MAIN BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOYS AND GILRS

MAIN BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOYS AND GILRS (MIDDLE CHILDHOOD)

There is no doubt that since birth, children born with significant differences between boys and girls. Although it is true that we cannot notice all of those differences with a simple view, they truly exist. Gender differences in cognitive, social, and personal characteristics have been investigated since the early 1900s. Research has identified differences in several specific cognitive skills as well as in a range of social and personal characteristics. Even when gender differences are significant and consistent over time, we still do not fully understand why they exist. Different experiences and socialization are almost certainly involved, but biological factors may also have important effects. Though boys and girls have similarities, their differences are above their similarities. Thus, in the following paragraphs, I present some main behavioral and cognitive differences between both.

Behavioral Differences:

“Peers provide the earliest discrimination of gender roles, but before long, peers join the process of responding to and modeling masculine and feminine behavior” (Papalia, 2006, 323). During the schools years, peers become so important to gender development that the playground has been called “gender school”. When children are in their middle childhood, boys and girls differences increase because they are more likely to engage in same sex groups. Also, their interest in playing different games is increased. For example, boys prefer to engage more in rough play, competition, conflict, ego displays, risk taking, and activities that cover large areas of physical space. However, girls prefer to perform tasks involving flexibility and fine-motor coordination, and to engage in games in which they can talk and act in a more reciprocal manner.

Aggression and assertiveness are two main categories of behavior between boys and girls because they differ by whether they can hurt others; aggression is directed against someone or something, whereas assertiveness may be defined as speaking up for oneself, being self-confident. Boys show more physical aggression, such as hitting or kicking, than girls; this difference is present during all life. Boys also show higher levels of assertiveness than girls, though the difference is not as great as for physical aggression. Aggression can take different forms; it does not have to be physical. For instance, relational aggression seeks to hurt others through social means such as name-calling or exclusion. Girls are significantly more likely than boys to show relational aggression.

In addition, girls often receive ratings from others, and evaluate themselves, as more helpful, cooperative, and sympathetic than boys, but their actual behavior is not consistently different from that of boys. However, girls are more likely to seek and to receive help than are boys, and sometimes girls are more easily influenced than boys although when attempting to influence others, boys are more likely to use threats and physical force whereas girls tend to use verbal persuasion or, if that does not work, simply to stop their efforts to influence the other person.

Cognitive Differences:

Males are more likely to use one side of the brain for a given task, while females use both sides of the brain. Because girls access both the thinking and feeling functions of the brain at the same time, they process information best when it is presented in a larger context. In general, boys prefer information presented in an objective and fact-oriented manner.

In cognitive skills, the largest and most consistent gender differences are found in verbal, language, and certain spatial skills. For example, girls have a larger vocabulary, and show a higher level of language complexity. The biggest differences in verbal skills are in spelling, overall language measures, and writing. Differences in other specific skills tend to be smaller.

In addition, during the middle childhood boys and girls are developing self-control and are able to follow simple directions; they enjoy participating in organized activities and games with rules; learning is rapid, as attention span and memory improves; thinking is logical and concrete; boys and girls can carry on conversations with adults, as their ability to speak and express ideas develops; focus is on the present, with a growing awareness of the future; youth begin to understand how to learn, as they start to see that strategies such as study and practice can improve ability and performance; boys and girls are beginning to think for themselves and develop their own opinions, but continue to need help in solving problems. There is a strong need to demonstrate mastery of skills and be recognized for competence. Boys and girls develop a “sense of industry” and learn to cooperate with peers and adults.

On the other hand, it is said that boys are better than girls in mathematics. However, it depends on students' ages and skill levels, as well as on the particular area of mathematics being assessed. The only consistent differences found in elementary school favor girls, both for computation and for grades in math. In studies of very talented populations, boys perform better on several mathematics skills. Gender differences favoring boys appear at adolescence and increase during the high school years, but only in areas involving mathematics problem solving.

Without any doubt, boys and girls are different not only in their physical appearance but also in their way of thinking, feeling, and acting in the same or different situations, so we need to take all this information into account because it is helpful for us, as future parents and teachers. Through it, we could understand why many times boys show more aggressiveness into the problems, and girls understand them and act in a more passive way. Also, to understand why many times children feel better working and playing with same sex groups. All of them are because of those differences among both kind of children, boys and girls.

References:

http://www.bgcgrandrapids.org/uploads/files/Youth_Development_Characteristics.pdf

Papalia, D., et al. A child's world. pp. 239-290. Mc Graw Hill. USA, 2006