BGA48234

Dr.Simon Baron-Coheh Dr. Richard Lippa Dr. John Manning Prof. David Perrett Dr. Stian Reimers
 * 48234**
 * Brain Gender Assessment**
 * Part 1**

See Attached
 * Part 2**

I do agree with most of what this assessment is claiming to be true about myself.I was surprised to see that in the 3D shapes section I scored in the range where Engineers and those with Science backgrounds do. I don’t agree with the belief that just because you are male or female you answer the questions to this assessment solely because of your gender. I believe each of us are individuals and that whether or not we can move shapes around in our mind has nothing to do with our physical gender. I believe we answer these questions not only because of our individual beliefs, but that those beliefs may in some way may have been affected by the way we were raised. The way that the scores often overlapped each other was another draw back to validity for me. If men and women think so differently how is it possible for our scores to be so close that at times they are even identical. If this assessment were given to individuals raised in gender neutral homes in a gender neutral world then and only then would I believe that this gender assessment could tell me if I were male or female.
 * Part 3**

I agree that you can not predict the gender of someone based solely on the way they perform on a test. The answers they give on a test don’t vary only because they are male or female there are many other factors that play a role in someone choosing a particular answer. Maybe in the future there will be a way to develop an assessment to distinguish the gender of an individual, but thus far it has not been done without any criticism.
 * Part 4**

The error type that sticks out the most for me is the one proposed by Cahill as “overlapping distributions” due to Stereotypes. This is basically stating that when male and female scores overlap there needs to be another way to compute and factor that into the averages of those within the same gender.To actually be able to label one by their answers given to a particular range of questions more research needs to be conducted. I have already mentioned that I thought the overlapping scores could present a problem if the two genders are claimed to be so different then why would it be possible for the scores to overlap and be identical. Furthermore how are the results of this or any other assessment scored this way to be taken seriously and believed to be valid. I honestly believe that this assessment needs to be revamped completely. There should be no overlapping scores if you want a definitive answer to a particular gender. Attempting to study young children who have been raised in a gender neutral home could be one way of going about a new type of assessment. Also do these tests take into consideration the sexual orientation one believes them self to be. Are there different guidelines among gay, lesbian, and transgender communities? In todays society these are some of the key factors as to how and why individuals may answer things the way that they do. These factors as to how and why individuals may answer things the way that they do. These factors could potentially play a large role in future assessments. Is it possible to say that there is no test that can determine the gender of someone based upon their answers to a few simple questions, I don't believe so. Could it be that men and women are not as different as we have been led to believe for so many years. Maybe if our generation starts to instill different beliefs into our sons and daughters 50 years from now the description of male and female genders may be different then they are today. Instead of telling our daughters its ok that you are not good at math because studies show that boys are better at it we should say if you are having trouble in math if you continue to practice you will only get better and better at it. Maybe someday I'll be a believer that these assessments are true predictors in gender until then I am still a non believer.
 * Part 5 **