gender Flashcards
what is gender dysphoria?
incongruence between one’s assigned gender, on the basis of external sexual characteristics, and the expressed gender or psychological perception of self as male or female
the difference between the expressed gender and the assigned gender is a source of distress – hence
reports of being ‘trapped inside the wrong body’.
Outline one strength and one limitation of biological explanations for gender dysphoria. (6)
(+) :One strength is that evidence suggest that there may be other brain differences associated with gender dysphoria.
E: Rametti et al (2011) studied another sexually dimorphic aspect of the brain - that of white matter ( the deeper tissues of the brain)
E:There are regional difference in the proportion of white matter; Rametti analysed the brains of both male and female transgender individuals before they began hormone treatment as part of gender reassignment.
In most cases, the amount and distribution of white matter corresponded more closely to the gender of the individuals identified themselves as being Rather than their biological sex; suggesting that there are early differences in the brains of transgender individuals.
fl: THIS IS A STRENGTH, BRAIN SCANNING TECHNIQUES OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE FOR GENDER DYSPHORIAS LINK TO BRAIN SIZE.
___________________________
(-) Cannot support continuity of gender dysphoria between childhood and adulthood
- biologically determined so inevitable
- twin studies (MZ twins treated more similarly as they have more genes in common)
- research is inconclusive as it only partly explained by heredity
Discuss the effects of media on the development of gender roles (8)
Weakness of the BSRI
The BSRI inventory may lack temporal and cultural validity as it was created from data generated by USA university students in the 1970s about what they perceived as desirable characteristics in men and women and these may no longer be relevant today or in other cultures
