THE FEMININE SEQUENCE AND THE GENDERED BRAIN

If you read my last post – THE MASCULINE SEQUENCE AND THE GENDERED BRAIN – this post offers additional information , with reference to the female brain.

As I did in my last post,  I am going to start with the caution given by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrell in their book, Human Givens, so as not to arouse resistance to the evidence they present. Particularly given the present climate when it comes to expressing any ideas around the subject of gender.

Clearly, all behaviour is a mix of both genetic and environmental influences but – and it is a big but – certain important aspects of male and female behaviours are biologically based. While it is only possible to speak in general terms, because there will always be exceptions, we believe these biological bases and their consequences for male/female relationships need to be acknowledged.

I will list the statements offered by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrell as bullet points, to keep the post as concise as possible:

• From infancy girls outperform  boys in their ability to interpret facial expression of emotions, and the difference was found to persist right through childhood and adolescence into adulthood.
• Women tend to perform better than men on tests involving  fine motor skills and perceptual speed, in which the subject must rapidly identify matching patterns.
• Women also easily outperform men on tasks involving verbal fluency: when they read a story, a paragraph or a list of unrelated words and they demonstrate better recall.
• More of the female brain is set aside for verbal activity. The right hemisphere, as well as the left hemisphere.
• Women talk to get information and to establish rapport and connection geswith others. They talk about people rather than things. They convey feelings and details are relationship orientated. Who they know and what they know is more interesting to them. They are better at multi- tasking and quick to ask for, and accept, help or directions. Women co-operate.
• Women are, on average, more in touch with their feelings and are generally regarded as being more sensitive, warmer, and, as the current phrase has it, emotionally intelligent.
• The acts of reading the subtleties in chidren’s mood changes, as well as nurturing and comforting them , are in all cultures, better done (on the whole) by mother’s.

NOTES:

If reading this post has sparked an interest in the human brain. I would recommend you start with Human Givens, by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrell.

THE MASCULINE SEQUENCE AND THE GENDERED BRAIN

In their book Human Givens,Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrell propose that there are biological differences between the male and female brain. In this post it is my intention to highlight some of these, in support of examples given in one of my recent post – THE RULE OF THREE.

Griffin and Tyrell offer the following caveat when setting out their evidence for the gendered brain:

Clearly all behaviour is a mixture of both genetic and environmental influences but – and it is a big but – certain important aspects of male and female behaviours are biologically based. While it is only possible to speak in general terms, because there will always be exceptions, we believe these biological bases and their consequences for male/female relationships need to be acknowledged.

Griffin and Tyrell give the following examples of how the male brain differs from that of the female. I am going to bullet point them to keep the post as short as possible.

• Boys are more emotionally reactive than baby girls.
• By the age of three there is a marked difference in reaction to emotion shown by boys and girls.
• Boys are outperformed by girls in their ability to interpret facial expressions of emotions, and the difference was found to persist right through childhood, adolescence to adulthood.
• Boys appear to be less sensitive to the distress of others.
• Boys like rough play, take up more space and make more noise than girls do, they have shorter attention spans and are less sociable than girls.
• Far more boys than girls are excluded from schools each year, both at primary and secondary level, for behaviour labelled as, ‘anti-social or ‘disruptive.
• Men, on average, perform better at spatial tasks that involve mentally rotating objects and, in imagination, manipulating them in some fashion, which is why men, on average, find map reading easier than women.
• Men are more accurate at target-directed motor skills, such as guiding or intercepting projectiles
• Men, on average outperform women when it comes to mathematics and abstract reasoning. With men outnumbering women by thirteen to one at the top end of the ability scale.
• Men talk to communicate information, to report on events, or establish their status.
• Men talk about cars, work, politics, sport, food and drink – rather than people.
• Men are goal orientated. They focus on problem solving and find it more productive to concentrate on one task at a time. Often becoming frustrated if their efforts to do so are interrupted.
• The fact that male blood pressure and heart rates rise significantly higher than rates in females, and stay higher for much longer is at the root of why a man typically prefer to stay silent or withdraw when his female partner is emotionally upset.

NOTES:

For more detailed information and detailed discussion about the possible implications for education provision and practice, male wellbeing and mental health, and parenting, among other issues; I recommend you read Human Givens, by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrell.