Beyond Mars and Venus: Understanding gender differences in financial risk tolerance

Research indicates that men are more risk tolerant and make riskier financial decisions than women. To explain this, researchers have favored “essentialist” explanations that attribute differences to core biological mechanisms and have tended to neglect psychological mechanisms that reflect the influence of culture and socialization. To better understand gender differences in risk tolerance, we investigated the relative effects of multiple psychological dimensions of gender, including gender identification (i.e., identifying as one’s biological sex and viewing it as a positive part of the self), gender typicality (i.e., feeling like a typical member of one’s biological sex), and gender-stereotyped personality traits and social roles. We also measured 2D:4D digit ratios as an indicator of prenatal testosterone exposure. Stereotypically masculine or instrumental personality traits (e.g., strong, acts as a leader) were associated with more risk tolerance in both men and women but were relatively more important for understanding men’s risk tolerance. Stereotypically feminine or communal personality traits were associated with less risk tolerance in women. Women who identified more with other women, and men who identified less with other men showed greater risk tolerance. Digit ratio was not associated with risk tolerance. Further research focused on psychological gender and risk tolerance is emphasized.     

语言、性与殖民心态的失落——解读库切的《耻》

语言殖民和性占有历来是胜利和权利的象征,是民族侵略和种族歧视的典型特征。《耻》的语言是平实无华的英语,然而却不时揉进多种外语词语或短句;《耻》的内容由一系列让主人公卢里教授感到耻辱的事件构成,而这些事件都是和性有关的。库切正是利用语言学教授的语言能力弱化、情场失意、创作歌剧失败等显性事件隐喻其殖民心态的失落。     

Sex scandals: A cross-cultural analysis of image repair strategies in the cases of Bill Clinton and Silvio Berlusconi

The former President of the United States, Bill Clinton, and the current Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, do not have many things in common save one: both have been involved in highly publicized sex-related scandals during their respective mandates. And yet in both cases, from the beginning, each safeguarded his position and managed to keep a significant percentage of the public opinion on his side. This paper argues that although the image restoration strategies of Berlusconi and Clinton were substantially different in content and form, they were both appropiate in their cultural contexts. A cross-cultural examination of the cultural dynamics of these two distinct nations shows that the effectiveness of image restoration strategies can vary greatly according to cultural, political and media variables of each country.     

Challenging the Child/Adult Distinction in Theory and Practice on Prostitution

This article argues that contemporary concern about ending child prostitution is misdirected in its strategy. Some theorists and activists, even the ILO, are seeking to create a distinction between adult and child prostitution as if child prostitution could be ended whilst adult prostitution remains intact. The motivation for the distinction relies upon trends in the 1990s to characterize men's prostitution abuse of adult women as constituting legitimate work, choice and agency for the women themselves, and to construct a profitable prostitution industry which can create profits for governments and sex industrialists. I will argue that child and adult prostitution are inextricably interlinked, both in personnel (the women and children work together), in terms of the abusers (who make no distinctions), in the harm they cause and in that both constitute harmful traditional practices which must be ended. The acceptance of men's prostitution abuse as the basis for the industrialization of adult prostitution increases the scale and harm of child prostitution. Thus only policies to eradicate all of men's abusive prostitution behaviour will serve to mitigate child prostitution.     

Toward a Neuropsychology of Personality in Sex Offenders Against Children: An Exploratory Psychometric Study

Little is known about the relationship between neuropsychological functioning and normal personality in sex offenders. The aim of this study was to examine the relations between personality traits and executive functioning in child molesters. The NEO-Five Factor Inventory was used to assess personality, and the Trail Making Test (parts A and B) was used to assess executive functioning in a sample of child molesters (n?=?33). We found the time required to complete Trail Making Test part A significantly predicted Extraversion scores, whereas the time to complete Trail Making Test part B significantly predicted Openness scores. Brief measures of executive functioning can thus predict the score in Extraversion and Openness in child molesters. These personality traits may be related to the functioning of brain areas implicated in having to complete the Trail Making Test.     

Biracial Americans' Experience with Identity,Gender Roles,and Anxiety

The current study aims to shed light on the experiences of a small but growing group, biracial Americans with one African American and one European American birth parent. Prior results suggest that it would be useful to study ethnic identity and its correlates among members of this group. Additionally, although research to date suggests different gender role norms for African Americans and European Americans, and that anxiety level differs across gender role categories, apparently no research so far has looked at these factors among biracial Americans. The measures used in the study were the Revised Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (R-MEIM), the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), and the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Scale (IDAS). Results from the Well-being scale of the IDAS show low levels for biracial participants with feminine/undifferentiated gender roles and high levels for those with masculine/androgynous roles. Additional findings, implications, and study limitations are further discussed.     

Gonadal steroids and visuo-spatial abilities in adult males: Implications for generalized age-related cognitive decline

The relationship between the gonadal steroids, testosterone and estrogen, and individual and group differences in performance on some cognitive tasks remains unclear but sex differences favoring males on some tests of visuo-spatial ability are large and robust. This aim of this review is to assess evidence for both organizational and activational effects of gonadal steroids as the principle cause of sex difference in visuo-spatial ability. Additionally, the implications of this relationship are discussed in the context of decreasing levels of gonadal steroids in aging males and psychological theories of generalized age-related cognitive decline. Based upon human and non-human research gonadal steroids have organizational effects on visuo-spatial ability in adulthood. Activational effects of gonadal steroids on visuo-spatial ability appear most dominant in older men and are necessary for maintaining optimal visuo-spatial ability; randomized clinical trials show that testosterone supplementation improves performance. Additionally, decreasing gonadal steroid levels in aging males may contribute to generalized age-related cognitive decline. Future supplementation studies in men should attempt to control for constituent abilities related to visuo-spatial task performance, and investigate interactions between dosage levels and baseline gonadal status. Further future animal research is required to investigate changes in gonadal steroid levels and their relationship to neurotransmitter systems, neural plasticity, and behavioral correlates.     

Changing causes of death and the sex differential in the USA

This paper examines the sex differential in US life expectancy, the changes in this differential over the past 25 years and into the near future, and the apportionment of these differences among the leading causes of death. Movements in the sex differential over the years 1960–1985 were largely determined by changes in the accidents and violence and heart disease causes of death. The use of the life expectancy measure emphasizes the importance of those causes of death that impact most severely at younger ages. The historical analysis is extended through projections of life expectancies by sex. In the projections increased cancer mortality among males contributes to a widening differential, tempered by greater progress against heart disease for males.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the meetings of the Population Association of America, 30 April-2 June 1992, in Denver, Colorado.     

波伏娃《第二性》对中国女性主义研究的拓展

20世纪90年代以来,随着妇女研究的学科化发展和女性问题纳入主流马克思主义唯物史观的研究,中国女性主义研究学者对西方女性主义理论经典《第二性》的解读逐渐转向学术化。这一时期,对《第二性》的讨论较80年代更加全面,从马克思主义唯物史观和女性主义哲学两个视阈呈现出来,拓展了中国女性主义的理论研究,促进了中国女性主义的主体成长。