Hassett Et Al. (Monkey Toy Preferences) Notes

Has󰈻󰈩󰉅 󰇵󰉄 al.
(mo󰈝󰈕󰈩y 󰉃󰈢󰉙
p󰈸e󰇿󰈩r󰇵󰈝󰇸es)
AS PSYCHOLOGY 9990
S󰈜A󰈣T󰉋󰈤
1. Is there a difference between the toys that young boys and
young girls play with?
2. Do boys play with ‘boy’ toys and girls play with ‘girl’ toys
because of gender socialisation?
3. What would be considered ‘boy’ toys and ‘girl’ toys and why?
Nat󰉉󰈸󰇵 󰉐s Nu󰈸󰉄󰉉r󰇵 De󰇼󰈀󰉄󰇵 - Ac󰉃i󰉐󰈎t󰉘
Learners Should create 2 columns and generate
ideas of factors falling under each and share.
Ps󰉘󰇸ho󰈗󰈡󰈈y 󰇼󰇵i󰈞g I󰈝󰉐es󰉃󰈎󰈈󰇽te󰇷
● Socialisation
● Gender Stereotype
● Play
Vid󰈩󰈢
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWu44AqF0iI
INSTRUCTIONS
Share ideas generated from watching the video

concerning socialisation and stereotyping and discuss in relation to the
nature nurture debate,including natural differences between girls and boys.
(I)
Vid󰈩󰈢
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm9xXyw2f7g
QUESTION - how the data was collected and how it could

have been ‘more scientific’ in relation to reliability, validity,
objectivity, replicability.
Qu󰈎z
https://quizlet.com/gb/638542904/ethical-issues-
Reconsider the ethics of the study just seen in light of their new
understanding of the ethics relating to the use of animals in
psychological research. (F)
Nature Nurture Debate Outline
www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html]
Kah󰈡󰈢󰉃
Ethics relating to the use of animals in research
https://create.kahoot.it/share/the-ethics-of-the-use-of-animals-in-re
search/16a18d9f-7284-4179-a0bc-a135a9926ed9
Aim 󰈡󰇾 󰉄h󰇵 󰈻󰉄ud󰉘
The aim of the study was to investigate whether toy
preferences in monkey resemble those in children, in
order to test whether sex differences in toy choice is
biologically determined by sex.
Met󰈊󰈡󰇶 - R󰇵se󰈀󰈸󰇸h M󰇵󰉃󰈋od & D󰈩󰈻󰈏󰈈n
Field Experiment - as the environment which the participant was tested
normal,outdoor housing area and they were free to interact with the toys
or not.The toys were new to them & the objects were placed in
enclosures
Experimental Design - Independent Measures design
IV - Gender,each animal being recorded as male or female.
Observations were used as a technique to measure the dependent

variable of activities with the toys and also looking for differences
between gender.
Met󰈊󰈡󰇶s - Co󰈝󰉄󰈎n󰉊a󰉃󰈎󰈢󰈞
A correlation was also conducted on the results to check the causal
relationship between individual monkey’s ranks within the social
hierarchy and the frequency or duration of activities with each toy
type.
Data from the monkeys was compared to similar data relating to the
children obtained from the different study - this was an independent
measures comparison.
Sam󰈥󰈘󰈩
Sam󰈥󰈘󰈩
The participants were 21 male & 61 female rhesus monkeys living in natal
birth groups as a part of wider group of 135 animals at the yerkes primate
research station in the USA.
Of these 135 animals, 14 adults were not studied as they received hormone
treatments and 39 young infants were excluded as they could not be
reliably identified.
Each natal group was housed in a 25 *25 metre outdoor area with access to
a temperature controlled indoor environment.They had water available, they
were given a standard monkey feed twice a day and additional fruits &
vegetables once daily.
Is󰈻u󰈩󰈼 & D󰇵ba󰉃󰈩󰈼 - SA󰈲󰇴L󰉋
The use of animals in psychological research : Rhesus monkeys are
highly intelligent,Social species - So their needs in terms of housing
and protection from pain & distress are great.
They also share same characteristics of intelligence and

sociability,makes them excellent models of human behaviour
Therefore, it is a balance between the potential benefits of

conducting valid research on a species closely related to ourselves
and the cost to the individual animals involved in the research.
Pro󰇹󰈩󰇶󰉊re
To reflect differences in activity preferences in sexually differentiated
behaviours the toys chosen was divided into two categories by their
properties as objects rather than gender- typing.The outcome of this
categorisation was comparable to traditional boys toys & girls toys divide.
The category of wheeled toys matched vehicle toys,typically for boys and
plush toys matched typical girls toys.Plush Toys - soft & cuddly ones.
There were six wheeled toys ranging in length 16 TO 46 cm

(Wagon,truck,car,construction vehicle,shopping cart,dump truck) & 7
plush toys ranging in length from 14 to 73 cm (winnie the pooh,Raggedy
Ann,koala hand puppet,armadillo,teddy bear,Scooby - doo,turtle)Apart
from the size the toys varied in terms of shapes & colours.
Pro󰇹󰈩󰇶󰉊re - C󰈡n󰉃󰈏󰈞u󰈀t󰈏o󰈝
For each social group - 7 trials lasting 25 mins They were
observed using two video cameras.
Each trial began with all the monkeys in the group indoors while
1 plush toy and 1 wheeled toy were placed 10 meters apart in the
outdoor enclosure
One video recorder was directed towards each toy and the plush.
Wheeled toys were counterbalanced between left and right
locations on each trial
Pro󰇹󰈩󰇶󰉊re - C󰈡n󰉃󰈏󰈞u󰈀t󰈏o󰈝
After each trial the toys were removed and the videotape was
analysed by two observers working together to achieve a consensus.
They identified each animal interacting with a toy and coded specific
activities directed towards the toys using a behavioural checklist -Pg
78
The exact time at which each activity occurred was also recorded so,
in addition to the frequency each behaviour, a record of duration of
continuous activities was kept.
Pg 77 - Use Of animals in psychological Research

Ana󰈗󰉙s󰈎󰈻 󰈢󰇿 Dat󰈀
To analyse the data - The records for each behaviour for each
animal were converted into an overall average frequency & duration
for that individual. This was because each animal could have
participated in a different number of activities in different trials.
Not all individuals interacted with the toys and those with fewer than
5 total recorded behaviours were not used in the analysis (14 males
& 3 females). The final number of individuals used in the analysis
was 11 males & 23 females.
Res󰉉󰈗󰉄s
Comparisons were made between males & females and
between each gender’s preference for wheeled or plush toys.
It was possible to make such comparisons on the basis of

number of interactions (Frequency) and how long was spent
interacting with the toy type (Duration)
Sta󰉃󰈎󰈼t󰈏󰇹a󰈘 An󰈀󰈗󰉙s󰈏󰈻
Statistical Analyses comparing toy preferences within each sex, using
frequency data found that males preferred wheeled compared to plush
toys but that females did not show a preference for plush toys over
wheeled toys.
Comparison using frequency data
A Comparison between the sexes, again using frequency data, also found
that females interacted with plush toys more than males,but there was
no sex difference for wheeled toys.
Comparisons using Duration Data - Males interacted for
longer time in total with wheeled toys than with plush toys.
The duration of time spent interacting with the different toy

types did not differ significantly for females, who played for a
similar total length of time with wheeled and plush toys.
The difference in play durations for the male monkeys has a
significant difference between time spent playing with wheeled &
plush toys.
No significant difference was found between sex comparison -

This means that there was no overall difference between the time
that males and females spent with playing with the wheeled &
plush toys.
Further comparisons were made to calculate magnitude of
preference - ie how much male preferred the masculine (Wheeled
toys) and how much females preferred the feminine (plush toys)
For Males
This was calculated by taking the difference TOTAL FREQUENCY OF
WHEELED TOY INTERACTION - TOTAL FREQUENCY OF PLUSH TOY
INTERACTION.
For Females
This was calculated based on TOTAL FREQUENCY OF PLUSH TOY
INTERACTION - TOTAL FREQUENCY OF WHEELED TOY
INTERACTION was used.
The same type of comparison was also performed on the duration

scores.
Statistical analysis of these differences confirmed that mnale
monkeys had a higher preference for masculine (wheeled toys)than
female monkeys had for the feminine (plush toys).
For males and females combined, rank and total frequency of

interactions were positively correlated for the wheeled toy and for the
plush toy.
Using just the data for males, neither frequencies nor durations
correlated with ranks.
For females - Rank was positively correlated with the frequency of
interactions for the wheeled toy and for the plush toy.
Rank was only correlated with duration for the plush toy, not the
wheeled toy - This shows that rank may be related to toy
interactions in females but not in males.
As the sample size was too small for a detailed analysis of the results
by age, comparisons were possible between wider groups.
A comparison between juvenile, subadult, adult and old animals did

not differ in terms of frequency or duration for either toy type.
Hassett et al. compared the data for the frequencies of
interactions by the monkeys with different toy types to data for
the durations of similar behaviours in children.
The data for children was taken from another study (Berenbaum
and Hines,1992). - Both the rhesus monkeys and the human
children showed gender differences , with males preferring
masculine toys and females preferring feminine toys.
In addition - Human children as with rhesus monkeys, the

preference was much more marked for males than females.
Con󰇹󰈘󰉉s󰈏o󰈝
Results shows that like boys male monkeys have a strong preference
for masculine type toys(Wheeled toys).
Female monkeys are more variable in their toy preferences.
In addition the extent to which individuals preferred masculine or

feminine toys differed between males and females, with males
monkeys showing much more stronger preferences for wheeled toys
than female monkeys did for plush toys.
Hassett et al. argue that their findings support biological explanation
for toy preferences.
Specifically, they concluded that these preferences develop in the

absence of socialisation - This is because in monkeys unlike
humans only hormonal differences not social ones can be
responsible for the differences in the development of males and
females.
Biological driven differences could interact with social pressures
on children, Boys choosing girls toys tends to receive more
negative responses than girls choosing boys toys
This would reinforce a pre-existing biological tendency for boys to

be more masculine in their toy choices and for girls to remain more
variable in their choices
St󰈸e󰈞g󰉃󰈋s & We󰈀k󰈝󰇵󰈼se󰈻
Activity - Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses in terms of
Confounding Variables
Standardisation
Sample
Data Collection
Data Analysis & Data Differences
Nature vs Nurture
Et󰈊i󰇸󰈀l I󰈻󰈼󰉊es
Brainstorm ethical Issues in this study & Justify why it

is a concern?

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Has󰈻󰈩󰉅 󰇵󰉄 al.

Share ideas generated from watching the video

QUESTION - how the data was collected and how it could

Experimental Design - Independent Measures design

IV - Gender,each animal being recorded as male or female.

Observations were used as a technique to measure the dependent

They also share same characteristics of intelligence and

Therefore, it is a balance between the potential benefits of

There were six wheeled toys ranging in length 16 TO 46 cm

Pg 77 - Use Of animals in psychological Research

It was possible to make such comparisons on the basis of

Comparison using frequency data

The duration of time spent interacting with the different toy

No significant difference was found between sex comparison -

The same type of comparison was also performed on the duration

For males and females combined, rank and total frequency of

A comparison between juvenile, subadult, adult and old animals did

In addition - Human children as with rhesus monkeys, the

Female monkeys are more variable in their toy preferences.

In addition the extent to which individuals preferred masculine or

Specifically, they concluded that these preferences develop in the

This would reinforce a pre-existing biological tendency for boys to

Brainstorm ethical Issues in this study & Justify why it

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