The Future of Sex and Gender in Psychology: Five Challenges to the Gender Binary Flashcards
gender binary=
the framework/the view that humans comprise only two types of beings, women and men.
5 empirical findings discussed that undermine the gender binary
- neuroscience findings that refute sexual dimorphism of the human brain;
- behavioral neuroendocrinology findings that challenge the notion of genetically fixed, nonoverlapping, sexually dimorphic hormonal systems;
- psychological findings that highlight the similarities between men and women;
- psychological research on transgender and nonbinary individuals’ identities and experiences;
- and developmental research suggesting that the tendency to view gender/sex as a meaningful, binary category is culturally determined and malleable
In addition to the core belief that there are two discrete categories into which all individuals can be sorted, the gender binary system also typically assumes that ….
one’s category membership is…
- biologically determined,
- apparent at birth,
- stable over time,
- salient and meaningful to the self,
- and a powerful predictor of a host of psychological variables.
terminology in this area
- Some authors have argued that sex should be used for biologically based differences between males and females, whereas gender should be used for differences between women and men that are produced socioculturally
- Others have argued that biological and
sociocultural factors are typically intertwined, and thus the distinction between the terms sex and gender should be abandoned - dus hier: gender/sex
intersex/sex diverse=
Individuals with statistically atypical genitals or internal reproductive structures
are there differences between women and men in brain structure in function?
Yes.
- but misinterpretation: they are not innate/preprogrammed, not context independent, and not stable over time.
- also assumed that these differences create two types of brains, either females or males.
For this to be true, we should have: 1) highly dimorphic differences, and 2) they should be internally consistent. Both are not true.
Two fundamental assumptions underlie current thinking about sex as a biological system:
1) that sex is a dimorphic system (= a system that can take one of only two forms), and
2) that the effects of sex on other systems (e.g., the brain, gender identity) are characterized by a dimorphic outcome (e.g., male vs. female brain, male vs. female gender identity).
For a system to show sexual dimorphism, each of its elements should be….
- dimorphic: should exist in only two different forms or categories, one typical of females and the other typical of males,
- and all the elements within an individual should be internally consistent , that is, either all in the form typical of females or all in the form typical of males
dus wat zijn de verschillen tussen mannen en vrouwen breinen
Although many studies have reported differences between women and men in brain structure, these differences are not sexually dimorphic; rather, there is considerable overlap between the distributions of women and men. This is true even for regions showing the largest sex differences known to date.
voorbeeld van brein overeenkomsten
For example, the intermediate nucleus of the human hypothalamus is about twice as large, on average, in men compared with women, yet in approximately 30% of men, the size of this nucleus falls in the female-typical range
internal consistency in gender differences
internal consistency is rare, because sex differences in brain areas can be different (and even opposite) under different environmental conditions and because these sex-by-environment interactions can vary across brain features.
bv. ratten: higher density of cannabinoid receptors in hippocampus in male rats, but density of stressed females is the same as in nonstressed males. and stressed males is the same as nonstressed females.
-> complex sex-by-environment interactions produce a brain structure that is multimorphic, rather than dimorphic
Thus, it is unlikely that brains are internally consistent and dimorphic; rather, each brain comprises a unique mosaic of features, some more common in females and others more common in males
oke
mosaicism=
having at least one element in the brain with the female-end form and at least one element with the male-end form.
wat vond een studie naar brein regios over internal consistency
mosaicism was much more common than internal consistency!!!
-> Accordingly, sex differences in the human brain do not add up to create two types of brain, a male brain and a female brain. Instead, most brains are gender/sex mosaics.
samenvatting neurowetenschappelijk bewijs
The division of humans into two categories, females and males, on the basis of the form of their genitalia is often accompanied by the assumption that males and females belong to two distinct categories in other domains; however, current scientific evidence refutes this assumption for the brain. The distributions for men and women on different brain features are overlapping, and internal consistency across features within individuals is rare. Thus, human brains are not internally consistent for male-typical and female-typical features. Instead, most human brains are a mosaic of these features.
