Attractiveness In Childhood: A Formal Analysis

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Given all of the information above, one might wonder if there are aspects of emotional expressiveness in childhood that might differ between the genders. A meta-analytic review by Chaplin and Aldao analyzed 555 effect sizes from 166 studies with a total of 21,709 participants. (14). In this review it was found that girls tended to show more positive emotions and internalizing emotions such as sadness, anxiety, and sympathy, while boys showed more externalizing emotions such as anger (14). These differences found were also shown to increase with increasing age (14). This leads to the question of why might these differences between boys and girls emerge. It has been suggested that gender differences in the expression of emotion integrates both biological temperamental predisposition and the socialization of boys and girls (14). In the biological sense, studies have shown that boys in infancy have higher levels of arousal, activity levels, and display of negative emotions, and less inhibitory control and language ability compared to girls (14). In terms of socialization, boys and girls learn very early that there are certain gender-related display rules for girls to be more emotionally expressive than boys, and that certain emotions are more appropriate for girls and others for boys (15). Girls …show more content…
Studies done by Kring and Gordon, have demonstrated that overall no differences are found (17). There is no robust evidences which suggests that there are neural differences in the brain, such as when looking at the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, where the cognitive control of emotion is located (17). Also, in regards to emotional expression and the autonomic nervous system, such as looking at skin conductance, heart rate, and cardiac vagal tone, no significant differences are found between women and men