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Nature vs Nurture It wasn? t until 1920 that women finally got the right to vote. From the beginning of time men and women were looked at as totally different creatures. There are differences between men and women that can not be explained. The only logical explanation for these differences is that men and women are biologically different. I observed an Elmira College men?
s and women? s basketball game in hopes of finding some differences in gender roles. My observations varied. Many girls sat together in groups and many guys were attending the game with a larger group of girls.
Only a few guys the crowd decided socializing was more important than what was the court, as almost every male dedicated his undivided attention the game. The aggression level among the male players and themes in the crowd was much, much higher than it was at the girls game. No one at the girl? s game yelled at the referee or approached another player in an aggressive way. There was no fighting at the women? s game where there was at the men?
s game. Studies have shown that the higher level of testosterone a person has the more aggressive that person will be. All of these examples have shown that most of the differences between men and women are influenced by biology. They could not have been a result of cultural conditioning... The gender test was created to support the biological side of the nature vs. nurture debate.
I found this test to indeed prove gender differences to be influenced more by nature than nurture. This test showed that males had a natural ability to recognize similarities and differences between mathematical objects. Of all the men that took this test, 65 % got the mathematical question right where only a low 34 % of the women got it right, showing that men are naturally better math. Question number two of this test proved that females anymore intuitive to detail and memorized objects better than men. An average score for females was fifteen where the average for males was a twelve. Question number three was an English oriented question proving that women were able to come up with more synonyms than the men.
This proved that women were naturally better at English. The average score for this question for females wasa 3. 4 where the average for males was only a 2. 1. Based on this test, men seem to obtain a natural talent in math where women have that talent in English. Men seem to have a better connection to numbers and mathematical pictures and objects where the female holds this connection with words and material things. Women seem to be extremely intuitive to detail where men tend to overlook it. My participation in this test proved to me that being exceptionally good ina certain area such as math or English has nothing to do with cultural conditioning.
Either you have the talent or you do not. The 20 / 20 video provided supporting evidence for biological gender differences, which were similar to the gender test. The direction test was done at the University of Rochester. This test showed that after being led through tunnels below the college, most the men knew exactly where they were. Not one of the females knew.
This showed that males have a better sense of direction than females. Having a good sense of direction is something that can not influenced by the environment. Another test that was shown in this video was the object memorization test. This test was set up to see if females do have a natural ability to remember little objects.
This experiment showed that women are more intuitive to detail and remember little objects better than men. The females named almost every object that was in the room with them whereas the males could only name a few. Experiments done on rats and monkeys show that the adding testosterone to females makes them more aggressive and less nurturing. This experiment showed that the level of testosterone does contribute to the amount of aggression a person or animal might have. This experiment also shows that my observation of the men? s basketball game confirmed that men are biologically more aggressive than females.
Although all tests are not as equally convincing, the 20 / 20 video also showed an experiment dealing with children? s toys. Children were brought into a room where a table was covered with many different types of toys ranging from matchbox cars to make-up. This experiment was set up to prove that girls naturally play with? girl? s toys?
and boys naturally play with? boy? s toys. ? The parents could have easily influenced the choice of toys they preferred to play with. According to experts in this video, any female that plays with?
boy? s toys? have some kind of hormonal imbalance. After twenty five years of being brought up as a female, Herculine Brain decided to pursue the rest of his life as a male.
Right from the beginning, Herculine never felt as though she belonged with the female gender. Herculine was very different from the other girls. The fact that she was good at math and history and was bad at crafts made her extremely different at the time. The amount of body hair she had was not normal for a female (26).
The fact that she hanover menstruated and never developed breasts made her an outcast (125). Herculine also started having feelings toward other females which indicate that Herculine was actually a man. Homosexuality did not occur or was not looked at as something thats appropriate for the time (126). Yet, the females were also attracted to Herculine but not because she was supposed to be a girl but because she was so different. Many will argue that Herculine didnt succeed as a female and that is why she decided to pursue life asa man but Herculine felt lost among the female world.
These feelings of not belonging came form within. Many people argue that Herculine was an unsuccessful man. Being brought up female and then changing her lifestyle to that of able? s caused many mental and emotional problems. Herculine didnt commit suicide because he felt like a failure but because he didnt have a sense of identity. All of the morals, values, and anything that made up a person was that of a females.
His upbringing only led him to believe that he was a female when he was really more male. Starting over did not appeal to him so there was no sense in living. Herculine committed suicide as a result of what society did to him. Making him believe that he was a woman was when he was more of aman is what caused his death. He was suffering depression not because he failed as a man but because he did not know where he belonged. Herculine could not help these feelings because males and females are different and Herculine was seeing both sides of it.
Somethings just can not be helped or changed because they are a result of nature. Environmental advocates argue that biology does not have anything to do with the differences between men and women. Although they bring up the fact that men and women have completely different reproductive organs, they still argue that there are no real significant physical differences between the sexes (Hubbard 40). According to Hubbard, the clothes we wear, the games we play, thetford we eat, and the kind of schools we go to all affect our biology (41).
The major components of cultural conditioning are family, socialize, and culture, not biology. Many of the things that are looked at as biological were supposedly proved to be a result of social conditioning. How can cultural conditioning affect physical strength? It is extremely rare to see women holding jobs in the field of construction or firefighting. The requirement of physical strength does not have anything to do with being male or female. Women lack upper body strength.
This is biological because males will always be stronger than women due to their genetic make up. It is in their genes, their muscle tone is completely biological and the environment does not contribute to this. The article? John/Joan? simply proved that gender differences are biological. Baby John was a result of a horrible tragedy and his life was determined by doctors and surgeons.
John proved that being female was not where he belonged. No one influenced these feelings his biological make up was that of a man? s. There was nothing he could do to get rid of these feelings.
A certain surgery or cultural influence does not seem to have anything to do with Joan? s decision become a man. He knew that he should have been a man and decided to have reconstructive surgery to regain his manhood. After the surgery, he proved to everyone that he could not fight the differences men and women have proving these differences to be biological Colapinto 96). The questionnaire that my group and I created proved gender differences to be influenced by both nature and nurture. Yet there were many answers that went against the grain, everyone has their own opinion.
There are so many factors that contribute to the influences nature and nurture have on gender differences but our questionnaire showed that there were a majority of different answers to each question. Overall, this research showed many sides to this debate. Will probably never find out what influences our gender difference more. Everyone is going to have their own opinion and evidence track it up. From all of the sources used these differences are mainly biological and cultural conditioning only played a small part in what believe to be the differences between men and women. 329
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Research essay sample on Nature Vs Nurture Differences Between Men
