Gender

Question 1

Define Sex

Answer 1

The biological status of an individual, determined by hormones and chromosomes, related to nature

Question 2

Define Gender

Answer 2

Your Psychosocial status, due to nurture, fluid and open to change. How a person ‘feels’.

Question 3

What are sex role stereotypes?

Answer 3

A set of shared values and norms within society which outline what is acceptable for males and females.

Question 4

What is Androgyny?

Answer 4

A balance of masculine and female characteristics.

Question 5

What was the BSRI?

Answer 5

A questionnaire used to study whether a person was androgynous.

Question 6

What does BSRI stand for?

Answer 6

Bem Sex Role Inventory

Question 7

What did the BSRI consist of?

Answer 7

20 characteristics for masculine, 20 for feminine and 20 for androgynous.

Question 8

What were the 4 classifications for the BSRI?

Answer 8

Feminine, Masculine, Undifferentiated and androgynous.

Question 9

Evaluation of BSRI?

Answer 9

Hugh validity and reliability- pilot study using 1000 pps, judged ranking characteristics.
lacks temporal validity - developed 1974
Gender is too complect to reduce it unto smallest components

Question 10

What is Klinefelter’s?

Answer 10

1 in 1000 males, additional X chromosome.

Question 11

What are the physical characteristics of Klinefelter’s?

Answer 11

Breast development, clumsiness, softened features.

Question 12

Psychological characteristics of Klinefelter’s?

Answer 12

Poor reading ability, trouble problem solving.

Question 13

What is Turner’s syndrome?

Answer 13

1 in 5000 females, XO pattern of chromosome, only have 45 chromosomes.

Question 14

Physical characteristics of Turner’s syndrome?

Answer 14

No menstruation, webbed neck, low set ears.

Question 15

Psychological characteristics of Turner’s syndrome?

Answer 15

Socially immature, trouble ‘fitting in’.

Question 16

Evaluation of Atypical chromosome patters (Klinefelters and Turners)?

Answer 16

Contributes to nature - nurture debate. Can compare typical chromosomal patterns to atypical ones.
Based on stereotypical assumptions of what is ‘normal’.
Helps to identify those with the condition, study of 87 pps with Klinefelters showed that those who had been diagnosed earlier had more benefits than those who were diagnosed later.

Question 17

What chromosome do sperm carry?

Answer 17

Half carry X, half carry Y.

Question 18

What does the Y chromosome carry?

Answer 18

The SRI which causes Testes to develop and androgens like Testosterone to be produced. Male sex hormones.

Question 19

What is Testosterone and what does it do?

Answer 19

It is an androgen which controls the development of male sex hormones. Increases aggression levels, Polletal - Rats injected with Testosterone reacted more aggressively after.

Question 20

What does Oestrogen do?

Answer 20

Determines menstruation and causes heightened emotionality - PMS.

Question 21

What is Oxytocin and what does it do?

Answer 21

It is produced during birth and stimulates lactation and facilitates bonding for the parent and child. - love hormone

Question 22

Evaluation for the role of chromosomes and hormones?
( T, E, O )

Answer 22

Feminists argue that PMS is a social construction which is not biological fact.
Contradictory evidence - Tricker - Pps injected with T or a placebo experienced no differences in aggression levels.
David Reimer proved that chromosomal influence was much more influential than the environment.

Question 23

What did Kohlberg’s theory of gender development argue?

Answer 23

Children’s understanding of gender becomes more developed with age , stages happen gradually.

Question 24

What are the stages suggested by Kohlberg and what happens in them?

Answer 24

1: Gender identity: Can identify their own gender and can identify males and females , unaware that sex is permanent.
2: Gender stability: Own gender is fixed and always will be.
3: Gender constancy: Consistent over time , begin to identify with people of their gender and behave in gendered ways.

Question 25

Evaluation for Kohlberg’s theory?

Answer 25

Slaby and Frey found that when watching split screens of both genders performing the same tasks, younger children would watch both sides equally while those in gender constancy would watch their own gender more.
Bandura and Bussey argued that Children as young as 4 reported feeling ‘good’ about playing with gender-appropriate toys and ‘bad’ about the opposite. Therefore, constancy is unsupported.
Using interviews on young children is limited as they cannot explain themselves and articulate their meanings.

Question 26

What theory did Martin and Halveson outline?

Answer 26

The cognitive explanation of Gender Schema.

Question 27

How did Gender Schema suggest children learned?

Answer 27

Understanding of Gender increases with age. Once a child develops a gender identity they will begin searching the environment they are in for information.

Question 28

What behaviour will children develop due to Gender Schema?

Answer 28

They will develop an ingroup and outgroup idea and will ignore information which does not correlate with their schema.

Question 29

Evaluation of Gender Schema?

Answer 29

It explains children’s behaviour and why they pay more attention to those experiencing the same situations.
It does not explain why gender schemas form and how they are developed.
Children are more likely to remember photos of gender inconsistent behaviour when tested and will likely swap the gender of the person - therefore aligning with their gender schema.

Question 30

How do pre-phallic children act according to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 30

They are neither masculine or feminine and then after the phallic stage hits they fixate pleasure on the genitals and experience either the Electra or Oedipus complex.

Question 31

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 31

It is the idea that Boys develop a hatred for their father and a deep love for their mother - the boy fears castration. He then gives up the love for the mother eventually and bonds with the father.

Question 32

What is the Electra complex?

Answer 32

When girls develop penis envy and blame their mother for their lack of penis. They also see their mother as the main love rival for their father.

Question 33

What do both sexes relate to in Freud’s theory?

Answer 33

They both relate to their respective same-sex parent , they take on the gender identity of that parent , internalising it.

Question 34

What happened to Little Hans?

Answer 34

Little Hans was a 5 year old who had an extreme fear of horses. Freud claimed that this fear stemmed from a fear of being castrated by his father which had just been displaced onto the horses.

Question 35

Evaluation for Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 35

There is no supporting evidence for the Oedipus complex.
There has been no research on women - Freud claimed that women were a mystery to him and his notion of penis envy has been claimed to simply reflect the victorian ideas at the time.

Question 36

What does the social learning theory of gender suggest?

Answer 36

Children’s environment shapes their ideas around gender development via direct reinforcement and indirect reinforcement.

Question 37

What does direct and indirect reinforcement mean in relation to SLT of gender?

Answer 37

Direct rein: Boys encouraged to be more active and discouraged in acting gentle - behaviours which are reinforced are likely to be imitated.
Indirect rein: If a girl sees her mother get encouraged to wear a nice dress, the child will imitate that.

Question 38

What is identification in SLT of gender?

Answer 38

Children will relate themselves to a role model in their immediate environment and will see themselves in that role model.

Question 39

What processes are key in the SLT of gender?

Answer 39

The mediational processes - Attention, retention, motivation and motor reproduction.

Question 40

Evaluation for SLT in explaining gender?

Answer 40

It is not an adequate explanation - motor reproduction suggests children struggle to perform behaviours if they are not intellectually capable yet modelling can occur at any age.
It explains why there are changing gender roles - shift in expectations over the years, there is no change in biology.
Smith and Lloyd found that babies dressed in gendered clothing were handed the according gendered toys to correlate to what they were dressed as by adults. - gender is reinforced via the environment.

Question 41

What did Mead find about the correlation between culture and gender?

Answer 41

Tribes across New Guinea had different perspectives on how women should act, the Arapesh women were gentle while the Tchambuli women were dominant

Question 42

What did Mead’s findings suggest about gender?

Answer 42

They suggested that there must be no biological relation between sex and gender roles.

Question 43

What did Buss then find about culture and gender?

Answer 43

They found that across 37 countries women always wanted men who could offer wealth and resources.

Question 44

Evaluation for culture and gender?

Answer 44

Freeman found that Mead’s findings were flawed, when he conducted the same study he found that Mead was misled by some of the Tribes and therefore what they found was inaccurate.
It does not resolve nature - nurture debate , this is because it is hard to distinguish where biology ends and SLT begins.

Question 45

What is the relationship between media and gender?

Answer 45

The media provides very rigid stereotypes for children to imitate and learn from.

Question 46

How are women and men likely to be portrayed in media?

Answer 46

Furnham and Farragher found that men are more likely to be shown in autonomous roles in a professional space while women are shown in domestic, familial roles.

Question 47

How does media and gender perform a self-efficacy?

Answer 47

It shows how successful children will be when performing gender - appropriate behaviour , therefore encouraging them to do it.

Question 48

Evaluation for media and gender?

Answer 48

It is a correlation, not causation. The norms in society may reflect the media or the media may reflect the the norms in society. It cannot be solved.
Counter - stereotypes are also portrayed in the media. Pre-adolescent boys stereotypes became stronger when exposed to non-traditional models which should not occur.

Question 49

What is Gender Identity Disorder (GID)?

Answer 49

It occurs when there is a mismatch between biological sex and the sex that an individual ‘feels’, it can be a source of stress or discomfort for the individual.

Question 50

What does the biological explanation for atypical gender development suggest?

Answer 50

The brain sex theory argues that GID is caused by specific brain structures which are in compatible with a persons biological sex.

Question 51

What did Zhou find about GID?

Answer 51

He conducted a study and found that the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (which is said to be 40% larger in males than females) in post mortems of 6 male to female participants was a similar size to that of a female.

Question 52

What did Coolidge find when investigating genetic variance in GID?

Answer 52

They found that in 157 twin pairs GID was estimated to be 2.3% with 62% of these cases accounted for by genetic variance. This means there was a strong heritable component to GID.

Question 53

What did Ovesey and Person find when investigating the social-psychological explanation for gender development?

Answer 53

They found that GID is caused by extreme separation anxiety before gender identity has been established, the child fantasises about symbiotic fusion with mother to relieve anxiety. The danger of separation is then removed and the child adopts a female gender identity.

Question 54

What did Liben and Bigler find when investigating the cognitive explanation within the social-psychological explanation?

Answer 54

They argues the dual pathway theory which acknowledges the development of gender schema which directs gender appropriate attitudes and behaviour as a part of normal development. It also argues that individuals interests may be more important than their gender identity which changes their gender schema. e . g (a boy who likes a playing with dolls may then believe dolls are for boys and girls).

Question 55

Evaluation for atypical gender development (GID)?

Answer 55

There is contradictory evidence it was claimed that the BST was fully developed at the age of 5 but Hulshoff found that gender - reassignment surgery can impact it’s size so any changes nay simply be due to this.
Twin studies are inconclusive - it is difficult to separate nature and nurture as twins are exposed to the same environments and have very similar experiences.
It oversimplifies a complex concept - biological explanation reduces behaviours into a neuroatomical level meaning that other contributing factors may be ignored.