Smith, Jenny (2010) Australian Category Norms: Gender Differences. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Categorising objects is an essential part of daily life. In order for humans to function every day, we need to categorise objects and items to make sense of the world. Category norms are also an important component of some psychological assessments, assisting researchers and health professionals to measure cognitive functioning, particularly in the area of long-term memory function (Hester, Kinsella, Ong & Turner, 2004). There are currently no up-to-date category norms available for Australian researchers and health professionals to use. Over 20 years ago, one Australian researcher (Casey, 1989) analysed the differences between gender responses to categories, albeit with a very small number of categories. However some variation in the way men and women responded to just those few categories was evident in the data, providing a starting point for the current study. Therefore this thesis aimed to collect and record normative data for 149 categories, and measure the differences in responses to those categories provided by men and women.
First year psychology students and four thesis researchers collected category responses from a community sample comprised of family and friends. Adult volunteer participants were required to provide one verbal response to each category recorded in writing by the student experimenter, 24,585 responses were recorded. After data screening category responses from 80 males and 85 females were then analysed to establish if there were significant differences in typical responses. Chisquared tests of independence revealed a significant difference in gender-based responses to 30 of the categories (20%), with effect sizes ranging from .010 to .574. Whilst this study did not aim to establish why men and women respond differently to categories, the results suggest that men and women do provide different responses to certain categories. A large proportion of the significant differences in gender can be linked to stereotyping, however there were a few categories where the significant differences do not appear to be linked to stereotyping.
This research represents the first year of a five-year study, and will ultimately provide Australian researchers with a database comprising of a substantial number of category norms, including gender, age and location demographics. This data will enable future researchers to investigate, for example, whether differences in gender vary with age or location as well as more simply providing current, up-to-date category norming information for Australian researchers.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Hendry, Liam |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Psychology) |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Mar 2026 02:06 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Mar 2026 02:06 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52769 |
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