{"id":213742,"date":"2017-02-11T11:46:13","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T16:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=213742"},"modified":"2017-02-13T11:03:59","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T16:03:59","slug":"relationship-problems-dont-blame-gender-differences-213742","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/relationship-problems-dont-blame-gender-differences-213742\/","title":{"rendered":"Relationship problems? Don\u2019t blame gender differences"},"content":{"rendered":"

No matter how inscrutable men and women sometimes seem to each other, odds are that gender difference is only a small part of the picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think about the sexes as distinct categories,\u201d says Harry Reis, who holds the title of Dean’s Professor in the Department of Psychology. \u201c\u2018Boy or girl?\u2019 is the first question parents are asked about their newborn, and sex persists through life as the most pervasive characteristic used to distinguish categories among humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in a 2013 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology<\/em><\/a><\/strong>, he held up for statistical scrutiny 122 different characteristics\u2014from empathy and sexuality to science inclination and extroversion\u2014in men and women. And he found that the sexes, by and large, don\u2019t fall into different groups.<\/p>\n

\n

\"illustration<\/a><\/p>\n

How do we relate?<\/a><\/h2>\n

Psychologist Harry Reis puts human relationships under the microscope.
\n(Rochester Review, January\/February 2017)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"illustration
(University illustration \/ Michael Osadciw)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reis and his collaborators\u2014including lead author and then doctoral student Bobbi Carothers \u201903 (PhD)\u2014reanalyzed data from studies that had shown significant, even large, sex differences. They also collected their own data on a range of psychological indicators. And they reopened studies of the \u201cbig five\u201d personality traits: extroversion, openness, agreeableness, emotional stability, and conscientiousness. In all that they examined, they looked for evidence of attributes that could reliably categorize a person as male or female.<\/p>\n

The pickings were slim. For the vast majority of psychological traits, there was no significant gender pattern.<\/p>\n

Emphasizing inherent differences between the sexes can be harmful in the context of relationships, says Reis. \u201cWhen something goes wrong between partners, people often blame the other partner\u2019s gender immediately.\u201d That reaction prevents people from seeing their partners as individuals with their own proclivities and idiosyncrasies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen psychological and intellectual tendencies are seen as defining characteristics, they are more likely to be assumed to be innate and immutable. Why bother to try to change?\u201d Reis says.<\/p>\n

Gay and lesbian couples, he adds, \u201chave much the same problems relating to each other that heterosexual couples do. Clearly, it\u2019s not so much sex but human character that causes difficulties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPeople think about the sexes as distinct categories,\u201d says Rochester psychology professor Harry Reis, But when something goes wrong between partners, emphasizing inherent differences between the sexes can be harmful. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":752,"featured_media":217742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[18592,20302,105,13992,16072],"class_list":["post-213742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture","tag-department-of-psychology","tag-harry-reis","tag-relationships","tag-rochester-review","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRelationship problems? 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