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| Is marriage an inter-planetary
merger? | |
Men and women may be from the same planet after
all. A US psychologist says there are not that many differences between
the genders.
Janet Shibley-Hyde, women's studies specialist from the University of
Wisconsin, says men and women are more similar than the popular
perception.
She highlights studies showing similarities in personality,
communication, and leadership.
But a UK psychologist said there were differences which should be
recognized.
There is a popular perception that the psychological difference between
men and women is substantial - as seen in books such as Men Are From Mars,
Women Are From Venus by John Gray.
And there are stereotypes , such as women being more emotional than men,
or men having better spatial awareness.
But Dr Hyde, writing in American Psychologist, says her review of 46
meta-analyses conducted over the last 20 years, shows men and women are
alike in the majority of areas.
The studies looked at cognitive abilities, verbal and nonverbal
communication, social or psychological traits like aggression or
leadership, psychological well-being like self-esteem.
Dr Hyde said gender differences accounted for either no or a very small
effect for most of the psychological variables examined.
She said only throwing distance and physical aggression showed marked
gender differences.
But Dr Nick Neave, a spokesman for the British Psychological Society
and an expert in sex differences at the University of Northumbria, said
men and women did differ.
"Scientists have been guilty of over-emphasising sex differences. There
are differences. Ignoring them is foolish, and exaggerating them is dangerous. But that
doesn't mean that society shouldn't treat the genders
equally."
(Agencies) |
男人和女人可能終究來自同一個星球。美國一位心理學家說兩性之間并沒有那么多差異。
威斯康新州立大學的女性研究專家珍妮特·謝博利·海德說男性和女性并不像大家所認為的差距那么大，其實他們很相近。
她強調說研究表明男人和女人在個性、交流和領導能力等方面非常接近。
但是，英國的一位心理學家說兩性之間確實有很多差異，我們應該認識到這一點。
有一種流行的觀點認為男人和女人心理上的差異很大，我們經常可以在一些書中看到這樣的觀點，其中比較有影響的是約翰·格雷創作的《男人來自火星，女人來自金星》。
還有一些傳統的觀點認為女人比男人更感性，而男人的空間感更強。
但是，海德博士在《美國心理學家》雜志上發表文章說，她研究了過去20年中進行的46次綜合分析，結果表明男人和女人在大多數方面都非常相似。
這些分析研究分別針對人們的認知能力、語言和非語言交流、社會或心理特征（例如進攻性和領導能力）以及心理幸福感（例如自尊）。
海德博士認為，性別差異對研究中所觀察的大多數心理變量沒什么影響，或者影響非常小。
她說只有在投擲的距離和身體的攻擊性方面能夠體現出男女的不同。
但是英國心理學會發言人、諾桑比亞大學性別差異研究專家尼克·尼維博士卻說男女確實有所不同。
“科學家們應該為過分強調性別差異負責任。差異確實存在，忽略差異是愚蠢的，夸大差異是危險的。但是，這并不意味著整個社會不應該平等的對待男人和女人。”
（中國日報網站 薛曉文譯） |
Updated: 2005-09-20 09:12
