Gender Flashcards
What is gender?
someone’s sense of how male or how female they perceive themself as
What is sex?
Sex is a biological fact- whether someone is born biologically male or biologically female.
What are sex-role stereotypes?
They are also known as gender stereotypes. A sex role stereotype is learned from birth and is based on the behaviors that are considered to be social norms based on your sex.
What are three points supporting sex-role stereotypes?
- Some believe it to be important in a child’s development
- It can give people a sense of identity
- It can give people a sense of self-actualisation
What evidence is there against sex-role stereotypes?
Androgynous people (people who do not fit sex-role stereotypes) have been shown to have higher levels of psychological health and better self-esteem.
What is androgyny?
The idea that a person can be masculine and feminine by combining a number of male and female characteristics.
What is the Bem Sex Role Inventory (How was it formulated)?
It is a psychological test, used to measure androgyny , formulated by Sandra Bem. This was developed by asking 100 american undergraduates what characteristics they find attractive/preferable in men and women. This was then reduced down to 20 male and 20 female characteristics. The person taking the test would then rate how much they related to/ identified with the characteristic.
What are two criticism relating to construction for the BSRI?
The BSRI is nomothetic and has a population bias.
What are the three hormones related to gender?
Testosterone, Oestrogen and Oxytocin
What is the role of testosterone in determining sex?
It is produced prenatally and cause the growth of male genitalia
How can an XY individual not present as a male?
If their tissue becomes resistant to testosterone, the male genitals will not grow, despite the individual still having the XY chromosome.
How can prenatal testosterone affect women?
What is the name of a study that proves this.
XX women can also more tomboyish behavior and male-specific interests if exposed to more testosterone prenatally (often related to mothers taking taking testosterone containing drugs).
Berenbaum and Bailey 2003
What part of puberty is Oestrogen important in?
Oestrogen is important in stimulating secondary sexual characteristics, such as breast development and the menstrual cycle.
What response does Oxytocin produce?
Oxytocin evokes feelings of contentment, calmness and love. It can also dampen and the fight-or-flight response
What steroid can dampen the effect of oxytocin?
Testosterone
What is klinefelter’s syndrome?
When male individuals are born with an extra X chromosome.
What are three of the physical symptoms of Klinefelter’s syndrome?
- Small testes and low testosterone levels during puberty
- lack of facial hair and pubic hair
- Presence of breast tissue and low muscularity
What are two behavioral symptoms of KLinefelter’s syndrome?
- Poor language skills
- Risk of anxiety and depressive disorders
How does someone end up having Klinefelter’s syndrome?
It is not inherited from parents but instead occurs during meiosis
It usually occurs in offspring of parents who conceive age 40+
What is Turner’s syndrome?
A syndrome affecting females where the individual only has one X chromosome (or one is deficient).
What are some physical symptoms of Turner’s syndrome?
- can cause miscarriages, non-functional ovaries, lack of breast development and infertility
- Can cause cause heart, vision and hearing problems
- Short and stout, with a wide chest and underdeveloped breasts
What is the treatment for Turner’s syndrome?
Oestrogen and growth hormones.
What were the three stages of Kohlberg’s theory of gender development?
Gender labelling, gender stability and gender consistency.
What age does the gender labelling stage tend to fall within?
2-3 years old
What psychosexual stage is about the same age as the gender labelling stage?
The Latent stage
What happens in the gender labelling stage of Kohlberg’s theory of gender development.
The child begins to notice physical aspects of being male or being female and will therefore label themselves as being male or female based on these physical aspects. Therefore the child will change their perception of someone as a boy or a girl based gender stereotypes in appearance (i.e. having long hair).
What happens in the gender stability stage of Kohlberg’s theory of gender development?
Children discover that gender is something that is consistent over time. However, they still base gender on outer appearance. Schemas are now fixed on what makes someone male or female.
What age coincides with the gender stability stage of Kohlberg’s theory of gender development?
around 4-7 years old.
What age coincides with the gender consistency stage of Kohlberg’s theory of gender development?
around the age of six/seven plus
What happens in the gender consistency stage of Kohlberg’s theory of gender development?
Children begin to understand that gender is constant across all situations. This is when focus begins to shift from just outward appearance to behavior. This will then influence the child’s behavior.
What did Freud believe determined gender?
He believed that gender identity either develops through the resolution of the oedipus complex or the electra complex.
What is the oedipus complex?
The arousal of unconscious sexual desire for ones mother and fear/dislike for ones mother in young boys
What is the electra complex?
The arousal of unconscious sexual desire for ones mother and fear/dislike for ones mother in young girls.
What is castration anxiety?
Young boys fear that the father will realise the boys attraction to his mother and therefore cut off his penis.
What is penis envy?
When young girls believe that they don’t have a penis as she has been castrated, so the girl therefore desires having a penis.
What process did Freud believe led to electra/oedipus complexes determining our gender identity?
Identification. The child will identify with the parent of the same gender and incorporate factors into their own personality, therefore internalizing their gender.
What did Freud theorize about how strongly the different genders identified with their parents?
Freud believed that girls only passively identify with their mothers while boys strongly identify with their fathers.
What was Freud’s theory on passivity of genders?
He suggested that boys cast off passivity to become active and dominantly male. Females, however, would retain this passivity to eventually become timid and submissive.
what is Gender Identity Disorder?
A definition of abnormality, classified in the DSM IV. It involves the external sexual characteristics of one body being perceived as opposite to the psychological experience of oneself as male or female.
What is one social explanation for GID relating to learning theories?
The individual can have the cross-gender behavior they exhibit be reinforced during childhood, causing them to continue the cross-gender behavior. For instance, if parents either encourage or compliment cross-gender behavior, this ill perpetuate the cross-gender behavior.
What is one explanation of GID relating to social learning theory?
Cross-gender behavior can also be learned through SLT-specific observation and imitation.
What are two explanations of biological factors that could affect GID?
- One could suggest that GID is due to an inherited abnormality
- one could suggest that GID is a result of hormonal imbalances during foetal growth in the womb.
What is one evaluation of SLT being theorised to be a causation of GID?
Whilst SLT does explain the development of cross-gender behaviors, it does not explain why a sufferer will have such strong feelings about being the wrong sex?