Chapter 12: Sex & Gender Flashcards
someone with an XY karyotype who develops a feminine body type may have _________
androgen insensitivity
Define sex. Define gender
sex: the observable biological markers that are used to categorize males and females, including sex chromosomes and external genitalia
gender: an individual’s felt gender identity and the ways the gender identity is portrayed, including dress, mannerisms, speech, social roles and occupation
Gender Roles and Sex Difference in Expertise in the EEA
- women were gatherers and men were hunters
- women had to remember where plants were and they navigate by landmarks. Good at colour and texture perception
- men travelled farther, good spatial rotation for throwing weapons, hunting in groups led to male coalition psychology
Sex differences are differences in…
adaptations
- each person’s genome has all the information a genome needs to develop a man or a woman.
- a suite of adaptations which aid fitness in a particular life strategy
Differences in males and females from the beginning (long one)
- female in every species has larger gametes
- male fetus more likely to abort/have maldevelopment/more active in utero
- from birth, girls are smaller/less muscular, healthier, more mature
- from birth, girls are more coordinated, later better balance and fine motor skills
- boys better at running, jumping, and throwing a ball as kids
- as babies, girls produce more speech sounds, use words earlier, have bigger vocabularies, more grammatical complexity
- girls are better in math class, boys better on tests
- from birth, girls orient to faces and voices, smile more, maintain eye contact longer (b/t 1 and 2 yrs, show more facial expressions and empathy)
- boys better spatial skills even early on
Men are more physically aggressive, but women show more…
relational aggression: the attempt to harm others by damaging social relationships.
Same-sex Playmates
at 4 yrs, 3x as much time spent with same-sex playmates
at 6 yrs, 11x as much time spent
Differences in Self-Esteem
- girls have lower global self-esteem
- boys higher in athletics, appearance, self-satisfaction
- girls higher in morality, ethics and conduct
Relative Life Expectancy & Difference in Variance of Reproductive Success
- females live longer on average across species
- accidents are the leading cause of death in young males
- *In monogamous species, male/female variance in reproduction is more equal, not the same sex difference in life expectancy
- senescence- men more vulnerable to effects from pleiotropic genes (testosterone good when young but leads to prostate cancer when old)
- males have greater variance in reproductive success
- risk-taking is worth it for men because they can be more successful
SRY gene
the gene on the Y chromosome usually associated with male development in mammals
creates testis determining factor which develops testes and produce androgens
Environmental Estrogens
- herbicides and pesticides mimic estrogen and interact with receptors
- interferes with testosterone getting to androgen receptors
- micropenis, undescended testicles, hypospadias
Trivers-Willard Hypothesis
- offspring ratio can change in response to parental resources
- well-resourced parents should prefer sons
- poor parents should prefer daughters
- due to difference in variance of reproductive success (a son from a poor family unlikely to be successful but a son from a wealthy family would)
- happens bc women invest more, so they are choosier with their mates
- women do not experience this same variance
what is puberty?
coordinated set of changes that lead to sexual maturation.
Enter the sexually reproductive years.
change from allocating resources from growth to reproduction.
hormonal changes as early as 9.
spermarche typically occurs in boys around ____
menarche typically occurs in girls around ___
11-15 yrs; 12 1/2 yrs
Boy’s growth spurts start at ______ and girls at _______
12 1/2 yrs; 10 yrs
- boys and girls pass through the stages of puberty in adaptively different orders
- girls are not sexually mature until after their growth spurts, when their bodies are mature enough to carry a pregnancy.
- (1 yr of sterility after menarche)
- boys sexually mature before growth is complete
Infants can tell the difference between men and women by _______
Between ________ infants form expectations about what girls and boys play with
3-4 months; 18-24 months
At _______, individuals look ________ when male and female roles are switched
2 yrs; longer
- it violates their expectations
At age 3, children _________
At age 4, they become __________
categorize and label their own sex; gender enforcers
From 9-11, girls are _________ and boys are _________ with respect to gender rigidity
more relaxed; more strict
Gender Socialization Theory emphasizes…
that simply by observing people, children learn their gender roles
- evidence in favour: children observe same-sex models more, imitate more, and remember actions more
Evidence challenging gender socialization theory
- Reimer twins and Dr. Money (believed in GST but transition from boy to girl was not successful)
- “Brenda” was miserable despite reports of being happy and healthy
- transgender experiences
- intersex conditions
Define intersex
an umbrella term describing conditions in which an individual has some combination of chromosomal, genital and brain development that, in combination, is not typically male or female
Some Intersex conditions (4)
5-alpha reductase deficiency syndrome: should convert testosterone to DHT. Here, testosterone is not converted to a usable form. XY babies have male internal organs but have female external genitalia. Raised as girls but at puberty undergo some masculinization.
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: adrenals produce an unusually high level of androgens. Most common form of intersex among people with XX (gender identity is mostly female but act as tomboys). In some cases, levels so high there is partial production of male external genitals.
Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome: 46 XY. Body cells unable to respond to androgen. Female genital differentiation. More feminine than average bc normal women do respond to some degree of androgens (more body hair)
Turner’s Syndrome: only have one sex chromosome, an X (possibly from mother or father). Look feminine (this is default). Those who get X from father are more feminine than those who get X from mother- this is genomic imprinting.
When menstruating, women do better on…
female tasks (when estrogen is high) and do better on male tasks when estrogen is low
