COGNITION IN SOCIAL-CONTEXT

A great deal of research has focused on delineating the nature and ext ent of sex differences in cognitive abilities and performance. However , recent research and theory suggest that cognition maybe much more so cially situated than psychology has recognized. Distinguishing ''sex'' from ''gender'' places sex difference research in a context that conc eives of culturally-produced gender as the operation of a complex syst em of social classification and hierarchy. The gender system is concep tualized as operating at three levels: Sociocultural, interactional, a nd individual. By using this framework, we move the focus of study fro m individual or group differences in cognition to documenting how diff erent levels of the gender system interact to create, maintain, and in terpret sex differences.