3 - Sex differences in the amount of antisocial behaviour: dimensional measures

Summary

Do males and females differ in their antisocial behaviour? This question has been addressed by developmental psychologists, social psychologists, psychiatrists, and criminologists. The answers provided are not always exactly the same for several reasons. First, different disciplines measure different behaviours that may or may not measure the same latent variable. For example, whereas child psychologists often focus on behaviours in situ such as rough-and-tumble play, criminologists tend to index antisocial behaviour through official records of conviction for crime. Second, different disciplines focus on antisocial behaviour at different points in the life span. Developmental researchers tend to focus on the early years of life, psychiatrists focus on adolescents, social psychologists focus on college students in their late teens and early twenties, and criminologists focus on older juveniles and adults. Third, different disciplines often rely on different methods to measure antisocial behaviour. For example, developmentalists often rely on observational methods, social psychologists rely on standardized experimental paradigms to elicit analogue responses, psychiatrists use diagnostic data gathered via parental and self-reports, and criminologists favor still different types of data, such as self-report interviews and police and court records.

These methodological factors tend to covary within discipline. For example, observational studies of naturalistic behaviours are primarily restricted to younger populations, whereas criminological studies of court records are generally restricted to older populations.