Chap 10 sexuality and gender

Sex

physical characteristic of being born male or female; genitalia

Gender

psychological aspect of being male or female

Gender roles

cultural expectation of feminine or masculine behavior.

Gender typing

process of learning your cultures gender roles

Gender identity

a sense of being/feeling feminine or masculine \

What 'Causes' Gender?

Nature AND Nurture

Biology (nature)

Testosterone

Testosterone

hormone linked to aggression, dominance, sexual desire, behavior (masculine behaviors). Men have 10x more testosterone than women.

Environment (nurture)

culture puts pressure on male and female to follow gender roles

Social Learning Theory

children watch their parents. Little boys watching dads and popular male figures. Girls watching moms and prominent female figures.

Masters and Johnson

used volunteers and watched people have sex. Created a device to measure sexual behavior and introduced the field of sex psychology.

Major criticism of masters and johnson

data was not generalizable or representative of the U.S.

Kinsey Report

Interviewed people about their sex lives. Found that people were not exactly hetero or homosexual. Created the kinsey scale (best explored using a continuum, using numbers 0-6)

the Janus Report

countered the kinsey report by redoing his study, but included all states, all socioeconomic status', all ages

heterosexual

attracted to opposite sex

homosexual

attracted to same sex

bisexual

attracted to both men and women

What 'Causes' Sexual Orientation?

It is not a choice, research suggests it is biological

Research into biological origins

prenatal exposure to stress/hormones, birth order, twin studies, genetic epi markers Xq28, neuroimaging scans