Abstract
A nursery school teacher brought a little girl to a psychologist’s attention when the girl was being made the focus of contemptuous looks by her peers and playmates. “Why do they look at her that way?” asked the teacher. “She’s attractive and bright and she wants to play with the other children.” The psychologist looked over at the child. “What little girl?” she asked. “That’s a boy.” The psychologist was wrong and that was the problem. This 4-year-old girl had the lower brow ridge of a boy, the smaller mouth and the gestures of a boy. She did not often smile; she stood obliquely and she gestured expansively. She engaged in rough-and-tumble play. She also nurtured dolls and was learning to read early. The children in playschool did not know what to make of her. The adults said, “There’s something strange about the nice child over there, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.” That last sentence sums up what our research in nonverbal behavior is all about. We are putting our fingers on the important things that people have few words for—the barely conscious gestures that separate and identify the sexes.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Argyle, M., Lalljee, M., & Cook, M. The effects of visibility on interaction in a dyad. Human Relations 1968, 21 3–17.
Ashear, V., & Snortum, J. R. Eye contact in children as a function of age, social and intellective variables. Developmental Psychology 1971, 4 479.
Borges, M. A., & Vaughn, L. S. Cognitive differences between the sexes in memory for names and faces. Perceptual and Motor Skills 1977, 45 317–318.
Borke, H. Interpersonal perception of young children. Developmental Psychology 1971, 5, 263–269.
Borke, H. The development of empathy in Chinese and American children between three and six years of age: A cross-cultural study. Developmental Psychology 1973, 9, 102–108.
Bronson, G. The postnatal growth of visual capacity. Child Development 1974, 45 873–890.
Buck, R. Nonverbal communication of affect in children. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 1975, 34 644–653.
Buck, R. Nonverbal communication of affect in preschool children: Relationships with personality and skin conductance. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 1977, 35 225–236.
Cohen, L. B., & Salapatek, P. (Eds.) Infant perception: From sensation to cognition (Vol. 1) Basic visual processes New York: Academic Press, 1975.
Craig, K. D., & Lowry, H. J. Heart-rate components of conditional vicarious autonomic responses. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 1969, 11, 381–387.
Cross, J. F., Cross, J., & Daly, J. Sex, race, age, and beauty as factors in recognition of faces. Perception & Psychophysics 1971, 10 393–396.
Deutsch, F. Effects of sex of subject and story character on preschoolers’ perceptions of affective responses and interpersonal behavior in story sequences. Developmental Psychology 1975, 11, 112–113.
Diamond, M. Human sexual development: Biological foundations for social development. In F. Beach (Ed.), Human sexuality in four perspectives Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977.
Dickey, E. C., & Knower, F. H. A note on some ethnological differences in recognition of simulated expressions of the emotions. American Journal of Sociology 1941, 47 190–193.
Dunn, J. F. Mother-infant relations: Continuities and discontinuities over the first 14 months. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 1976, 20 273–277.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. Unmasking the face Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1975.
Fay, B. The relationships of cognitive moral judgement, generosity, and empathic behavior in six and eight year old children Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Education, 1970.
Feldman, J. F., Brody, N., & Miller, S. Sex differences in non-elicited neonatal behaviors. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 1980, 26(1), 63–73.
Feldstein, J. H. Sex differences in social memory among preschool children. Sex Roles 1976, 2, 75–79.
Feshbach, N. D., & Feshbach, S. The relationship between empathy and aggression in two age groups. Developmental Psychology 1969, 1 102–107.
Feshbach, N., & Roe, K. Empathy in six and seven-year-olds. Child Development 1968, 39 133–145.
Field, T. M. Visual and cardiac responses to animate and inanimate faces by young term and preterm infants. Child Development 1979, 50 188–194.
Fraiberg, S. Blind infants and their mothers: An examination of the sign systems. In M. Bullowa (Ed.), Before speech New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Friedman, H. S., Riggio, R. E., & Segall, D. O. Personality and the enactment of emotion. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 1980, 5 35–48.
Gates, G. S. An experimental study of the growth of social perception. Journal of Educational Psychology 1923, 14 449–461.
Gitter, A. G., Mostofsky, D. I., & Quincy, A. J. Race and sex differences in the child’s perception of emotion. Child Development 1971, 42 2071–2075.
Going, M., & Read, J. D. Effects of uniqueness, sex of subject, and sex of photograph on facial recognition. Perceptual and Motor Skills 1974, 39 109–110.
Goldberg, S., & Lewis, M. A. Play behavior in the year-old infant: Early sex differences. Child Development 1969, 40 21–31.
Green, S. Variation of vocal pattern with social situation in the Japanese monkey (Macaca fascata): A field study. In L. A. Rosenblum (Ed.), Primate behavior: Developments in field and laboratory research New York: Academic Press, 1975.
Hall, J. A. Gender effects in decoding nonverbal cues. Psychological Bulletin 1978, 85 845–857.
Hamilton, M. L. Imitative behavior and expressive ability in facial expression of emotion. Development Psychology 1973, 8 138.
Haviland, J. M. Sex-related pragmatics in infants. Journal of Communication 1977, 27(2), 80–84.
Haviland, J. M., & Ingate, M. Hemispheric differences in the perception of facial expression. Unpublished manuscript, 1980.
Haviland, J. M., & Lewis, M. Infants’ greeting patterns to strangers. Research Bulletin 72–2. Educational Testing Service, Princeton, N.J. January, 1976.
Haviland, J. M., & Scarborough, H. Adolescence in contemporary society New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1981.
Hittelman, J. H., & Dickes, R. Sex differences in neonatal eye contact time. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 1979, 25 171–184.
Hoffman, M. L. Developmental synthesis of affect and cognition and its implications for altruistic motivation. Developmental Psychology 1975, 11, 607–622.
Howells, T. H. A study of ability to recognize faces. Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology 1938, 33 124–127.
Hulicka, I. M. Age differences for intentional and incidental learning and recall scores. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 1965, 13(7), 639–649.
Izard, C. The face of emotion New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971.
Izard, C. E. Human emotions New York: Plenum Press, 1977.
Izard, C. E. The maximally discriminative facial movement coding system (Max). Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware, 1979.
Kaess, W. A., & Witryol, S. L. Memory for names and faces: A characteristic of social intelligence. Journal of Applied Psychology 1955, 39 457–462.
Kagan, J., & Lewis, M. Studies of attention in the human infant. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 1965, 2 95–122.
Kellogg, W., & Eagleson, B. The growth of social perception in different racial groups. Journal of Educational Psychology 1931, 22 367–375.
Korner, A. F. Neonatal startles, smiles, erections, and reflex sucks as related to state, sex and individuality. Child Development 1969, 40 1039–1053.
La France, M., & Mayo, C. A review of nonverbal behavior in women and men. Western Journal of Speech Communication 1979, 43 96–107.
Laskey, R. E., & Klein, R. E. The reactions of 5-month-old infants to eye contact of the other and of a stranger. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 1979, 25 163–170.
Levine, L. E., & Hoffman, M. L. Empathy and cooperation in 4-year olds. Developmental sychology 1975, 11, 3–534.
Levine, M. H., & Sutton-Smith, B. Effects of age, sex and task on visual behavior during yadic interaction. Developmental Psychology 1973, 9, 400–405.
Lewis, M. Infants’ responses to facial stimuli during the first year of life. Developmental sychology 1969, 1 75–86.
Ling, D., & Ling, A. H. Communication development in the first three years of life. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research 1974, 17 146–159.
Lipps, T. Das Wissen von fremden Ichen. Psychologische Untersuchnung 1906, 1, 694–722.
Lord, C. The perception of eye contact in children and adults. Child Development 1974, 45 1113–1117.
Maccoby, E. E., & Jacklin, C. N. The psychology of sex differences Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974.
Malatesta, C. Z. Determinants of infant affect socialization: Age, sex of infant and maternal emotional traits Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., 1980.
Moss, H. A. Sex age and state as determinants of mother-infant interaction. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 1967, 13 19–36.
Moss, H. A., & Robson, K. S. Maternal influences in early social visual behavior. Child Development 1968, 39 401–480.
Osofsky, J. D., & Danzger, B. Relationships between neonatal characteristics and mother-infant interaction. Developmental Psychology 1974, 10 124–130.
Osofsky, J. D., & O’Connell, E. J. Patterning of newborn behavior in an urban population. Child Development 1977, 48 532–536.
Phillips, S., King, S., & DuBois, L. Spontaneous activities of female versus male newborns. Child Development 1978, 49 590–597.
Redican, W. K. Facial expressions in nonhuman primates. In L. A. Rosenblum (Ed.), Primate behavior developments infield and laboratory research New York: Academic Press, 1975.
Rosenthal, R., Hall, J. A., Archer, D., DiMatteo, M. R., & Rogers, P. L. The PONS test: Measuring sensitivity to nonverbal cues. In S. Weitz (Ed.), Nonverbal communication New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
Rothenberg, B. B. Children’s social sensitivity and the relationship to interpersonal competence, intrapersonal comfort and intellectual level. Developmental Psychology 1970, 2, 335–350.
Russo, N. F. Eye contact, interpersonal distance, and the equilibrium theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1975, 31, 497–502.
Sagi, A., & Hoffman, M. L. Empathic distress in the newborn. Developmental Psychology 1976, 12 175–176.
Scheman, J. D., & Lockard, J. S. Development of gaze aversion in children. Child Development 1979, 50 594–596.
Simner, M. L. Newborn’s response to the cry of another infant. Developmental Psychology 1971, 5, 136–150.
Sroufe, L. A. Socioemotional development. In J. D. Osofsky, (Ed.), Handbook of infant development New York: Wiley & Sons, 1979.
Staffieri, J. R., & Bassett, J. E. Birth order and perception of facial expressions. Perceptual and Motor Skills 1970, 30, 606.
Thayer, S. (1977) Children’s detection of on-face and off-face gazes. Developmental Psychology 1977, 13 673–674.
Thoman, E. B. Development of synchrony in mother-infant interaction in feeding and other situations. Proceedings of the 58th Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 1976.
Tomkins, S. Affect, imagery, consciousness (Vol. 1), The positive affects New York: Springer Publishing Co., Inc., 1962.
Tomkins, S. Affect, imagery, consciousness (Vol. II), The negative affects New York: Springer Publishing Co., Inc., 1963.
Weitz, S. Sex differences in nonverbal communication. Sex Roles 1976, 2, 175–184.
Wilson, E. O. Sociobiology Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975.
Zimmerman, D. H., & West, C. Sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversation. In B. Thorne & N. Henley (Eds.), Language and sex: Differences and dominance Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1975.
Zuckerman, M., & Przewuzman, S. J. Decoding and encoding facial expressions in preschool age children. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior in press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1981 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Haviland, J.J., Malatesta, C.Z. (1981). The Development of Sex Differences in Nonverbal Signals: Fallacies, Facts, and Fantasies. In: Mayo, C., Henley, N.M. (eds) Gender and Nonverbal Behavior. Springer Series in Social Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5953-4_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5953-4_10
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-5955-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-5953-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive