Chapter 3 of Questioning Gender by Robyn Ryle discusses multidisciplinary approaches to the study of gender; The many lenses through which gender can be examined show what a complex concept it is, even if we take it for granted or don't notice it every day. There are different beliefs about the existence of major mental differences between men and women, such as men being better at mathematics and spatial reasoning. Some of these may seem plausible, but they might be due to self-fulfilling prophecies and stereotype threat rather than true innate cognitive differences. These are concepts that psychologists study when it comes to gender. Macoby and Jacklin's meta-analyses show that there is little variation between the cognitive abilities and spatial performance of men and women. Other studies have shown that women perform worse on math tests when they are asked to write "man" or "woman" at the top of the page. Sex does exist in the mind and not just as a body part, but the capacity, or what people are capable of doing beyond how they perceive themselves, would likely be independent of gender identity without the subtle but strong psychological and psychological influence. social forces imposed by gender stereotypes. Since research on sex is primarily descriptive and provides little or no explanation for a discrepancy, social and psychological explanations remain plausible explanations. Cross-cultural analyzes used by anthropologists can also provide evidence in favor of social differences if gender differences in ability are different in other regions. of the world. If women were naturally less gifted than men in mathematical reasoning, studies comparing the two sexes ...... middle of article ...... result in different treatment. When it comes to appearance, what we collectively consider important affects how people are treated. In everyday society we don't judge people based on eye color, but Jan Elliott created an environment in her third grade classroom where eye color mattered, which led to real consequences. Students began to ostracize and ridicule each other on the basis of eye color, simply because the professor had convinced them that it was important and indicative of other qualities such as personality, moral character and intelligence. Thomas's principle was in full force; situations defined as real become real in their consequences. The existence of categories often pushes people to categorize themselves, but in the end, it's always a little nicer to live according to one of Britney Spears' quotes: “I don't like to define myself. I'm just.”