PSYC C1000: Identity, Sex, and Gender

Androgen

A type of hormone that promotes development of male body characteristics.

Cisgender people

People who agree with the sex assigned to them at birth and who don’t wish to change it.

Estrogen

A type of hormone that promotes development of female body characteristics.

Femme porn

Erotic material designed to promote feminist values.

Gender

A social construct regarding our sense of how masculine or feminine a person is.

Gender identity

Each person’s internal and individual experience of gender, which may be the same as or different from their birth-assigned sex.

Gender schema theory

The idea that when children are raised, they’re trained to fit into culturally expected gender norms.

Intersectionality

The idea that our lived experience of disadvantage and privilege is based on our unique combination of demographics and social categories.

Intersex

Conditions in which either chromosomes or hormones are neither traditionally “male” or “female” (also called disorders of sex development, or DSDs).

Mirror self-recognition test

Marking an animal in a spot they cannot see without a mirror, to test if they recognize their reflection as themselves.

Psychological androgyny

The idea that some people will be high in both traditionally “masculine” and “feminine” traits at the same time.

Secondary sex characteristics

Physical aspects of the body that align with biological sex and emerge in puberty (such as breasts for girls and facial hair for boys).

Self-concept

The personal summary of who individuals believe they are, including qualities, relationships, group memberships, opinions, past actions, and more.

Self-discrepancy theory

The idea that we maintain three simultaneous selves (actual, ideal, and ought), and when they don’t align, we have negative emotional reactions.

Sex

Biological chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive systems, and genitals.

Sexting

Sending sexually explicit texts or photos to someone else.

Sexual hookups

Relatively brief sexual encounters between people not in a committed relationship.

Sexual scripts

Culture-based assumptions we make about what particular events will occur in sexual settings, and in what order.

Sexual spectrum

The idea that sex and gender are continuums, not distinct categorical groups with only two options.

Social comparison theory

We make assessments about who we are by comparing how we think or act to those around us.

Social identity theory

The idea that self-concept is composed of two parts: a personal identity, which includes personality and physical traits, and a social identity, made up of our group memberships, relationships, and culture.

Transgender people

People who disagree with the sex assigned to them at birth, who later change their identity to a different sex.