Gender

Question 1

What is the difference between sex and gender?

Answer 1

Sex: A person’s innate biological status as male or female, determined by different chromosomes (XX or XY). Nature.

Gender: The psychosocial status of males and females including attitudes, behaviour and social role associated with being male or female. Nurture.

Question 2

What is a sex-role stereotype?

Answer 2

A set of expectations or appropriate behaviour for males and females in a society.

Question 3

What is Gender identity disorder?

Answer 3

A condition where biological sex and gender identity do not correspond, e.g. a biological male ‘feels’ female.

Question 4

What is Androgyny?

Answer 4

Displaying a balance of masculine and feminine characteristics.

Question 5

What is the Bem Sex Role Inventory?

Answer 5

Systematic attempt to measure androgyny using a scale of 60 traits to produce scores on masculinity-femininity and androgynous-undifferentiated.

Question 6

What is the difference between masculinity and femininity?

Answer 6

Masculinity is a term associated with male traits/roles, femininity is a term associated with female traits/roles

Question 7

How does Androgyny affect mental health?

Answer 7

Higher levels of androgyny associated with better mental health because can adapt to a greater range of situations

Question 8

Evaluation of the Bem Sex Role Inventory

Answer 8

Scale tested using a number of judges to come up with female/male traits and also with people’s own views of gender identity - therefore reliable and valid - has test-retest reliability

Challenged that androgenous individuals have better mental health - depends on the culture e.g. some people with male traits may be better accepted in some cultures

It oversimplifies a complicated concept - a more holistic view of the person should be taken

Scales have a tendency to be affected by social desirability bias, demand characteristics or response bias

Question 9

What are Chromosomes?

Answer 9

23 pairs in humans containing genetic information, 23rd pair determine biological sex: XX for female XY for male.

Question 10

What are Hormones?

Answer 10

Hormones are chemical substances produced in the body that control and regulate the activity of certain cells or organs.

Question 11

What hormones are said to affect gender/sex?

Answer 11

Testosterone - A hormone produced mainly in the male testes (smaller amounts in the female ovaries).

Oestrogen - Primary female hormone important in the development of the menstrual cycle and reproductive system - can be said to cause PMS

Oxytocin - The ‘love’ hormone produced during labour and stimulates lactation. - men also produce oxytocin

Question 12

Do hormones/chromosomes affect behaviours associated with sex and gender?

Answer 12

Dabbs - prison population - individuals with high levels of testosterone were said to be more aggressive

Van Goozen et al - transgender sex changes using hormones. Male-female - less aggressive and lower score on visuo-spatial skills, female-male showed the opposite

But . . .

Double-blind study - Tricker et al - 43 males either injected with testosterone or placebo -after 10 weeks no difference

Androcentrism/Sexism - women are dismissed as having PMS too often and it ignores how they really feel or if they are having a normal reaction to unacceptable behaviour.

Overemphasis on nature - ignores the social and cultural stereotypes/expectations of gender

Reductionist - The biological model takes a reductionist approach because it suggests that hormones and chromosomes are responsible for our gender-related behaviour, thus reducing a higher level of behaviour to a lower level.

Question 13

What are Atypical sex chromosome patterns?

Answer 13

Any set of sex chromosome patterns that deviates from the usual XX/XY.

Question 14

What is Klinefelter’s syndrome?

Answer 14

Males with the pattern XXY rather than XY.

Physical: tallness, underdeveloped genitals, breast development and lacking body hair.
Psychological: being passive, shy and having poor language development.

Question 15

What is Turner’s Syndrome?

Answer 15

Females where there is only one X (XO) chromosome instead of XX.

Physical: small stature, webbed neck and no ovaries.
Psychological: higher than average reading ability, poor peer relationships, visual memory and maths skills.

Question 16

Evaluation of Atypical sex chromosome research

Answer 16

Contributes to the nature-nurture debate - if ‘gender-typical’ behaviours are affected by too much or too little hormone than that implies nature has a strong role in sex/gender behaviours

However, people may label people with atypical sex chromosome patterns at an early age due to them ‘seeming different’ and this may lead to a self-forfilling prophecy.

As only around a third of people with Klinefelter’s are aware that they have the condition, and significantly fewer of those will have been the subject of psychological research. This limits the extent to which the generalisations can be made suggesting that their biology is responsible for their behaviour because we are drawing these conclusions from research on a very small sample.

Research raises awareness of these syndromes and may lead to recognition and more diagnosis/treatment/understanding

Question 17

Summarise Kohlberg’s Cognitive theory of Gender Development

Answer 17

Kohlberg believed that a child’s understanding of gender becomes more sophisticated with age. He stated that gender development occurs in stages and runs parallel to intellectual development as the child matures biologically

Gender identity: Around age 2. Child recognises that they are a boy or a girl and labels others as such.

Gender stability: Around age 4. Own gender is fixed over time and they will be male or female when they are older.

Gender constancy: Around age 6 or 7. Own gender and other people’s gender is consistent over time and situations.

Imitation of role models - Once children achieve gender constancy, they seek out gender-appropriate role models to identify with and imitate.

Question 18

Evaluate Kohlberg’s Cognitive theory of Gender Development

Answer 18

Evidence supporting Stages - Slaby and Frey - young children watched males and females carrying out same task - spent equal amount of time watching male/females. Children in the gender constancy stage, however, spent more time watching the model who was the same sex as them.

Kohlbergs Methods - based on interviews sometimes with very young children - the children may have misinterpreted the question or not have the vocabulary to express their views

Links to the biological approach

Does not explain cases where children identify as a different gender to their biological sex or other differences in gender identity

Question 19

Summarise the Gender-Schema Cognitive Theory of Gender development

Answer 19

Martin and Halverson - children’s understanding of gender increases with age, Children develop their understanding of gender by actively structuring their own learning:

Gender schema: Organised set of beliefs and expectations about gender which guides gender-appropriate behaviour.

Gender identity: Only gender identity is needed for the development of gender schema. This contrasts with Kohlberg’s view that this process only begins after they have reached gender constancy.

Schema direct behaviour and self-understanding: Schema are likely to be formed around stereotypes and these direct experience as well as the child’s understanding of itself , e.g. ‘I am a boy so I play with cars and wear trousers’. Children misremember or disregard information that does not fit with their schema

Ingroups and outgroups: Children pay more attention to ingroup (own gender) schema up to age 8, then outgroup schema of interest too.

Question 20

Evaluate the Gender-Schema Cognitive Theory of Gender development

Answer 20

Evidence: Boston and Levy (1991) - . They used a quasi-experimental method. Compared girls’ and boys’ ability to assemble sequences of pictures in the correct order. The sequences showed activities that were ‘typically’ male or female (e.g. cooking the dinner or doing DIY). The children had to sequence four pictures. The children were better at sequencing the activities that corresponded stereotypically to their own gender. - Suggests that they had a more developed understanding of activities that were relevant to them.

Supports/Compliments Kohlberg’s theory of Gender Development

Weakness: Overemphasises the role of the individual in gender development and downplays the strong influence of families/societies on encouraging/discouraging certain behaviours

Question 21

Summarise the psychodynamic theory of gender development

Answer 21

Based on Freud’s psychoanalytical theory:

Pre-phallic children - Pre-phallic children are bisexual – they do not display masculine or feminine characteristics.

Oedipus complex - In the phallic stage boys are sexually attracted towards the mother and fear their father finding out. In order to avoid castration anxiety the child identifies with the same-sex parent and gender identity is fixed.

Electra complex - In the phallic stage girls experience penis envy, believe they have been castrated and are competing with their mother for the father’s love. The desire for a penis changes to the desire for a baby and is resolved by identification with the mother.

Identification: The child adopts the traits of the same-sex parent and copies the behaviour of that parent.

Internalisation: The process of a child identifying with parental standards and making these standards their own

Question 22

Evaluate Freud’s psychoanalytical theory of gender development

Answer 22

Lack of evidence - mainly theoretical - unscientific

Psychic determination - we are determined by our subconscious/parenting

Patriarchal - heavily leans towards males as being superior and women wanting to be like them

Does not consider/look at non-nuclear families where there may not be a ‘role model’ of a specific gender yet ‘normal’ gender identity occurs

Question 23

Summarise the Social Learning Theory of Gender Development

Answer 23

SLT - states that all behaviour is learned from imitating others. Nurture rather than nature

Imitation: Gender behaviour is acquired through the child copying the actions of others.

Direct reinforcement: Children are reinforced (praised) for gender-appropriate behaviour, so this is more likely to be repeated.

Differential reinforcement: The way in which boys and girls are encouraged to show distinct gender-appropriate behaviour and learn gender identity.

Indirect reinforcement: If a child sees another person being reinforced for gender-appropriate behaviour, they are likely to copy/imitate this behaviour in the hope that they too will receive the reward (reinforcement) – vicarious reinforcement.

Identification: The process by which a child attaches themselves to a (same-sex) model whose qualities they would like to possess for themselves.

Modelling: Displaying behaviour to be imitated or copying a chosen person’s behaviour.

Question 24

Evaluate the Social Learning Theory of Gender Development

Answer 24

Evidence: Smith and Lloyd - 4-6 month olds dressed half the time in boys clothes and half in girls clothes (irrespective of sex). When dressed as boys - adults gave them a hammer shaped rattle and encouraged them to be active and adventurous. When dressed as girls they were given a doll and told they were pretty.

Explains why in some cultures there has been a decrease in encouraging ‘gender acceptable behaviour’ and an increase in gender fluidity

Ignores biology/sex which is seen to have a strong influence on gender (as seen from hormones/atypical sex chromosome section)

Question 25

What influence does culture have on gender roles?

Answer 25

Cross cultural research: If behaviour is universal (all males in all cultures are aggressive, independent, etc.) then we can propose biology is responsible.
If there are differences then we can infer that culture/environment are responsible.

Mead: Mead found different gender roles in the three tribes which suggests that gender roles may be culturally determined e.g. the Tchambuli tribe and the Mundugumor tribe

Cultural similarities: Buss found similarities in mate preference in 37 countries across all continents.

Question 26

Evaluation of the influence of culture on gender roles

Answer 26

Mead may have observer bias and misinterpreted the tribes’ behaviour according to her own stereotypes

Imposed Etic - Non-western cultures’ behaviour has been studied and interpreted using western methods and theories - local populations need to be included in research teams

Does the solve the nature-nurture debate - it is hard to separate the two - both biology and culture interact with each other

Question 27

What influence does media have on gender roles?

Answer 27

Media and gender roles: The media provides role models with whom children may identify and want to imitate

Rigid stereotypes: The media may play a role in reinforcing stereotypes concerning male and female behaviour.

Media exposure: Children who have more exposure to popular forms of media tend to display more gender stereotypes.

Question 28

Evaluation of media influence on gender

Answer 28

Supports Social Learning Theory

Application - with this knowledge programmes should be aimed at reducing stereotypes e.g. Disney is beginning to move away from old fashioned princess/prince romance storylines = Encanto/Moana

Cause and effect- does media cause the stereotypes or does it merely reflect the existing stereotypes in society?

Question 29

Atypical gender development - Explanations for Gender Dysphoria

Answer 29

Gender dysphoria (GD): Experienced by some people who identify more with the opposite gender than with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Brain sex theory of GD: Suggests that GD is caused by specific brain structures that are incompatible with a person’s biological sex. BSTc is around 40% larger in males. Post-mortem studies of transgender males found the BSTc to be similar size to that of a typical female brain.

Genetic factors: States that GD has a genetic basis. Concordance rates of 39% for MZ twins and 0% for DZ twins suggest heritability.

Psychoanalytic theory of GD: Child fantasises and becomes the mother and thus adopts a girl’s/woman’s gender identity.

Cognitive explanation of GD: Gender schema directs attitudes and behaviour and the individual’s personal interests may become more dominant than the gender identity. In most people this leads to androgyny but for some may lead to GD

Question 30

Evaluation of the Explanations of Gender Dysphoria

Answer 30

Brain Sex Theory of GD - It is argued the pre-natal hormonal influences that play a part in GD to not come into play until adulthood, which does not explain why GD occurs in young children

Genetic Factors Theory of GD- Twin studies are inconclusive - cannot separate biology from environment

Psychoanalytical theory of GD: No evidence - only applies to transgender women

Cognitive Theory of GD: provides a description not an explanation of why the individual’s personal interests may be different to gender identity

Interactionist explanation of GD more likely - a combination of factots

All theories imply that GD is ‘abnormal’ - this is based on old fashioned views of gender and sex - perhaps gender is fluid and this is a part of normality