Future Orientation Sex Differences

As controversial as the topic of sex differences has been, researchers tend to agree that it involves more political considerations than do most other topics of psychological research (Bem, 1993; Eagly, 1995; Hyde, 1996; Scarr, 1988). For contemporary researchers, at issue are three fundamental questions: how prevalent sex differences are, which attributes are consistently susceptible to gender differences, and how dependent are they on biological, social and cultural factors and the interaction among them (Sternberg, 1993). Drawing on psychobiological research on sex hormones effects of the hormone prenatal environment (Hines, 2004) and the human body (Hampton & Moffat, 2004) and developmental studies on sex differences identified as early as infancy (McClure, 2000) and reinforced by adults (Bem, 1993) so that even sex-neutral adult roles are gender specific, it is plausible that girls and boys construct their future orientation differently. To examine these issues the present chapter opens with review of pertinent approaches to sex differences and continues with review of research on future orientation sex differences.