INDIVID DIFF - SEX & GENDER Flashcards
Explain John Gray 1992 notions of sex and gender
- a men’s sense of self is defined through his ability to achieve results.
a woman’s sense of self is defined through her feelings and the quality of her relationship
Defining sex and gender:
- Use one term for all e.g fine 2010
- use terms interchangeably e.g lucas 2012
What are the key dimensions to sex?
- chromosomes
- hormones and hormone history
- internal and external physiology
What are the key dimensions to gender?
- gender socialisation
- gender identity
- gender expression- masculine & feminine
What was the case study of S&G on The Toy Choice
- by looking at toys - what kids like to play with and how they play
- kids readily demonstrate what they like/ dont like
- demonstates layers and complexity of the sex/gender debate
- includes both cognition & behavioural levels
Do differences exist in toy choice, playing style & play mate preference? (The power of socialisation)
- Power of socialisation - Seavy, Katz and Zalk (1975) - ‘baby X’
- sample of 42 adults interacted with child conveyed as boy, girl or neither. High tendency of both men and women to use sex stereotyped toys when child was introduced as a girl. females also held the child more frequently then men
Do differences exist in toy choice, playing style & play mate preference? (Gender & toy choice)
Pasterski et al (2005)
- boys and girls are treated/ reinforced differently in response to their behaviours - especially when playing with sex-typed toys
Lytton & Romney (1991)
- parents giving differential encouragement in the home.
- girls were given more approval than boys were for playing with dolls, dancing and other ‘typically’ feminine activities.
boys received more positive responses for playing with male-typical toys like trucks
Bard, Todd, Bernier, Love & Leavens (2006)
- boys’ and girls’ productive vocabularies contained more own gender-typed than other gender-typed words at 24 months of age
- suggested at this age, kids have general idea of ‘what they are’
Lamb and Roopnarine (1979)
- in nursery school children would criticise sex inappropriate play whilst reinforcing same sex play
TV ads- 1. children could identify which advertiseemnts were aimed at which gender
2. they’d asser that specific toys were either appropriate for their gender or for the ‘other’
What are some challenges of sex and gender
- socialisiation is pervasive and can potentially account for all differences
- nature vs nurture (Its more of nature working with nurture)
- socialisation builds on biological potentials and tendencies e.g language development
Can we ever isolate the role of biology from socialisation?
- not easily
some cases exist where one element is missing or the two forses diverge
Do differences exist in toy choice, playing style & play mate preference? (Bio sex and toy choice)
Hassett, Siebert & Wallen (2008)
- compared the interactions of 34 rhesus monkeys with human wheeled toys and plush toys
- male monkeys showed consistent and strong preferences for wheeled toys - same as human boys
- female monkeys showed greater variability in preferences- same as with human females
- magnitude of preference differed significantly between males and females
- Alexander & Hines (2002) found same patters with vervet monkeys
How does sex diffrentiate from the female sex gene?
- defeminisation - supression of the development of female typical morphology and behavioural tendencies
Masculinization - production of male typical morphology and behavioural tendencies
Androgens are key in this process
Morris et al (2004) - exposure to androgens
What is congenital adrenal hyperplasia? (CAH)
- genetic disorder that causes an enzyme deficiency, resulting with the inability to produce adrenal hormone cortisol
- prenatally, the hypothalamus detects low levels of cortisol and signals the pituitary to produce more
- leads to more cortisol being produced
- identified as ambiguous genitalia
- usually genetic females with (CAH) are surgically feminised during infancy
- can be managed with medication
- CHROMOSOMALLY FEMALE CHILDREN DEVELOP IN A MALE-TYPICAL HORMONAL ENVIRONMENT
Explain Ehrhardt & Baker (1974) study on girls with ‘classic’ CAH and Hines (2004)
- claimed significant differences from controls in terms of overall activity levels and also aggression
- higher levels of spatial ability among CAH girls than their non-CAH female reletives
Hines studied adult males and females.
CAH women reported higher ‘male typical’ play as kids than non
- no differences were reported among men CAH or non
- implications- CAH causes general alteration in females not males
Explain Pasterski et al, (2005)
- studies males and females with CAH and non CAH siblings
- found same patterns and findings
- also studies parental encouragement of toy choice
- girls with CAH receives more positive feedback for play with girls’ toys than did non CAH girls
