Post by mikey117 on Oct 20, 2017 21:05:57 GMT
1st off, I think the fact that we are calling this the "extreme male brain" alone proves we have some bias toward the entire question(weather it is deserved or not is a different matter)
I think one thing we might not be considering, out side of the whole social construction, cultural upbringing that we tend to focus on....how about environment...let me use and example to clarify...I was a telemarketer, called people and asked them questions about what TV shows they liked, if they listen to the radio, etc. BEFORE taking that job, I would be pretty kind to telemarketers and actually talk to them bla bla...after taking the job, I had very low tolerance for telemarketers specifically since I saw how they acted was different then I would(basically, if the person doesn't want to talk...hang up the phone...which they never do...) Or alternatively me working in a restaurant, both jobs I would contend have had an affect on my empathy toward other people and not necessarily for the best as the nature of my work always pitted me against the customer, or the respondent, the entire situation was a competition and I was being paid to win the contest or make sure the losses suffered were as little as possible.
Those situations and many others we may take as jobs, don't exactly encourage empathy, they discourage and at times punish it, if there are differences in the two sexes, yes culture does have a factor to contribute...how big? Not sure, it could be argued that some cultural norms are to enforce biology, for instance women having maternity leave after giving birth is a cultural phenomenon for a biological reason that women need time that time to recover after giving birth. Mabye the act of nurturing a child inside of one's body and then giving birth creates an empathetic bond that is simply incomprehensible to men, that's biological. Its a well known fact(if certain you tube videos are to be believed) that men and women basically think differently thus creating some tension in relationships with the opposite sex.
The biological conditions, ADHD, Down syndrome, autisim, etc, are present in both sexes....so why are we calling it the "extreme male brain" for lack of empathy? Im sure we have met men who were incredibly empathetic, and some women who possessed near to no empathy, so is the Y chromosome to blame? I would say not
But anyway can we make a study to measure empathy? I dont think so, not any one definitive study anyway, as soo many other influences get to the subjects that we cant really narrow it down to any one thing. Also, how does one measure empathy? I might be able to SAY "hey, I know how you feel" but are we actually engaged in such a way we almost feel it vicariously? Or do we measure mirror neurons at work?
I think one thing we might not be considering, out side of the whole social construction, cultural upbringing that we tend to focus on....how about environment...let me use and example to clarify...I was a telemarketer, called people and asked them questions about what TV shows they liked, if they listen to the radio, etc. BEFORE taking that job, I would be pretty kind to telemarketers and actually talk to them bla bla...after taking the job, I had very low tolerance for telemarketers specifically since I saw how they acted was different then I would(basically, if the person doesn't want to talk...hang up the phone...which they never do...) Or alternatively me working in a restaurant, both jobs I would contend have had an affect on my empathy toward other people and not necessarily for the best as the nature of my work always pitted me against the customer, or the respondent, the entire situation was a competition and I was being paid to win the contest or make sure the losses suffered were as little as possible.
Those situations and many others we may take as jobs, don't exactly encourage empathy, they discourage and at times punish it, if there are differences in the two sexes, yes culture does have a factor to contribute...how big? Not sure, it could be argued that some cultural norms are to enforce biology, for instance women having maternity leave after giving birth is a cultural phenomenon for a biological reason that women need time that time to recover after giving birth. Mabye the act of nurturing a child inside of one's body and then giving birth creates an empathetic bond that is simply incomprehensible to men, that's biological. Its a well known fact(if certain you tube videos are to be believed) that men and women basically think differently thus creating some tension in relationships with the opposite sex.
The biological conditions, ADHD, Down syndrome, autisim, etc, are present in both sexes....so why are we calling it the "extreme male brain" for lack of empathy? Im sure we have met men who were incredibly empathetic, and some women who possessed near to no empathy, so is the Y chromosome to blame? I would say not
But anyway can we make a study to measure empathy? I dont think so, not any one definitive study anyway, as soo many other influences get to the subjects that we cant really narrow it down to any one thing. Also, how does one measure empathy? I might be able to SAY "hey, I know how you feel" but are we actually engaged in such a way we almost feel it vicariously? Or do we measure mirror neurons at work?
