BG47446

Eyes- This test was originally called 'The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test,' devised by Professor Baron Cohen at Cambridge University to test theories about Asperger Syndrome and Autism. 3D shapes-This test is based on the adaption of the Vandenberg & Kuse test, by Michael Peters, University of Guelph, Canada.
 * Part 1: ** Angles- Test from Marcia Collaer, adapted from Benton AL, Sivan AB, Hamsher K, Varney NR and Spreen O 1994. Contributions to neuropsychological assessment: A clinical manual. 2nd edition (New York:Oxford)

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 * Part 2: ** The Results

My results suggested I had a mostly female brain which was relieving since I am a female and all! I was very surprised at the fact that although my end results were “female brain” a lot of my tasks measured me to have a balanced female-male brain. I did not know anyone could have a balanced female-male brain! I thought it was really interesting the tests that were used to decipher whether whoever took the test had a female or male brain. Especially the “faces” test. But I do think that the test was accurate. Going back to the faces test, my results said I prefer masculine faces which is completely true about me. I enjoyed taking this test because now I know I do have a female brain but why I also can understand a lot of what guys are thinking as well. I think these were accurate tests.
 * Part 3: ** My Opinion

I just want to say to begin with I felt like this assessment did a great job of testing the gender of who was taking the test. I did not feel as if the test had the problem of using “gender” and “sex” interchangeably as mentioned as one of the flaws in these types of studies in the scientific-American article titled “Get Over It: Men and Women are from the same planet.” As for the “evolved differences in men and women” also mentioned in the same article I do not feel like this particular assessment touched on this factor at all. I do not feel like the traits being measured had a way of linking or connecting with heritable aspects of human physiology or behavior that has an effect on overall fitness. I feel like this also connects with problem number five of the slate article “Sex on the Brain.” Problem number five is “stereotypes.” People in general are different from each other. It is not fair to really classify people only into such broad groups such as “male” or “female.” As the article said, “Girls differ from boys, but girls also differ from other girls.” A way to fix this problem in this particular assessment would be to not have these extreme broad terms that anyone could be labeled into but to have more options in the classification. An example would be various types of the female brain and various types of the male brain. As for the other problems that were briefly mentioned in the slate article such as monocasuality, casual extrapolation, self-fulfillment, either/or, over interpretation, Inferred immutability, data pooling, or comparison games I don’t feel really appear in this particular assessment. When it comes to classifying genders there is clearly many problems that are apparent in assessments. As I said before I do believe that because this assessment was very simple and although broad it should not be considered in the assessments the articles mention. I honestly wish to know how the different tests I took connect with having a male or gender brain. Referring back to the slate article it mentions about how it is possible that because it has always been said that guys are better at math that girls know this and realize this, thus doing not as well in math. So I wonder if with these tests I have been preprogrammed at all to take them a certain way. Assessment tests should be created in a way that is not meant for guys to be better at some parts and girls to be better at others. It can also make a significant difference if someone has previously taken other gender tests. This could affect the way in how the testee takes the assessment “knowing” the parts in which they score higher and which they score lower. The truth is with any scientific studies there can be errors or flaws in the experiments. The resolution is collecting all results from different assessments and comparing them that way and then classify people into the different categories of female or male brains.
 * Part 4 & 5: ** Weighing the criticism

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From Professor Barrett:

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