Question

6. In general, girls are considered “more emotional” than boys. Evaluate this belief in light of research on gender differences in emotional experience and emotion regulation. How will the research you have read inform your decisions as both a parent and an educator?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) According to a piece by Margrit Bradley, of the two sexes, females are biologically wired to be more emotional than males. However, men also get emotional but, perhaps about different stimuli than women. Also, women seek out emotion in relationships and also tend to perceive situations through the lens of emotion, as compared to men.

However, both men and women are susceptible to emotions. Men and women simply have different levels of expression with their emotions. This is where gender roles might have a certain influence. Considering that the sex of an individual is dependent on whether they possess the ‘xx’ or ‘xy’ chromosome at birth, gender is the social status that is endowed on a person, based on their sex.

These social connotations influence what we wear, how we behave, how we think etc. Gender also influences how we exhibit our emotional state. Therefore, since boys or men are generally viewed as stoic and women or girls are emotional, it is common to find a female being more expressive than her male counterpart. This is not to say that on a biological level, males have a shorter emotional range than women. This is more to say that men might live their whole lives without expressing their emotional range simply because society might say that a male shouldn’t get too emotional.

Since the world today might lack a certain sense of compassion and vicariousness, it is essential now more than ever for the males of the society to get in touch with their emotional side. In order to make sure that the future leaders are able to feel the pain and joys of the people they lead, it is essential for parents and teachers today to teach the males and females that it is beneficial to be emotional.

A study for the National Institute of Mental Health recently conducted a study of emotional responses by men and women. The study led by Dr. Yoshiya Moriguchi, found that both men and women reacted to emotions. These results were confirmed through MRIs. If there is such a similarity, it is also necessary to dissolve social roles that make it ok and good for men to be less emotional than women.

As a parent or teacher, it would, therefore, be essential to teach the children how to think independently from social stereotypes. This means that children should be taught to feel whatever emotions they have without any discomfort.