• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Boys Adrift

wedekit

New member
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Messages
694
MBTI Type
INFJ
Here is one piece of evidence that he put forth, but I don't remember what it was based on. He claimed that there is an equal number of young women and young men choosing to live at home with their parents. Even so, there was a significant difference. Most of the young women had goals such as starting a business or getting further schooling, and their were fewer young men with goals. Furthermore, the young women were achieving their goals. In connection with this, he brought up that there is a growing number of men who neither have jobs nor are looking for jobs.

To know if Dr. Sax's theory is true, we'd have to look at the research. If anyone is familiar with the research in this area, please bring it up.

I would have to see his research study articles in full to make a full opinion on the matter, just like you requested. However, it all sounds kind of hokey that scientific research paved such a nice path of causality for him to walk down. I'm not saying that increased estrogen levels are not a problem, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that it is ultimately causing girls to pursue college degrees more than boys.

Maybe something as simple as gender roles no longer demanding that men be the sole provider in the family. This could cause men to consider other options instead of pursuing a college degree like they were expected to. Of course this would cause a growing number of men not attending college when compared to the past. Not to mention since women can now attend colleges (in hopes of actually pursuing a career and not just waiting to get married) there will of course be a growing number of women attending compared to the past.

I do have to acknowledge his idea that boys are being forced to take amphetamines in order to "keep up" in school. Most people at my school that were diagnosed with ADHD were male, and I don't think it is too much of a stereotype to say that boys in general run around more than girls do. However, I don't think this means society is experiencing a preference for women "norms".

But all of this is based on information I read, which doesn't mean it is accurate. If for some reason this this guys is right, then we would have a great example about how we rush through scientific advancement without putting as much effort into researching the consequences. Even if this isn't it, we will inevitably have it come bite our asses eventually.
 

wedekit

New member
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Messages
694
MBTI Type
INFJ
Interestingly, he has no research study articles on the topic except for possibly one: Reclaiming kindergarten: Making kindergarten less harmful to boys. I can post some info from that if someone cares to read it, but it is rather uneventful.

He has his PhD in Psychology. He published a book before he even published an article for peer review, which means that something fishy is going on. It makes you have to wonder what is in there that he knows other researchers will criticize. He pretty much discredits himself by doing that (whether he deserves to be or not) because it is just a major no-no. He may have his book in the Psychology shelf at the bookstore, but the book has no place in the field of Psychology until others are able to properly critique and even emulate his work. The book is probably dripping wet with biased observations.

This is most typical of Christian researchers who work on things like Ex-Gay programs. Ex-gays?: A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation by Stanton L. Jones would be a great example. He never published any research because he knew his research would be heavily criticized for "curing" something that was not an illness. Not to mention there is no way to measure whether they actually changed the participants or not; they can only go by what the participants tell them.
 

marm

New member
Joined
Apr 27, 2007
Messages
134
MBTI Type
INFP
Here is his biography on wikipedia:
Leonard Sax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Sax graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in biology. He completed the combined M.D.-Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. His Ph.D. was in psychology. He completed the 3-year residency in family practice at Lancaster General Hospital (Lancaster, PA) in 1989. In 1990, he founded Poolesville Family Practice, a primary care practice in Montgomery County, Maryland. He has worked there as a family physician ever since. Sax has continued to publish scholarly papers since starting his practice. Because he is both a family physician and a Ph.D. psychologist, he has attracted many families with "problem children" to his practice."

I didn't see anything that indicated he has ever been a research scientist. The wiki entry did note that he had 11 scholarly articles, but I don't know if any of those were based on any research he had done personally. Most of the article titles were related to gender issues. Only two of them were linked and one of them was the one titled Reclaiming Kindergarten.

I really don't know anything about the research. If the evidence isn't yet clear, I'm sure it won't be long before further research provides some more clear evidence one way or another. I just found his viewpoint interesting. I'd heard theories like his before, but he had a slightly different take on it.
 
Top