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The present study, a follow-up of 6- to 12-year-old Kenyan children, indicated that there was reasonable continuity of performance on tests of spatial ability from early to later childhood but that a sex difference in spatial ability (found earlier among the same sample) was not displayed in later childhood. With correlational analyses, using a composite spatial score, it was ascertained that the background variables of significance for predicting spatial performance were age, years of schooling (especially for girls), directed distance from home (for boys), and proportion of time spent manipulating objects (the last two indices were derived from naturalistic observations conducted 4 years earlier). The results confirm the earlier finding (Munroe & Munroe, 1971) that movement through the environment is an important source of learning spatial skills for boys. The findings also indicate that direct tuition may be more important for the development of spatial skills in girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In exploratory testing, a finding was made that Logoli male children were more skillful than Logoli female children at certain tests requiring the capacity to perform a set of behaviors ordered sequentially in space. As it had been casually noted that boys seemed to be more away from their immediate home areas than girls, the hypothesis was advanced that extensive movement through the environment might lead to enhanced spatial ability. To test this hypothesis, a two-phase study was carried out. In the first phase, an observational study, it was found that in free time Logoli boys between the ages of three and seven were in fact farther from home on the average than age-matched Logoli girls. In the second phase, consisting of a set of tests, it was found that children who were farther from home on the average than their age-matched counterparts were also more skillful at the spatial task of copying block patterns. The possible contributions of both innate sex differences and sex-role differences to male environmental experience and male spatial abilities were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In previous research in a traditional society in Brazil and South Africa and in a sample of American undergraduates (Gregor, 1981; Hall & Van de Castle, 1966; Lee, 1958), the dreams of men have displayed a higher frequency of aggression than have the dreams of women. In an East African study, however, women dreamed more of nonphysical aggression than did men and equally of physical aggression (Munroe et al., 1985). These anomalous results prompted the present study, which, using the same set of East African dreams, involved further analysis of the relationship between sex and aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hall and van de Castle's (1966) analysis of the content of 1,000 American dreams revealed several sex differences: (a) Men dreamed more of outdoor settings and women, more of indoor settings; (b) men dreamed equally of physical and nonphysical aggression, but women dreamed more of nonphysical aggression; (c) women described more emotions in dreams than did men; (d) men more frequently included implements, and (e) women more frequently included items of clothing. The present study investigated the replicability of these results for the Gusii, Kipsigis, and Logoli of East Africa. In each of the societal areas, the students in both a male and a female secondary boarding school were tested and interviewed in English during a day-long session. Among other measures, students wrote descriptions of a recent dream. In total, 325 dreams (182 male, 143 female) were scored for each variable by using the Hall and Van de Castle (1966) scoring criteria. Scoring for physical aggression, nonphysical aggression, implements, and clothing was based on a presence versus absence judgment; for setting, on an indoor versus outdoor judgment; and for emotion, on judgment of the number of emotions described per dream. The coding reliability, on a minimum of 34 dreams for each variable, was .82 on a numerical scale for number of emotions mentioned and an average of 93% agreement (range = 88 to 100%) on the dichotomous-coding categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigators have found sex differences with respect to both shape preferences and shape productions. The studies have been conducted in Europe and the United States with adolescent and adult Ss. It has been suggested that the differences may be based on sex-linked symbolic properties of the figures. In studies of preference, males choose rounded, indented figures, and females choose angular, protruding figures.[sup 2] On a drawing completion task, however, the productions of males are angular, protruding, and expanded; completions of females are more typically rounded, indented, and internally elaborated.[sup 3] Further, in a block-building task, males produce high, closed constructions whereas females produce low, open constructions.[sup 4] The reversal, between preference and production, may reflect the operation of different principles. Preference for figures may represent sexual object choice; production of figures may represent symbolic representation of self.[sup 5] The present task was intended to explore another area in which differential choices might be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]