Gender Flashcards
sex
The biological differences between males and females including chromosomes, hormones and anatomy.
How is sex determined
By the 23rd pair of chromosomes
Gender
The psychological, social and cultural differences between men and women including attitudes, behaviours and social roles.
What is the difference between sex and gender
sex is innate and the result of nature, it cannot be changed. Gender is partly environmentally determined and therefore due to nurture, it’s a social construct
Gender dysphoria
When a persons prescribed sex does not reflect the way they feel inside and the gender they identify themselves as being.
Sex-role stereotype
A set of beliefs and preconceived ideas about what is expected or appropriate for men and women in a given society or social group.
Androgyny
People whose characteristics are a balanced mixture of masculine and feminine traits.
What is high androgyny associated with
Psychological well being
Why is high androgyny associated with psychological wellbeing
individuals with a balanced mix of traits are better equipped to adapt to a range of situations
BEM sex role inventory (BSRI)
The first systematic attempt to measure androgyny using a rating scale of 60 traits, to produce a score across two dimensions.
How did the BSRI work
Respondents are required to rate themselves on a 7-point rating scale for each item and scores are then classified on two dimensions
What are the dimensions of the BSRI
masculinity-femininity
androgynous-undifferentiated
Strength of androgyny research
(quantitative research)
-Androgyny is measured quantitatively and the numerical approach is useful for research purposes
-However Spence argued that gender is more than a set of behaviours
-Qualitative methods offer a better way of analysing gender
- Personal attributes questionnaire adds another dimension
-Work together to provide data
Limitation of androgyny research
(Self-awareness)
-People may not have insight into their degree of androgyny
-Asking people to rate themselves relies on them having an understanding of their personality and behaviour
Questionnaires scoring system is subjective and peoples application of the system might differ
-BSRI might not be an objective method
Chromosomes
Found in the nucleus of living cells and carrying information in the form of genes. The 23rd pair of chromosomes determines biological sex
Chromosomal structure for males and females
male: XY
Female: XX
Testosterone
A hormone from the androgen group that is produced mainly in the male testes. Associated with aggressiveness
Oestrogen
The primary female hormone playing an important role in the menstrual cycle and reproductive system
hormone
A biochemical substance that circulates in the blood but only affects target organs. They are produced in large quantities but disappear quickly.
How do hormones affect gender development
-prenatally in the womb, hormones act upon brain development and cause development of the reproductive organs
-at puberty, a burst of hormonal activity triggers the development of secondary sexual characteristics
Oxytocin
A hormone which causes contractions of the uterus during labour and stimulates lactation
A strength of the biological approach to gender development
(evidence for testosterone)
-The link between increased testosterone and sexual behaviour was confirmed in a study by Wang et al.
-Male hypogonadism is a condition caused by males testes failing to produce normal levels of testosterone.
-Wand et al gave 227 hypogonadism males testosterone therapy for 180 days and monitored body shape, libido, mood ect
-Found it improved sexual function, libido and mood
-Shows that testosterone exerts a powerful influence on male sexual arousal as well as physical development
A limitation of the biological approach to gender development (social factors ignored)
-ignores the role of social factors in gender-relate behaviour
-Hofstede et al claim that gender roles around the world are much more a consequence of social norms than biology
-Countries that place individual competition and independence above the needs of community are more masculine on their outlook.
-Consequently traditional masculine traits will be more highly valued within these societies
-This challenges the biological approach and suggests social factors may ultimately be more important
Klinefelter’s syndrome
A syndrome affecting males in which individual’s genotype has an extra X chromosome (XXY)
How many people does Klinefelter’s affect
1 in 600 males
Atypical sex chromosome patterns
Any sex chromosome pattern that deviates from the usual XX/XY formation and which tends to be associated with a distinct pattern of physical and psychological symptoms
Turner’s syndrome
A chromosomal disorder in which affected women have only one X chromosome (XO)
How many people does Turner’s syndrome affect
1 in 5000
Physical characteristics of Klinefelter’s
-reduced body hair
-some breast development
-long gangly limbs
-underdeveloped genitals
-Problems with co-ordination and general clumsiness
Physical characteristics of Turners
-Don’t have a menstrual cycle
-Ovaries don’t develop
-Do not develop breasts at puberty
-low set ears
-webbed neck
-physically immature
Psychological characteristics of Klinefelter’s
-Poorly developed language skills and reading ability
-Passive, shy and lack interest in sexual activity
-Don’t respond well to stressful situations
-Problems with memory and problem solving
Psychological characteristics of Turner’s
-Higher than average reading ability
-Performance on spatial, visual memory and maths is lower than average
-Socially immature
Explain why psychologists study individuals with Klinefelter’s syndrome.
-To make comparisons with typical sex chromosome patterns
-to make inferences on a biological basis
What is a strength of research into atypical sex chromosome syndromes (nature-nurture)
-contribution to the nature- nurture debate
-by comparing people with these syndromes it becomes possible to see psychological and behavioural differences between the two groups.
-It might be logically inferred that these differences have a biological basis and are a direct result of the abnormal chromosomal structure.
-This would support the view that innate ‘nature’ influences have a powerful effect on psychology and behaviour
What is a counterpoint to a strength of research into atypical sex chromosome syndromes
There are issues in leaping to this conclusion.
-The relationship between atypical chromosomal patterns associated with Klinefelter’s and Turner’s syndrome and the differences in behaviour seen in these individuals is not causal
-It may be that environmental and social influences are more responsible for the behavioural differences
-For instance, social immaturity in Turner’s syndrome may arise from the fact they are treated immaturely
-This shows that it could be wrong to assume that psychological and behavioural differences in people are due to nature
What is Kohlberg’s theory based on
The idea that children’s understanding of gender becomes more sophisticated with age
Biological maturation
As the brain matures so does thinking
gender stability
Happens around age 4. A child understands their own gender is fixed but can’t apply this logic to other people. They are often confused by external changes in appearance
Gender identity
A child recognises their own gender and possess the ability to label others, but don’t view gender as fixed. Acquired at age 2
Gender constancy
Usually reached by age 6. A child realises that gender remains the same over time and situation. They begin to identify with people of their own gender and start to behave in gender appropriate ways.
What is a strength of Kohlberg’s theory (research support)
-Evidence suggests that gender stereotyping does emerge around age 6.
-Damon (1977) told children a story about a boy named George who liked to play with dolls.
-The children were asked to comment on the story
- 4 year olds said it was okay for him to play with dolls. 6 year olds thought it was wrong
-They had developed gender stereotypes of what they believed is right and wrong.
What is a limitation of Kohlberg’s theory
(methodological issues)
-supporting research relies on unsatisfactory methods of assessment
-Bem has criticised the methodology used in many studies
-We identify gender through the clothes people wear but in reality the best way to identify people is through physical differences
-In bems study she demonstrates that 40% of children aged 3-5 were able to show constancy if shown a naked photo
-This shows that the typical ways of testing gender constancy may misrepresent what younger children actually know
Briefly outline what is meant by ‘gender schema’.
-organised group of related concepts / cognitive structures / mental representation
- about each sex and sex appropriate behaviour.
How is gender schema theory similar to Kohlberg’s theory
-It’s a cognitive developmental theory
-Argues that children’s understanding of gender changes with age
-Children develop their understanding by actively structuring their own learning
When do children begin to develop a gender schema
After a child has developed gender identity they will begin to search the environment for information that encourages development of gender schema
What do gender schema’s include
-expand to include behaviours and personality traits
-formed around stereotypes- by age 6 children have a fixed idea of what is appropriate for each gender
Explain one methodological problem that might occur when asking young children questions about gender development.
- children may not understand the questions being asked
-problem due to the validity
-This means that they may not be able to express their actual knowledge very clearly
Ingroup
children tend to have a better understanding of the schema that are appropriate to their own gender
When do children develop a schema for both genders
Age 8
A strength of gender schema theory (research support)
-Key principles are supported by evidence
-Martin and Halverson’s own study found that children under the age of 6 were more likely to remember photographs of stereotypically gender appropriate behaviour when tested a week later
-children tended to change the gender of the person carrying out the gender inappropriate activity in the photographs when asked to recall them so it was now appropriate
-This provides support for gender schema which predicts that children under 6 years would do this.
A limitation of gender schema theory (earlier gender identity)
-Gender identity probably develops earlier than Martin and Halverson suggested
-Longitudinal study of 82 children looked at the onset gender identity
-data was obtained from twice weekly reports from mothers on their children’s language from age 9 to 21 months
- the key measure of gender identity was taken to be when and how children labelled themselves as a ‘boy’ or ‘girl’
-occurred on average at 19 months, as soon as children begin to communicate
- this suggests that Martin and Halverson may have underestimated children’s abilities to use gender labels
What stage does gender development occur according to freud
phallic
Oedipus complex
Freud’s explanation of how a boy resolves his love for his mother and feelings of rivalry towards his father by identifying his father
Electra complex
A Term proposed by Carl Jung which refers to the process girls go through where an attraction to and envy of their fathers is resolved through identification with their mother
Identification
A desire to be associated with a particular person or group often because the person/group possesses certain desirable characteristics
Internalisation
An individual adopts the attitudes and/or behaviour of another
Stages of the oedipus complex
-boy develops incestuous feelings towards mother
-jealous and murderous hatred towards father
-recognise that their father is more powerful leading to castration anxiety
-To resolve the conflict they give up their love for their mother and identify with their father
Stages of the Electra complex
-girls experience penis envy seeing themselves in competition with their mother for their father’s love
-develop a double-resentment towards their mother for also their mother for not having a penis
-over time they come to accept they have no penis and substitute this desire with the desire for a baby (identify with their mother)
Little Hans
-Freuds evidence of the Oedipus complex was limited
-Hans was 5 and had a fear of being bitten by a horse
-This seemed to stem from an incident where he had seen a horse collapse and die
-Freuds interpretation was that his fear of being bitten represented his fear of castration
A strength of the psychodynamic theory (the oedipus complex)
-Some support for the role of the oedipus complex in gender development
-For boys to have normal development it depends on being raised by at least one male parent
-Rekers and Morey rated the gender identity of 49 boys aged 3-11 years based on interviews
- Of those judged to be ‘gender disturbed’ 75% had neither their biological father nor a substitute
-This suggests that being raised with no father may have a negative impact upon gender identity
A limitation of psychodynamic theory (female development)
-Inadequate account of women’s development
-girls development was undertaken by Carl Jung
-Freud admitted that women were a mystery to him
-Notion of penis envy was criticized as reflecting the androcentric victorian era during which he lived where men held so much power
-men experience womb envy- a reaction to women’s ability to nurture and sustain life
-This challenges the idea that women’s gender development is founded on a desire to want to be like a man
Joey has stolen a bag of sweets from the local shop. His friend Ross says: “My dad says that stealing is wrong and I agree with him.”
With reference to the Oedipus complex, explain why Ross agrees with his father.
-Ross has identified with his father.
-internalised his father’s characteristics/behaviour
Social learning theory
explains gender development in terms of socialisation and experience
Direct reinforcement
Children are more likely to be reinforced for demonstrating behaviour that is stereotypically gender-appropriate
Differential reinforcement
Boys and girls are encouraged to show distinct gender-appropriate behaviour in different ways.
Vicarious reinforcement
If the consequences of another person’s behaviour is favourable that behaviour is more likely to be imitated by a child.
-If the consequence of the behaviour is unfavourable then it’s less likely to be imitated
Identification
The process whereby a child attaches themself to a person who is seen to be ‘like me’ or to be a person who ‘i want to be ‘
-the person possesses qualities that the child sees as desirable
Role models
Tend to be attractive, high status and usually the same sex as the child
Modelling
From the role models perspective is the precise demonstration of a behaviour that may be imitated by an observer
Mediational processes
Attention, retention,motivation and motor reproduction
A strength of social learning explanations of gender (research support)
-Key principles are supported by evidence
-Study by Smith and Lloyd involving babies aged 4-6 who were dressed as the opposite sex for half the time
- Observed interacting with adults and babies assumed as boys were more likely to be given a hammer-shaped rattle and encouraged to be adventurous and active.
-When the same babies were dressed as girls they were more likely to be handed a cuddly toy and told they were pretty and reinforced for being passive
-This suggests that gender appropriate behaviour is stamped in at a early age through differential reinforcement
A limitation of social learning explanations of gender (no developmental sequence)
-Does not provide an adequate explanation of how learning processes change with age
-The general implication of the approach is that modelling of gender-appropriate behaviour can occur at any age
-It seems illogical that children who are say 2 years old learn in the same way as children who are 9 years old.
-This conflicts with Kohlberg’s theory that children do not become active their gender development until they reach gender constancy
-This suggests that influence of age and maturation on learning gender concepts is not a factor considered by social learning theory.
Outline social factors that may influence gender roles.
-reinforcement from parents, family, and peers
-Observational learning
-vicarious reinforcement
-role models
Choose one study in which cultural variations in gender-related behaviour were investigated.
Explain one methodological problem in relation to this study.
-Mead – Three tribes
-validity; researcher bias; ethnocentrism; subjectivity
Culture
The ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society
media
Communication channels such as TV, film and books through which news, entertainment, education and data are made available
gender roles
A set of behaviours and attitudes that are considered typical of one gender and atypical of the other
how does cross-culture research contribute to the nature-nurture debate
-If a particular gender-role behaviour appears to be consistent across different cultures we might conclude that this represents an innate biological difference
-if the same gender-role behaviours are culturally specific we might assume that the influence of shared norms and socialisation is decisive
What cultural groups did Mead study
3 different groups in Papua new Guinea
-The Arapesh
-The Mundugumor
-The Tchambuli
What did Mead conclude
There may not be a direct biological relationship between sex and gender and that gender roles may be culturally determined
What did Buss’s study on cultural similarities find
Buss found consistent patterns in mate preference in 37 countries across all continents
Rigid stereotypes
The media provide very clear gender stereotypes that are quite rigid. EG. men are independent and ambitious and women are dependent and advice seekers
Furnham and Farragher study on stereotypes by the media
study of TV adverts which found that men were more likely to be shown i nomous roles within professional contexts whereas women were often seen occupying familial roles
Self Efficacy-media
The media also gives information in terms of the likely success of adopting the behaviours. Seeing others perform gender appropriate behaviours increases a child’s belief that they are capable of carrying out behaviours in the future.
Self-efficacy study
analysed the attitudes of people in India who had watched a programme designed to challenge deep-rooted gender stereotypes. It was a detective drama that ran for 78 episodes and girls who watched it were more likely to see themselves as capable of working outside the home
What is a strength of culture and gender roles (research support)
-Supported by evidence
-Hofstede argues that in industrialised cultures the changing status and expectations of women are a function of their increasingly active role in the workplace and away from the domestic sphere
-led to a breakdown of traditional stereotypes in advanced industrialized societies.
-This suggests that gender roles are very much determined by cultural context
What is a limitation of culture and gender roles
(Mead’s research)
-mead’s cross-culture research has been criticised
-mead has been accused of making generalisations
-Freeman conducted a follow-up study of people from Papua new guinea after mead’s investigation and argued her findings were flawed as she had been misled by some of the participants
-Her preconceptions had influenced her (observer bias and ethnocentrism)
-This suggests that Mead’s interpretations may not be objective
What is a strength of media and gender roles (cultivation theory)
-Theoretical basis
-Cultivation theory argues that the more time individuals spend ‘living’ in the media world the more likely they are to believe that this reflects social reality
-Bond and Dragos found a positive correlation between time spent watching the reality TV programme Jersey shore and permissive attitudes towards casual sex.
-This was still found to be true when factors such as religious belief and parental attitudes were controlled
-This suggests the media cultivates perception of reality and this affects gender behaviour
What is a limitation of media and gender roles
-May not be a causal relationship
-Durkin argues that even very young children are not passive and uncritical recipients of media messages
-norms within the child’s family may be the bigger determinant on the child’s gender attitudes and behaviour
-If the media confirms existing gender norms then they are more likely to be reinforced
-this suggests that media influences are secondary to other influences
Briefly outline the biological explanation for gender identity disorder.
Over or under-exposure to androgens in the womb (over-exposure for females, under–exposure for males) and consequent masculinisation or feminisation
gender dysphoria
Used to describe when a person experiences discomfort and stress because there is a mismatch between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity
Brain sex theory
Gender dysphoria is caused by a particular structure in the brain – the bed nucleus
of the stria terminalis (BST).
What is the bed nucleus
of the stria terminalis
the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis
What does the BST do?
It is involved in emotional responses and sexual behaviours (in male rats).
What is the size difference between men and women?
This area has been found to be larger in men than women.
What has been found in transgender females?
The structure is female sized (smaller) in transgender females (Kruijver 2000).
How does the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis explain gender dysphoria
One’s BST is the size of the sex they wish to identify with, not their biological sex size.
Coolidge’s study on twins
Coolidge (2002) assessed 157 twin pairs (96 MZ & 61 DZ), for evidence of gender dysphoria.
Heylens twin study
Heylens (2012), compared 23 MZ and 21 DZ
twins where one of each pair was diagnosed with
gender dysphoria.
In Coolidge’s study, what variance was accounted for by genetic factors
suggesting there is a strong heritable component to gender dysphoria?
62%
In Heylen’s study, what % of the MZ twins were concordant for gender dysphoria?
39%
In Heylen’s study what % of the DZ twins were concordant for gender dysphoria?
None
What is social constructivism with relation to gender?
Concepts are invented by societies, with the concept of a man and a woman forcing people
to pick a side.
How does social constructivism explain gender dysphoria?
Due to people being forced to pick a side they act accordingly.
What country did McClintock complete her work in?
Sambia of New Guinea
What do the biological males have causing them to be categorised as a girl? (McClintock)
Labia and clitoris.
What happens during puberty? (McClintock)
The increase in testosterone causes the testes to descend and clitoris to enlarge into a penis.
What are the genders in this culture? (McClintock)
Men, women, females then males.
What did Ovesey and Person claim was the cause of gender dysphoria
claimed social relationships within the family were the cause
of gender dysphoria.
What are boys said to experience that cause them to experienced gender dysphoria?
Extreme separation anxiety from their mother before gender identity has been established.
How was this seen in Stoller’s interviews?
Biological males displayed overly close relationships with their mothers
suggesting stronger female identification and thus conflicted gender identity.
A strength of social constructionism
One strength of the social constructionism approach is that not all cultures have two genders. On the previous spread we saw how some cultures recognise more than two genders, such as the fa’afafine of Samoa. This is a challenge to traditional binary classifications of male and female. Indeed, the fact that increasing numbers of people now describe themselves as non-binary suggests that cultural understanding is only now beginning to ‘catch up’ with the lived experience of many. This suggests that gender identity (and dysphoria) is best seen as a social construction rather than a biological fact.
A limitation of the psychoanalytic theory
One limitation is 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 the theory only applies to transgender women (people assigned male at birth who identify as women). In any case, research by Rekers (1986) found that gender dysphoria in those assigned male at birth is more likely to be associated with the absence of the father than the fear of separation from the mother. This suggests that psychoanalytic theory does not provide a comprehensive account of gender dysphoria.
