Atypical gender development

Question 1

What is gender dysphoria?

Answer 1

• when there is a mismatch between someones assigned sex at birth and their gender identity.
• They therefore do not identify with their gender assigned at birth and this can cause discomfort and stress

Question 2

Describe the Brain sex theory

Answer 2

This is the biological explanation that gender dysphoria has a basis in brain structure - the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis
- This structure is involved in emotional responses and in male sexual behaviour in rata
- This area is larger in men and has been found to be female sized in transgender females
- This shows that gender dysphoria have a BST the size of the gender they identify with, instead of biological sex
- This dimorphism in the BST fits in the report made by transgender people that they feel from early stages that they were born the wrong sex.

Question 3

What are the genetic factors in gender dysphoria

Answer 3

• Coolidge assessed 157 twin pairs and found that 62% of the variance could be accounted for by genetic factors. This suggests there may be a strong heritable component to gender dysphoria
• Similarly, Heylens compared 23 MZ twins and 21 DZ twins where one of each pair had gender dysphoria. They found that nine (39%) of the MZ twins were concordant for gender dysphoria compared to none of the DZs which would indicate a role of genetic factors in the development of gender dysphoria.

Question 4

Describe social constructionism

Answer 4

• The social construction perspective argues that gender identity does not reflect underlying biological differences between people and instead these concepts are invented by societies.
• For example, for individuals who experience gender dysphoria, the gender confusion arises because societies force people to be either man or women and act accordingly
• This shows that gender dysphoria is not a pathological condition but instead is a social phenomenon which arises as people are required to choose one of two paths

Question 5

What is the research into social constructionism?

Answer 5

• Martha McClintock studied the case of individuals with a genetic condition called 5-alpha-reductase deficiency in Sambia, New Guinea. This causes biological males to be categorised as girls at birth as they have a labia and a clitoris. At puberty, their genitals change as there is a rise in testosterone causes their testes to descend and for the clitoris to enlarge into a penis
• This genetic variation is common in Sambia and is accepted socially that some people are men and some are women, whereas other are females and then males. (kwolu - aatmwol)
• People with this are judged as having gender dysphoria

Question 6

Describe the psychoanalytic theory

Answer 6

• Lionel Ovesey and Ethel Person emphasise social relationships within the family as the cause of gender dysphoria
• They argue that gender dysphoria occurs in biological males as they experience extreme separation anxiety before gender identity has been established.
• The boy fantasises of a symbiotic fusion with his mother to relieve the anxiety and the danger of separation is removed
• The consequence of this is that the boy, becomes the mother and this adopts a womans gender identity.
• This is supported by Stoller who reports that in interviews, males with GD have displayed an overly close relationship with their mothers suggesting stronger female indentification and thus creating conflicting gender identity.

Question 7

Evaluate the biological explanations of gender dysphoria.

Answer 7

Strength =
- One strength is that evidence suggests that there may be other brain differences associated with gender dysphoria. Rametti studied another sexually dimorphic aspect of the brain, the white matter.
- There are regional differences in the proportion of white matter in male and female brains. Rametti analysed the brains of male and female transgender individuals before they began their hormonal treatment.
- In most cases, the amount and distribution of white matter corresponded more closely to the gender they identified with rather than their biological sex. This shows there are early differences in the brains of transgender individuals.

Limitation =
- One limitation of the brain sex theory is that its central claims have been challenged. Hulshoff studied changes in transgender individuals’ brains using MRI scans taken during hormonal treatment
- The scan showed that the size of the BST changed significantly. In studies by Kruijver and Zhou examined the BST post - mortem and after they had received hormonal treatment. This shows that the differences in BST may have been due to hormonal therapy rather than the cause of gender dysphoria

Question 8

Evaluate the social explanations of gender dysphoria.

Answer 8

Strength =
- One strength of social constructionism is that not all cultures have two genders
-For example, like the people who are both men and women, there is a challenge to traditional binary classifications of male and female
- As there are increasing numbers of non - binary people this suggests that cultural understanding is now beginning to catch up with the lived experience of many and that the concept of gender is invented by societies
- This suggests that gender identity is a social construct rather than a biological factor.

Limitation =
- One limitation is that there are issues with the psychoanalytic theory of gender dysphoria
- Ovesey and Person’s explanation does not provide an adequate account of gender dysphoria in biological females as it only applies to transgender women.
- George Rekers found that gender dysphoria in male is more likely to be associated with the absence of a father rather than fear of seperation from the mother. This suggests that the psychoanalytic theory does not provide a comprehensive account of gender dysphoria