Course talk:PSYC305/2013ST2/ClassProject/2.3 Introduction - Usefulness

In this section address the following questions:

• Is gender a personality trait?
• If so, is Gender Diagnosticity a valid measure of this?
• Is Gender Diagnosticity a useful construct for psychologists to measure. Why/why not?

(This page may be moved to the discussion section of the final report later.)

hello, In this section, there are three questions that we need to address. however, there is still one remaining question "Is gender a personality trait?" that no one answer yet. Source can be found in our textbook and handout, is any one willing to answer? Thanks.

Hey! In the very first paragraph on this page, there is a very brief reference to what you were saying "Although Gender itself is not generally classified as a personality trait, it incorporates a broad spectrum of characteristics that are; femininity and masculinity being the most prominent." Do you think a more detailed explanation would belong in the "Discussion" portion of the wiki, or if it is even necessary? Also since we are talking about "measuring gender" the question may not be so much "Is gender a personality trait?", as it is "Is gender measurable?", because does it need to be a personality trait for us to be able to measure it?

Good points! And these all seem to be worth discussing here.

hello, Are you saying that instead of asking "Is gender a personality trait?", it will be better to ask "Is gender measurable?" gender may not need to be a personality trait for us to measure, but it correlates to the personality traits such as " big five", and there are gender differences in the big 5 traits. does my answer make sense to you?

Hello! I think what Gordon is trying to say is that the question "is gender a personality trait?" has already been addressed in the very first paragraph of this page. The short answer is that gender itself is not generally classified as a personality trait. However, gender refers to many characteristics that are personality traits, such as femininity/masculinity.

Hello Zleung, Thanks a lot!

Hey Min,

What I was saying is that it may not be so important to be asking if gender is a personality trait because we are trying to determine if we can measure and/or predict gender based on personality traits and it doesn't matter so much if gender is a personality trait or not. Just because something is a personality trait that doesn't mean we can measure it, and just because it isn't a personality trait, doesn't mean we can't. Therefore a better question to be asking might be "Is gender measurable?"

I just realize the work I have done on validity has been completely removed.....

According to the handout, your edits will still be recorded and marked, so don't worry.

Good news! Thanks

That's right, you can still include what added as part of your contributions.

hi i have a question here: why i cannot talk something relate to Gender differences in personality traits across cultures? becasue i think it can also have an influence on the validity of the gender diagnosticity too. for example, being tough in the work place is sometimes emphasized in some cultures regardless an individual is female or male. Hope i made things clear. thanks!

Hello, I believe you can talk about Gender difference in the last section Is Gender Diagnosticity a Useful Construct for Psychologists to Measure? Why and Why Not?

In that part, we talked about that Gender Diagnosticity approach is stable although masculinity and femininity sometimes present themselves differently in different time periods, groups and cultures, so you can add how gender differences across culture and how it may influence the validity of Gender diagnosticity by giving an example before the first paragraph. Hope this can help you ;)

Hello, I believe you can talk about Gender difference in the last section Is Gender Diagnosticity a Useful Construct for Psychologists to Measure? Why and Why Not?

In that part, we talked about that Gender Diagnosticity approach is stable although masculinity and femininity sometimes present themselves differently in different time periods, groups and cultures, so you can add how gender differences across culture and how it may influence the validity of Gender diagnosticity by giving an example before the first paragraph. Hope this can help you ;)

Hi everyone, I have added something new(mental disorder related issues) to this section, can someone tell me how to make a modify on the content? thank you!

no worries, it seems like all done.

Hello, I have contributed the concept of Gender Diagnosticity and sex difference in 4 dimensions. Everyone is welcomed to suggest and edit. Thanks!

Hi! According to the validity of Gender Diagnosticity study, I think it is good to add some studies related to gender stereotypes and gender differences across cultures, because the differences may have an impact on the validity of the study. Please someone gives some suggestions. Thanks!

I think you are right, Gender stereotype is important too.

I`ve summarized the points into a paragraph but I also kept the original on the page just in case. I also added some parts of my own so feel free to edit it if you feel necessary!

Hello, I have separated the paragraph into different themes and combine few sentences together. Feel free to edit if I did it wrong! Cheers.

Hi everyone, I was just reading over the first paragraph ( Gender), and I am a little confused by the last two sentences. It states "In addition to behavior, gender can also be separated by an individual's physical and mental characteristics. Since gender is determined by the individual themselves, it is difference from sex, where an individual is biologically born into a certain sex.

Maybe I am interpreting this incorrectly, but my understanding of the first sentence is that one's gender can be differentiated by their physical characteristics... which is false, as suggested by the second sentence. (An individual's physical characteristics determines their sex). I'm going to edit this for now. Let me know if I'm just understanding this incorrectly.

I modified the last two sentences so that it's more clear but generally still gets the same point across. Hopefully it clarifies your earlier questions.

Nice evidence of collaborative writing going on here - well done.

Hello! I was just a bit confused on the Gender Schema Theory section of this page.

" Because males have a long history of disregarding the emotions of sadness and fear which stereotypically belong to females, so, males have strengths to use the writing process to release the feelings of trauma events. However, on the opposite side, women are less likely related to writing or talking about anger—a stereotypically masculine emotion. Therefore, improving health and well-being on a cognitive level are easier for females or for persons who are feminine."

How are females/more feminine individuals more able to improve their health and cognitive well-being? If men use writing to express their feelings and are therefore more able to cope with negative feelings, what do women/feminine individuals do to reduce negative feelings?

Hi Sydney, thank you for your kindly reminder. Yes, I have made a mistake when I was trying to paste what I wrote on our wiki. I am working on it. Thank you!

I found the article and am also making some edits (to the other sections as well) to just make it a little more clear on what I think you were trying to get across!

Thank you, I appreciate!

Hi Everyone! I have added some more details regarding gender, and have also added a bit about the differences between sex and gender.

Hi all, I've realised labelling this section "validity" isn't really what I was going for and may be misleading. So I've renamed the page and moved some of the discussion of validity to other parts of the paper.

Hello Jaimie: Should we still answer the three questions on the top? Thanks