Sex Roles and Behaviour

Description

In this age of greater access to information, as well as the increasing access to and influence of popular culture, it can be difficult to decide what to believe. Do we give more credence to the greater sheer amount of and access to the personal testimonies and anecdotal evidence available to us via social media or the findings from empirical studies, which few members of the public may have the access or the requisite skills/knowledge to understand? Do we give more credence to information about which there seems to be general or public consensus (e.g., popular beliefs) or information that has been carefully explored, examined, compiled and disseminated by credible researchers? In this age which puts a premium on “fact-checking”, who bears that responsibility? The disseminators of information or the consumers of information? One area in which there exist thousands of popular beliefs is gender. Questions (and answers) abound, both general questions regarding the nature of gender (e.g., what it is, what it looks like, what it does, etc.) and specific questions about aspects of gender and their relation to functioning as well as within the context of public discourse (including the internet), academics across several disciplines, and even at the level of individuals themselves. Popular culture is teeming with all sorts of depictions, news & advice on gender. Who has the answer(s)?  Your task for this assignment is to choose a popular belief related to gender (or sex) that is depicted in popular media and examine the veracity of that popular belief using the available empirical evidence from Psychology. In this task, you as a student of psychology with access to and knowledge of psychological principles, theories and empirical research, will bear the responsibility to “fact-check”.