This paper deals with the issue of black-white differences in cognitive skills. Some authorities attribute these differences to differences in the environments of black and white homes. Others state that the differences are due to differences in genes, i.e., heredity. Scholars holding these two opposing views have become more or less entangled in…

Results of seventh-grade students taking Scholastic Aptitude Test indicate that, by age 13, a large sex difference in mathematical reasoning ability exists; among students scoring greater than 700, boys outnumbered girls 13 to 1. Hypothesized factors thought to influence the difference (such as course taking, attitudes) were not supported by data…

This longitudinal study investigated hereditary and environmental influences on life situation, self-reported health, and coping ability at mid-life in relation to background factors collected during adolescence. A nationally representative Swedish sample comprised of monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins; a control group of singletons was…

Many educators and researchers who believe that girls have less mathematical ability than boys associate this deficiency with girls' inferior spatial ability. This generally accepted belief that spatial skills are a major prerequisite for math achievement was tested through a study of the visual-spatial skills of a sample of 32 professional…

Examining theories from a wide spectrum of disciplines, this paper categorizes research on sex differences in social behavior into four groups and examines the implications of each. The first category of research interprets sex differences as the result of anatomical differences which later affect psychological roles. The implication of this…

Breaking with conventional wisdom, this book integrates a wealth of perspectives and research-- biological, sociocultural, developmental--to explore the nature and extent of gender differences in emotional expression and the question of how such differences come about. In the book, nurture rather than nature emerges as the stronger force in…

Under the guise of helping girls, many schools have adopted policies that penalize boys, often for simply being masculine. Arguing that boys need help catching up with girls academically, and need love, discipline, respect, and moral guidance, but do not need to be rescued from their masculinity, this book scrutinizes studies and feminist doctrine…

This book provides practical help for parents to enhance their toddler's growth and development. Chapter 1, "The Importance of Being Two," explains why toddlerhood is the best time for providing an emotional foundation. Chapter 2, "The Young Child's Brain and Mind," discusses how recent findings on brain development have…

This book describes the major differences between men and women in cognitive or problem-solving abilities and discusses the possible biological contributions to such differences. The book argues that sex differences in cognitive patterns and in motor skills arose out of complementary evolutionary histories of men and women and that evidence for…

Nine chapters present cutting-edge research on "brainsex" and its effects on personality, education, and choice. It targets concepts such as job attributes, work flexibility, long-term life planning, home-work conflict, prestige versus occupational interest, and intrinsic motivational mechanisms to explain the relative failure of…

In spite of the loosening ties between reproductive and social roles, the worlds of men and women and boys and girls, are clearly not the same. There is much more to being female or male than the potential to mother or father a child. Gender development does not simply depend on children's relationship with their parents: it results from a complex…

Robert L. Thorndike was awarded the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Measurement Award at the 1972 ETS Invitational Conference. In "Heredity, Environment, and Class or Ethnic Differences," J. McV. Hunt addressed several fundamental questions pertaining to the hereditary and environmental influences of the observed social class and ethnic…