atypical gender development Flashcards
Gender Identity disorder AO1
a condition whereby the external sexual characteristics of the body are perceived as opposite to the psychological experience of oneself as male or female.
Gender Dysphoria
Children may by unhappy wearing clothes of their gender, or playing gender stereotypical games. Most gender dysphoria occurs in childhood, and for the majority it doesn’t persist after puberty. For those whose symptoms do persist, they may assume the gender role of the desired sex.
Biological explanation for gender identity disorder
brain sex theory
individual may have inherited a biological abnormality. This is thought to be due to prenatal testosterone exposure where an XY male is not exposed to enough and XX female is exposed to too much. This leads to key areas of their brain developing in line with that of the opposite gender and thus them experiencing a gender identity crisis in later life.
bio research
Research has shown that male’s some areas of the brain tends to be larger than females and contains around twice the neurons. There is research that shows this direct link between brain development and gender dysphoria. The explanation offered for GID is that the size of the BSTc correlates with preferred sex/perceived gender rather than biological sex. It has been found that the number of neurons in male to female transsexuals was similar to that of females (Zhou et al., 1995). It is possible therefore that someone could have the wrong sex brain. This all suggests that Gender Dysphoria could be caused by abnormal neural development, potentially due to prenatal hormone exposure.
Evidence also suggests that GID may have a genetic basis. Coolidge et al. (2002) assessed twin pairs for concordance rates and found that in 62% of cases, GID could be accounted for by genetic variance. It has also been suggested that MtF transsexuals are more likely to have a longer version of the androgen receptor gene than a ‘normal’ sample, which reduces action of testosterone, and may have an effect on gender development in the womb.
Chung et al. (2002) pre natal hormonal influences (that affect size of BSTc) are not triggered to adulthood, so although hormonal influences occur before birth, the structural changes that act as a result of this don’t occur till later – this casts doubt on the idea that dimorphic differences are present in early childhood
BIO ARGUMENT IS DETERMINISTIC → no control of genes so can’t help it. In addition suggests blame on parents.
BUT
help reduce stigma and help others become more accepting of GID and transsexuals if people are aware that it is biologically determined and not their fault
Garcia-Falgueras and Swaab (2008) After gender reassignment surgery the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus brain area was similar in male-female gender reassigned participants and female controls.
This supports the idea that GID has a biological origin, with structural differences possibly occurring due to abnormal hormonal activity during masculinisation / feminisation of brain
reductionist
Social explanations: social learning theory
Social Learning Theory – Children are exposed to a number of role models including friends and parents The first role models for children are parents, and therefore SLT would predict that parents who have strongly segregated roles would have children who show stronger gender stereotypes, due to imitation. It could also be, perhaps due to abnormal biological development, that some children adopt the ‘wrong’ gender role models and therefore learn by imitation and vicarious reinforcement from the ‘wrong’ sex. i.e. a boy adopts his mother as a role model and sees her wearing make-up and being rewarded for feminine behaviours and so does the same. This leads to a reinforcement of female gender identity.
related research to SLT
Reker (86) looked at gender disturbed boys who had a history of cross dressing. He found that 75% of the most disturbed had no father figure at home compared to 21% of least disturbed and 12% in general population. (only 36 in sample)
TS the idea that the reason for their gender dysphoria was because they lacked the same sex role model to imitate
BUT GREENE STUDY → Just bc you don’t have same sex parents does not mean you will have a different gender identity to your sex
Fagot (92) compared 27egalitarian families (male and females have equal power roles) with 42 traditional families (male dominated roles, unequal power distribution) They interviewed and observed the parents playing with children at 18, 28, and 48 months. They gave the children gender-labeling tasks at age 4 and found that children in traditional families tended to use gender labels earlier and showed more gender role stereotyping than those in the egalitarian families.
CHILD IMMITATES BEHAVIOUR FORM ROLE MODEL → IF LACK OF SAME SEX ROLE MODEL CAN CAUSE GENDER DYSPHORIA ALSO, IF ROLES OF MALE AND FEMALE ARE EQUAL, CHILD COULD IDENTIFY WITH EITHER AND THUS LEAD TO GENDER DYSPHORIA
Social explanations: conditioning
Because cultures interpret physical differences as having meaning this results in them reinforcing and punishing different behaviours in boys and girls. For instance because boys are physically stronger they are encouraged to engage in sports ect whereas because women bear children and breastfeed they are encouraged to be nurturing and caring. Children who, because of innate biology, have some opposite sex traits may have that behaviour reinforced by parents. For example, a naturally female looking boy might be encouraged to focus more on his appearance and a naturally athletic girl might be encouraged to engage in more traditionally masculine pursuits. The child also might receive more attention for being ‘unusual’ which further reinforces the cross-gender behaviour. Thus there is an interaction between their biological traits and the behaviour that is encouraged.
related research to conditioning
Zuker (93) – boys with GID have been rated as more attractive than control children and girls with GID have been rated as less attractive than control children. This suggests: likelihood girls look more muscular, reinforced to do masculine behaviors eg, praised for doing well in sport. Therefore this may be why they identify as being male as they are being praised for masculine behavior. (less conventionally attractive)
Social approach evaluation
Deterministic → conditioning is unconscious, imitation for learning from role models is a passive process. Innate biology → why we behave like this → reinforced
Conditioning may explain why more children than adults are identified as gender dysphoric.
Early life experiences are dominated by family- where cross gender is tolerated or even encouraged, but as they grow up they are more likely to be punished for inappropriate behavior
