GAC013: Science II: Scientific Principles Assessment 1: Scientific Investigation & Report Topic 1: Do Males and Females Have Different Abilities When Estimating Size? Student Name: Tracy Cheng Student ID: SHSA19818 Class:5 Teacher: Shawn Due Date: 10. 29. 2012 Content Abstract……………………………………………………………………………2 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….. 2 Methodology………………………………………... ……………………………. 2 Results…………………………………………………………………………….. 3 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………5 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………... References…………………………………………………………………………7 Abstract This report looks to explore the topic of doing males and females have different abilities when estimating size. The point that males’ abilities to estimate size are more accurate than females is hypothesized. To prove this hypothesis, some important information from the internet and a series of related research has been investigated. After collecting the data in my study, the results of this analysis indicate that males have the more accurate abilities in size estimating than females.
Introduction In the society, male and female have much diversity, which is called ‘Sexual Dimorphism’ in sociology and biology. Such differences are specifically expressed in many different areas in the life, such as morphology, ornamentation, and behavior. The purpose of this report is that analyzing some data to show the different abilities to estimate size for males and females, and trying to find what makes this happened. Now, I would like to hypothesis the males’ abilities to estimate size better than females’. Methodology
Firstly, some information on the internet about males and females which kinds of people can reckon size accurately will be found. According to the information, ten males and ten females will be chose to make them estimate an item’s (pens, notebooks or shoes) size. For different items, the two gender people may show different abilities in size estimating. At the end of this research, data should be collected and analyzed by charts or other ways to compare the accuracies in size estimating for males and females. Results
The estimated length of a pen by given ten males and ten females are shown in Figure 1. The actual length of this pen is 14. 5cm, which is shown in Figure 1 (a). According to Figure 1 (b), females’ results include some more precise numbers, such as 13. 5cm and 14. 8cm. Furthermore, the mean value of the estimated length for males is 13. 2cm, and for females is 13. 82cm, which can be seen clearly that the average estimating of females is more close to the actual length than males. Figure 1 – (a) the estimated length of a pen by ten males; (b) the estimated length of a pen by ten females.
Table 1 shows the estimated size of a pair of shoes by given ten males and ten females. The size of the shoes is European standard in this research, and actual size is 41. The mean value of the estimated size for males is 41. 7, and for females is 40. 9, and females have more accurate estimating. | Males’ estimating| Females’ estimating| 1| 44| 41| 2| 42| 40| 3| 42| 43| 4| 44| 40| 5| 43| 42| 6| 42| 38| 7| 40| 40| | 41| 40| 9| 39| 42| 10| 40| 43| Mean (rule out maximum & minimum value)| 41. 7| 40. 9| Actual| 41| 41| Table 1 – estimated size of a pair of shoes by ten males and ten females. Figure 2 reveals the area estimating for a notebook by twenty people from two genders. The actual size of the chosen notebook is 446. 25 cm2. Though calculations, the average estimated size is 438 cm2 and 359. 25 cm2 for males and females, respectively.
Moreover, a same case which be found in the first research (pen length estimating) also came out. Females’ estimating includes more precise numbers like 454. 6, and males more likely to estimate cursory numbers, such as 400, 300 and 600. Figure 2 – (a) the estimated size of a notebook by ten males; (b) the estimated size of a notebook by ten females. Discussion From the first research, it can be found that female is more careful and accurate (Figure 1), because females more likely to give a more specific value and shows a more exquisite heart.
That can also be showed in daily life, girls always be said that do things much more careful than boys in most cases (Women and Men in the Classroom 1985, p. Online). For instance, when a teacher has some works for girls, in the most time the girls can finish these works quickly and better. However, in the third research, these results show that males have better estimated size than females. The researchers found that when people ask males to estimate size, the majority of them always use their hands to measure the length and ponder over for a relatively long time.
But in the same situation, females are more likely to pay attention on the notebook’s color, shape and other things rather than the size, and their reason is that they prefer to care about how lovely the notebook is. According all of these researches in the previous, females are better to estimate something which has exact norms, like shoes and diamond, and males are good at estimating on the things which are very large and dimensional, such as the height of a building and the length of a bridge.
Although female is more careful, their ability in size estimating is not necessarily as good as males. Males are more logical and rational, and have better space imagination than females. Another research from the internet proves that metastudies show a male advantage in mental rotation and assessing horizontality and verticality” (Handbook of Gender Research in Psychology. 2010. ) which is why male estimated more accurate than female. Conclusion Depending on a series of researches, people have different abilities to estimate size.
Males are more accurate in estimating size than females since males are relatively more rational and logical. The reason may be related to the process in human’s evolutions in the history. More specifically, males always make a more leading role in the society for a quite long time after the end of matriarchal clan commune period. For example, many important jobs such as architects and engineers even most government officials are preferred for males. To sum up, I prefer to think that the ability of males in estimating size is better than females.
References Catherine G. Krupnick (1985), Women and Men in the Classroom [online]. Available at: http://isites. harvard. edu/fs/html/icb. topic58474/krupnick. html. [Accessed 26 Oct 2012] Chrisler, Joan C & Donald R. McCreary (2010), Handbook of Gender Research in Psychology. Springer. [online]. Available at: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Male_female_differences [Accessed 26 Oct 2012] Male-Female Brain Differences [online]. Available at: http://www. doctorhugo. org/brain4. html [Accessed 26 October 2012]
