Melissa Hines

Last updated
Melissa Hines
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater UCLA, Princeton University
Known for Neuroscientist, Gender studies
Scientific career
Institutions University of Cambridge

Melissa Hines is a neuroscientist and Professor at the University of Cambridge. She studies the development of gender, with particular focus on how the interaction of prenatal and postnatal experience shape brain development and behavior.

Contents

Education

Hines received a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Princeton University. [1] She was in the first group of women enrolled as undergraduates, which could have inspired an interest in gender. [2] [3] She received a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. The focus of her thesis was the gender-related behaviour of women whose mothers had taken the synthetic oestrogen diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy. [4]

Research

Hines completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Neuroendocrinology and Neuroscience at the UCLA Brain Research Institute. [3] She investigated hormonal influences on brain development in rodents there and at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she was a visiting scientist. [5] She received the Shephard Ivory Franz Award for Distinguished Teaching at UCLA. [6] After her postdoctoral fellowship, she was appointed as an Assistant and then Associate Professor at UCLA. During her time at UCLA she trained and was licensed as a clinical psychologist. [5]

Hines moved to the UK and joined City University as a Professor of Psychology in 1996. [7] She is a Chartered Counseling Psychologist in the UK (British Psychological Society). [8] In 2006 she joined the University of Cambridge and Churchill College, Cambridge. [4] She is Director of the University of Cambridges's Gender Development Research Centre. [3]

Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of sex/gender differences in human brain and behaviour. [9] [10] Based on findings that male and female vervet monkeys show toy preferences that resemble those seen in children, Hines and Alexander suggested that "sex differences in toy preferences can arise independent of the social and cognitive mechanisms thought by many to be the primary influences on toy preferences". [11] Other research indicates that girls with high levels of testosterone are less interested in dolls, and more interested in toy vehicles, than are other girls. [11] [12] She has appeared on a discussion panel with autism researcher Simon Baron Cohen, who also is interested in hormonal influences on human gender development. [13] [14] Their results have, however, sometimes differed from one another's, with Hines' results showing an influence just for girls but Baron Cohen's showing an influence just for boys or for boys and girls taken together, and for some measures no difference for either sex. [15]

Public engagement

Hines was the President of the International Academy of Sex Research. [6] She is the author of Brain Gender , published in 2004 by Oxford University Press.

She spoke at the Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge "Women's Word" festival in 2011. [16] In 2013 she appeared on BBC Radio 4 discussing the spat between Suzanne Moore and transgender rights activists. [17] In 2014 she was an invited speaker at the Cambridge Science Festival. She is a writer for The Conversation. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender</span> Characteristics distinguishing between femininity and masculinity

Gender includes the social, psychological, cultural and behavioral aspects of being a man, woman, or other gender identity. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures and gender expression. Most cultures use a gender binary, in which gender is divided into two categories, and people are considered part of one or the other ; those who are outside these groups may fall under the umbrella term non-binary. Some societies have specific genders besides "man" and "woman", such as the hijras of South Asia; these are often referred to as third genders. Most scholars agree that gender is a central characteristic for social organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biology and sexual orientation</span> Field of sexual orientation research

The relationship between biology and sexual orientation is a subject of on-going research. While scientists do not know the exact cause of sexual orientation, they theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences. However, evidence is weak for hypotheses that the post-natal social environment impacts sexual orientation, especially for males.

Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the individual's gender identity. Gender expression typically reflects a person's gender identity, but this is not always the case. While a person may express behaviors, attitudes, and appearances consistent with a particular gender role, such expression may not necessarily reflect their gender identity. The term gender identity was coined by psychiatry professor Robert J. Stoller in 1964 and popularized by the controversial psychologist John Money.

Sex differences in psychology are differences in the mental functions and behaviors of the sexes and are due to a complex interplay of biological, developmental, and cultural factors. Differences have been found in a variety of fields such as mental health, cognitive abilities, personality, emotion, sexuality, and tendency towards aggression. Such variation may be innate, learned, or both. Modern research attempts to distinguish between these causes and to analyze any ethical concerns raised. Since behavior is a result of interactions between nature and nurture, researchers are interested in investigating how biology and environment interact to produce such differences, although this is often not possible.

Doreen Kimura was a Canadian psychologist who was professor at the University of Western Ontario and professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University. Kimura was recognized for her contributions to the field of neuropsychology and later, her advocacy for academic freedom. She was the founding president of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship.

Childhood gender nonconformity (CGN) is a phenomenon in which prepubescent children do not conform to expected gender-related sociological or psychological patterns, or identify with the opposite sex/gender. Typical behavior among those who exhibit the phenomenon includes but is not limited to a propensity to cross-dress, refusal to take part in activities conventionally thought suitable for the gender and the exclusive choice of play-mates of the opposite sex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Breedlove</span>

Stephen Marc Breedlove is the Barnett Rosenberg professor of Neuroscience at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. He was born and raised in the Ozarks of southwestern Missouri. After graduating from Central High School in 1972, he earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Yale University in 1976, and a Ph.D. in psychology from UCLA in 1982. He was a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley from 1982 to 2003, moving to Michigan State in 2001. He works in the fields of Behavioral Neuroscience and Neuroendocrinology. He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and the Biological Sciences section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

<i>Brain Gender</i>

Brain Gender is a book by Melissa Hines, Hines graduated with an undergraduate degree from Princeton, following through with a doctorate in psychology from UCLA. Currently, Hines is a psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environment and sexual orientation</span> Field of sexual orientation research

The relationship between the environment and sexual orientation is a subject of research. In the study of sexual orientation, some researchers distinguish environmental influences from hormonal influences, while other researchers include biological influences such as prenatal hormones as part of environmental influences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuroscience and sexual orientation</span> Mechanisms of sexual orientation development in humans

Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender, or none of the aforementioned at all. The ultimate causes and mechanisms of sexual orientation development in humans remain unclear and many theories are speculative and controversial. However, advances in neuroscience explain and illustrate characteristics linked to sexual orientation. Studies have explored structural neural-correlates, functional and/or cognitive relationships, and developmental theories relating to sexual orientation in humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prenatal hormones and sexual orientation</span> Hormonal theory of sexuality

The hormonal theory of sexuality holds that, just as exposure to certain hormones plays a role in fetal sex differentiation, such exposure also influences the sexual orientation that emerges later in the individual. Prenatal hormones may be seen as the primary determinant of adult sexual orientation, or a co-factor with genes, biological factors and/or environmental and social conditions.

Sex differences in humans have been studied in a variety of fields. Sex determination occurs by the presence or absence of a Y in the 23rd pair of chromosomes in the human genome. Phenotypic sex refers to an individual's sex as determined by their internal and external genitalia and expression of secondary sex characteristics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicola Clayton</span> Professor of Comparative Cognition

Nicola Susan Clayton PhD, FRS, FSB, FAPS, C is a British psychologist. She is Professor of Comparative Cognition at the University of Cambridge, Scientist in Residence at Rambert Dance Company, co-founder of 'The Captured Thought', a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, where she is Director of Studies in Psychology, and a Fellow of the Royal Society since 2010. Clayton was made Honorary Director of Studies and advisor to the 'China UK Development Centre'(CUDC) in 2018. She has been awarded professorships by Nanjing University, Institute of Technology, China (2018), Beijing University of Language and Culture, China (2019), and Hangzhou Diangi University, China (2019). Clayton was made Director of the Cambridge Centre for the Integration of Science, Technology and Culture (CCISTC) in 2020.

Gender roles are culturally influenced stereotypes which create expectations for appropriate behavior for males and females. An understanding of these roles is evident in children as young as age four. Children between 3 and 6 months can form distinctions between male and female faces. By ten months, infants can associate certain objects with females and males, like a hammer with males or scarf with females. Gender roles are influenced by the media, family, the environment, and society. In addition to biological maturation, children develop within a set of gender-specific social and behavioral norms embedded in family structure, natural play patterns, close friendships, and the teeming social jungle of school life. The gender roles encountered in childhood play a large part in shaping an individual's self-concept and influence the way an individual forms relationships later on in life.

Sex differences in human intelligence have long been a topic of debate among researchers and scholars. It is now recognized that there are no significant sex differences in general intelligence, though particular subtypes of intelligence vary somewhat between sexes.

Usha Claire Goswami is a researcher and professor of Cognitive Developmental Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and the director of the Centre for Neuroscience in Education, Downing Site. She obtained her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Oxford before becoming a professor of cognitive developmental psychology at the University College London. Goswami's work is primarily in educational neuroscience with major focuses on reading development and developmental dyslexia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Bigler</span> Developmental psychologist

Rebecca Bigler is a developmental psychologist known for research on social stereotyping, prejudice, and children's perceptions of discrimination. Bigler is Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Neurosexism is an alleged bias in the neuroscience of sex differences towards reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes. The term was coined by feminist scholar Cordelia Fine in a 2008 article and popularised by her 2010 book Delusions of Gender. The concept is now widely used by critics of the neuroscience of sex differences in neuroscience, neuroethics and philosophy.

Victoria Leong is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist whose research into the neural synchrony between mothers and infants has been widely reported. Leong's PhD thesis won the Robert J. Glushko Prize of the Cognitive Science Society in 2014 "in recognition of outstanding cross-disciplinary work integrating neuroscience, psychology, linguistics and computational modelling." She has a dual appointment at Nanyang Technological University and the University of Cambridge and is head of the Baby-LINC Lab at the Department of Psychology at Cambridge. She is a recipient of the 2020 Social Science and Humanities Research Fellowship by the Social Science Research Council.

David Michael Greenberg is a psychologist, neuroscientist, and musician. He is best known for his contributions to personality psychology, social psychology, social neuroscience, music psychology, and autism.

References

  1. ↑ "Professor of Psychology, Melissa Hines — Department of Psychology". www.psychol.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  2. ↑ "When Women Came to Princeton". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 2016-10-18. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  3. 1 2 3 "People — Gender Development Research Centre". www.gdrc.psychol.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  4. 1 2 "People – Churchill College". www.chu.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  5. 1 2 Melissa., Hines (2004). Brain gender. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780195188363. OCLC   51804960.
  6. 1 2 Hormones, brain, and behavior. Pfaff, Donald W., 1939-, Elsevier Science (Firm) (2nd electronic ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier/Academic Press. 2009. ISBN   978-0080887838. OCLC   449286151.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ↑ "Home Page". www.staff.city.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  8. ↑ "Good practice guidelines for the assessment and treatment of adults with gender dysphoria" (PDF). Gender Identity Research & Education Society. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  9. ↑ Cahill, Larry (2012). "His Brain, Her Brain" . Scientific American. 21 (2s): 4–11. doi:10.1038/scientificamericanbrain0512-4.
  10. ↑ poppy sebag-montefiore (2013-08-09), The Brain and the Mind - Discussion 5 of 6: The Gendered Brain , retrieved 2018-02-03
  11. 1 2 Hines, Melissa; Alexander, Gerianne M. (2008). "Monkeys, girls, boys and toys: A confirmation". Hormones and Behavior. 54 (3): 478–479. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2008.05.012. PMC   2643016 . PMID   18599056.
  12. ↑ Clare Bailey (2011-05-09), Clare Rayner BBC Breakfast: Why is pink the colour of choice for girls? , retrieved 2018-02-03
  13. ↑ Ltd., Thomas Dale of D Taled Designs. "The Brain and the Mind". www.thebrainandthemind.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  14. ↑ "Have you a male or a female brain?". 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  15. ↑ Schaffer, Amanda (2010-10-21). "The Last Word on Fetal T". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  16. ↑ "Is there any such thing as the female brain?". University of Cambridge. 2011-06-22. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  17. ↑ "Who Decides if I'm a Woman?, Analysis - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  18. ↑ Hines, Melissa. "There's no good reason to push pink toys on girls". The Conversation. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.