Byrd-Craven Jennifer, Geary David C
210 McAlester Hall, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-2500, USA.
Reprod Biomed Online. 2007 Dec;15 Suppl 2:12-22. doi: 10.1016/s1472-6483(10)60545-7.
Boys and girls, and men and women show consistent differences, on average, in interests, activity preferences, and social styles. This article summarizes sex differences in human development from infancy through the childhood years and considers how these differences in developmental patterns relate to human evolutionary history. Evidence is reviewed suggesting that the psychological traits that were advantageous differed consistently for men and women during human evolution, consistent with Darwin's (1871) sexual selection as a mechanism through which cognitive and behavioural sex differences evolve and develop during lifetimes. The result is that some sex differences are found very early in development in predispositions to engage in different activities, to attend to different social information, and in methods of social influence. These early differences, in turn, prepare children for somewhat different tasks and roles in adulthood. Although these differences have strong biological origins, developmental experiences serve to flesh out and elaborate on these differences, or to minimize them, depending on the demands of the culture in which the child is situated.
男孩与女孩、男性与女性在兴趣、活动偏好和社交风格上平均表现出持续的差异。本文总结了从婴儿期到童年期人类发展中的性别差异，并探讨了这些发展模式上的差异如何与人类进化史相关联。所回顾的证据表明，在人类进化过程中，对男性和女性具有优势的心理特征始终存在差异，这与达尔文（1871年）提出的性选择理论相符，即性选择是认知和行为上的性别差异在一生中得以进化和发展的一种机制。结果是，在发展早期就发现了一些性别差异，体现在参与不同活动的倾向、关注不同社会信息的倾向以及社会影响方式上。反过来，这些早期差异又使儿童为成年后 somewhat different tasks and roles 做好准备。尽管这些差异有很强的生物学根源，但发展经历会根据儿童所处文化的要求，进一步充实和细化这些差异，或者将其最小化。
