the changed conditions of existence. It is this part of the males that will leave offspring, i.e., ensure the reproduction of the population.
Females are easier than males to respond to environmental influences, that is, they adapt better to environmental changes than males.
Thus, the first feature of the female compared to the male is a small genetic variability. The second fundamental feature of females is closely related to it - high adaptability. More precisely, the higher ability of females compared to males to adapt to current changes in the environment. Somewhat rough, but, in fact, it can be said that male individuals are “narrow specialists” with a low ability to retrain, and female individuals are not very specialized “generalists”, but with a high ability to learn, i.e. .adaptation to current conditions.
In females, both somatic and mental signs are plastic, that is, they change under the influence of the environment of existence. For example, if a woman moves north from the middle zone, then in her body much faster than in a man’s, changes occur aimed at adapting to a cold climate: an increase in adipose tissue, a change in the size and number of red blood cells, etc. After returning to a warm climate reverse changes also occur faster in women than in men.
But, of course, most importantly, the significantly greater plasticity of women's behavior compared to the behavior of men.
Any woman is unusually easily applied to any social position. The groom, elevated by fate to the duke, will still devote his whole life to the stable, while the daughter of a sergeant, who by the grace of the same fate became a countess and mistress of the king, for several months or even weeks cannot be distinguished in any way from the most noble lady, already at the birth of his recorded on the pages of the Gothic Almanac (Nordau M. (1885) cit. by: Lombroso C., Ferrero J. A woman a criminal and a prostitute).
Of course, the beautiful Izora was right, who, after sleeping for four hundred and fifty-six years, in response to an offer of help in gradually adapting to new times, dismissively threw: “It's you, men, you need to adapt, and a woman is always a woman! (Uspensky M. White horseradish in a hemp field.) "
The plasticity of a woman's behavior is often called conformism, condemning the behavior of Chekhov's Darling. But this ability to adapt to changing circumstances gives women enormous advantages in everyday life. Of course, any sign loses its adaptive value, being hypertrophied. Therefore, the creation of such a psychiatric category as "Stockholm Syndrome" seems controversial, when hostages begin to feel friendliness towards the raiders who have captured them and sometimes go over to their side, and women sometimes fall in love with outright criminals. It is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances pushed to the limit.
An example of genetic stability and environmental plasticity in female rats is shown in fig. 8.6. In these data, it is easy to see a general pattern that has been repeatedly shown for different biological species. With artificial selection for opposite manifestations of a trait (in this case, for high and low learning rates), the differences between males of two divergent lines are greater than between females. This is called high male genetic variation(Fig. 8.7). On the other hand, within each lineage, the differences between females are greater than between males, i.e., with the same genetic background, the spectrum of changes in behavior caused by differences in individual experience is much wider in females than in males. The high environmental variability of females reflects the high individual plasticity of females.
Rice. 8.6. The results of testing the behavior of rats of genetically pure lines of two different behavioral types - A and B.
In males, compared with females, genetic variability is higher and environmental variability is lower. The same data are presented both in the form of a table and in the form of a graph. Males are born diverse: the difference between the two lines, which have been selected for more than 50 generations, is much greater between males than between females. The average number of avoidances in males of type A is greater than in males of type B by 90. The difference between females of the two lines is only 60. However, females are more susceptible to environmental influences. This can be seen from the fact that the range in which the measured characteristic of behavior changes is much larger in females of both lines than in males.
8.2.3. Males are stress resistant
It should be emphasized that the greater plasticity of females is manifested at a low level of stress. With a high level of stress, due to the large genetic diversity, some males show high resistance to stress. The high resistance to stress of men, in comparison with women, is manifested, in particular, in the ability to make decisions in a stressful situation (Fig. 8.8).
For example, there is a list of professions prohibited for women in the Russian Federation. It is forbidden to hire women for physically hard and dangerous work. However, some professions related to operator activities are also prohibited. For example, a woman cannot be a bus driver or a locomotive driver. This is due to the high probability of a stressful situation in these professions and the responsibility for the lives of dozens of people, which lies with the driver and driver.
It should be noted that when testing in the laboratory, women perform tasks related to operator activities better. That is, the physical qualities necessary for a driver are better developed in women. Women have a wider field of vision, a better ability to determine the distance to an object and the speed of an object, etc. Even such a sense as a sense of inertia, which is very rarely used in everyday life, but which is necessary for a car driver, is better developed in women. Women have better motor skills. Finally, women have better developed sensorimotor integration, i.e., higher coordination of movements with the received visual information, etc. But this superiority of a woman is manifested only in a laboratory study, in a situation with a very low level of stress. In real life, when the level of stress is potentially very high, female drivers are significantly more likely than male drivers to cause accidents.
Males are more resistant to stress than females. In a stressful environment, men, unlike women, retain the ability to make decisions.
Once again, we emphasize that the described regularities are of a statistical nature. The existence of tall women does not disprove the general pattern "Men are taller than women." A girl can become not only a professional Formula 1 pilot, but also a pilot, if she has the ability and perseverance. Nevertheless, women are not taken as pilots of a passenger liner - just in case.
Statistical studies of large groups of the human population confirm the greater genetic variability of men and their higher resistance to stress. Mental illnesses with a clear hereditary mechanism (various forms of dementia) are more common among men. And among women, diseases predominate, in the occurrence of which the role of stress factors is great. First of all, these are depressive states, the frequency of which among women is several times higher than among men. The specific biological mechanisms of low resistance in women are unknown, but it has been reliably established that women have a weaker mechanism for regulating the adrenal cortex by negative feedback (see Chapters 4 and 5). After exposure to stress, women take longer than men to reduce cortisol secretion to baseline levels. Many other physiological parameters also return to normal after stressful changes more slowly in women than in men (Fig. 8.9).
Rice. 8.9. Slow recovery of physiological parameters in women after stress (Lebedev V. I. Personality in extreme conditions. M., 1989). Changes in the heart rate of astronauts before launch and when the spacecraft enters orbit. For all astronauts, the heart rate increases as the launch approaches and reaches a maximum at the moment of launch. This is followed by a gradual decrease in heart rate. By the time of weightlessness, all male cosmonauts had a pulse rate less than 5 minutes before launch. A fundamentally different pattern of pulse changes was noted in the only female cosmonaut. Tereshkova's heart rate at 5-minute readiness and at the time of the start did not exceed the maximum heart rate that occurred in the group of men. After the start, this indicator decreased very slowly for Tereshkova. If at the moment of launch it was higher than the average for men by 16 beats per minute, then at the middle stage of entering orbit it was higher than the average for men by 33, at the final stage - 34, and in the event of weightlessness - by 36 beats per minute. minute. Thus, the stress rise in heart rate persisted longer in Tereshkova than in male cosmonauts. The time constant (see section 4.3.4) of response extinction is greater in women than in men and for other measures of stress
Despite the ideological significance of Valentina Tereshkova's flight, women's space flights were stopped for decades. And the reason for this, of course, is not that the heart rate of V. Tereshkova returned to normal much longer than the heart rate of men. The fact is that she did not complete the research programs of her flight. She did not get in touch for much of her 72-hour flight, apparently due to impaired consciousness. When the connection could be restored, she reported that "the ship is not controlled." At the same time, the sound “P” in the word “ship” was clearly heard in the control center, which indicated the shutdown of higher cognitive functions, since this is how Tereshkova pronounced this word before she got to Moscow and learned the normative pronunciation.
But the greatest annoyance of the researchers was caused by the fact that Tereshkova, after landing in the field, immediately ate thoroughly - in violation of the strictest prohibition - accepting the gifts of enthusiastic collective farmers. In doing so, it ruined the entire program of medical research.
It is not known whether the Americans took into account the disastrous results of the Soviet experience in launching a woman into space, but they kept their female astronauts in reserve until disbanded. The detachment included pilots who had combat experience in the Korean War, the most experienced paratroopers, that is, outstanding women. In training, they showed results that were significantly superior to men's. For example, in the "pool of silence". In this case, a person is immersed in a dark pool of salt water to create weightlessness. The subject is dressed in a special suit that prevents movement. A person cannot even touch the thumb to the index finger. Thus, sensory input to the CNS is minimized. Almost complete sensory deprivation is extremely difficult for a person to tolerate. An untrained person can withstand no more than a minute: in addition to indescribable horror, interruptions in cardiac activity begin. And women overlapped the performance of men several times! The two best performances of men were just over two and three hours, while women kept in the "pool of silence" for 9 and 11 hours.
Nevertheless, excellent results in training do not indicate high resistance to stress and the ability to make decisions in a stressful situation. The test subject knows that at the first signal he will be immediately removed from the pool (or pressure chamber, or heat chamber), while the astronaut in real space, on the contrary, knows that no one will come to the rescue. And the first space flights were flights into the unknown, since the situation being created, despite all the training on Earth, had a huge share of novelty. This purely psychological factor of novelty is what determines women's inability to work as testers.
It must be said that the flight organizers had evidence that it was novelty that was the critical factor in space flight, and not weightlessness, overloads, noise, vibration, and other physical factors. Before the launch of one of the first ships, the dog, who was supposed to become an astronaut, fled to the steppe. There was no understudy, so they caught the first Baikonur mongrel that came across, stuffed it in, fastened it and launched it. The dog returned safely from space, having endured everything physical exercise, without tearing off numerous sensors and without signs of mental disorders. But astronaut dogs were trained for six months, accustomed to space ammunition, to overloads and other unpleasant sensations of flight. The successful experience of a naive dog showed that the hardest thing about launching into space is the unknown. The dog did not know what was ahead of her, she did not understand that she was in an environment absolutely hostile to living beings, separated from the vacuum by a thin layer of unreliable metal. But man knew, and unconsciously working imagination gave rise to stress.
At present, after the accumulation of half a century of experience in space flights, when the novelty has significantly decreased, women successfully fly both as tourists and as ship commanders. The situation, devoid of novelty, contains a minimum of stress, so now space flights are quite accessible to women. But repeated spaceflight experience does not increase a woman's resilience to stress, as shown by the Colonel Novak incident (see Section 4.1.4).
The ability of some men to make decisions at a high level of stress (i.e., to form a program of behavior, and not show displaced activity) and the plasticity of women's behavior at a low level of stress is clearly manifested in the medical professions.
The vast majority of surgeons and anesthesiologists are men. Even a planned operation is fraught with unexpected developments, i.e. stress. What about emergency surgery?
On the other hand, if we take not the great therapists whose names after their death are called clinics, hospitals and research centers, but simply “very good” doctors, then there are no less women among them than men, and maybe more. It is generally accepted that women are better diagnosticians than men. This is due to the fact that the accuracy of perception, observation, attention to detail in women is much higher than in men. Women, having made a diagnosis, can change their mind if additional symptoms appear, take into account, if possible, all the numerous factors that affect the course of the disease in a particular patient. A man, examining a patient, goes through the system of possible diagnoses with their numerous options and, having found the appropriate cell in his memory and entered the patient into it, often does not change his mind, despite the new results of the examination.
Thus, men have a clear advantage over women in stressful circumstances. With a high level of novelty of the situation, men are able to act adequately, choose an adequate program of action, or even develop it. Women, on the other hand, demonstrate displaced activity, and constant stress is an uncontrollable situation for women, which is manifested, in particular, in a significantly higher frequency of depression in women (see section 5.2). If the situation contains a small element of novelty, that is, changes occur slowly, or do not require an immediate reaction, then women cope with it much better than men.
Eastern wisdom says "Listen to a woman and do the opposite." Formally, the Russian proverb "Listen to a woman, call her a fool and do as she says" contradicts her. Both recommendations are valid, since the first describes behavior in a stressful situation, and the second - in a situation with a low level of novelty.
8.2.4. Resource Accumulation and Female Cycling
Now, some people say that women are vicious. I do not understand this. Imagine a young plump woman. What could be wrong with her? I do not understand.
Daniil Kharms
In addition to the three listed sex differences - genetic variability, individual variability, stress resistance - male and female individuals differ in two more fundamental features. Both stem from the different energetic contribution of the two sexes to reproduction. The cyclicity of the physiology and behavior of females is directly related to the need to prepare for reproduction, to accumulate the resources that will be required to raise offspring.
The physiology and behavior of females, unlike males, changes cyclically.
Women in most cultures today are single for most of their cycles. As a rule, a woman gives birth once or twice. Therefore, the menstrual cycle attracts much attention of researchers and doctors. The menstrual cycle fluctuates not only affect, but also some cognitive abilities. Spatial tasks are better performed by women with low estrogen levels, and verbal tasks are better with high estrogen levels; long-term visual memory is better formed in the luteal phase of the cycle than in the menstrual one, but there is no effect of the cycle phase on verbal memory; fluctuations in long-term visual memory correspond to changes in the level of progesterone in the blood, but not the level of estrogen.
Fluctuations in various cognitive functions throughout the menstrual cycle are insignificant. But we do not dwell on this interesting topic, because practical value they have little. These fluctuations do not reach such an amplitude that it makes sense to take them into account in everyday life. Serious problems in women begin only after menopause.
The main feature of a woman's behavior, directly related to the menstrual cycle, is the cycling of affect, which often develops to a painful degree (see section 3.5).
Changes in cognitive abilities in the menstrual cycle are insignificant, but the affective state fluctuates significantly in the menstrual cycle.
The tendency to accumulate resources is manifested in females both at the somatic level and at the mental level. Reproductive function in females is preserved only with a certain amount of adipose tissue (Fig. 4.2). Reducing the amount of fat below a certain limit leads to violations of the stability of sexual function, and with the further development of the process - to the cessation of egg production.
Since the tendency of females to accumulate resources in the form of adipose tissue is an adaptive trait, it is evolutionarily fixed in the stable preferences of males. Numerous surveys of men show that the vast majority prefer chubby women to athletic and asthenic ones. Since the main place of fat depot in women is the upper thighs and buttocks, it is this part of the female figure that determines the attractiveness of a woman (Fig. 8.10).
From the propensity of men for plump (fat) women naturally follows the standard image of a fashion model, model, pop singer, who should be thin and, if possible, even bony. In search of new erotic impressions and experiences (see sections 4.1.4, 4.2), in search of novelty, a man prefers an image that is perhaps more different from what he is used to, from the one he chose a long time ago. The applause of the public at fashion shows is by no means an indicator of changes in stable male preferences.
Females are more likely than males to accumulate resources. At the physiological level, this is the accumulation of fat. On behavioral it is the accumulation of vital resources.
In the behavior of animals, the propensity to accumulate resources is manifested in the creation of food reserves - in a form of behavior more characteristic of females. When courting, if the cat is especially cute to him, the cat brings her a mouse.
In humans, the tendency to accumulate resources is manifested in a greater than in men, the propensity of women to save money. Sometimes this statement is objected to by pointing to the love of women to shop. But in the process of purchases there is only an exchange of one, universal resource for another, also a vital resource. A woman always buys things, and does not waste money. Never will a woman go on a rampage in a restaurant throwing money at gypsies, never buy a million scarlet roses, and spend all her savings on a rare postage stamp.
Women's propensity to save money is used in practical psychology, for example, when recruiting an agent. Although this is a creative process, which always begins with a thorough study of the object of recruitment, all its individual characteristics - from political views to food preferences - nevertheless, there are general rules in it. According to one of them, it is easier for a woman than a man to attract the material benefit of any enterprise. A man is easier than a woman to win over to his side with flattery. A fortuneteller (i.e., a practical psychologist) from A. I. Kuprin's story "Reptile" says:
A man, even though he is a fool and his ears are cold and, so to speak, generally a donkey, nevertheless he believes that he has the soul of a tiger, the smile of a child, and therefore he is a handsome man. So, lie to him boldly ...
In accordance with this scheme, they act when it is necessary to attract a man to their side: they admire his virtues, intelligence, knowledge, abilities, purely human charm, etc. At the same time, they constantly emphasize that he is not appreciated, that he occupies a low position in the hierarchy his community through no fault of his own, but solely because of the intrigues of envious people and the short-sightedness of his superiors. As a result, a man changes his self-identification, he now prefers to consider himself a member of another social group - another family, another industrial organization, another state. A change in social self-identification is often called betrayal (as opposed to betrayal, which is a betrayal associated with damage to the former community with which a person previously identified himself).
The adage of itinerant artists "Don't applaud, it's better with money" was formulated by their wives. A woman is interested in vital resources, and a man is interested in the attention (admiration) of others, that is, in leadership. He is not interested in money about itself, but as an indicator of social status and as a means to achieve influence on others, which is reflected in the well-known formulation: “The American dream is, by earning as much money as possible, to influence as many people as possible.”
Males, to a greater extent than females, are characterized by a need for leadership. In humans, this need is manifested in vanity and ambition.
The different reproductive roles of men and women, or rather, males and females, are also related to the fact that female animals are less aggressive than males. In social animals, protection from predators is a function of males, also because males are less valuable to the population (see color insert, Figure 8.8). The literature describes many cases of altruistic behavior of males, as a result of which they die in the fight against a predator, saving their females. Aggressive behavior of males takes rigid forms not only during interspecies contacts. Intraspecific aggression, which also often leads to the death of one of the participants in the conflict, is characteristic almost exclusively of males, since it is associated with the struggle for the female. The female, on the other hand, does not need to suppress the activity of other females, since this will not increase the probability of her reproductive success, which depends only on herself, on her choice. The female will almost always be fertilized. In addition, agonistic contacts that often accompany aggressive actions can cause significant damage to the viability of the female, which will adversely affect the entire population. The reproductive success of males varies widely. A male can pass on his genes to all the females in the community, or he may not pass on any of them, which most often happens. This uncertainty encourages males to constantly suppress competitors. Therefore, constant intraspecific aggression takes place almost exclusively between males, and in females it manifests itself only when vital resources are limited, for example, when there is no food.
Female individuals are less aggressive in intraspecific contacts.
The same patterns operate in the human community. Although competition between women for profitable suitors does exist, it rarely takes hard forms and almost never - forms of agonistic contacts. It should be emphasized that the aggressiveness of men is manifested in all spheres of their social activity, although these activities, as a rule, do not affect their reproductive success. At the same time, the aggressiveness of women, which has no biological justification, is weakly manifested in those forms of activity that are not associated with reproduction (Fig. 8.11).
8.2.5. Male and female psychological types
Summing up the description of the fundamental differences between males and females, we note that these differences form the category of psychological types: male and female (see section 6.4). From the incomparable energy contribution to the process of reproduction, the features of genetics, physiology and behavior of the two sexes follow. These features characterize not only humans, but also all dioecious animals. The differences between the male and female sexes can be formulated as different sets of needs and a different style of satisfying these needs.
There are obvious differences in the style of the stress response. Male style is close to type A. A man seeks to return the changed conditions of existence to the usual ones. Women adapt to the changes that occur, which characterizes her behavior as type B. Attempts to train a woman for stressful type A behavior are futile and, moreover, detrimental to her health. First of all, the psyche of a woman suffers.
Differences in the needs of men and women are also obvious. For a woman, the accumulation of resources is a priority, that is, dominance in the narrow sense (see section 7.1.1). For a man, a high rank of leadership is more important. The social behavior of men is close to r-strategy (see Section 7.3.2), while women are more likely to be social K-strategists.
Men's and women's psyche and (or) behavior, like other psychological types, differ in the set of needs and the style of the stress reaction. The main difference in needs: in males, the need for leadership, in females, in the accumulation of vital resources. Males are more resistant to stress than females.
The difference between the types "man" and "woman" is close to the differences between types A and B, respectively, and r- and K-strategies of social contacts, respectively.
Thus, Occam's principle dictates that typology based on a "male" and "female" set of needs and styles of satisfying them should be rejected as redundant. Indeed, males are r-strategists with behavioral type A, and females are K-strategists with behavioral type B. Nevertheless, the concept of male and female psychological types is widespread both in the specialized literature and among non-professionals. Probably, the stability of the archetypes "man" and "woman" is explained by the fact that, unlike other typological systems, representatives of these two psychological types are very easy to distinguish by somatic features.
8.3. cognitive differences
On average, men and women have the same intellectual abilities. This is noted in the book by C. Lombroso and J. Ferrara "Woman - a criminal and a prostitute", the very title of which reflects a tendentious view of a woman. The authors acknowledge that female students are not inferior in intelligence to male students.
There are no differences between men and women in general intelligence, as measured by the intelligence quotient (IQ), but there are differences in individual abilities. These differences are small, they rarely exceed 20% (for those familiar with statistics - from 0.25 to 1 standard deviation).
The average value of the IQ of men and women is the same.
It should be emphasized again that the differences in adults are due not to different hormonal levels, but to those features of the physiology and structure of the nervous system that were formed in the embryonic period under the influence of sex hormones. For example, the introduction of progesterone improves visual memory in women, while in men this procedure is ineffective.
Differences in the individual abilities of adult men and women are due not to different hormonal levels, but to those features of the physiology and structure of the nervous system that were formed in the embryonic period under the influence of sex hormones.
As already mentioned, women have better verbal abilities, speed and accuracy of perception, subtle movements. Men perform better on spatial and quantitative tests, while women navigate by objects rather than a map. Women classify objects according to formal features. For example, to the question "What kind of car do you have?" a woman can answer: “Green”, forgetting to mention the model, year of manufacture and other significant features of the car. We will not dwell on these features, since they are described in detail in the psychological literature.
Let's note two widespread misconceptions about verbal abilities. It is often said (and written) about the best "verbal thinking" of women. It is not right. Not all thinking is verbal. It is better to use the term "verbal activity". A woman's great verbal activity is manifested, for example, when she asks for a light. A woman uses a detailed sentence, with introductory words, a complete construction of a phrase. A man in a similar situation is limited to facial expressions, gestures and lowing. When explaining a concept, a woman uses speech, while a man prefers to draw a diagram or graph.
Another common misconception is that women are talkative. Measurements taken with maximum accuracy showed that the average number of words spoken by a man and a woman in a day or a week is the same. The difference lies in situations that are accompanied by verbal activity. A man will not have a long conversation on the phone with a friend, he will prefer noisy communication with a wide range of interlocutors and (or) drinking companions.
The great social activity of men is again explained by the different energy budgets of the two sexes. Women are more self-centered and show less social activity, while men can afford to spend part of their energy not on reproduction, but on activities that do not promise concrete benefits in the near future.
Three men are already a society, two women are already a kind of mystery. The secret of men is a collective secret; it is the secret of the conspirators, the secret of the Freemasons or the Council of Ministers. The secret of a woman is deeply intimate; this is the secret of Pan X or Pan Y.
Karel Chapek. Secret
It is difficult to meet a woman who is concerned about the situation in East Timor. At the same time, a man, not being a diplomat or financier, may be keenly interested in foreign policy. It is men who conspire, play football and organize learned societies. Such occupations are not in the circle of women's interests, not because women are less intellectual, but because they are less inclined to group activity (see color insert, Fig. 8.12). In Lysistrata, a comedy by Aristophanes, the absurdity that gives rise to the comic situation lies in the fact that women have arranged a conspiracy, and this is a form of activity in which one must certainly sacrifice one's momentary vital interests. Some credibility of the ridiculous situation is given by the fact that the conspiracy was directed against men who are overly fond of social life and, as a result, neglect their families.
The main gender difference in cognitive abilities is the rigidity of men and the intuitiveness of women.
The male intellect is rigid, the female intellect is intuitive.
In the previous section, it was pointed out that, due to their high resistance to stress, men are better surgeons than women, and women are better diagnosticians than men. This difference is associated not only with different stress resistance, but also with the peculiarities of cognitive abilities.
Men make a worse diagnosis, because they study any object, trying to attribute it to some already familiar category. If this fails, then the object is analyzed, i.e., it is divided into components, each of which, in turn, is already classified (Fig. 8.13). Naturally, the number of familiar categories, in other words, the number of cells in the table, grows with the accumulation of professional experience. But this number always remains limited and, most importantly, the use of the analytical method of cognition is mandatory.
The woman perceives the object as a whole. The woman is intuitive. This means that she sometimes (usually) cannot explain the consistent course of logical reasoning that led her to a certain decision. But the adoption of this decision is influenced by all the features of the phenomenon studied by the woman. A man often, having found in his intellect a certain cell for a certain phenomenon, no longer pays attention to numerous particulars - the decision is made! And it is already very difficult to force him to change his decision.
The ability to dismiss details, sometimes even ignore obvious facts, makes it possible for some men to create fundamental scientific theories. A classic example is the creation of the theory of stress by Hans Selye. The very subject of the study - the non-specific component of the reaction - caused skepticism among colleagues. The scientific interests of G. Selye were called by his supervisor “the pharmacology of dirt”.
His other statement, that the adaptive reaction of the body is regulated exclusively by humoral factors, was met with hostility by the world scientific community. These were the 30s of the 20th century, all physiology and medicine were permeated with the ideas of nervism, the primacy of the role of the central nervous system in the regulation of all body functions. Nevertheless, Selye dismissed as unimportant those facts that did not fit into his system. At present, no one doubts that stress develops with the close interaction of the nervous and humoral systems, but the narrowness of Selye's view, his self-righteousness, bordering on paranoia, allowed him to create his theory, which subsequently attracted the attention of world science to the humoral aspects of the regulation of functions. .
Unfortunately, not all men who are deaf to the arguments of others manage to build a scientific theory, which later turns out to be true. The stubborn inventors of the perpetual motion machine, the unrecognized poets writing tons of paper, the scientists who have been talking nonsense for decades - all these categories of people consist exclusively of men. Women have enough plasticity to quickly quit a hopeless occupation.
Because of the cognitive differences between the two sexes, men will never understand women. Until the middle of the twentieth century, only men explained the psyche and behavior of women. Such explanations always give only an approximate picture of the inner world of the object under study. For example, it is impossible for a researcher to penetrate into the soul of a cat, which feels differently than a human, and also has a completely different range of needs and ways of fulfilling them. Since the twentieth century, the psyche and behavior of women began to be studied and described by women themselves. Perhaps they have achieved significant success in this, but men will never know about this, because women both consider the subject being studied in a different way, and state it in such a way that such explanations do not clarify anything for a man. Consider, as an example, the book by K. P. Estes “Running with the Wolves. The female archetype in myths and legends” (Kiev: Sofia; M.: PH “Helios”, 2004. 496 p.).
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., former Executive Director of the C. G. Jung Research and Training Center, is a highly experienced psychoanalyst. Her book has been translated into more than 25 languages and, apparently, enjoys well-deserved popularity. In any case, the women who have read it speak very highly of it. They say that they enjoyed the very process of reading, that is, the text undoubtedly has a psychotherapeutic effect.
However, I have not been able to find answers to specific questions. For example: what, according to Dr. Estes, the features of the female psyche that distinguish it from the male, add up the female archetype? Or: what features of the female psyche are reflected in myths and legends? What I understood about the female archetype, having overcome half a thousand pages, can be formulated something like this: “In every woman there is a woman-girl, a woman-mother and an old woman. Feel them in yourself, wild woman, and you will be well.”
The peculiarities of the perception and thinking of a woman make the results of the study of the female inner world, conducted by women, secret knowledge, open to the initiated, but forever hidden from men. Therefore, a woman will always remain a mystery to a man; which, of course, is for the best.
Due to their intuitiveness, women understand animals much better than men. Dressage competition remains the only sport in which women compete against men. Greater resistance to stress, which is associated with any competition, gives an advantage to men. This is compensated by the ability of women to perceive the behavior of the animal as a whole. The following process takes place in the man’s head: “The horse turned its ears outward, which means that you need to lean forward a little; at the same time, she jerked her head to the left, which means that it is necessary to pull the right rein, etc. ” The male consciousness consistently analyzes all the movements of the animal and develops a solution in the same way. And the rider evaluates the gestalt of the animal's behavior and changes her behavior not as a result of a chain of individual observations, their classification, the search for an adequate reaction and the decision on a specific motor reaction, but “intuitively”. Intuitively does not mean by chance, as God puts on the soul. Intuitive decisions often turn out to be correct (otherwise they are called "stupid"), and you can always justify them after the fact. But in the time available for the rider to make a decision, such an analysis cannot be carried out.
In chapter 7, it was substantiated that the patroness of wild animals, Artemis, kept her virginity. And the fact that she was a woman is also not accidental: female intuition helps to understand animals deprived of articulate speech. In addition, females communicate more easily with animals than with males due to the less aggressiveness shown to females by both males and females.
Thus, the main cognitive gender difference is the rigidity of the male mentality and the intuitiveness of the female. The average capacity of women for logical constructions is not lower than that of the average man. The widespread idea of the existence of a special "female" logic is associated with the egocentrism of a woman, due to the difference in the energy costs of reproduction. The logical abilities of women are the same as those of men, but the value system, that is, the set of needs, is different for the two sexes:
There is one painful moment in a conversation with a woman. You bring facts, arguments, arguments. You appeal to logic and common sense. And suddenly you discover that she is disgusted by the very sound of your voice ...
S. Dovlatov
If the phrase “I have nothing to wear” is said by a man, it means that he has nothing clean. If a woman says: “I have nothing to wear”, then this means that she has nothing new. The value systems of men and women are so different that some statements require special commentary for representatives of the opposite sex. For example, when one woman says to another: “Your suit is good. I have the same five years old, as the moth ate, ”she lets her hairpin in. The fact is that she makes it clear to her friend that she wears clothes that were worn more than five years ago. And outdated clothes are an indicator of a low social rank for a woman, since the lack of novelty in appearance leads to a decrease in attention from men.
Some cognitive differences are due to different energy contributions to reproduction: the greater sociality of men, “female” logic, and the lack of a sense of humor in women.
The different energy roles of the two sexes also explain the lack of a sense of humor in women. Recall that a sense of humor is the ability not to be offended when a joke is made on you, in contrast to wit, the ability to play a joke on another (see Chapter 1). “Do not joke with women: these jokes are stupid and indecent,” Kozma Prutkov said quite rightly (Thoughts and Aphorisms, 91).
Without considering in detail the theory of the comic, let us join the opinion of I. Kant, who believed that it is generated by the discrepancy between what is happening and what is expected. In interpersonal relationships, inconsistency is created most easily if the situation is inadequate to a high social status. The gray-haired professor jumping through the puddles is funny, but not a little boy. It's ridiculous to put a button on a chair for a respectable teacher, and not for a slob neighbor.
A man, unlike a woman, can afford to temporarily be in a stupid position, that is, to lower his social rank, that is, to reduce his vitality, being in a ridiculous position. A woman who is concerned about the constant increase in resources, including the level of social status that provides access to vital resources, does not tolerate jokes about her. A joke addressed to a woman is a faux pas, a hairpin, or outright rudeness.
In Maupassant's short story "The Norman Joke," during the wedding of a rich farmer who was also an avid hunter, one of the guests shouted: "The poachers will have fun tonight!" The groom barked - they would not dare, but when the young people retired to the bedroom, a shot rang out from the nearest forest. Then another one! The young husband, having rushed about, despite the persuasion of his wife, nevertheless grabbed a gun and ran to catch poachers. At dawn, the wife raised the people, and only then “... they found him two leagues from the farm, bound from head to toe, half dead with rage, with a broken gun, his trousers turned inside out, with three dead hares around his neck and with a note on chest: "Whoever goes hunting loses his place."
The most remarkable thing is that such a cruel prank is perceived by the victim as just a joke:
Subsequently, talking about his wedding night, he added: - Yes, what to say, it was a glorious joke! They, the useless ones, caught me in snares like a rabbit, and threw a sack over my head. But watch out if I ever get to them!
Obviously, the inconsistency of the status of the hero of the story with the position in which he found himself - instead of the marriage bed, to be tied up in the forest. But such an incident, clearly associated with a decrease in fitness in a broad biological sense (instead of reproductive behavior, risking life and health, not to mention the possibility - albeit a very small one - of fertilization of the wife by another man), is perceived by the hero of the story precisely as an amusing, interesting case, about which he loves to talk. The hero, like any man, perceives a temporary decrease in his fitness as a natural event - "Today you, and tomorrow I." It is no coincidence that he threatens the pranksters on occasion to repay a hundredfold. And they will perceive his actions not as retribution, but as a return joke.
Obviously, the wife, like any woman, does not see anything funny in this story, but only a tragedy. A woman, like any female, cannot risk even a temporary decrease in viability and even the threat of such a decrease.
No, the woman is by no means cheerful; and if she passes through life “with a smile on her lips”, then this is a pretense: she is a serious being, like death. We, it is we, those others, bearded and shaggy, stubborn and vile, personify the laughter of life; we cherish this even during our serious studies - machines and philosophy, on the pulpit and at the plow - we remember that under our skin the bones of the Eternal Jester, whom God created, were sewn up so that the world would be easy and fun.
Karel Chapek. Who is more fun?
Thus, many cognitive differences between women and men directly follow from the different energetic contributions of the two sexes to the production of offspring. The main cognitive differences between men and women are:
- rigidity of intellect;
- weak intuition;
- weak verbality;
- high sociality;
- sense of humor.
8.4. Gender differences
In psychology and sociology, when talking about the differences between men and women, it is customary to use the term "gender" rather than "sex" differences. Meanwhile, the differences between the concepts of "gender" and "gender" are not entirely clear. As a result of several scientific conferences, specialists in the humanities came to the conclusion that the term "gender" is due only to good funding for "gender" studies, in contrast to studies of "gender differences" (Bogdanov K. A., Panchenko A. A. GENDER as GENDER (instead of foreword) // Mythology and Everyday Life: Gender Approach in Anthropological Disciplines, Proceedings of Scientific Conference February 19–21, 2001 / Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) / Edited by K. A. Bogdanov, A. A. Panchenko. St. Petersburg: Aleteyya, 2001. S. 5–10.)”. Indeed, "gender" - and it sounds solid, because it is a foreign word and does not evoke associations with odious concepts: sexual intercourse, genital organs, sexual problems, sexual perversions, etc. in any case not representatives natural sciences- do not see the actual difference between the concepts of "sex differences" and "gender differences".
And yet it is legitimate to use the term "gender" to refer to stereotypical ideas about the forms of behavior and psychological characteristics of the personality of Men and Women. Many of these features are culturally determined (Figure 8.14), but the vast majority of these stereotypes are due to biological patterns - the dramatic difference in the energy contribution of the two sexes to the production of offspring.
8.4.1. Two systems of ethics
A male, like all males, can theoretically leave a large number of offspring, while a female, like females of other species, can only produce a limited number of offspring.
This explains the different strategies of reproductive behavior of males and females. In human society, this has led to the creation of two ethical systems. Those forms of behavior that are acceptable for men or even encouraged by them are considered unacceptable for women.
The strategy of male behavior is determined Coolidge phenomenon: an unfamiliar female is always better than a familiar one.
The name of the phenomenon is associated with the name of the American President Coolidge. During an official visit to the farm, his wife allegedly asked the farmer, "How many times in a row can a bull cover a cow?" “Ten,” he replied. "Give this to Mr. President."
Then Coolidge himself asked: "The same cow?" - "Only different." - "Give this to Mrs. Coolidge."
Thus, males try to spread their genes as much as possible by passing on their genes to as many offspring as possible. At the same time, since the production of offspring is very expensive, females cannot afford to mate with the first partner they find. Therefore, the reproductive strategy of females is imitation and waiting. Females prefer to choose proven sexual partners who are already successful with other females. As a result, there is a positive feedback - the more sexual partners a man has, the greater his chances of connecting with a new woman.
The two systems of ethics are reflected in such proverbs and sayings as, for example, “Be good to a fellow, don’t be ashamed of it,” and, on the other hand, “Weak in the front.” In all cases, we are talking about people with a strong motivation for copulative behavior. However, this behavior of men is approved, although often not explicitly, and the implementation of the same motivation by women is condemned by traditional morality.
The double ethical standard - for men and women - is due to the different reproductive roles of the two sexes.
Here it is appropriate to recall that humans are predominantly a K-strategist (see Section 7.3.2), i.e., a species whose behavioral repertoire includes extensive care for offspring. And the main burden of parental responsibilities, of course, is borne by a woman. The high price of a possible failure in choosing a reproductive partner determines such a gender feature as modest behavior prescribed for girls in almost all cultures. Only by giving the initiative of courtship to a man, the girl will be able to appreciate his dignity, which will inevitably manifest itself in his behavior.
The longer a girl does not make it clear to a man that she likes him, the more fully his properties will be revealed. It should be noted that modest behavior is prescribed, that is, restraint of motor acts. It is permissible to dress defiantly, paint your face immodestly, etc., but you cannot be the first to make a movement towards a man. The first man she likes may not be the best, so a woman is obliged to provoke a potential sexual partner to show her possible virtues in the process of courtship.
Consider, for example, Watteau's masterpiece The Capricious. The pose of the lady is characteristic - she straightened up and leaned forward a little. With a gesture of the hand picking up the dress, the lady, as it were, fences herself off from the persistent admirer. In the silhouette of her figure, rounded, pleasant, quite feminine contours are combined with sharp curves of lines - a pointed toe of a slipper, a vigorously clenched hand - which emphasize the mood of resistance. On the face of the lady, one can easily read proud disobedience and at the same time a readiness to continue accepting courtship. It is no coincidence that the gentleman is preparing to get something from his inner pocket (purse, gift?). His posture is somewhat careless, on his face not only attention is read, but at the same time self-confidence and a share of irony. The gentleman is not a young man, therefore, most likely, sexually experienced, well acquainted with the courtship ritual, all the steps of which must be completed before the lady provides him with final evidence of her favor. It can be assumed that if for some reason the lady does not want to deal with him, then the gentleman will calmly leave.
If the woman has already made her choice, then the man does not have the right to refuse her, because the energy costs of the male for the reproduction of the offspring are negligible compared to the costs of the female. Men who reject a woman's direct offer go down in history - like Orpheus, Phaedra's stepson Hippolytus and the beautiful Joseph.
All jokes about sex are based on double standards. As we have already said, much of what is considered normal for a man and even welcomed and encouraged is indecent or even unacceptable for a woman. Consider the following historical anecdote (Antique anecdote / Ed. S. Venglovsky. St. Petersburg: Neva Magazine Publishing House, 1995.):
The Roman emperor Octavian Augustus saw a Greek on the street, surprisingly similar to his face, and asked him: “Did your mother go to Rome when she was young?” He replied: "No, my mother has never been in Rome, but my father - he lived in Rome for a long time."
This story is funny, because in it the emperor finds himself in an awkward position. Why, then, do we consider such a position to be inconsistent with the high imperial rank? Because the image of the father, who at one time had extramarital sex, does not compromise the emperor, and even, perhaps, adds shine to his diadem. On the contrary, a hint that the emperor's mother was a relaxed girl, led an absent-minded lifestyle, can greatly damage the imperial dignity.
The threat to the reputation of the emperor's mother is heightened by the fact that she is suspected not just of premarital or extramarital affairs, but of connection with a Greek. In Rome at that time, the vast majority of teachers, doctors, philosophers, magicians, architects and artists were Greeks (more precisely, bearers of Hellenistic culture). The contemptuous attitude of the nobility towards educated people was aggravated by the fact that Greece had been one of the provinces of the Roman Empire for a century and a half. Thus, the social level of a noble Roman girl was much higher than that of any Greek. Communication with a subordinate for any woman, for example, a lady with a coachman, is no longer “uninhibited behavior”, this is what in Russian is called “waving in all directions (Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. History of the city of Glupova)”. At the same time, the connections of men with women of low social rank are perceived by others quite calmly, that is, they are not a violation of moral or ethical standards.
Any female individual, including a woman, cannot afford to squander her eggs, producing offspring from low-ranking males. The low social rank of the male means his low fitness. Poor adaptability is most often due to unsuccessful heredity. Even if poor fitness is associated with environmental influences (mutilation), then even then this means that such a male will not be able to take care of the offspring. Males, like males of other species, can easily afford to spend some of their gametes on fertilization of low-ranking females.
Although the costs of male reproduction are relatively small, but with the K-reproduction strategy (see Chapter 7), which prevails in humans, a man would like to spend energy on growing offspring that carry his genes. There can be no complete certainty that a woman is pregnant from him. Therefore, in different cultures, the institution of engagement was formed. After the girl was declared a bride, her freedom was sharply limited. In patriarchal cultures, she was simply locked up until her wedding day. In this way, the likelihood of sexual intercourse and pregnancy was limited. As a result, the man received, if not a guarantee, then some confidence that he would not have to spend energy on raising the descendants of another man. Of course, the possibilities of contacts between the bride and the groom were also limited. A man rightly believes that it is more reliable to have a non-pregnant bride than a bride who claims that she is pregnant precisely from him - and what else can she say ?!
In the Russian tradition, the institution of engagement was supported by a large number of posts, during which weddings were not allowed. As a result, more than two months passed between the engagement and the wedding. Thus, a child conceived by a husband could appear no earlier than 7 months (in case of prematurity) after the wedding.
The biological meaning of the institute of engagement is an attempt by men to prevent the impregnation of the bride by another man.
In Sweden, the country with the largest number of civil marriages (forms of cohabitation of a man and a woman without legal registration of this fact and, of course, without an engagement period), a genetic study of the entire population was carried out. One of the side effects was that 11% of men are not the biological fathers of children who are raised as relatives. Moreover, families with obviously other people's children - adopted or adopted - were excluded from the statistical array of data. So it turned out that every ninth man was deceived (perhaps unconsciously) by a woman and spent his energy on raising someone else's child, who is not his biological descendant, that is, on the reproduction of someone else's genes.
A study of 400,000 Welsh citizens showed that in this sample, the percentage of deceived men is approximately 6. It should be noted that biological tests can indicate with absolute certainty that a given man is not the father of a given child. The fact that a particular man is the father of a particular child can be biologically confirmed with a probability only approaching one, but never reaching it. Therefore, the real proportion of men who do not raise their biological offspring is even greater.
Consequently, even such a seemingly purely human institution as engagement is based on biological laws, in particular, on the need to use energy sparingly.
8.4.2. The social meaning of the existence of two sexes
Numerous differences in the behavior of men and women are of a statistical nature. In a sufficiently large sample, you can always find a woman who will have a greater set of "male qualities" than most men. But one function of gender differences is absolute - it is the satisfaction of the social need for self-identification.
The existence of two sexes with fairly rigidly prescribed norms in behavior and especially in social behavior, that is, in communication, satisfies this basic social need. The experience of Soviet power connected with the establishment of equality between men and women is indicative. Immediately after the revolution, they tried to introduce an attitude towards a woman as a comrade, who, of course, is “distracted” for several months of pregnancy, but otherwise is the same member of society as a man, and therefore the norms of behavior for men and women should be the same (Fig. 8.17). Despite the fact that such a system of relations was supported not only by propaganda, but also by the wide distribution of nurseries, canteens, house kitchens, and other services that minimized a woman’s craving for a family, it was not possible to level the gender characteristics of behavior stereotypes.
The presence of male and female behavior with fairly rigid limits allows a person to feel like a member of a certain community - either men or women. Even if a person fails in other areas of life, nevertheless, he satisfies the basic social need - in self-identification, feeling his belonging to social group formed according to gender.
It is no coincidence that, according to unwritten laws, the presence of women on a fishing trip or men visiting beauty salons is not approved. These are clubs that are closed to the other sex. In the studies of M. L. Butovskaya, it was shown that in the communication of boys and girls of three to six years old, there are the same stereotypes of behavior that are noted during the contacts of two tribes of a primitive culture (Butovskaya M. L. Ethnographic Review. 1997. No. 4. P. 104-122.).
Julius Caesar’s famous words “Not even a shadow of suspicion should fall on my wife” are widely known, with which he explained his sudden divorce from Pompey after a young man was discovered in the room of his wife’s maid. But his wife was suspected not of adultery, but of complicity in blasphemy! The young man was found in the house of Caesar, at the time when the Good Goddess was celebrated there (her real name has not come down to us, because it was known only to women). Not a single man could not only be present at the festival, but also be in the house in which the celebration was celebrated. A man who entered a closed women's event was accused of impiety, because he was guilty not only of the women he offended, but also of the city and the gods (Plutarch. Caesar, IX, X.).
Violation of gender stereotypes of behavior causes stress or ridicule. If a person's behavior is very different from the expected, then this causes psychological discomfort.
In ancient Greece, with total bisexualism, the term "kined" was a nickname for "half-men" who, by their effeminate behavior, gestures, love for outfits, cosmetic tricks, deserved universal contempt. In the comedies of Aristophanes and the works of other authors, they are given various vulgar nicknames (Licht G. Sexual life in Ancient Greece. M.: KRON-PRESS, 1995). A man must remain a man, no matter with whom he prefers to get the satisfaction of his erotic needs - with women, with boys or with mature men.
The most disgusting of N.V. Gogol's characters, Plyushkin, looks like an old woman. The accumulation of various vital resources, quite excusable in a woman, is called “pettiness” in a man and makes a person especially unsympathetic. For example, the woman pointed to the reason for the divorce: “He counted all the empty jars in the house!” Naturally, people who get divorced after 20 years of marriage do it for more complex reasons, but such an "unmale" act was the last straw, the straw that broke the camel's back.
Naturally, those features of behavior that are considered to be "male", when they occupy a significant place in the behavioral repertoire of a woman, make the attitude towards such a woman non-standard. For example, since it is generally accepted that jokes are the lot of men, a woman who loves to joke and, even worse, knows how to do it, causes men to be wary. At best, she is not treated as a woman, but as a "combat girlfriend."
Belonging to a certain gender serves to satisfy the need for social self-identification.
Modern attempts to abolish social institutions that are closed to the opposite sex, which are carried out under the slogans of "political correctness", "equality of rights", etc., are also harmful because they ignore the innate human need for social self-identification (see color insert, Fig. 8.19) . For example, the Swedish Institute of Sociology and Medicine compared data on the employees of all 290 Swedish municipalities on 9 indicators of private and public life. The results showed a strong relationship between gender equality and morbidity. For example, an equal income level and the opportunity to occupy the same positions led to a decrease in life expectancy. According to the authors of the study, the correlation found can be explained by the fact that representatives of the strong half of humanity experience psychological trauma from the loss of traditionally male privileges, while women suffer from additional workload and long working hours.
In our opinion, the main reason for the deterioration of health when gender stereotypes are blurred is the disappearance of the most evolutionarily ancient, simple and reliable criterion of social self-identification - gender. Much has been said about the importance of meeting the need for self-identification, in particular for the prevention of depression, in the previous sections (see chapters 2, 5, 7).
Attempts to minimize differences in the behavior of men and women are doomed to failure. Man is a product of a long evolution, and gender-related features of the structure and functioning of the brain, associated with sex, are formed during the entire prenatal period of development and after the birth of a child. Women are no worse and no better than men, they are different. Thus, the demand for equal rights for women with men is like the demand for equal rights for mice and frogs. Mice would have the right to dive, and frogs to live in holes.
Women are no worse and no better than men; they are different.
Ideas about the characteristics of the psyche of a woman have undergone fundamental changes over the past hundred years. Z. Freud wrote that the root of the psychological characteristics of a woman is her desire to be a man, and the impossibility of changing sex gives rise to all female psychological problems. By the 1980s, the idea of gender equality gained such strength that American doctors for a long time did not want to recognize the existence of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The existence of PMS refutes the main thesis of feminists "there are no differences between women and men." Only the fact that the separation of PMS into an independent norsological unit, i.e. a separate disease, created a new sector of the medical services market, determined the intensive study of this problem of PMS at the present time.
It is often written that sex-determined features of the behavior and psyche of women do not have modern society no significance, since the difference in the reproductive roles of men and women is minimized due to the development of medicine and scientific methods of raising children, as well as the disappearance of the relationship between sexual life and the birth of children. Indeed, the success of contraception has made the relationship between sexual behavior and reproduction of offspring very weak. However, sexual behavior, even in animals, is not limited to the implementation of the reproductive function. Even only the copulative component of sexual behavior in animals and humans can be traced in many aspects of social behavior. One can also agree that the biological factors that determined the advantages of the existence of two very different sexes are weak in modern society (although the fact that a person has come out from under the pressure of natural selection is not a proven fact). But the main thing is that the differences between a man and a woman begin to form from the moment of fertilization of the egg and continue at least throughout the pregnancy. Thus, no environmental impact can change:
- greater genetic diversity in men;
- better adaptability of women;
- greater stress resistance of men;
- cyclical life activity;
- propensity to accumulate resources in women.
In conclusion, we recall that these five main differences between men and women, as well as all other differences between men and women, are of a statistical nature.
8.5. Homosexuality
Homosexuality is sexual orientation towards people of the same gender. As in many other forms of behavior, in homosexuality there is an obligate form and an optional form. In the obligate form, erotically colored contacts with the opposite sex are completely excluded. Obligate homosexuals in the human population are no more than 5%, and many authors believe that their proportion is not higher than 1% for men, and even less for women (Kon I.S. Introduction to sexology. M .: Medicine, 1988. 319 p. ). Facultative homosexuality is often referred to as bisexuality. This form of behavior is quite widespread. It has no genetic or congenital determinants.
Facultative homosexuality manifests itself as a result of environmental influences. It can be a transient form of behavior due to the situation, for example, in prisons, long expeditions. Bisexuality can be culturally defined, in particular the rather strict isolation of women, as in ancient Greece. Homosexuality is imitated - children raised in homosexual "families" start sexual life as homosexuals. Homosexual contacts may become preferred as a result of failed heterosexual experiences. Bisexuality may reflect the weakness of gendered stereotypes of behavior - "...everything that moves." Homosexuality can be justified philosophically (Plato) or aesthetically, as Oscar Wilde did. Finally, homosexuality can be one of the forms of psychological defense, such social self-identification, with the help of which a person tries to compensate for his failures in other types of social contacts (see sections 2.2.2, 5.3.3), as the characters of E. M. Remarque do and Eduard Limonov.
Thus, facultative homosexuality is based primarily not on biological, but on psychological and social mechanisms. Biological bases, and not in 100% of cases, can only be found for obligate homosexuality. Immediately, we note that there is no relationship between sexual orientation and the hormonal status of the body of an adult. Homosexuals do not have characteristic anomalies of the hormonal profile. None of the endocrine diseases is a marker of a tendency to homosexuality. No form of hormone therapy leads to a change in sexual orientation.
Decisive for the formation of sexual orientation may be the influence of hormones in the process of embryonic development. The nervous system is either masculine or feminine under the influence of fetal steroids (see section 8.1.4). Pronounced sexual dimorphism was noted in some hypothalamic structures, for example, in the preoptic region, the destruction of which deprives the male of the ability to copulate. Naturally, the imbalance of sex steroids should affect the formation of these centers.
For obvious reasons, experimental data on this problem have been obtained almost exclusively in animals (homosexuality is also present in the behavioral repertoire of many species, including laboratory rats and mice). The introduction of testosterone to pregnant females leads to the masculinization of embryos, i.e., to the manifestation of male features of their morphology and physiology. Masculinization of offspring is manifested, in particular, in a decrease in the reproductive abilities of females, in their greater aggressiveness, in a greater number of cages on each other. Accordingly, in a pregnant woman, a change in the amount of androgens (for example, as a result of taking antidiabetic drugs) leads to masculinization of the embryo.
The level of testosterone in the body of a pregnant woman increases as a result of steroidogenesis of the embryonic gonads. In rats, in whose uterus the embryos lie like peas in a pod, a female embryo located between two males develops a more masculinized female than one that is adjacent to only one male or two females. A similar observation was made in humans. The hearing characteristics of women from twin pairs were compared. It turned out that women who had a twin brother, compared with those who had a twin sister, had masculinized characteristics of the auditory sensory system (McFadden D. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 90: 11900-11904 (1993).).
In the anterior hypothalamus, a person has a group of interstitial nuclei (ING). Several research groups have reported that one of them, NRTI-3, is significantly larger in men than in women, and in homosexual men its sizes are intermediate (Breedlove SM, Hampson E. Sexual differentiation of the brain and behavior. In: JB Becker et al (Eds.) Behavioral Endocrinology, A Bradford Book, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, 2002. 776 p.). It is possible that it is this core that is the "center of sexual orientation." Obviously, its formation can also be disrupted as a result of changes in the testosterone content in the body of a pregnant woman, which can lead to the formation of homosexuality.
Another type of hormonal influence on sexual orientation is the effect of stress. Comparing the dates of birth of 794 GDR homosexuals, Günter Dörner's group found a peak in 1944 and 1945 (Dörner G. Adv. physiol. Sci. 15: 111–120, 1981.). During these years, living conditions in Germany deteriorated sharply: the national humiliation of military defeat was added to the famine, bombing, and fighting on the territory of the country. Therefore, the level of stress experienced by residents was much higher than that experienced by the population in 1943 and 1946. The conclusion about the increase in the likelihood of homosexuality during pregnancy stress was confirmed by collecting an anamnesis of homosexual men. Their mothers experienced much more material and psychological difficulties, as well as nervous shocks during pregnancy, than a group of heterosexual men of the same age and social group.
A certain part of homosexuals has deviations from the normal structure of the central nervous system, caused by an imbalance of sex steroids in the embryonic period.
The main mechanism of action of stress on sexual orientation is associated with the antagonism of glucocorticoids and androgens. An increased content of glucocorticoids reduces the functional activity of androgens, i.e., prevents their interaction with target tissues, despite the normal content of androgens in the body. Therefore, in the body of a pregnant woman, maternal glucocorticoids prevent the organizing influence of embryonic androgens. This mechanism was confirmed in experiments on pregnant rats, which were not subjected to stress, they were only injected with glucocorticoids. The offspring of such animals were distinguished by smoothed sexual characteristics: males were feminized, and females were masculinized. In addition, as a result of stress, the blood supply to the fetus worsens, which leads to a lack of oxygen and, as a result, to numerous non-specific developmental defects.
So, sexual orientation, its deviation from obligate heterosexuality, is connected in a certain part of cases with the organizing influence of androgens. A change in the concentration of androgens (more precisely, the balance of sex steroids) during critical periods of development, i.e., during the formation of nerve centers responsible for sexual orientation, can lead to the formation of homosexuality. However, it should be remembered that the neuroendocrine theory is not exhaustive in the problem of homosexuality. However, a certain proportion of homosexual men and women have congenital differences from heterosexual people, and a changed sexual orientation is only one of the manifestations of these congenital anomalies. Consequently, the self-name "gay", which is an abbreviation of Good As You - "nothing worse than you", is biologically justified only in some cases (Rotikov N. N. Another Petersburg. St. Petersburg: Liga Plus, 2000. 639 p.)
- Butovskaya M. L. Secrets of sex: Man and woman in the mirror of evolution. M.: Vek 2, 2004. 368 p. The book was written by a biologist who teaches at a liberal arts university.
- Geodakyan V.A. Evolutionary logic of sex differentiation // Priroda. 1983, No. 1, pp. 70–80. Scientific publication.
- Eremeeva V.D., Khrizman T.P. Boys and girls are two different worlds. St. Petersburg: Tuskarora, 2000. 184 p. Popular science about practical pedagogy.
- Imelinsky K. I. Sexology and sexopathology. Moscow: Medicine, 1986. 423 p. Scientific monograph.
- Kon IS Introduction to sexology. Moscow: Medicine, 1988. 319 p. Scientific monograph.
Video from Yana Shchastya: interview with professor of psychology N.I. Kozlov
Topics of conversation: What kind of woman do you need to be in order to successfully marry? How many times do men get married? Why are there so few normal men? Childfree. Parenting. What is love? A story that couldn't be better. Paying for the opportunity to be close to a beautiful woman.
Sex differences in humans have been studied in various fields. In humans, biological sex is determined at birth by five factors: the presence or absence of a Y chromosome, the type of gonad that sex hormones have, the internal reproductive anatomy (such as the uterus), and the external genitalia. Genetic sex is determined solely by the presence or absence of a Y chromosome.
Sex differences generally refer to traits that are sexually dimorphic. A subset of such differences is hypothesized to be the product of the evolutionary process of sexual selection.
Medicine
Sex differences in medicine include sex-specific diseases, which are diseases that occur only in people of the same sex; and sex-related diseases, which are diseases that are more commonly of the same sex, or that present differently in each sex. For example, some autoimmune diseases may occur primarily in one sex, for unknown reasons. 90% of primary biliary cirrhosis cases are women, while primary sclerosing cholangitis is more common in men. Gender medicine, also called gender medicine, is the field of medicine that studies the biological and physiological differences between the sexes of a person and how this affects differences in disease. Traditionally, medical research has mostly been done using the male body as the basis for clinical research. Similar results have also been reported in the sports medicine literature, where males typically account for >60% of the individuals studied. The results of these studies are often applied across genders and physicians have suggested a uniform approach in the treatment of patients in both men and women. More recently, medical research has begun to realize the importance of taking sex into account symptoms and response to treatment can be very different between men and women.
Neither concept should be confused with sexually transmitted diseases, which are diseases that have a significant likelihood of transmission through sexual contact.
Sex-related diseases have various causes:
- Sex-linked genetic diseases
- Parts of the reproductive system that are specific to one sex
- Social reasons that are related to the gender role expected of that sex in a particular society.
- Different levels of prevention, reporting, diagnosis or treatment for each gender.
The study found that female doctors can provide better care than male doctors in the US as well as Canada.
physiology
Sex differences in human physiology are the difference in physiological characteristics associated with the male or female sex of a person. They can be of several types, including direct and indirect, direct, which is a direct result of differences prescribed by the Y chromosome and indirect being characteristics influenced indirectly (eg, hormonally) on the Y chromosome. Sexual dimorphism is a term for the phenotypic difference between males and females of the same species.
Direct sex differences follow a bimodal distribution. Through the process of meiosis and fertilization (with rare exceptions), each individual is created with either zero or one Y chromosome. The complementary result for the Y chromosome is followed by either a double or a single X. Thus, direct sex differences are usually binary in expression (although deviations in complex biological processes produced a menagerie of exceptions). These include, most prominently, the male (vs. female) gonads.
Indirect sex differences are a general difference, both quantified using empirical data and statistical analysis. Most differing characteristics will fit to a bell-shaped (ie, normal) distribution, which can be outlined in terms of mean (distribution peak) and standard deviation (range value). Often only the mean or mean difference between the sexes is given. This may or may not preclude duplication of allocations. For example, most males are taller and stronger than females, but a female person may be taller and stronger than a male. The extent of these differences varies across societies.
The most obvious differences between males and females include all functions related to reproductive function, in particular the endocrine (hormonal) system and their physiological and behavioral effects, including gonadal differentiation, internal and external genitalia and breast differentiation and muscle mass differentiation. , height and distribution of hair. There are also differences in the structure of specific areas of the brain. For example, on average, SDN (INAH3 in humans) has been repeatedly found to be significantly higher in males than females.
Psychology
The Study of Biological Sex Differences in Human Psychology explores the cognitive and behavioral differences between men and women. This study uses experimental tests of cognition that take many forms. The tests focus on possible differences in areas such as spatial reasoning, aggression, emotions, and brain structure and function.
Chromosomal make up plays an important role in human psychology. Women have two X chromosomes, while men have an X and a Y chromosome structure. The X chromosome is much more active than the Y, and this affects behavior. Genetic researchers believe that the X chromosome may contain a gene responsible for sociability.
Most IQ tests are designed so that there is no general assessment of the differences between women and men. Areas in which differences have been found include verbal and mathematical ability. IQ tests that measure fluids G and have not been built to eliminate sex differences also tend to show that sex differences are either non-existent or negligible. A 2008 study found that for grades 2 to 11, there were no significant gender differences in math skills among the general population. Differences in variability in IQ scores have been observed in studies, with more people falling at the extreme ends of the spectrum.
Because social and environmental factors influence brain activity and behavior where differences are found, it can be difficult for researchers to assess whether or not the differences are innate. Research on this subject to explore the possibility of social influence on both sexes is performed in cognitive and behavioral tests. Stereotypes about differences between men and women have been shown to influence a person's behavior (this is called stereotype threat).
In his book titled Gender, nature and nurture, psychologist Richard Lippa found that there were large differences in women's and men's preferences for realistic occupations (such as mechanical or carpentry) and moderate differences in their preferences for social and artistic occupations. His results also showed that women tend to be more people-oriented, and men are more that-oriented.
Hartung and Widiger (1998) found that many types of mental illness and behavioral problems show gender differences in prevalence and incidence. "Of 80 disorders diagnosed in adulthood for which sex ratios are provided, 35 are said to be more common in men than women (17 of which are substance-related or paraphilias), 31 are said to be more common in women than in men and 14 are called equally often in both sexes."
Differences in male and female jealousy can also be observed. While female jealousy is more likely to be inspired by emotional infidelity, male jealousy is more likely to be inspired by sexual infidelity. A clear majority of approximately 62% to 86% of women reported that they would be more concerned about emotional infidelity and 47% to 60% of men reported that they would be more concerned about sexual infidelity.
Despite the difficulties of their interpretation, crime statistics can provide a way to examine such relationships from a gender-differences perspective. The observed difference in crime rates between men and women may be due to social and cultural factors, crime occurring unreported, or biological factors (eg, testosterone or sociobiological theories). Taking the nature of the crime itself into account can also be a factor. Crime can be measured using data such as arrest records, incarceration records, rates and surveys. However, not all crimes are reported or investigated. In addition, some studies indicate that men may have an undivided opposition to presenting themselves as victims of crime (particularly when the victims are women), and some studies indicate that men reporting intimate partner violence find disadvantageous distortions in law enforcement. Barton et al. (1998) found that low levels of self-control are associated with criminal activity.
education
World map showing countries from gender disparity education, 2010.
Sometimes and in some places, there are gender differences in education levels. This may be due to gender discrimination in law or culture, or may reflect natural differences in the interests of the sexes.
management
The study was conducted to investigate whether or not there are gender differences in leadership. Until recently, leadership positions were not predominantly held by men. Women are rarely seen in senior management positions leading to a lack of data on how they behave in such positions. Two main lines of research are contradictory, the first is that there are significant gender differences in leadership and the second is that gender has no effect on leadership.
Women and men were surveyed by Gallup each year regarding topics in the workplace, and when asked about preferences for a female boss or a male boss, women chose a preference for a male boss 39% of the time, compared to 26% of men displaying a preference for a male boss. Only 27% of women would prefer a boss of the same gender. This preference, among both sexes, for male leadership in the workplace has continued unabated for sixty years, according to the survey.
religion
Sex differences in religion can be classified as "internal" or "external". Domestic religious issues are studied from the perspective of a given religion, and may include religious beliefs and practices, the roles and rights of men and women in government, education, and creeds; ideas about sex or gender of deities and religious figures; and an idea of the origin and significance of the human race. External religious issues can be broadly defined as viewing a given religion from the point of view of an outside observer, including possible clashes between religious leaders and laity; and the influence, and difference between them, of religious viewpoints on social issues. For example, different religious perspectives have either approved or condemned alternative family structures, homosexual relationships, and abortion. External religious issues can also be viewed from the "lens of sex" perspective embraced by some in feminism or critical theory and its offshoots.
social capital
Sex differences in social capital are the difference between men and women in their ability to coordinate and achieve their goals through trusts, norms and networks. Social capital is often seen as the missing link in development; social networks make it easier to access resources and protect the commons, while collaboration makes markets work more efficiently. Social capital was coined as women's capital, while there are gender barriers to accessing economic capital, women's role in the family and community ensures that they have strong networks. There is a possibility that the concept could help bring women's unpaid "community and domestic work," vital to survival and development, to the attention of economists. However, research into the analysis of social capital from a gender perspective is rare, and notable exceptions are very critical.
suicide
Sex differences in suicides have been shown to be significant; There are highly asymmetric rates of attempted and completed suicide between men and women. The gap, also called the gender paradox of suicide behavior, can vary greatly between different countries. Statistics show that men die much more often by suicide than women do, however reported suicide attempts are 3 times more common in women than in men. This paradox is partly explained by methodology, with females more likely to choose drug-induced overdoses, while males are more likely to turn to weapons such as firearms or knives.
Financial Risky
Gender differences in financial decisions are relevant and significant. Numerous studies have shown that women tend to be financially more risk averse than men and hold more secure portfolios. A May 3, 2015 article in the Wall Street Journal by Georgette Jasen reported that "when it comes to investing, people sometimes have their own way of doing things, and women do things differently." Scholarly research has confirmed systematic differences in financial decisions, such as buying investments vs. insurance, donating ingroups vs. outsiders (eg victims of terrorism in Iraq vs. the US), spending in stores, and giving effect or asking price to people's goods. Most of these studies are based on the agency-communication theory developed by David Bakan in 1966; According to this theory, due to factors such as socialization, men tend to be more agentic (focus on self, potential for growth, aggressiveness) while women tend to be more communal (focus on others, potential to decrease, and caring) . This framework robustly explains many of the outcomes of a financial decision.
external reference
Are there really sex differences in lateralization? - section Medicine, Left brain, right brain Are there sex differences in the distribution of verbal and spatial ...
Are there gender differences in the distribution of verbal and spatial functions between the hemispheres? Most of the data discussed in the previous sections suggests that they do exist. A number of studies point to a more pronounced tendency towards lateralization of verbal and spatial abilities in men to the bilateral representation of both types of functions in women. Couldn't there be a type 1 error here? Are there any works (we do not know about some of them, because they have not been published) in which it was not possible to find the indicated sex differences?
A review of the literature on lateralization has given us a sober attitude towards the Type I error and the chaos in science that it can cause. However, the frequency and consistency of reports of sex differences in brain organization force us to accept the reality of their existence, at least as a working hypothesis. This statement is supported by a variety of methodological approaches (clinical studies, dichotic listening, tachistoscope presentation, and electrophysiological studies), which lead to the same conclusion: lateralization is less pronounced in women than in men.
A review of studies that do not agree with this conclusion shows that most of them deal with the absence of differences between the sexes. Indeed, it is rare to find work reporting sex differences in terms of greater lateralization in females. This suggests that there are true differences that are small and easily masked by individual variability or other uncontrollable factors.
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brain asymmetry
Translation from English biol. Sciences A. N. Chepkova, edited by Ph.D. honey. Sciences I. V. Viktorova MOSCOW "MIR" 1983 LBC 28.903 C74 UDC 612 + 57
In memory of Fann Margulis and Peter Deutsch
Foreword Throughout the relatively short history of human brain research, scientists have repeatedly returned to the question of the functions of various areas of the brain. This was most clearly shown
Right brain: underestimated hemisphere
Almost simultaneously with the spread of the concept of hemispheric dominance, data began to appear indicating that the right, or secondary, hemisphere was also dominated.
Limited clinical data
We will end this chapter with some remarks on the old and still contentious problem of determining the functions of individual brain regions. Clinical observations of patients with brain damage have become the main
During the last decade, a great many studies have been carried out on normal people using the dichotic listening technique and the lateralized tachistoscope.
Theoretical considerations associated with the use of dichotic and tachistoscopy tests
Studies in normal people using dichotic listening and tachistoscopy 1 The terms lateralized or literalization are often used
Looking left and looking right
Poets say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul. Some neuropsychologists believe that they are also mirrors of the left and right brains. We are all well aware of how some people look at others or look away.
Doing Two Things Simultaneously: Mapping the Functional Space of the Brain
We all know that certain types of work are relatively easy to do together, while others clearly interfere with each other. For example, many people can listen to music and read at the same time, although the same people
Clinical Data
Sex Differences in the Consequences of Brain Injuries Herbert Lansdell (National Institutes of Health) was among the first researchers to look at the different consequences of brain injury.
Origin of Sex Differences
Let us assume that gender differences do exist. How can they be explained? Several interesting suggestions have been made. Deborah Weiber believed that the kinds of sex differences that were
The Significance of Sex Differences
From a theoretical point of view, the significance of sex differences in the organization of the brain is an important issue. If sex differences exist, what are their adaptive advantages? How is the organization of the brain
Finding the initial timing of lateralization
Basser's data on the consequences of unilateral brain damage led different scientists to different conclusions regarding the time course of the development of brain asymmetry. There are other data sources
Hemispherectomy: removal of half of the brain
Sometimes, for medical reasons, it is necessary to remove one hemisphere of the brain. This operation, known as a hemispherectomy,1 is performed when malignancy is found.
The role of heredity and environment in the formation of asymmetry
Heredity Most of the data discussed in this chapter suggests that interhemispheric asymmetries already exist in some form by the time of birth. The earlier in
Damage to one hemisphere: are the consequences asymmetrical?
Many studies have been devoted to the study of various kinds of behavioral disorders that occur as a result of surgical damage to individual brain structures. In general, violations
Split brain studies in animals
Split-brain studies have also been carried out to study the specialization of the hemispheres in animals. We have already examined in some detail the information about brain asymmetry that was obtained in the study.
Anatomical asymmetries in animals
Anatomical studies suggest that in relation to the size of the temporal lobes between the hemispheres of some primates, there may be structural asymmetries similar to those found
asymmetry in birds. What can the bird's brain tell us?
So far, we have limited our review of asymmetry studies in animals to work in mammals, in particular primates. There is some evidence to suggest the existence of asymmetries
Data evaluation
The data just presented suggest an association between brain lateralization and reading disability, although it is clear that differences between subjects and types of tasks play an important role.
Stuttering; case for competition for speech control
(Many have probably heard the claim that it is unwise for parents to try to force a left-handed child to use their right hand. It is believed that such attempts can have serious consequences.
Ignore Syndrome
(unilateral spatial agnosia) Patient in rehabilitation ward (wakes up in the morning and goes to shave. When he puts down his razor to go to breakfast
Two brains - two ways of knowing?
We see evidence that after surgical separation of the two hemispheres, learning and memory can reside separately in the left and right brains. Each hemisphere of a split-brain patient
Science, culture and the corpus callosum
Assuming that the left hemisphere has an analytical way of thinking and the right hemisphere has an intuitive way of thinking, astronomer and biologist Carl Sagan then began to think about how these two ways of interacting
1. What is the essence of humoral regulation of processes occurring in the body?
Humoral regulation of processes occurs through the body fluids (blood and lymph) with the help of chemically and physiologically active substances - hormones. When released into the blood, hormones are distributed throughout the body, and, when they enter certain organs and tissues, they have a certain effect on them (slow down or accelerate tissue growth, heart rate, etc.).
Humoral regulation is closely related to the nervous (neurohumoral regulation), when for the normal functioning of the nervous system it is necessary to maintain a certain level of hormones, and the glands receive innervation from the autonomic nervous system, which regulates the level of hormone secretion that meets the needs of the body at the moment.
2. Define the term "endocrine glands". Using the drawing on p. 48 textbook, explain how they fundamentally differ from the glands of external secretion.
Endocrine glands are secretory glands that do not have excretory ducts and secrete produced hormones (biologically, chemically and physiological substances) directly into the blood or lymph. Unlike the endocrine glands, the external secretion glands bring the secret out through the excretory ducts of the glands and act more locally, more often the secret serves for the digestive processes. The external secretion glands secrete substances periodically, in contrast to the endocrine glands, which secrete the formed substances constantly.
3. What are the main properties of hormones.
Selectivity (they act on strictly defined tissues or organs that have receptors for these hormones), activity (they act in negligible amounts), are quickly destroyed in tissues, the effect of hormones begins to manifest itself after a few minutes or hours, that is, rather slowly, but the duration of the action is longer than the time of action of the nerve impulse.
4. What glands of mixed secretion do you know? Prove that the pancreas is an endocrine gland.
The glands of mixed secretion include the pancreas and the gonads.
The cells of the pancreas associated with the excretory duct of the pancreas produce juice that is involved in the breakdown of the food bolus to nutrients, other cells of the pancreas are typical endocrine glands and secrete hormones such as insulin, glucagon and somatostatin, that is, the gland has signs of glands and external , and internal secretion.
5. List the endocrine glands known to you. Which of them are paired, unpaired?
Unpaired glands: pituitary gland, pineal gland, thyroid gland, pancreatic islets of Langerhans, thymus.
Paired glands: parathyroid, adrenal glands, sex.
6. Make a table "Glands of internal secretion", indicating the name of the gland, the hormone it secretes, its effect on the body.
7. Violation of the activity of which glands causes diseases such as diabetes; gigantism; cretinism?
Diabetes is a disease caused by a decrease in insulin secretion by the pancreas or a decrease in the sensitivity of insulin receptors in tissues during normal insulin production.
Gigantism is a disease caused by an excess of growth hormone produced by the anterior pituitary gland in young people.
Cretinism is a disease associated with a decrease in thyroid function in childhood.
8. Are there gender differences in the system of endocrine glands?
Differences in the system of glands exist only in the glands that produce and regulate sexual development and human behavior. The sex hormones of a woman are aimed at the formation of genital organs in embryogenesis and the correct formation of secondary sexual characteristics in girls, the development and maintenance of pregnancy, and subsequent childbirth. The sex hormones of men contribute to the laying of the genital organs in the embryo, the formation of secondary sexual characteristics according to the male type and spermatogenesis.
9. Why is it necessary to include foods containing iodine in the diet?
Iodine is a substance necessary for the production of thyroid hormones, respectively, a lack of iodine will lead to the development of diseases such as cretinism (insufficient intake in childhood) or myxedema (in adults). Unfortunately, iodine cannot be synthesized in the human body, but only comes to us with food or vitamins.
10. What can be caused by an excess or deficiency of hormones secreted by the body? Give examples.
Lack of sex hormones leads to infantilism, underdevelopment of secondary sexual characteristics, infertility, disorders of sexual desire; an excess of the same hormones, on the contrary, will lead to hypersexuality, early puberty, and infertility. With insufficient function of the adrenal cortex, the development of a bronze disease is possible, which is characterized by severe weakness, darkening of the skin, up to a bronze color, and rapid weight loss. With hyperfunction of the thyroid gland, Graves' disease develops, its symptoms are pronounced bulging eyes, weight loss, increased excitability, high heart rate.
11. Prove that the totality of endocrine glands is a system.
All human endocrine glands are interconnected and function as a single system. The levels of hormone production are controlled by the hypothalamic-pituitary system according to the principles of direct and feedback, that is, for example, if the level of triiodothyronine in the blood of a person decreases, this is captured by the receptors of the hypothalamus, to which it reacts with the production of thyroliberin, which enters the pituitary gland and it starts in response produce thyrotropin, which enters the bloodstream and, acting on the thyroid gland, causes it to produce more triiodothyronine. The same mechanisms are triggered to inhibit the production of hormones when their levels in the blood rise.
12. What is the special function of the pituitary gland?
The pituitary gland is part of the hypothalamic-pituitary system and the production of its hormones affects the production of hormones by all other endocrine glands.
Behavioral, neurological, and biochemical studies are shedding light on the processes that produce sex differences in brain organization. Sex hormones begin to influence the brain at such an early age that the response to the external environment of differently wired brains in boys and girls differs significantly almost immediately after birth. The effect of gender on intellectual function appears more in the nature of mental abilities, and not in the general level of intelligence, measured by IQ.
Men are better oriented along the way, following a route. They need less time to remember the route, they make fewer mistakes. But after the route is memorized, women remember more landmarks than men. Apparently, they tend to use more visual landmarks in everyday life.
Men tend to be better than women at solving spatial problems. They perform better on tests that require you to mentally rotate an object or manipulate it in some way. They outperform women on tests that require mathematical reasoning. Men show great abilities for the formation of precise motor skills of aiming, throwing, and intercepting various projectiles.
Women, as a rule, surpass men in the speed of identifying similar objects, in arithmetic counting, they have better developed speech skills. Women cope faster with some manual tasks, where precision and jewelry of movements are required.
Since the genetic material in males and females, except for the sex chromosomes, is the same, rather, the different quality of mental abilities in men and women reflects the difference in hormonal influences on the developing brain. Sex separation occurs in the early stages of embryonic development under the influence of estrogens (female sex hormones) and androgens (male sex hormones, the main of which is testosterone). Testosterone causes masculinization, promotes the formation of male genital organs, and also forms stereotypes of male behavior already in the early stages of life. Sex hormones change the functioning of the brain only during a critical period of human development. The introduction of the same hormones in later periods of life does not cause such effects. The deprivation of newborn males of testosterone by castration or the introduction of androgens into newborn females leads in adulthood to a complete change in the forms of behavior specific to a given sex to the opposite. Female rats injected with androgens behave like males. They become more aggressive, prone to games with elements of a fight, and prefer rough physical contact. Castrated males ill themselves like females. At the same time, they show a tendency characteristic of females to use visual landmarks when performing tasks related to spatial learning,
A study of the behavioral characteristics and abilities of girls who, in prenatal or neonatal life, were exposed to excessive exposure to androgen (male sex hormone) due to congenital adrenal hyperplasia of their mothers, showed that, as they grew older, they showed more pronounced boyish behavior and greater aggressiveness. The effect was irreversible and was not corrected by drug therapy. They, like men, have better developed spatial functions. They better perform tests for spatial manipulation, rotation of objects. However, no differences in other perceptual or verbal tests requiring logical reasoning were found between the two groups of girls - with and without hormonal disorders -.
Many scientists believe that the difference between the male and female mind is based on the less pronounced asymmetry of the hemispheres in women compared to men. In women, damage to one cerebral hemisphere more often than in men causes a smaller defect, the same injury in men is accompanied by more pronounced consequences. There is evidence that the back of the corpus callosum is larger in women. This should indicate a more complete interaction of the hemispheres in women compared to men.
It has been established that in male rats the cortex of the right hemisphere is thicker than the left. This is consistent with other evidence that early exposure to the male sex hormone (androgen) leads to suppression of left cortical growth.
Observation of human embryos also showed that in future boys, the cortex of the right hemisphere is thicker than the left. However, as follows from the results of a survey of men and women with damaged right hemispheres, the ability to rotate objects in space, which is better expressed in men, is not due to sexual functional differences in the right hemisphere. Damage to the right hemisphere did not cause more pronounced violations of spatial rotation in men than in women, as might be expected if such abilities in men were determined by the greater development of the right hemisphere.
A similar assumption about a more pronounced asymmetry of the brain in men was also expressed in relation to speech. This proceeded from the fact that aphasia is more common in men after trauma to the left hemisphere. On this basis, it was concluded that in women, both hemispheres are more involved in the organization of speech. However, the data obtained by some authors refute this opinion: among women with damage to the right hemisphere, aphasia occurs as often as among men with a similar injury.
D. Kimura, studying speech disorders in men and women as a result of brain damage, found that in women the organization of speech and the motor functions associated with it are localized in the left frontal cortex.
In men, a center with similar functions is located in the posterior sections of the same hemisphere. After damage to the frontal part of the brain, women develop aphasia more often than men. With damage to the posterior parts of the brain (usually this injury occurs more often than lesions in the anterior parts), the speech functions of women suffer less often, not because they have less pronounced asymmetry of the brain, but because they are less likely to destroy the center of organization of speech movements, localized in the anterior regions of the brain. In men, the system for choosing and programming speech movements is located in the posterior parts of the hemisphere.
According to D. Kimur, the specificity of the left hemisphere is not only the programming and choice of speech reactions, but also the organization of complex movements of the mouth, hands involved in people's communication. These functions in women are presented in the anterior regions, and in men - in the posterior regions of the hemisphere.
In women, the praxis system, which selects the appropriate hand movements, is in topographic proximity to the motor cortex immediately behind it, which may explain the ability of women to form finer motor skills. On the contrary, in men, movements such as aiming are better formed, that is, aimed at objects located at a certain distance. These skills require close interaction with the visual system, located in the back of the hemispheres.
According to D. Kimura, the anterior motor control system of women is detected even in tests that require the simultaneous participation of visual information (construction of a figure from cubes based on a visual model). In women, when performing this test, large violations are found when the anterior rather than the posterior sections of the hemispheres are damaged. In men, there is an inverse relationship.
Although the functional asymmetry of the brain does not seem to affect the organization of speech and movements, as well as the ability to spatial rotation, it does seem to affect the performance of some abstract verbal tasks. The performance of the test to assess vocabulary in women was affected by damage to both hemispheres, and in men only to the left. In other words, women use both hemispheres to a greater extent than men when comprehending words. At the same time, the motor skills of men are less dependent on the left hemisphere, since left-handers are more common among them. Among right-handed women, women are more right-handed than men: they prefer to use their right hand more often than men.
Thus, the asymmetry of the brain associated with sex differences, depending on the function, can be expressed in the dominance of different hemispheres. Therefore, one gender is not always more “asymmetric”. Thus, in women, the successful completion of verbal tasks is associated with the activity of the dominant left hemisphere. The same can be said about the greater percentage of right-handedness among them. In men, motor skills are less dependent on the left hemisphere.
As follows from the above data, the organization of the brain in men and women from a very early age follows a different path. This differentiation of development is directed by sex hormones, which forms different cognitive abilities in representatives of different sexes. Cognitive operations retain their sensitivity to sex hormones throughout life. Estrogen levels, which change during the menstrual cycle, affect cognitive processes. High levels of these hormones are associated with a relative deterioration in spatial abilities and an improvement in motor and articulatory skills. In men, there are seasonal fluctuations in testosterone levels. At some optimal level in the blood, men show the maximum ability to solve spatial problems. The best results are noted in the spring, when testosterone levels are lower.
Control questions
1. What gender differences in brain organization have been found so far?
2. In what mental operations are men superior to women?
3. In what mental operations are women superior to men?
Literature
Danilova N. I. Psychophysiology. M., 2001, 2004. S. 282-290.
Psychological differences between men and women have long been the object of both ordinary, everyday and scientific interest. Differences between men and women in perception, memory, abilities, social behavior, etc. were studied.
Differences in sensory characteristics, with few exceptions, are not significant. A more or less established factor is that in visual perception of detail, which is an important professional quality in some professions, women are superior to men. It can also be noted that deficiencies associated with the visual system are more common in men.
On memory tests, women generally outperform men, although the differences are not very large. They are even more leveled when the material is quantitative or it is more interesting to men. More evidence is available on gender differences in intelligence and ability. So, in mathematics, as well as in the ability to spatial representations, men are superior to women. On the contrary, women are superior to men in some components of verbal abilities, for example, in fluency of speech, understanding of written text, preservation of verbal functions in old age. According to McClelland's research, gender differences in intellectual characteristics cannot be considered in isolation from other mental phenomena: motivation, interest, etc.; these variables can significantly affect the results of measuring various aspects of intelligence.
In tasks related to coordinated hand movements, the advantage is on the side of women. According to American psychologists, operations that require speed and dexterity are performed by women no worse, and in some cases better than men.
Men, as a rule, demonstrate a higher level of claims, while there is a greater correspondence between the level of claims and real opportunities in women. Findings from studies of cognitive style generally suggest that women are more field dependent, but there is evidence that contradicts this conclusion. There is strong evidence that women are generally more socially dependent than men. In particular, the results of research (analysis of drawings and statements during the experiment) indicate that already at the age of two years, girls show more interest in the people around them than boys. Girls, as a rule, are more in need of protection, more suggestible than boys. They are also better at reproducing the personality structure of other people. A comparison of these facts confirms the great interpersonal orientation of women.
It is generally accepted that male aggressiveness is higher than that of female. These differences begin to appear as early as preschool age. The exception is the so-called verbal aggression, the values of which are slightly higher in girls than in boys. In adulthood, this is expressed, in particular, in a greater need for women to teach and teach, lecture, etc.
L. Tyler cites some results of studies using factor analysis, indicating that some characteristics are related differently in men and women. For example, the relationship between field dependence and popularity is positive for girls and negative for boys. Social adaptation is associated with a tendency to emotional control in boys and with impulsiveness in girls.
According to I.S. Kona, male lifestyle, orientations, behavior, interests are predominantly subject-instrumental, female characteristics are emotionally and socially oriented. This fundamental position unites many particular results of the study of sex differences, some of which appear very early. Golbert and Lewis observed the behavior of girls and boys at the age of 1.1 years, when a barrier was established between children and mothers as an experiment. The boys tried to bypass it (that is, "interacted" with the obstacle), the girls stopped in front of the barrier and started crying, calling for help from adults. At preschool age, it is more important for boys what to play, and for girls - with whom to play. The criterion for choosing a job for men is more often its content, for women - relationships in the team. The criterion of adulthood for young men is the degree of professional self-determination, for girls - the arrangement of their personal lives.
A number of ideas about gender differences, according to American scientists E. Maccoby and K. Jacklin, are not scientifically confirmed. This is supposedly a lower level of self-esteem and a lower need for achievement in girls; the fact that girls are better at simple, routine tasks, while boys are better at more complex cognitive tasks, the performance of which requires overcoming previously learned reactions; that the male style of thinking is more "analytical" than the female; that girls are more influenced by heredity, and boys by environment; that girls have more developed auditory perception, boys - visual.
In recent decades, psychological sex differences have been decreasing, as evidenced by research findings. Society is gradually becoming more tolerant of deviations from traditional gender roles, and this is a global trend.
Sex glands begin to develop in humans at the 8th week of intrauterine development.
gonads perform two functions:
1) the formation of germ cells: male - spermatozoa and female - egg cells;
2) secretion of hormones.
In boys, the formation of spermatozoa begins with the period of puberty, about 12 years old, and ends by the age of 50-60, sometimes later. At this age, atrophy of the gonads begins. Sperm erupting once has a volume of about 3 ml and contains about 20 million spermatozoa. Spermatozoa have independent movements, which are influenced by temperature, chemical composition and the reaction of the environment. Movement speed - 3 mm per minute. After entering the uterus, spermatozoa retain the ability to move for a week.
Primary follicles are egg cells. In adult women, there are about 4,000,000 egg cells in both ovaries.
The overwhelming majority of primary follicles, not having reached full development, atrophy, and only in a few hundred egg cells capable of fertilization mature.
Male sex hormones (androgens) are produced in the lining of the seminiferous tubules. In small quantities, they are produced in the reticular zone of the adrenal cortex in men and women, and in the outer layer of the ovaries in women. All of them are derivatives of sterols: testosterone, andro-standione, androsterone, etc.
Both the testes and the ovaries synthesize both male and female sex hormones, but androgens predominate in men and estrogens in women. Sex hormones promote embryonic differentiation, subsequently - the development of the genital organs and the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics, determine puberty and human behavior. In the female body, sex hormones regulate the ovarian-menstrual cycle, ensure the normal course of pregnancy and the preparation of the mammary glands for milk secretion.
Female sex hormones are also derivatives of sterols. Currently, the following hormones have been isolated: estradiol, estrone, or follicular hormone, and estriol, obtained from the urine of pregnant women and from the placenta. Estrone and estriol are found in some plants.
Estradiol, as a hormone, is isolated from the follicular fluid. Progesterone, or the corpus luteum hormone, is also found in the placenta.
Sex hormones affect metabolism and thereby determine male and female secondary sexual characteristics, or features that distinguish one sex from another.
Testosterone changes protein metabolism, causing a positive nitrogen balance and increasing body weight. It also acts on carbohydrate metabolism, reducing the synthesis of glycogen in the liver and tissues. Estrone and other female sex hormones, on the contrary, increase the ability of the liver and tissues to synthesize glycogen. Estrone also increases the deposition of fat in the body. The similarity of the structure of male and female sex hormones proves that they are formed from cholesterol.
Male and female sex hormones are formed simultaneously and affect each other. Small amounts of the male hormone are formed in childhood in both boys and girls. At 6 years of age, the amount of male sex hormone is approximately the same in both sexes. By the age of 12, boys produce 1.5-2 times more male hormone than girls, and adult men have 2 or more times more than adult women.
Castration, or removal of the gonads, causes various changes in the body depending on when it is performed: at an early age, before the onset of puberty, or in an adult organism, after the onset of puberty.
Early castration leads to underdevelopment of primary sexual characteristics - external and internal genital organs: the penis and testicles in men, ovaries, oviducts, uterus and vagina in women.
In the female body, sexual cycles do not occur at all. Early castration also causes the loss of secondary sexual characteristics. In males castrated in childhood, the asexual type appears. Mustaches and beards do not grow, there is no hair on the body and pubis. The skin is white, flaccid, soft and wrinkled early. Due to the decrease in the volume of substances, the subcutaneous fat layer is highly developed. The neck is round, the hips are convex, sometimes the mammary glands are significantly enlarged. Due to the late ossification of the cartilage, the skeleton of the limbs grows and therefore the growth of the body reaches 180 - 190 cm. The dimensions of the larynx are mats. The voice is weak and high, reminiscent of a treble. The psyche differs sharply from normal weakness of will and apathy. Fatigue sets in easily. Sexual attraction is absent.
Females castrated during childhood also develop the asexual type. The pelvis remains narrow, the mammary glands do not develop, fat is not deposited on the pubis and buttocks, there is no sexual cycle, the external genitalia and uterus are atrophied, and sexual desire is usually absent.
In adult men, castration causes a decrease in metabolism, obesity, loss of mustaches and beards, an increase in voice, and a sharp drop in sexual instinct.
In adult women, castration leads to atrophy of the uterus, disruption of the sexual cycle, reduction of the mammary glands, lowering of the voice and, very often, to nervous disorders, weakening of sexual desire.
Sexual maturity is established by examination of the semen in males and by the appearance of regular menstruation in females.
1. What are the main parts of the human skeleton?
In the human skeleton, there are: the skeleton of the head (skull), the skeleton of the body and the skeleton of the upper and lower extremities.
2. What is the structure and meaning of the skull? Why are the bones of the skull connected motionless?
In the skull, a large brain and a smaller facial section are distinguished. The bones of the cerebral part of the skull form a cavity in which the brain is located. The brain part of the skull is formed by the following bones: unpaired - frontal, occipital, sphenoid, ethmoid and paired - parietal and temporal; all of them are interconnected motionlessly with the help of seams. The bones of the facial section of the skull include 6 paired bones (maxillary, palatine, inferior nasal concha, nasal, lacrimal, zygomatic) and 3 unpaired bones (hyoid, lower jaw and vomer). All bones, except for the lower jaw, are fixedly connected.
The skull protects the brain and sense organs from external damage, provides support for the muscles of the face and the initial sections of the digestive and respiratory systems.
3. List the bones that form the cerebral part of the skull.
Bones of the cerebral part of the skull: paired parietal and temporal bones and unpaired frontal, occipital, sphenoid and ethmoid bones.
4. Name the only movable bone of the facial skull. What is its function?
The only movable bone of the skull is the lower jaw, together with the temporal bone it forms the temporomandibular joint, in which the following movements are possible: lowering and raising the lower jaw, shifting it to the left and right, moving back and forth. All these possibilities are used in the act of chewing, and also contribute to articulate speech.
5. Name the sections of the spine and the number of vertebrae in each of them. What role does the curvature of the spine play? In connection with what they appear in humans?
The human spine consists of 33-34 vertebrae. It distinguishes the following sections: cervical (7 vertebrae), thoracic (12), lumbar (5), sacral (5) and coccygeal (4-5 vertebrae). In an adult, the sacral and coccygeal vertebrae fuse into the sacrum and coccyx.
The human spine has 4 bends (cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral), which play the role of a shock absorber: thanks to them, shocks are softened when walking, running, jumping, which is very important for protecting internal organs and especially the brain from concussions.
In newborns, the spine is straight, curves forming as the baby learns to hold the head (cervical), sit down (thoracic), crawl and stand up (lumbar and sacral).
6. What departments does the limb skeleton consist of? What bones form the skeleton of the girdle of the upper limbs; lower limbs? Draw a general diagram of the structure of a free limb of a person.
The skeleton of any limb consists of two parts: the girdle of the limbs and the skeleton of the free limb. The bones of the limb girdle connect the free limbs to the skeleton of the body. The girdle of the upper limbs is formed by two shoulder blades and two collarbones. The skeleton of the free upper limb consists of three sections: the humerus, the bones of the forearm and the hand. The forearm is formed by the radius and ulna. The brush is formed by a large number of small bones. It distinguishes three sections: the wrist (8 bones), the metacarpus (5) and the phalanges of the fingers (14).
The girdle of the lower extremities (pelvic girdle) consists of two pelvic bones that are connected to the sacrum. The skeleton of the free lower limb consists of the femur, lower leg and foot bones. The bones of the lower leg include the tibia and fibula. The bones of the foot are divided into the bones of the tarsus (8 bones), metatarsus (5) and phalanges of the fingers (14).
7. Suggest how you can explain the similar structure of the upper and lower limbs in humans.
This can be explained by the performance of similar functions by the upper and lower limbs in animals, for example, in primates. In the course of human evolution, a strict differentiation of function and a partial change in structure for bipedal locomotion took place, but the general plan of the structure remained similar. This can be proven by the ability to grab objects with the feet of trained people.
8. What is a bony pelvis? Why does a person have it in the shape of a bowl?
The bony pelvis consists of three continuously connected bones: two pelvic bones and the sacrum. The bony pelvis houses important organs such as the bladder and rectum, and the uterus in women. The shape of the bone pelvis in the form of a bowl is associated with upright posture. In humans, an expanding pelvis, an inwardly angled femur, a strong knee joint, and a "platform" foot all contribute to an even bipedal walk.
9. Are there sex differences in the structure of the skeleton? If so, which ones?
The bones of men, as a rule, are larger and more massive. The main differences are in the structure of the pelvis, in women the pelvic ring is wider and lower than in men, and up to a certain age the pubic symphysis is more mobile. The position of the wings of the ilium in women is close to horizontal. The small pelvis has a cylindrical shape. This is due to the ability of women to bear and give birth to children. The male pelvis is narrow and high. The position of the wings of the iliac bones approaches the vertical. The entrance to the small pelvis in the form of a "card heart".
There are also some differences in the structure of the bones of the skull and chest. Contrary to popular belief, the number of ribs in men and women is the same.
