Sex and Gender Flashcards
define sex
Sex is the biological differences between males and females including chromosomes, hormones and anatomy
define gender
the psychological, social and cultural differences between boys/men and girl/women including attitudes, behaviours and social roles.
define sex-role stereotype
A set of beliefs and preconceived ideas about what is expected or appropriate for men and women in a given society or social group
define gender dysphoria
- gender dysphoria is when as person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity.
Give examples of sex role stereotypes that are based in science
- female are better at multitasking
- males are better at spacial awareness
What often reinforces stereotypes
media
define androgyny
displaying a balance of masculine and feminine characteristics in one’s personality
Give some AO1 on gender and sex
- gender is based in nurture and sex in nature.
- women have XX chromosome pattern, men have XY
- common hormones produced by females is oestrogen
- common hormones produced by males is testosterone
How is androgyny measures
using Bem’s sex role inventory (Bem’s SRI)
What is Bem’s sex role inventory
The first systematic attempt to measure androgyny using a rating scale of 60 traits to produce scores across 2 dimentions: masculinity-feminity and androgynous-undifferentiated
How were the 60 traits divided in Bem’s SRI
20 masculine
20 feminine
20 neutral
How were the 60 traits chosen and allocated
Bem had 50 females and 50 males (100 total) from the public rate 200 traits in terms of desirability in men and women. The 20 traits with the highest score in each catagory became the masculine and feminine items in the BSRI
Give 2 feminine traits from Bem’s sex role inventory
- gentle
- loves children
Give 2 masculine traits from Bem’s sex role inventory
- analytical
- agressive
What catagory did Bem state was the best for psychological well being
being highly androgynous she claimed was best for psychological wellbeing
Score = high masc., low fem.
What is their classification on Bem’s SRI
masculine
Score = high fem., low masc.
What is their classification on Bem’s SRI
feminine
Score = high masc., high fem.
What is their classification on Bem’s SRI
Androgynous
Score = low fem., low masc.
What is their classification on Bem’s SRI
undifferentiated
Why does Bem say that scoring highly androgynous is best for psychological wellbeing
Individuals who are masculine and feminine roughly equal measure are better equipped to adapt to a range of situations, whereas non-androgynous people would find this difficult as they have a narrower range of traits to draw on.
What rating scale did Bem’s SRI use
a 7 point scale from always true - never true
Evaluate the validity of Bem’s SRI
- S - has high face validity. 1000 students completed the BSRI and the results correlated with the participants description of their own gender identity.
- W - however gender is a non-empirical concept as empirical evidence is gathered this lowers the validity of the measure
Evaluate the reliability of BSRI
- S - the BSRI is highly reliable, a small sample of students got a similar score when they completed the BSRI a month later, this means that the BSRI has a high test-retest reliability.
- W - however in the modern time gender is fluid and changable over time which reduces the reliability as it may chnage over the next year, due to the results being less likely to be the same over multiple instances this reduces the usefulness of the questionnaire.
Evaluate using questionaires to answer BSRI
- W - aquiescence bias - there are 60 questions and individual may just agree because they are tired of filling it out
- W - social desirability bias - example fo demand characteristics that reduces the validity
- W - the questionaire is to measure gender which is reducionistic because gender is a complex concept
