Male Brain vs. Female Brain free essay sample

Brain vs. Female Brain: Is one Better than the Other? Differences between males and females have been an issue affecting our society for thousands of years. Why are we so different? Why are we so similar? Several scientists have attempted to explain these variations, all using different methods and approaches. A very controversial study by psychologist J. Philippe Rushton suggested that men are innately more intelligent than women. This study gave arousal to several studies that oppose it, saying that it is rather the evolutionary and biological differences that make the divergence between the sexes. Men and women’s intelligence cannot be compared, their brains are evolutionarily and biologically different, and so their intelligence levels must be measured in different ways. Rushton’s studies are invalid because he did not use a representative research method. He â€Å"analysed 100,000 scholastic aptitude tests (SAT’s) written by American teens, age 17 and 18. † (Crossley, 2005) The SAT’s are standardized tests that focus on analyzing a student’s level in Math and English, and are crucial for entrance to university. We will write a custom essay sample on Male Brain vs. Female Brain or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Even though they are a very good indicator of a student’s academic level, they should be used with caution. There are many factors that affect how a student performs on these tests, such as how much they studied, how they felt during test day and how many times they have taken the test. These factors take a great part in the results of the experiment, and yet Rushton did not take them into account. His findings said that â€Å"males scored the equivalent of 3. 3 IQ points greater than their female counterparts†, and that these differences were â€Å"present at every socio-economic level and across several ethnic groups†(Crossley, 2005). This was a poorly founded generalization, since the people who take this test are usually people who want to go to college, giving a small pool of people. The questions on these standardized tests only measure some types of intelligence; they don’t take into account emotional intelligence, so they favor a certain group of p eople. They do not take into account emotional intelligence. The studies that should be used for these types of cases are strictly scientific, such as the one Louann Brizendine- author of the book The Female Brain- bases her statements on. One of the biggest indicators of differences between a man and a woman’s brain is its structure. As J. Philippe Rushton said, men’s brains are bigger than women’s. This is true, but what Rushton did not find out is that women’s brains have the same number of neurons in them, so the only difference is that women’s brains are more â€Å"tightly packed†. Page, 2005) The real reason as to why women and men’s brains are different is because some parts of each sex’s brains are more developed and connected than the others. Shelley Page gave examples of these in her article â€Å"Women, brains and science†. â€Å"Women have 11% more neurons in their brain centre for language and hearing than a man. † (Page, 2005) This difference is the reason why women take more pleasure, and ultimately succeed more in activities that involve communicating and interacting with others opposed to those that require solitary work. Their bodies release the hormone oxytocin while they talk, giving them pleasure and a rush of happiness. Another structural difference is â€Å"the principal hub for emotion and memory formation- the hippocampus†, which is bigger on women than on men. This gives women the ability to â€Å"instinctively know what people are feeling† (Page, 2005), The amygdala, another important part in the brain â€Å"registers fear and triggers aggression, is larger in the male brain. † (Page, 2005) This can help explain men’s aggressive and protective nature. All these differences are hereditary, and humans evolved to acquire them. Evolutionary divergence in men and women can also be an explanation to the differences in the brains of the two. Men, by nature, are the providers in a family. More than a hundred thousand years ago, they were the ones who brought the food for the family, and made sure they were all safe. Because of this, their amygdala might have developed more: they hade to cope with a lot of aggression to get what they wanted. Women are the nurturers: their life revolves around the upbringing of their children. Their hippocampus might have developed more because of their constant use of emotions toward their children. All these evolutionary changes led to the divergence between male and female intelligence. Who said that verbal and emotional intelligence is not as important as mathematical and scientific intellect? This is what society needs to understand and accept in order to value each gender’s aptitudes. The male and female brains are very different, and these differences help explain why we are better in some things opposed to others. Scientific studies have shown that women have more neurons and more connections in areas of the brain dedicated to communication and language, while men are more developed in the math and science area. Women and men have the same capabilities of learning, yet their biological differences make them diverge towards different interests. As opposed to assessing the intellectual capabilities of an individual by brain size or a score on a standardized test, true intelligence should be measured with hormonal influences, evolutionary differences and the brain’s structure taken into account.