ATYPICAL GENDER DEVELOPMENT

Question 1

What is gender dysphoria?

Answer 1

When a person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity. This is also the clinical diagnosis for someone who doesn’t feel comfortable with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Question 2

How does DSM-4 (IV) classify atypical gender development?

Answer 2

classifies atypical gender development by the clinical label gender identity disorder (GID), a condition where individuals experience a mismatch between their biological sex and the sex they ‘feel’ they are

Question 3

How does DSM-5 classify gender atypical gender development?

Answer 3

The more recent DSM-V now refers to GID as gender dysphoria in order to remove the damaging label of people with the condition as ‘disordered’. According to DSM-5, gender dysphoria is diagnosed when someone has experienced a psychological distress arising from this mismatch between sex and gender for atleast 6 months. It causes significant impairment in social, occupational and other important areas of functioning.

Question 4

What is the difference between gender dysphoria and androgyny?

Answer 4

Dysphoria is not being happy with the gender you are and wanting to change - androgyny is having both masculine and feminine characteristics

Question 5

DSM diagnosis of gender dysphoria

Answer 5

• Experience will affect ability to function in everyday life
• No biological disorder should occur at the same time
• Must experience ongoing identification with the opposite sex
• Feel a strong sense of discomfort with their own biological sex

Question 6

What are the 2 explanations for gender dysphoria?

Answer 6

Biological explanations and Social-psychological explanations

Question 7

What are the biological explanations for gender dysphoria?

Answer 7

Brain-sex theory
Genetic factors

Question 8

What is brain sex theory?

Answer 8

This suggests that GD has a basis in brain structure - the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST).

Question 9

What does brain sex theory suggest?

Answer 9

Brain-sex theory suggests that dysphoria is caused by specific brain structures that are incompatible with a person’s biological sex.
Particular attention has been paid to those areas of the brain that are dimorphic (take a different form in males and females)
Ning Zhou (1995) studied the stria terminals which are assumed to be fully developed at age 5 and around 40% larger in males than females

Question 10

Explain the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST)

Answer 10

• this structure is involved in emotional responses and in male sexual behaviour in rats
• Kruijver found this area is larger in men than women and it was also found to be female sized in transgender females.
• Suggests people with GD have a BST which is the size of the gender they identify with rather than corresponding to their sex.
• This dimorphism in the BST (having 2 forms) fits with the reports from transgender people who say they feel they were born in the wrong sex. (ZHOU)
• Later research by Kruijver replicated this finding, this time by counting number of neurons. Again six male-to-female transgender individuals showed a ‘sex-reversed’ identity pattern with average neuron numbers in the female range.

Question 11

What have post-mortems shown?

Answer 11

• In post-mortems of six male-to-female transgender individuals, the stria terminals were found to be a similar size to as heterosexual women
• This is supported by Kruijiver et al (2000) who focused on the number of neurons in the stria terminals rather than the volume.
• Again, the six transgender individuals showed a similar number of neurons in the stria terminals to those found in heterosexual women
• They concluded that the stria terminals provides evidence for a neurobiological basis of gender dysphoria.

Question 12

What does research also show? (genetic factors)

Answer 12

Research shows GD may be genetic as there are high concordance rates between identical twins.

Question 13

Who provides research support for genetic basis of GD?

Answer 13

Coolidge
Heylens

Question 14

What did Coolidge do?

Answer 14

Coolidge (2002) assessed 157 twin pairs (96 MZ and 61 DZ) for evidence of gender identity disorder using the clinical diagnosis of criteria in DSM-4

Question 15

What did Coolidge find?

Answer 15

62% of these cases said to be accounted for by genetic variance. This suggests there is a strong heritable component to GID

Question 16

What did Heylens do?

Answer 16

Gunter Heylens et al (2012) compared 23 MZ twins with 21 DZ twins where one of each pair was diagnosed with GID

Question 17

What did Heylens find?

Answer 17

They found that 9 (39%) of the MZ twins was concordant for GID compared to none of the DZs which would indicate a role for genetic factors in the development of GID

Question 18

What is included in the social-psychological explanations of GD?

Answer 18

Social constructionism
Psychoanalytic theory including relationship with parents

Question 19

What are social-psychological explanations?

Answer 19

These refer to the perception that GID is a condition learned via socialisation processes
Social-psychological explanations of GID are based on Freudian theory and insights from cognitive psychology

Question 20

Describe social constructionism

Answer 20

This theory proposes that society ‘invents’ the concept of gender identity and GD arises because society forces people to be either a man or a woman.

Question 21

What does McClintock do?

Answer 21

Cites the case of individuals with a genetic condition (5-alpha-reductasedeficiency) in the Sambia of New Guinea. Some males are born with a labia and a clitoris. Due to a rise in testosterone at puberty, testes descend and the clitoris enlarges into a penis. This is a common genetic variation in Sambia and they are called kwolu-aatmwol (females then males). Through exposure to other cultures, kwolu-aatmwol are now judged as having a pathological form of gender dysphoria.

Question 22

Who talks about psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 22

Ovesy and Person

Question 23

What do Ovesy and Person argue?

Answer 23

• Ovesey and Person (1973) have argued that GD in males is caused by the child experiencing extreme separation anxiety before establishing their gender identity (which occurs at the end of the phallic stage).
• The child fantasies of a symbolic fusion with his mother to relieve the anxiety, and the danger of separation is removed
• The consequence of this is that the child, in a very real sense, becomes the mother so adopts a female gender identity.

Question 24

Who provides support for the psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 24

Stoller
Zucker

Question 25

What did Stoller do and find?

Answer 25

Stoller (1973) offers some support for this theory – in interviews with GDD males, they were seen to display overly close mother-son relationships that would lead to greater female identification and confused gender identity in the long-term

Question 26

What did Zucker do and find?

Answer 26

Zucker (2004) suggested that severe paternal rejection in early childhood will cause the female child to identify strongly with the father and, in a similar way, take on a male gender identity. This is in the hopes that being more male will gain acceptance from the rejecting father.
– explanation for GD in females