Meta-analysis of personality differences
Alan Feingold (1994) analyzed 30 years of literature data, and 50 years of test norming data, to determine what personality differences existed between men and women. Feingold also replicated the meta-analysis method used by Judith Hall for her book Nonverbal Sex Differences (Hall, 1984), to see if there were any trends over time. Feingold compared more recent studies against Hall's analysis and The Psychology of Sex Differences (Maccoby and Jacklin, 1974), finding that the self-esteem gap was widening, but that the anxiety gap was narrowing. Feingold found that men were more assertive and had higher self-esteem than women, but that women were more extraverted, anxious, and nurturing. Feingold found no differences in impulsiveness or shyness between men and women. Cohn (1991) analyzed trends (from 65 studies over 17 years) in personality development in males and females, and found that while girls have a more developed ego in childhood and adolescence, this difference disappears by adulthood.
I use Google Scholar to jumpstart The Difference Blog most days, (although sometimes a news item will draw my attention) and so it's no surprise to me that most of the top hits for "gender differences" have already been referenced in previous posts. I was incredibly surprised to find this morning that I had missed Feingold. The trend data is the part I find particularly fascinating. Feingold found self-esteem in women actually got worse in 1984-1992 as compared to Maccoby and Jacklin (1958-1974) and Hall (1975-1983). Whether this is a measuring/sampling problem, or a anti-feminism backlash is a problem that I don't have the data to solve.
I use Google Scholar to jumpstart The Difference Blog most days, (although sometimes a news item will draw my attention) and so it's no surprise to me that most of the top hits for "gender differences" have already been referenced in previous posts. I was incredibly surprised to find this morning that I had missed Feingold. The trend data is the part I find particularly fascinating. Feingold found self-esteem in women actually got worse in 1984-1992 as compared to Maccoby and Jacklin (1958-1974) and Hall (1975-1983). Whether this is a measuring/sampling problem, or a anti-feminism backlash is a problem that I don't have the data to solve.