We have all heard the expression that women come from Venus and men come from Mars.
Traditionally, each sex has been attributed markedly different personality characteristics, something that psychological research has always been interested in addressing, but not without encountering controversies along the way.
What are the personality differences between men and women? Are they as striking as you think? Is it due to culture or are there really biological factors behind them that explain them? We will try to resolve these issues in this article.
Personality differences between men and women
That women are attributed personality traits that are different from those of men is something that does not attract attention. Everyone, even if they don’t recognize it, has a preconceived idea of ​​what masculinity is and what femininity is and, therefore, it also has, to a greater or lesser extent, prejudices associated with people belonging to one of the two biological sexes.
The psychological differences between men and women have always sparked interest, not only from personality psychologists, but also philosophers, artists, doctors, and many more.
The traditional image in the West is that men are less sensitive than women, with a greater degree of emotional stability. Women have been associated with tenderness, warmth, empathy and sympathy, while men are seen more as a harsh and distant person. Furthermore, and according to collective thinking, the man with traditionally feminine features or the woman with masculine ones, in the most sexist cases, are seen as less men or less women, respectively.
Be that as it may, what can be seen is that personality differences have traditionally been associated with the categories of man and woman. The big question behind it has been whether these were really so markedly significant as it has always been assumed to be and to what extent they depended on what gender is culturally or what sex is biologically.
Research, over the last twenty years, has partially agreed. This has given strength, although relative, to the classic ideas regarding what men and women are like in terms of personality, agreeing that personality traits in both sexes have a high heritable component and remain stable over time. throughout the development of the person.
Sex differences and the Five Factor model
When talking about personality traits in psychology, the following definition is usually used: consistencies in a person’s affect, thought, and behavior that remain more or less stable throughout situations and their individual development, having high predictability throughout the person’s life.
Within the study of personality, The most used conceptualization is the one proposed by Robert McCrae and Paul Costa, the Five Factor Model. This model divides personality into five dimensions: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, cordiality and responsibility. Each of these dimensions is made up of facets, which help to specify, in a nutshell, the personality of the person.
Within extraversion there are several facets, among which we can take assertiveness and positive emotions as examples. Two people can be, in quantitative terms, equally extraverted, but one can be more assertive while the other can have more positive emotions.
In 2001, McCrae and Costa, together with their colleague Antonio Terracciano, conducted research on gender differences between cultures, to elucidate to see what the differences were between both genders and if these were consistent between cultures That is, if what was traditionally seen in the West, insensitive men and cordial women, was something that also occurred in other cultures and to what degree it occurred. Below is a summary of their findings going from dimension to dimension.
1. Neuroticism
Neuroticism refers to negative affect, that is, those personality traits that make the person prone to anxiety, anger, depression, and other stressful emotions
Both McCrae and Costa, as well as other researchers before and after their study, have found that, indeed, there are important differences in this dimension between men and women.
In the vast majority of studies it is observed that Women have higher scores on this dimension compared to men This can also be related to the risk of suffering psychological disorders. It is not surprising that, since women have the highest scores in these types of traits, they are, at the same time, the demographic group with the highest risk of suffering from mental disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders.
Among anxiety disorders, disorders such as phobias, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety and panic attack disorder are much more common in women. Disorders such as major depression, dysthymia and personality disorders such as borderline are also more common in women.
However, it is worth noting that within the neuroticism dimension there is an aspect that has caught the attention of researchers, given that it seems to relate very differently from study to study between men and women. Is the case of rage, or rather hostility Some studies have found that men have higher levels of hostility than women, something that would coincide with the traditional image of the violent man that exists in cultures such as the Mediterranean ones.
However, in other studies this is not the case. Either women are seen to present greater hostility, generally verbalized rather than converted into physical aggression, or even that both genders do not present any difference in this aspect.
2. Extraversion and cordiality
If we go back to the first studies on personality differences between men and women, as is the case of Bern (1974), we can find that, when addressing interpersonal traits, we talk about femininity and masculinity.
These dimensions, which are highly criticized today, would refer to which traits related to extraversion and cordiality would be associated with women and which with men. Basically, According to traditional models, masculinity is referred to as a measure of dominance while femininity is referred to in terms of kindness, tenderness, love, care towards parenting…
In subsequent studies, which avoid using such controversial labels as masculinity and femininity, attempts have been made to address the two dimensions related to them: extraversion and agreeableness/cordiality. In McCrae and Costa’s model, extraversion would be related to the masculine dominance of the traditional model, while agreeableness would be related to the desire to please and not generate hostility, more related to femininity.
Women, according to research, tend to be more oriented toward kindness and tenderness However, it is worth noting that there are studies that seem to indicate that women are more extraverted and, in others, that they are less so.
Within the extraversion dimension, there are two facets in which there are differences regarding gender. Women score higher on the warmth facet, while men are more assertive.
3. Openness to experience
Men and women are viewed differently in terms of their cognitive style. This does not mean that one gender is more intelligent than the other, but rather that the way they choose to expand their cultural level and knowledge is different
In the West, from a philosophical perspective, men have been seen as people guided by reason while women are guided by emotions, using both terms as opposites.
Within the Five Factor Model, and avoiding the pejorative use that has traditionally been made of this contrast, differences have been seen within the dimension of openness to experience depending on gender.
It is not that there are differences in terms of the dimension of openness to experience, but with respect to facets within it. Women score higher in facets such as aesthetics and feelings, while men score higher in the ideas facet
Women are also more sensitive to emotions. For example, in a study carried out by Eisenberg’s group (1989) evidence was found that the female gender had a better ability to express and identify non-verbal language.
4. Responsibility
The studies here are not clarified. On the one hand, yes Significant differences can be found during adolescence in terms of responsibility, with boys being much less responsible than the girls. However, as you get older, things seem to even out.
What is notable is the fact that, traditionally, men have been seen as less responsible, especially carrying out acts of ‘bravery’ or, basically, taking risks that can endanger their physical integrity. This search for dangerous situations would be related to a strategy to achieve status within the peer group.
Explanations behind personality differences between genders
When addressing human behavior and its heritability, theories have always been proposed, some taking into account biological aspects and others that focus on social factors. This has been part of the now classic debate of upbringing and inheritance, also called ‘nature vs. nurture’. Below we will see the two main approaches when it comes to explaining the reason for the personality differences between men and women.
Biological theories
These theories maintain that sex-related differences are due to innate factors that have evolved. through natural selection Evolutionary psychology maintains that the sexes differ in domains that have adaptive importance depending on whether one is male or female.
For example, female mammals have the ability to become pregnant, in addition to carrying out actions such as parenting and breastfeeding.
This would explain why human women have a greater predisposition to have a good relationship with their offspring. Kinder women who behave with warmth and tenderness towards their children promote their survival if you take this evolutionary approach.
Other biological theories that have been proposed to explain why women are more likely to suffer from problems related to neuroticism, especially depression, have to do with hormones.
Although this has not been completely clear over the decades, it is The possibility has been raised that hormones such as estrogen influence emotional stability and also personality itself of individuals.
The possibility has also been raised that different levels of androgens during early development influence aspects such as interests, activities, and the manifestation of violent behaviors.
Sociocultural theories
On the other hand, social psychology has defended the idea that Gender differences are due to factors more related to one’s own culture Depending on the social role that men and women are expected to play in a given culture, they will try to behave accordingly.
This pressure, already present since childhood, causes people of both genders to end up internalizing the personality traits that are expected of them, making them part of this personality. It should be said that these theories are accompanied by a controversy, whether gender roles are purely cultural creations or are something that has a biological basis and that culture has exaggerated.
Cross-cultural studies
To try to clarify the importance of biology and culture in relation to gender differences, McCrae and Costa, along with a large number of other personality psychologists in countless studies, have carried out this approach in multiple cultures.
Cross-cultural studies, that is, studies carried out in various cultures, allow obtaining evidence on the relative importance of biological aspects with respect to cultural ones in gender differences. The idea is that, if personality traits are influenced more by genetics than by environment, then the same patterns can be expected to repeat themselves around the world.
As we were already indicating in the previous section, one of the explanations within biological theories would be the fact that men and women, by having different types of hormones, would consequently have different personality traits, the relationship between hormones being notable. females with emotional instability.
It should be noted that certain patterns have been found in most cultures, the classic one being that women are more cordial and sensitive than men. However, taking into account how globalized the world is today Is it possible to know to what extent this is not the influence of Western culture on the media?
If we do a historical review, we can see that, traditionally in most cultures, the role of leader, who as a general rule must be assertive and even violent, has been attributed to men, who gather together, according to the stereotypical ideas of the genders, these traits.