4.1. Sex, Gender And BSRI

Question 1

What is sex?

Answer 1

A biological status, determined by genes, hormones and chromosomes.

Question 2

What is gender dysphoria?

Answer 2

A person’s sex doesn’t match their gender, this leads to dysphoria.

Question 3

What is sex role?

Answer 3

Expected roles, attitudes of each sex in a given culture.
These allow us to make shortcuts in situations.

Question 4

What are male sex role stereotypes?

Answer 4

Sporty
Blue

Question 5

What are female sex role stereotypes?

Answer 5

Pink
Caregiver

Question 6

Ingalhaliker:

Answer 6

• Mapped female and male brains with MRI
• Females have greater connections across hemispheres
• Males have greater connections within hemispheres

Question 7

Rubin:

Answer 7

• Looked at when stereotyping occurred
• New parents asked to describe their baby within 24 hours of being born
  - Boys = strong and alert
  - Girls = soft and delicate
• Stereotyping occurs very early on -> move so with gender reveals in today’s society

Question 8

Batista boys: penis at 14

Answer 8

• 4 boys from the Dominican Republic were born with ambiguous genitalia (due to chemicals from a nearby factory)
• Genitals looked female so they were raised as female. However during puberty, they “became male”.
• Their sex was XY (later found out)
• They all socialised fine, married and had children

Question 9

What is androgyny?

Answer 9

A balance of masculine and feminine traits, people will adapt to a given situation

Question 10

What is the BSRI?

Answer 10

• Ppts rated themselves 1-7 (always true to never true) on 60 traits (20 female, 20 male and 20 neutral)
• This gave 1 of 4 categorisations
  Male: increased male score, decreased female
  Female: decreased male score, increased female
  Androgynous: increased female, increased female score
  Unclassified: decreased male, decreased female score
• Conclusion: Bem stated those that were androgynous were the most psychologically healthy and had great mental well-being

Question 11

Strength: pilot study

Answer 11

• 100 ppl judged 200 traits to narrow down to 20 female, 20 male and 20 neutral = all agreed = valid
• 1 month later they were asked again = same traits = high test retest

Question 12

Weakness: lacks temporal validity

Answer 12

Created in the 70s, expected roles, behaviours and attirâtes have changed since

Question 13

Weakness: cultural bias

Answer 13

Developed in the USA, a western society, it’s not applicable in Eastern/collectivist cultures (male traits may be expected of females there)

Question 14

Weakness: Self report

Answer 14

People may lie to be androgynous = decreased validity

Question 15

Weakness: reductionist

Answer 15

Reduces the complexities of gender to 60 traits m we should consider jobs, attitudes, behaviours to get a better understanding

Question 16

Adam and Sherer:

Answer 16

Stated masculine is more desirable and useful in a western society. Therefore, psychologically healthy and valued.