Frodi A M, Lamb M E
Child Dev. 1978 Dec;49(4):1182-8.
Sex differences in responsiveness to infants were investigated by comparing physiological responses to infants with overt behavioral reactions. The former were assumed to be more biologically determined than the latter whereas overt behavioral responsiveness was presumed to be more affected by societal norms than were psychophysiological indices. The subjects were boys and girls in middle childhood and early adolescence. Psychophysiological indices showed that children, like parents, responded differentially to infant smiles and cries. As predicted, there were no sex differences on psychophysiological measures of responsiveness to babies. When permitted to interact with a baby, however, girls interacted more and ignored less than boys did. The results suggest that sex differences in overt responsiveness to babies are attributable to societal pressures rather than innate factors. Sex differences appear to wax and wane depending on the salience of sex stereotypy in differing developmental phases.
通过比较对婴儿的生理反应和明显的行为反应，研究了对婴儿反应的性别差异。前者被认为比后者更受生物学因素决定，而明显的行为反应性被认为比心理生理指标更容易受到社会规范的影响。研究对象是童年中期和青春期早期的男孩和女孩。心理生理指标表明，儿童和父母一样，对婴儿的微笑和哭声反应不同。正如预测的那样，在对婴儿反应的心理生理测量上没有性别差异。然而，当被允许与婴儿互动时，女孩比男孩互动更多且忽视更少。结果表明，对婴儿明显反应的性别差异归因于社会压力而非先天因素。性别差异似乎会根据不同发育阶段性别刻板印象的显著程度而增减。
