Gender Flashcards
What is androgyny?
Formed from the two words ‘andro’ meaning male and ‘gyny’ meaning female
Posessing both male and female characteristics
What is gender?
A person’s sense of maleness or femaleness, a psychological/social construct
What is sex?
Being genetically male (XY) or female (XX)
What are sex-role stereotypes?
A set of shared expectations within a social group about what men and women should do and think
Who studied the Psychodynamic Explanation of Gender Development?
Freud & Jung
What concepts do Freudian theories use?
They use the concepts of internalisation & identification
What is internalisation?
Accepting others’ beliefs because they resonate with yours
What is identification?
Complying to gain access to a group, then accepting it over time
What can internalisation & identification be used to explain (Freud)?
Can explain:
- In-group/out-group preferences (in GST)
- Rejection of gender-inappropriate behaviour (in Kholberg’s theory)
- Sex-role sterotypes
What is castration anxiety?
Boy’s fear that their father will cut off their genitals
When did Freud make the Oedipus Complex?
1905
When did Freud theories suggest that the Oedipus Complex happens?
In the Phallic stage of psycholsexual development
What is the process of the Oedipus Complex?
1 - Boy becomes aware of sexuality & desires mother’s full attention - sees father as threat/competition
2 - Boy wishes father was dead; fears his revenge if he finds out = castration anxiety. Boy represses the anxiety
3 - Father’s behaviours are imitated to impress mother, leading to identification with male gender behvaiours
4 - Conflict is resolved when the boy no longer feels competition against the father - superego develops
What was a criticism of the Oedipus complex?
It did not account for girls (only boys and their father), nor people who had gay parents, single parents or who were orphaned
Why was the Electra Complex made?
Made by Jung to address criticisms that Freud’s theories were gender biased (beta bias)
Freud added what he called the “feminine oedipus attitude”
Who proposed the Electra Complex?
Jung - 1913
What was Freud’s opinion on female development, based on his oedipus complex?
He implied that girls are failed/lesser boys & ignored any differences other than how they compensate for not having the oedipus complex
What is the process of the Electra Complex?
1 - Girls are initially attracted to their mother but are confused when they discover she has no penis
2 - Girl resents mother (penis envy), assuming she doesn’t have one because the mother felt it was inadequate and castrated her
3 - Girl begins to feel sexual attraction to the father instead
4 - Girl fails to identify with father as she observes gender differences. Penis envy replaced by the desire for a baby, and she then identifies with mother’s role
What is penis envy?
Girl resenting their mother, aussuming she doesn’t have a penis as the mother felt inadequate & castrated her
What are the issues with the oedipus complex?
It suggests all healthy men overcome their repressed anxiety - those whithout a father figure will never attain this
- The boy may become promiscuous as he is internalised the belief that women are unattainable
- He may also internalise female behaviours & become homosexual
What are the issues with the Electra Complex?
It implies girls (&single-parent boys) identify with their mother as a compromise/last resort - nobody chooses femininity
- Suggested feminine behvaiours were inferior & showed weakness, the realisation that they lack what it takes to be a man forced them to settle for the woman’s role
This is why women are more often anxious/amoral
Whose ideas were adopted by SLT psychologists (on gender)?
Freud’s ideas
Bandura for example was a SLT psychologist
What are the two processes in the two process model for gender development (SLT)?
Process 1 = acquired by Classical Conditioning
Process 2 = maintained by Operant Conditioning
How did Bandura alter Freud’s theory of gender development?
Bandura (1982) added social factors to the learning theory
These had effect through Mediational Processes
What is gender dysphoria?
Chronic distress due to the perception of sex & gender mismatch
Excludes intersex issues - they are biologically verifiable
When was Gender Identity Disorder identified?
It first appeared in DSM-III (1980)
How is there a culture bias in Gender Identity Disorder?
Culture bias is identified - is considered abnormal in some cultures and not others
e.g. Samoan culture has 3 genders (extra feminine male category) & none are at increased risk of psychologial disorder
What was Gender Identity Disorder changed to?
In DSM-V (2013) replaced GID with the term Gender Dysphoria (spectrum)
Why was GID changed to Gender Dysphoria?
Social construction of gender in Western countries changes over time
What is the biological explanation involving genes for atypical gender development?
There is a possible transgender gene
Who studied the possible transgender gene and what was found?
Hare et al. (2009)
Studied 112 M –> F tensexuals’ DNA
Androgen receptor gene significantly longer in transexuals
How does the androgen receptor gene being longer in transexuals cause atypical development?
The difference in the gene being longer in M –> F transexuals reduces changes that can be caused by testosterone in development
Brain of transexuals may be less masculine than avg., if threshold for masc development is never reached
How may the brain cause atypical gender development?
There are many sex & gender differences in brain structure & functioning
Possible that transexuals’ brians do not match their genetic sex
Give an example of a part of the brain that varies in men and women and what is its role?
The BSTc (bed nucleus of stria terminalis) - twice hte size in straight men than women
Integrates info from limbic system
Info is used to monitor stress-readiness levels (allostatic valence)
How may the BSTc in the brain cause atypical gender development?
2x large in straight men
Size correlates with preffered sex, not bio sex
M –> F trans BSTc is similar size to femal avg. (Zhou et al., 1995)
F –> M trans BTSc usually within typical male range (Kruijver et al., 2000)
Are there many behavioural differences between men and women?
No- there are very few
What are the few differences between male and female brains?
- Brains are not 100% male or female
- Male brains are larger than female brains
- Females hav proportionally thicker cortex & mroe grey matter/less white matter compared to men
- Men have lerger ventricles (glymphatic structures)
Why do male brains tend to be around 10-15% larger than female brains?
As men are generally 10-15% larger than women
The brain size is relatively proportionate ti body size
How can stress affect the brain?
Stress can change the sex of brain regions in less than 15 minues
How can stress change the gender of the brain in 15 minutes?
- Typical fem neurons have more denritic spines than male neurons (important for firing/processing speed)
- After 15 mins of stress, researchers found a reversal in this pattern in rat hippocampus
- Shows pysical structure of brain cells can’t determine sex - need to know if there’s high or low stress
This is an interactionist /diathesis stress view/ nature & nurture issue
How can environmental factors affect the structure/gender of the brain?
They can change the default sex of developing brain regions
e.g. all stages of life, size of social group, level of environmental stimulation
Are all brian areas vulnerable to changing gender, give an exmaple of when this can happen?
Some brain areas are vulnerable & some are not
During pregnancy, every time the mother experiences stress, some areas of the baby’s developing brain will change their sex characteristics
How does maternal stress during pregnancy cause the brain structure to vary in gender?
Means we are all born with a “mosaic” of brian gender regions
- Will change throughout your life
- All brains are “intersex” or Androgynous
What are phantom limbs?
Someone experiencing sensations of having a limb which they’re missing
Amputees and transexual females experience this
What happens when amputees experience phantom limbs?
They get sensations like itches & pain from the limb that’s been removed
Why do amputees sometimes experience phantom limbs?
It is due to plasticity & cross-wiring after the injury (Ramachandran, 2008)
Neighbouring networks cna acquire functions of severed networks (Ramachandran et al., 1995)
What did Ramachandran & McGeoch (2007) about transexuals and phantom limbs?
They suggested sex organs have specific brain locations that are hard-wired
They suggested that similarly to amputees, F–> M transexuals experience phantom penis
Why do F –> M transexuals experience phantom penis according to Ramachandran & McGeoch (2007)?
If wiring is distrupted/ develops in atypical way (e.g. low foeatal testosterone activity), genitals can be represented in opposite way to person’s sex
Can lead to phantom penis - symptom claimed by 2/3 F –> M transexuals
Inc. phantom erections & leads to loss of feeling in female genitals
Give an example of a harmful pesticide that can cause atypical gender development
DDT - insecticide which is banned in UK & USA from 1972
Is still used in developing countries e.g. India and it is cheap
How does DDT work as an insecticide?
It causes sodium channels to open, resulting in nerve spasms (due to all neurons firing at once) & death in insects
What effect does DDT have an on animals?
It’s not deadly to most animals, it doesn’t contain oestrogen, however the body identifies it similarly to oestrogen, thereofore it has the same effects as oestrogen have, that can reach the bloodstream in exposed humans
How can DDT affect boys bron to a mother that has been exposed to the chemical?
They display feminine characteristics - indicates they’d had in increased exposureto oestrogen in the womb (Vreugdenhil et al., 2002)
What is a social explanation of Gender Identity Disorder?
Mental illness
How can mental illness be an explanation for Gender identity Disorder?
Case studies suggest childhood trauma may lead to gender dysphoria (Coates et al., 1991)
What was the research that Coates et al. conducted into mental illness causing GID?
- The boy’s mother had an abortion around age 3 (phallic stage)
- Mother became depressed - boy witnessed this
- Coates et al. suggested the boy developed gender dysphoria as a way to understand the mother (more like her)
- This is a defense mechanism (Freudian theory)
What sort of psychologist was Coates?
Freudian psychologist