Re: Developmental stages of thinking (4:reason; connected knowing)

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 22:18 -0500 9/16/02, John Clement wrote:
> I for one would like to thank Jane for her synopsis.  The obvious
> differences between boys and girls are seldom explored well.  While research
> shows the differences, a good model for why these differences exist is not
> always proposed.  Just today I noted that the boys promptly went over to
> spin the blades of the fan carts while the girls did not touch them until
> after they had read the instructions.
>
> James Thurber proposed that girls had to physically fondle things if they
> like them. However the reverse is usually true.  Boys have to physically
> handle objects and play with them.
I have noticed this also, but I think it makes a difference how we
approach the difference if the characteristic is innate or learned. I
don't know which it is, but I suspect, from watching girls operate
when boys are not around, that it may well be a learned behavior. I
have watched parents who have both boys and girls treat them very
differently, encouraging the boys to "get their hands dirty" while
discouraging the same behavior in the girls. What I don't know is
whether they treat the girls differently because that is the earlier
behavior they observed in their girls or if that's the way they want
the girls to grow up.

If the behavior is learned, then I think that we have some hope of
"unlearning" them, but if it is innate, then there probably is little
hope for any major changes.

I have also taught computer learn-how classes to teachers, and I find
the women were much more timid than the men to try something when
they didn't know what would happen.

I also observed something in the computer classes that I would like
to discuss with a behavioral psychologist some day. In every class,
there would be 3 or 4 students who got the mouse backwards. That is,
they held it with the wire coming out under their wrist. If is was a
big class and I wasn't able to move around the room easily, they
could sometimes operate this way for a while. Those who did it were
about evenly split between men and women, but the men quickly got
frustrated because the screen cursor went the opposite direction than
they moved the mouse, and would complain that something was wrong.
However, the women quickly adapted to the discrepancy and learned
that if they wanted to move the cursor to the right, they would have
to move the mouse to the left, etc. Several of them had gotten so
used to this situation by the time I corrected it, that they had a
little trouble adjusting to using the mouse the right way.

Again, I don't know the origin of this kind of adaptability, but this
particular one, I suspect might be innate.

Perhaps there is someone on the list who knows enough psychology to
be able to shed some light on this.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
******************************************************