Gender Flashcards
Sex
Biological and assigned at birth
Gender
The psychological distinction between masculine and feminine behaviours
Sex Role Stereotypes
The expectations of male and female behaviours shared by a culture
Androgyny
Having high levels of both masculine and feminine traits
What did the BSRI do
Undergraduate ppts completed a questionnaire with 60 traits in which they ranked themselves from 1-7.
20 masc traits
20 fem traits
20 neutral traits
What did Bem argue about androgyny
Androgynous people are the most psychologically healthy
What did the BSRI show
Most males showed masc traits and most females showed fem traits, showing that the traits are distinct.
What did Bem originally not include
She didn’t include a category for people with both low masc and fem traits, but she later added the ‘undifferentiated’ category for people like that.
Contradicting research for Bem - Adams and Sherer
- Gave 101 undergrad students the BSRI to complete
- Found that both masculine men and masculine women were better adjusted in terms of assertiveness, which contradicts Bem’s theory that androgynous people are the best adjusted/most psychologically healthy.
However… (Adams and Sherer)
This could be explained by the fact that we live in a male dominated society, and traits like assertiveness are prioritised.
- perhaps in an equal society, androgynous people would truly be the most psychologically healthy.
Strengths of the BSRI
- high test-retest reliability
- quantitative data (can do a statistical analysis and created nomothetic laws)
Weaknesses of the BSRI
- low temporal validity (outdated traits for women like childlike/gullible)
- reductionist (simplifies something complex like gender to an objective questionnaire)
- low population validity (only Western undergraduate students - low generalisability)
- social desirability bias (self-report questionnaire)
- the adjectives used on the BSRI are socially desirable, so someone who is very confident would end up scoring highly on both masculine and feminine traits
- therefore, the BSRI could rather be considered a measure of self-confidence rather than one of gender
Supporting research for Sex Role Stereotypes - Smith and Lloyd
- recorded 32 new mothers playing with a strangers 6 month old baby
- a selection of fem, masc, and neutral toys for the mother to select
- they dressed the baby in either masc or fem clothes
- when the baby was dressed in masculine clothes, it was offered a toy hammer and encouraged to play more physcially.
- this shows that adults have sex role stereotypes ingrained into them
Contradicting research for Sex Role Stereotypes - Mead
- She examined three different tribes and found the Arapesh men and women to be gentle, responsive and cooperative; the Mundugumor men and women were violent and aggressive, seeking power and position; and the Tchambuli showed the opposite gender-role behaviours to those seen in most cultures, as the women were dominant, impersonal and managerial and the men were more emotionally dependent
- this shows that cultural forces are responsible for gender stereotypes, and that gender behaviour is learned through socialisation rather than being innate
Supporting research for BSRI - Burchardt and Serbin (psychiatric impatients)
- compared the BSRI results of 190 male and female undergrads to 96 male and female psychiatric inpatients
- found that the androgynous females scored significantly lower for depression and social introversion than the feminine females
Chromosomes, genotypes, and phenotypes
- typically, we have 46 chromsomes (23 pairs)
- chromosomes carry the genetic information (genotype) that codes for the physical manifestation (phenotype)
Chromosomes role in sex
- sex is determined by the 23rd chromosome pair
- XX female
- XY male
Atypical sex chromosome patterns - Klinefelter syndrome
- 47 chromosomes, XXY
- leads to tall stature, narrow shoulders, breast tissue, small testes, and infertility in men
- occurs between 1 in 500 and 1 in 1000 males
- their testes produce insufficient amounts of testosterone before birth and during puberty
- psychologically, it leads to shyness, being emotional, low libido, and problems with executive function (memory, problems solving)
Klinefelter’s syndrome as evidence for chromosomes influence on gender (strength)
- klinefelter’s syndrome serves as evidence that chromosomes play an important role in gender development
- typical female characteristics are shown in biological males (breast tissue, wide hips)
- studying atypical chromosomal patterns helps psychologists make inferences about chromosomes and their role in the development in gender
Limitation of Klinefelter’s syndrome as support for chromosomes role in gender development
- this biological explanation is reductionist as it ignores other factors that could impact the development of gender identity, like their culture/social interactions
Atypical sex chromosome patterns - Turners Syndrome
- occurs when women only have 1 X chromosome (XO combination)
- affects 1 in 2000 females
- non-functioning ovaries that lead to a lack of oestrogen
- physcially, leads to brown spots on the body, short stature, and a short, webbed neck
- otherwise leads to a higher-than-average reading ability, social immaturity, and poor performance on spatial, visual memory, and maths ability
Weakness of studying people with atypical sex chromosome patterns
- there is a large variation between traits of people with turners/klinefelters syndrome.
- not all people w/ the syndrome have the same psychological/physiological traits
- this means that general laws are difficult to establish as they do not account for individual differences.
- however, in some cases there is only a small sample to establish laws
- even though there may be differences between people with the syndrome, in comparison to the typical person they are very different
- therefore comparisons can be made and we can make establishments about atypical sex chromosomes.
Role of hormones in gender development
Chromosomes initially determine a person’s sex but most gender development is actually governed by hormones. They are produced both prenatally and in puberty. Hormones influence the development of genitalia and/or affect the development of the brain, both of which influence gender behaviour
Testosterone
a male hormone, which develops the male sex organs and is linked with behaviours such as increased aggression
Oestrogen
a female hormone which develops female sexual characteristics and is linked with emotional changes during the menstrual cycle (for example, increased irritability)
Oxytocin
a hormone which facilitates bonding. It is released in large doses after childbirth, making the mother feel a strong emotional connection to their baby. It is produced in lower quantities in men, but in equal amounts in both sexes during sexual intercourse
What did Berenbaum and Bailey find about females exposed to testosterone?
females exposed prenatally to relatively large doses of male hormones, (due to drugs taken by the mother) later showed more tomboyish behaviour.
Research support for the role of hormones - Van Goozen et Al
-They found that after the administration of androgens to 35 female-male transgenders, there was a clear increase in stereotypically male behaviours, like aggression proneness and sexual arousability.
-This shows that there is a clear link between sex hormones and the associated gender stereotypes.
-However, 50 participants is a small sample size and therefore the findings have low population validity. -Furthermore, the placebo effect could act as an extraneous variable and lead the participants to exaggerate the gendered behaviours.
Case study to support the role of hormones - Caster Semenya
-Caster Semenya, a female athlete, was born with testes, a vagina, and 3x the normal amount of testosterone in a woman, but no penis.
-Due to the excess of testosterone, she has broader shoulders, a deep voice, higher muscle mass, and could run up to 7 seconds longer than the average woman runner.
-This shows that hormones have a huge influence on gender development and a person’s secondary sex characteristics.
-This supports the nature side of the nature vs nurture debate as it shows that her sex differences are due to biological factors, in this case hormones.
Kohlberg’s stages of gender identity (cognitive explanation)
- Gender identity
- 2-3 years old
- aware of sex and can identify it in themselves and others but based only on outwards appearance - Gender stability
- 3-4 years old
- awareness that sex is stable (girls grow into women) but they don’t understand that gender stays the same across situations - Gender constancy
- 4-7 years old
- realises that sex stays the same regardless of the situation
- actively seek role models; imitate and internalise their behaviours
Strength of Kohlberg’s theory - Slaby and Frey (Key study)
- interviewed 55 young children asking a series of questions
- Is the doll/ person in the photograph male or female? To assess gender identity
- What sex will you be when you grow up? To assess gender stability
- Will you be a girl or a boy if you wore opposite-sex clothes or played with opposite-sex toys? To assess gender constancy.
- They found that the answers to these questions confirmed the stages described by Kolhberg, and therefore supports the three stages of gender development.
- The study uses a non-experimental method to gather data, using interviews. This collects qualitative data, which is rich in detail
-may be subject to social desirability bias as the young children may not be honest with their answers, and therefore results may be affected.
Limitation of Slaby and Frey/Kohlberg’s theory
- all research is based on interviews with children that may not have the appropriate vocabulary to express themselves –> incorrect answers
- therefore, low internal validity
- however, they overcame this by showing the children images of both male and female models and monitored which model they looked at
- They found that younger children looked at both models for the same time, whereas older ones looked at the same sex model for longer.
- This demonstrates the modelling from the gender stability stage in older children, which supports Kohlberg’s theory without the need for interviews and vocabulary.
Outline the psychodynamic explanation of gender
- Freud said gender development takes place during the phallic stage
Oedipus complex in boys - boys desire their mothers and are jealous of their fathers and end up resenting them. this creates a repressed fear of castration, so they identify with their fathers and take on masculine behaviour - Freud didn’t complete an explanation for gender development in girls, but said that girls are initially attracted to their mothers before realising they don’t have a penis. the attraction ends and they begin to experience penis envy, which then gets replaced with the desire to have a baby. the girl identifies with her mother and internalises her gender identity.
Limitation of Psychodynamic explanation - Family diversity
- Freud’s theory is based on children in nuclear families and he predicted that children born into single parent/gay parent families would struggle to develop stable gender identities, but this isn’t the case
- Green found that children raised by gay/transgender parents still developed stable gender identities.
- this shows that gender dev. may not involve anxiety/sexual desire for the same/opposite sex parent
Strength of Psychodynamic Explanation - Snortum et Al
-It was found that 46 males exempt from the military for being homosexual had closer bonding with their mothers, and rejecting, detached fathers in comparison to a sample of heterosexual men.
-As they didn’t have an identifiable father in their phallic stage, they rather identified with their mother in the Oedipus complex, which Snortum believed led to their homosexuality as they identified with the superego of the mother. This is strong evidence for the theory as it has real life application, however it lacks temporal validity as it was researched in 1969, when homosexuality was a crime and perceived very negatively.
- Just an observation, no correlation/ cause and effect relationship.
Limitation of psychodynamic explanation - Awareness of genitalia
- the explanation relies on the fact that children are aware of what opposite-sex genitalia look like
- Bem found that children so young didn’t know what the opposite-sex genitalia looked like, making it impossible for the complexes to occur
Strength of psychodynamic explanation - Little Hans
- Hans was a 5 year old boy at the phallic age of freud explanation of gender development, he developed a sexual desire for his mother and wished his father dead; leading to the development of castration anxiety. He expressed the repressed fear of castration through a fear of horses. The anxiety was resolved when he came to identify with his father.
- this shows Hans undergoing the oedipus complex and developing his gender identity, supporting Freud’s theory
Criticism of Little Hans case study (psychodynamic explanation of gender)
- cannot establish nomothetic laws as Little Hans could’ve been an atypical case.
Limitation of psychodynamic explanation - androcentric
- The theory is androcentric and lacks temporal validity, the theory was developed using the case study of little Hans in 1909. His explanation of gender development was post hoc applied to females, in the origin of the electra complex. The concept has been deemed sexist as well as androcentric.
- Karen Horney argues that based on this flawed logic it is possible to assume that males may also suffer from womb envy, jealousy over a females ability to create new life.
- it involves the application of 19th century views to a 21st century society.
What is gender schema theory
- A schema is an organised cluster of information that allows us to identify things in our environment.
- Martin and Halverson suggested that gender schemas drive gender behaviours.
What did Martin and Halverson disagree with Kohlberg about?
Martin and Halverson agree with Kohlberg to some extent, believing children are active in acquiring information about gender. Unlike Kohlberg, they think that children only need a basic gender identity to start this process. Gender development therefore happens before gender constancy is achieved, starting at around age 2-3.
Outline the gender schema theory
- Unlike Kohlberg’s theory, it proposes that children are motivated to acquire their knowledge from at a young age.
- They obtain an early gender identity as young as three years old, then begin to search for rules or ‘schemas’ so they can understand the world around them
- they sort the information and categorise it, for example girls would identify toys that are appropriate for girls to play with, as well as rejecting ‘boys’ toys.
- As well as categorising information about their gender, they would also ignore information that does not fit with their schema.
What did Bauer find (gender schema theory)
Bauer’s study showed boy’s recall of male-stereotype behaviour more superior to the recall of female-stereotype behaviour. They more accurately recalled events consistent with their own gender.
Explain ingroups and outgroups
The development of gender schemas lead to the formation of ingroups and outgroups. Ingroups are groups which the person/child identifies with. Example, being a girl means they identify themselves with that group of being a girl. Once this happen, this will lead them to positively evauate their own group and negatively evaluate the outgroups – people who are not a part or not accepted by the people in the group i.e. boys. This motivates the person to be more like their own group and avoid behaviours in the other group. It also leads to the person actively seeking out what people in the ingroup do i.e. acquire ingroup schemas.
Weakness of gender schema theory - reductionist
- the GST doesn’t consider the nature side of the nature/nurture debate
- suggesting that all gender-oriented behaviour is created through our cognitions.
- suggests that if an individual behaves in a gender-inappropriate way, their level of cognitive development is at fault
-It fails to take into account that some individuals may have been exposed to too much or too little testosterone which may have caused it. - an interactionist approach would be a better alternative as it recognises that gender is a product of both biology and environmental experiences.
Strength of GST - Poulin-Doubois et Al.
- children were asked to choose a doll to carry out gender-specific tasks e.g. vacuuming and shaving
- girls were found to choose the gender-appropriate task at 2 years old
- By 31 months boys displayed the same stereotyping behaviour.
- However, these studies had small sample sizes of about 50 – 60 children and so generalisation of findings should be made with caution.
Strength of GST - Campbell
-Using the visual preference technique he found that babies as young as 3 months old (especially boys) showed a small preference for watching babies the same sex as themselves.
- This preference continued to 9 months and 18 months and became stronger with age which is much younger than Kohlberg’s cognitive theory suggests.
-This shows that young children pay attention to the ingroup they belong to which supports the idea that babies develop and build their schemas from the environment they are in and from an early age.
Outline SLT approach to gender
- States that in order for a person to learn a gender behaviour a same gender model is needed to identify with so they can imitate their gender behaviour
- the model could be a parent, teacher, or celebrity.
- identification takes place when the model has a similar trait, eg. same sex/ similar gendered behaviours
- individuals are more likely to imitate a behaviour if they are rewarded for it (reinforcement)
Research support for SLT from Bandura (AO1)
- showed children a live adult model attacking a bobo doll aggressively. He then left the children alone and observed what the children would do
-Found that all the children who watched the adult attack the bobo doll also attacked the bobo doll aggressively particularly if the model was the same gender as the child
Limitation of SLT - Low generalisbility (Bandura)
- conducted on American participants.
- the study cannot be generalised to people from different cultures as people from different cultures will react differently.
– western cultures impose gender appropriate behaviours on children more than non-western cultures as non-western cultures have a greater emphasis on androgynous traits.
- Low external validity
Limitation of SLT -Ethical issues (Bandura) PEELC
- the children may have been distressed by the aggressive behaviour they witnessed and the aggressive behaviour they learned from the study may have stayed with them, going on to become a behavioural problem.
- Participants are supposed to leave a study in the same state they entered it, which may not have happened here.
- presumptive consent. the children could not withdraw from the study and no effort seems to have been made to debrief them afterwards
- HOWEVER benefits to society outweighed the risks to any of the children that took part.
- His research has shown us the influence that role models have on aggressive behaviour, especially role models on TV and film. This has been an important contribution to the debate over censorship in TV, films, videos and games.
Limitation of SLT gender development - Demand Characteristics
- the children might have wanted to please the adults around them as children normally do
- the Bobo Doll is designed to be hit and knocked over (it bounces back upright); children would suppose the experimenters wanted them to play with the Bobo Doll in this way
Limitation of SLT gender development - Disregards biological factors
- Bandura found boys display more aggressive behaviours than girls regardless of the condition they’re in. Weakness as aggression which is seen as a masculine trait can be explained by biological factors such as hormones and testosterone levels are higher in boys than girls leading to boys displaying more masculine traits. Low validity
Gender Identity Disorder
Not identifying with their phenotype. The DSM-5 now to refers to it as gender dysphoria as experienced by trans individuals to remove the damaging label of ‘disordered’.
psychodynamic explanation of GID
Gender dysphoria is caused by a fixation at the phallic stage of psychosexual development.
Males do not resolve the Oedipus complex and females do not resolve the Electra complex. As a result, the child develops a weak and confused gender identity leading to gender dysphoria.
Research support for psychodynamic explanation of GID - Stoller 1975
Stoller (1975): during clinical interviews with GD boys, observed that they had very close relationships with their mothers.
This could lead to female identification and confused gender identity
