Cognitive style predicts entry into physical sciences and humanities: Questionnaire and performance tests of empathy and systemizing

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1 Cognitive style predicts entry into physical sciences and humanities: Questionnaire and performance tests of empathy and systemizing Jac Billington, Simon Baron- Cohen, Sally Wheelwright 2007

2 Bell Ringer What differences are there between men s and women s behaviour? And why? What are men generally better at than women and what are women generally better at than men? You will be doing this as a group on a white sheet of paper and we will gallery walk this activity.

3 What is Empathizing? Empathizing interacting in the social world. It is defined as both the drive and ability to identify another's mental states and to respond to these with one of a range of appropriate emotions Empathizing has both a cognitive and an affective component Cognitive - understanding another's thoughts and feelings affective-empathizing involves an emotional response that arises as a result of the comprehension of another individuals emotional state

4 What is the difference between Empathy and Sympathy? Empathy Sympathy Definition: Understanding what someone else is feeling because you have experienced it yourself or can put yourself in their shoes. Acknowledging a person's emotional hardships and providing comfort and assurance. Nursing: Relating with your patient because you have been in a similar situation or experience Comforting your patient or their family Scope: Personal, It can be one to many in some circumstances From either one to another person or one to many (or one to a group). Relationship: Personal Friends, family and community ( the experience of others). Example: I know it's not easy to lose some weight because I have faced the same problems myself. When people try to make changes like this (e.g. lose some weight) at first it seems difficult.

5 What is Systemizing? Systemizing a drive and ability to analyze the rules underlying a system, in order to predict its behavior. Input Operation Output technical, natural, abstract, social, spatial, organisable May have physiological basis in R hemisphere

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7 Background Disparities have been noted in the performance of males and females in mathematics and science from an early age men outnumber women in careers with scientific thinking, ex: engineering there is an increase of women in the scientific careers but the top positions are only about 10%

8 The E-S Model In order to test the E S model, the authors devised two self report questionnaires Systemizing Quotient (SQ) Empathy Quotient (EQ)

9 The Questionnaire SQ, originally a 40-item, forced choice format, self-report questionnaire assesses an individual's drive to systemize across a range of domains. forced choice- eliminates don't know and neutral opinions and work to produce stability in answers Recently revised to be a 75-item questionnaire

10 The Questionnaire EQ provides a quantitative measure of an individual's empathizing drive 40-item self report questionnaire aimed at assessing different aspects of empathy measures both the cognitive and the affective empathizing C- "I am good at knowing what people will do" A- "I stay emotionally detached while watching a movie

11 Background The E S theory proposes that females on average have a stronger drive to empathize, whilst males on average have a stronger drive to systemize This claim only applies on average; thus, there will always be individuals who are atypical for their sex The Reading the Mind inn the Eyes Test was devised as an adult test of empathy

12 Bell Ringer Each of you will be taking a modified version of the EQ and SQ Questionnaire. Answer each of the questions to the best of your ability and remember, you have to place an answer by each question. At the end, we will score the results to find out if you are stronger in empathizing or systemizing.

13 AIMS 1. Retest sex ratio in physical sciences and humanities 2. Test if show S>E profile and show E>S profile using performance and questionnaire assessment 3. Test if physical science students show S>E and humanities students show E>S using assessment 4. Test if cognitive style > sex in explaining enrollment into courses

14 Method 415 students who could be unambiguously categorized into either physical science or humanities students were selected from an online data base (male=203, female=212) The average age was 21 years 87.7%of the sample were right handed, 10.6% lefthanded and 1.7% were ambidextrous Recruitment was carried out via post and advertisement throughout the university Participants were offered an incentive of a prize draw if they completed all the tasks. Participants were excluded if they had any history of psychiatric illness.

15 Procedure and Tasks Both questionnaires and both performance tasks were carried out online via a secure university website All participants were required to provide basic information that included sex, date of birth, handedness, and diagnoses of medical conditions, educational level and degree type. Fill out two questionnaires and two performance tasks.

16 SQ-R is a modified version of the original SQ SQ-R has 75 items Minimum score- O Maximum score- 150 The EQ is a 40-item questionnaire designed to assess cognitive and affective empathy Minimum score-0 Maximum score- 80 A brain type was calculated for each participant The five brain types comprised: Type S, Type E, Type B (Balanced), Extreme Type E, and Extreme Type S.

17 Tasks A forced choice version of the Embedded Figures Task Participants were told they were going to see a series of 12 pairs of diagrams Their task was to find the small black and white shape in one of the two larger, more complex, diagrams They then had to state whether it was in the left or right picture

18 Procedure and Tasks Had to make a decision within 50 seconds or the test would move on. The Eyes Test is a four-choice task assessing cognitive empathy. Choose one of four words what the persons eyes were telling you. Had to make a decision in 20 seconds or less or the test would move on.

19 Scoring For the two performance tasks- one point for each correct item plus an additional bonus point if they were in the fastest 25% of correct responders for that item

20 Results There was a sex difference between the two classes of academic disciplines, 59.1% of physical science students being males and 70.1% of humanities students being female. Questionnaire results showed that there was also a significant relationship between sex and cognitive style indicated by brain type. 66% of males were categorized as either Type S or Extreme Type S with 28.8% of females. 36.8% of females were categorized as Type E or Extreme Type E with 10.3% of males.