Critically discuss the empirical evidence that there are sex differences in intelligence - Essay Example

Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—"catching on", "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do. (p.13) The complex factors that affect intelligence have fascinated researchers over the years, with the belief that gender plays a significant role in cognitive abilities. In an effort to settle controversies concerning gender and intelligence, empirical researches in the fields of psychology and learning have made attempts to identify how the two sexes perform in certain cognitive tasks.

Based on the results of the standardized measures in cognitive batteries, increasing evidence from various studies confirm that men’s functioning and women’s functioning are in fact different. A study conducted by Jackson and Rushton (2005) investigated the sex differences in general mental ability. A Scholastic Assessment Test was given to 100,000 high school graduates where results showed that the male samples performed better with an average IQ score of 3.63 higher than the females.

This finding was consistent with other factors across groups such as gender differences in general mental ability for participants from different socioeconomic levels and ethnic groups. Likewise, the British Journal of Psychology published the findings of a study made by Lyn and Irwing (2005) on a big sample of university men and women. The controversial research that aroused public attention indicated that based on IQ, men’s average scores were higher between 3.3 and 5.0 than women. While outcomes of these research studies have favored the male sample, results of other studies revealed that although both male and females vary on average in how competently they function on different skill tests, cognitive skills are actually equally distributed between them (Halpern, D.

,Benbow, C., Geary, D., Gur, R., Hyde, J., and Gernsbacher,M., 2007). For instance, women are likely to achieve higher scores on specific verbal