A-Level Psychology Gender

AO3 BSRI

X Oversimplifies gender identity

X Lacks temporal validity due to change in social roles

/ Reliable - High test-retest reliability / View gender identity as being separate from sex

Lamb and Roopnarine

Children in nursery encouraged gender typical behaviour amongst peers and criticised behaviour that was non-typical. Boyd were the most likely to enforce this behaviour

Eisend

Found strong gender stereotyping in adverts but reduced to cultural change suggesting media is mirroring rather than shaping society

Androgeny % in BSRI

24% of males and 27& of females were considered androgynous

Rust

Having an older brother resulted in more masculine behaviour in both boys and girls

Alexander and Hines

Showed that monkeys with no prior experience preferred to play with masculine toys if male and feminine toys if female suggesting innate preferences

Smith and Lloyd

Adults playing with babies dresses as the opposite sex gave toys according to sex role stereotypes

AO3 Psychodynamic explanation of gender development

X Case study = unscientific

X Stevenson and Black showed children develop normally when raised in father-absent households

X Lacks temporal validity - single gendered parents were very rare

X Unconscious process that cannot be objectively studied and is not falsifiable

Kruijver et al

The number of neurones in male-to-female individuals was similar to the number found in women -- this may be the cause of GID but could also have been a result of the treatment they had undergone

Garcia-Falgueras

Post mortem found hypothalamic areas closer to gender reassigned sex than biological birth sex

Gender

Psychological distinction between males and female personality traits - may or may not match biological sex

Adams and Sherer

Some researchers argue that people who display a greater proportion of masculine traits are better adjusted as these are highly valued in Western Society

Sandra Bem

High androgyny is associated with psychological well-being and those equally balances between male and female are Bette equipped to adapt

Money and Ehrhardt

Girls whose mothers took medication containing testosterone during pregnancy showed more masculine traits

Kohlberg 1983 Research Findings

• Children under the age of 6 were more likely to remember photos of gender-consistent behaviour when tested one week later

• Children tend to change the sex of the person carrying out gender inconsistent activity when asked to recall

• supports the idea that memory may be distorted to fit with existing gender schema

Carl Jung

Electra complex -- girls feel desire for father and show hostility towards mother because they think their mother castrated them …….

Albrecht and Pepe

Giving oestrogen to pregnant baboons reduced miscarriage suggesting oestrogen is associated with successful pregnancy

Money - David Reimer Case Study

Twin boys, one left with no penis after botched circumcision - Money was developing theory of gender neutrality the idea that environment was more important in shaping gender than biological sex - told parents to raise the boy as a stereotypical girl - when the boy found out he committed suicide

Kohlberg

Predicts that children will only deliberately seek out and engage in behaviours consistent with their gender identity until they achieve full gender constancy.

Gender identity - 2yrs

Gender stability - 4yrs

Gender constancy - 6yrs

Freud

Oedipus complex - castration anxiety

Martin and Halverson

• 2nd Cognitive theory of gender development

• Challenges Kohlberg's suggestion that children need a sophisticated level of understanding of gender before they can learn appropriate sex roles

• A child will search for gender information to broaden gender schema as soon as they reach general identity at 2 yrs

Karen Horney

'Womb envy' rather than 'penis envy' men are jealous of a female's ability to reproduce and create/sustain life

Quigley et al

Girls with Turner's syndrome who were given oestrogen therapy in childhood were likely to have earlier and greater development of breast tissue

Munroe et al

Cross cultural support in Kenya, Nepal and Samoa of Kohlberg's stages

Ingalhalikar et al

MRI of 949 men and women, wanted to map connections between different parts of the brain. Women have Bette connections but men have stronger connections

Golombok and Fivush

Claims gender is culturally relative

McGinley et al

The Batista boys - abandoned female gender identity and took on masculine gender identity

Furnham and Farragher

Cross cultural analysis of sex-role stereotypes in adverts UK vs New Zealand - men were likely to be shown in autonomous roles in professional settings whilst women were shown occupying familial roles in domestic settings. - Supports and sustains gender role stereotypes in society

Slaby and Frey

Support the sequential order proposed by Kohlberg's theory but argued gender constancy may be acquired earlier

Campbell et al

Even when a child is aware of their own gender and the stereotypes it did not affect how much they involved themselves in gender stereotyped behaviour

Testosterone

Starts the development of male genitals before birth due to SRY gene found on Y chromosome

Sex role stereotype

Culturally shared set of expectations of correct male and female behaviour learnt by socialisation

Sex

The biological differences between males and females from conception due to chromosome XY or XX

Turner Syndrome

• XO

• Biologically Female

• 1 in 2,000

Physical - no menstrual cycle, short, limited breast development, webbed neck, elbow deformities, immature appearance

Psychological - High level of verbal skill, low visual-spatial ability, low maths ability, socially immature

Mead 1935

Found feminine-male and masculine-female sex role stereotypes in tribal communities in New Guinea

Arapesh Tribe

Both men and women exhibited peaceful, gentle, and nurturing behaviors.

Gender Roles: There was no distinct separation of gender roles. Both sexes shared childrearing responsibilities and cooperated in a way that Western cultures traditionally categorize as feminine

Mundugumor Tribe

Both men and women displayed aggressive, fierce, competitive, and ruthless behaviors.

Gender Roles: Similar to the Arapesh, there was very little difference between male and female expectations. However, both sexes adopted traits that Western cultures traditionally view as hyper-masculine, showing minimal parental affection or interest in childcare

Tchambuli Tribe

Men and women had distinctly different personalities from each other, but the behaviours were the opposite of Western gender stereotypes.

Gender Roles: This tribe featured a direct reversal of Western roles. Women were dominant, practical, emotionally independent, and acted as the primary economic providers. Men were emotionally dependent, timid, artistic, and spent their time grooming, gossiping, and organizing cultural rituals

Atypical Sex Chromosome Patterns

Variations in the 23rd pair of chromosomes from the normal XY or XX

Klinefleter's Syndrome

• XXY

• Biologically Male

• 1 in 660

Physical - Lacks facial hair, tall, gynecomastea (breast development), long limbs

Psychological - Impaired verbal skills, speech and language difficulties, average IQ

BSRI

• 20 masculine, 20 feminine, 20 neutral characteristics

• PPTS rate themselves on 7 point Likert scale

• Scores classified into masculine, feminine and androgynous

• Developed by 50 men and 50 women who were asked to rate 200 characteristics and how desirable they were

• Limits investigator effects

Martin and Little

Showed children as young as 3 showed strong sex preference for and stereotypical understanding of toys/clothes younger than constancy age

Smith and Daglish

Studied parent's stereotypical views and their child's gender typical behaviour, They found no correlation between the degree of gender typical behaviour in the child and the strength of the parental stereotypes