gender predicted topics

electra complex

girls develop gender by solving a crisis. girl starts out as being attracted to her mother. when girl reaches the phallic stage. realises she doesnt have a penis. expereincing penis envy. she believes she was castrated. blames mother. becomes sexually attracted to her father as he has what she wants. girl doesnt act on her desire for her father because she fears losing the love of her mother. represses sexual attraction towards her father. and her hatred of her mother. cannot resolve it. leading to crisis. she solves the crisis by identifying with her mother and internalising the femininity. solves attraction to father by converts her penis envy into desire for a baby. when she reaches genital stage. redirects sexual desire for her father onto her boyfriend

social learning theory explanation of gender

one reason why girls/boys develop feminine/masculine behaviours is observational learning. we watch people the same gender as us and see them behave one way and because we identify with them we imitate them.

social learning theory explanation of gender: different models

we learn gender appropriate behaviours by imitating models of the same gender who could be peers, adults, family members or more.

The Social Learning Theory Explanation of Gender: Vicarious Reinforcement

When we observe people of the same gender behave in gender-appropriate ways, we obtain vicarious reinforcement if we see them being praised. This makes us more likely to imitate that behaviour.

The Social Learning Theory Explanation of Gender: Direct Reinforcement

when people imitate models showing gender appropriate behavours they recieve direct reinforcement. receiving this reward makes them more liklely to maintain the gender appropriate behaviour.

The Social Learning Theory Explanation of Gender: Internalisation

attitudes and behaviours of models become internalised, people begin to believe that these gender appropriate behaviours are the correct way to behave. people no longer need this behaviour to be rewarded they will continue to act this way anyways,

Support for the Social Learning Theory Explanation: Perry and Bussey

perry and bussey conducted a study. boys and girls aged nine watched a film of male and female models choosing between pairs of different items. when asked to choose between same pairs of items, girls picked what they saw the women in the film pick and boys picked what they saw the man pick. supporting identification with models of the same gender and observational learning of gender appropriate behaviour.

Social Explanations of GenderSupport for the Social Learning Theory Explanation: Fagot and Leinbach

longlitudinal, correlational study. Investigated the behaviours of a group of boys and girls from the age of 18 months, until they were 4 years old. found a positive correlation between behaviour of children and behaviour of parents. 4 year olds are more likely to behave in steroetypical masculine way if they grew up in households which there parents adopted traditional masculine and feminine behaviours.

Limitations of Social Learning Theory: Explaining New Gender Norms

cannot explain how new social norms about gender are created. The theory states that gender behaviour is learned by observing and imitating role models.This explains how existing gender norms are passed on, but not how new norms develop, such as changing attitudes towards gender roles. Therefore, SLT can only explain the maintenance of gender norms and not their creation, limiting its explanatory power.

gender dysphoria

when someone feels stress or anxiety because their gender identitiy doesnt match their biological sex, we call it gender dysphoria. And when people with gender dysphoria live according to their gender identity, we say they are transgender.

The Social Learning Theory Explanation of gender

according to social learning theory explanation of atypical gender devlopment if people closely identify with a model of opposite sex are REINFORCED for imitating them, then they develop gender identity of the opposite gender which causes gender dysphoria.

Support for the SLT explanation: Zucker et al

zucker et al conducted interviews with 115 boys who were unhappy with their gender and also interviewed their mothers. of the boys who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria 64 percent had a very close relationship with their mothers. provides support for the idea that identification with a model of the opposite gender causes gender dysphoria.

Zucker: Limitations

zucker study is non experimental. did not manipulate independant variable. therefore cannot establish cause and effect

Biological Explanations of atypical gender development

says that gender identity develops atypically due to neural, hormonal and genetic factors

Biological Explanations: Brain-sex Theory

people with gender dysphoria have brains that resemble the brain of the opposite sex. men have larger BSTc then women so a girl struggling with gender dysphoria may have a larger BSTc,

Support for Brain-sex Theory: Kruijver at al

Kruijver et al conducted post mortem examinations on brains of transgender women to find out the number of neurons in the BSTc. compared to no of neurones of other men and women in BSTc. found that trans gender women had less neurones in BSTc than men usually do, supporting brain sex theory. however we do not know when the brain abnormality occured making it difficult to establish cause and effect. hard to control confounding varaibles like medication which might also affect the brain.

Limitations of Brain-sex Theory: Chung et al

chung et al found that BSTc only becomes larger in men during adulthood. whereas gender dysphoria tends to develop in early childhood. therefore its probably an effect of gender dysphoria not a cause

biological explanations: genes

some people have alleles that make them more likely to devlop gender identitiy of the opposite sex. some studies show that genes do have an impact on gender devlopment. Van beijstervelft et al looked at concordance rates of cross dressing behaviour. found monozygotic twins more likley to