Atypical Gender Development

Question 1

What is gender dysphoria?

Answer 1

-A misalignment between a person’s biological sex and gender identity which causes severe stress and discomfort

Question 2

What are the biological explanations for gender dysphoria?

Answer 2

1) Transgender individuals are more likely to have a similar brain structure to that of their gender identity rather than their biological sex. (example; Zhou et al 1995 found that that the stria terminalis which is around 40% larger in males is typically similar in size for trans woman as it is for cisgender women)
2) Twins studies have shown that gender dysphoria has a 39% concordance rate in MZ twins but 0% in DZ twins (Heylens et al 2012) and so it may have a genetic basis

Question 3

What is the psychoanalytic theory on gender dysphoria?

Answer 3

-MtF gender dysphoria may be caused by extreme separation anxiety before the gender identity is established. The child imagines a ‘symbolic fusion’ with their mother in order to relieve the anxiety and so adopts her gender identity.

Question 4

What is the cognitive theory on gender dysphoria?

Answer 4

• A development of the gender schema theory, instead of taking in what their environments suggests is typical of a specific gender, a child will build their gender identity around themself (for example, a boy that likes to play with dolls may decide that dolls are for boys)
• Sometimes this can lead to a child developing a general identity that is not based around gender, while others may develop an identity which does not correspond with their biological sex.

Question 5

What other evidence/counter-evidence is there surrounding the biological theory of gender dysphoria?

Answer 5

(+) Kruijver et al (2000) did a study similar to Zhou et al’s in which the number of neurons in the BSTc were examined, rather than the volume of brain tissue, once again, the trans women had similar amount to cisgender women.

(-) Pol et al (2006) found that HRT actually effected the size of the BTSc, suggesting that Kruijver and Zhou’s findings may not have been due to innate differences.

(-) Chung et al (2002) claimed that dimorphic brain structures aren’t actually diffent until later in life

(+) Coolidge et al (2002) assessed 157 pairs of twins and observed that only 7 of them were exhibited gender dysphoria, however it was seen that 4 of those 7 were twins.

Question 6

How else can the biological theory be critiqued?

Answer 6

• Gender dysphoria is relatively rare and so it can be difficult to find a large enough sample, especially for twin studies.
• Twin studies are also very difficult to associate with innate predisposition since twins often share the same upbringing/environment (low internal validity)
• Gender dysphoria is a very complex issue which this theory alone oversimplifies

Question 7

What are the main criticisms of the psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 7

• The fantasies the child is said to have take place unconsciously, making them extremely difficult to test.
• This theory at its base can only be applied to transgender women, meaning the theory is subject to an alpha bias.

Question 8

What is the main criticism of the cognitive theory?

Answer 8

-This theory explains what happens when i child is interested in non-‘gender-typical’ behaviours however it doesnt explain why this occurs int he first place.