Sex and Gender

Question 1

define sex

Answer 1

Sex is the biological differences between males and females including chromosomes, hormones and anatomy

Question 2

define gender

Answer 2

the psychological, social and cultural differences between boys/men and girl/women including attitudes, behaviours and social roles.

Question 3

define sex-role stereotype

Answer 3

A set of beliefs and preconceived ideas about what is expected or appropriate for men and women in a given society or social group

Question 4

define gender dysphoria

Answer 4

• 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.

Question 5

Give examples of sex role stereotypes that are based in science

Answer 5

• female are better at multitasking
• males are better at spacial awareness

Question 6

What often reinforces stereotypes

Answer 6

media

Question 7

define androgyny

Answer 7

displaying a balance of masculine and feminine characteristics in one’s personality

Question 8

Give some AO1 on gender and sex

Answer 8

• 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

Question 9

How is androgyny measures

Answer 9

using Bem’s sex role inventory (Bem’s SRI)

Question 10

What is Bem’s sex role inventory

Answer 10

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

Question 11

How were the 60 traits divided in Bem’s SRI

Answer 11

20 masculine
20 feminine
20 neutral

Question 12

How were the 60 traits chosen and allocated

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Give 2 feminine traits from Bem’s sex role inventory

Answer 13

• gentle
• loves children

Question 14

Give 2 masculine traits from Bem’s sex role inventory

Answer 14

• analytical
• agressive

Question 15

What catagory did Bem state was the best for psychological well being

Answer 15

being highly androgynous she claimed was best for psychological wellbeing

Question 16

Score = high masc., low fem.
What is their classification on Bem’s SRI

Answer 16

masculine

Question 17

Score = high fem., low masc.
What is their classification on Bem’s SRI

Answer 17

feminine

Question 18

Score = high masc., high fem.
What is their classification on Bem’s SRI

Answer 18

Androgynous

Question 19

Score = low fem., low masc.
What is their classification on Bem’s SRI

Answer 19

undifferentiated

Question 20

Why does Bem say that scoring highly androgynous is best for psychological wellbeing

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

What rating scale did Bem’s SRI use

Answer 21

a 7 point scale from always true - never true

Question 22

Evaluate the validity of Bem’s SRI

Answer 22

• 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

Question 23

Evaluate the reliability of BSRI

Answer 23

• 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.

Question 24

Evaluate using questionaires to answer BSRI

Answer 24

• 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