Gender

Sex and gender

Sex = biological characteristics of a person

Gender = psychological or behavioral characteristics of a person relating to their sex

Sex role stereotypes = widely held beliefs about expected or appropriate ways of acting for men and women

Androgyny

Androgyny is a balance of male and female traits

Bem sex role inventory:

Bem suggested that differentiation of gender roles serves prevents men and women from developing as full complete human beings - androgynous people are unconstrained by cultural stereotypes and gender appropriateness - they are psychologically healthier
BSRI measures androgyny - 20 stereotypical socially desirable traits of female (e.g. compassion), 20 masculine (e.g. assertiveness), 20 neutral (e.g. honesty)
Bem asked 50 male and 50 female to rate 200 traits on how desirable they were for males/females - from this list she selected the 20 traits
Asked 600 participants to rate 60 items on a scale of 1 (never true) to 7 (always true)
if both femininity and masculinity score above 4.9 = androgyny
found that quite a few people were androgynous

AO3

+androgynous people are thought to be more comfortable with who they are compared to those who show more conventionally differentiated male/female traits - not expectations forced upon them about how they should behave so don’t feel compelled to fit in with expected gender roles. Also allows them to handle situations in flexible ways as appropriate - Flaherty and Dusk support as they found androgynous people have higher degree of self esteem and better sense of emotional wellbeing

-BSRI based upon what American students assessed as desirable traits for men and women in 70s = limited validity as a measure of gender in all societies and cultures at all times = lacks temporal and cultural validity = cannot be generalised

-issues with methodology - BSRI is self report measure which relies on an individual having insight into their personality and behaviour which not everyone has - they may also lie or exaggerate reducing reliability

+however BSRI tested on 1000 students and produced similar results when repeated with same sample = good test retest reliability = results are consisten

-Adam and Sherer - people who display a greater proportion of masculine traits appear to be better adjusted compared to androgynous people - masculine traits more valued in western society suggesting androgyny may not be much benefit as Bem suggested

Role of chromosomes and hormones

Chromosomes

Atypical sex chromosome patterns:

Typical person has 23 pairs of chromosomes - 23rdit sex determining - female = XX, male = XY

Klinefelter’s syndrome:

condition that occurs in men as a result of an extra X chromosome

physical characteristics - reduced body hair, long limbs, underdevelopment, problems with coordination/clumsiness

psychological - poorly developed language skills, poor reading ability, passive and shy, lack of sexual interest, memory problems, doesn’t cope well with stress

Turners syndrome:

condition that occurs in girls as a result on 1 normal X chromosome rather than 2

affects 1/2000 baby girls - happens randomly in womb

physical characteristics - shorter than average, underdeveloped ovaries (lack of monthly periods), infertility

psychological characteristics - higher than average reading ability, math, spatial and visual performance lower than normal, socially immature, trouble relating to peers, difficulty fitting in

AO3:

+Quigley - gave 123 girls with TS oestrogen supplements or placebo from 5-12 - no differences in physical development before 9 years - between 9 and 12 those with oestrogen had earlier breast development though no other difference notes - suggest oestrogen supplements beneficial between ages 8 and 12 and have great psychosocial benefit in normalising breast development for girls with TS

+impact of research - research into patients with KS and TS have seen development of therapies to improve quality and duration of their lives - e.g. stunted physical growth from TS by application of growth hormone - improvement on quality of life

+gene therapies - TS and KS biologically cause through genes and hormonal influences so research into them might produce a genetic therapy to help treat foetus before it develops symptoms later on in prenatal development

-environmental explanations - may be more influential and questions the causality of TS and KS behavioural symptoms - for instance social immaturity observed in females with Turners syndrome may arise from being treated immaturely by those around them - parents and teachers and others may react

Hormones

Oxytocin:

made in brain in both male and female
female hormone oestrogen synergizes with oxytocin (greatly enhance each other) = woman experiences stronger effects
oxytocin promotes touching, affection and bonding and influences female social behaviour (e.g. nuturing and protection of offspring) and influences mate selection
also inhibits cognitive ability by impairing learning and memory - encourages emotional extremes and prevents depression

Oestrogen:

primary female sex hormone - promotes development and maintenance of female characteristics in human body
produced by ovaries and in smaller amounts by adrenal cortex, testes and fetoplacental unit
oestrogen plays a role in growth and development of female secondary sexual characteristics and regulation of menstrual cycle (where it provides a suitable environment for embryos)

Testosterone:

initiates development of male internal and external reproductive organs during foetal development and essential for production of sperm
signals body to make new blood cells and ensures muscles and bones stay strong during and after puberty

these hormones lead to differences in behaviour in gender

AO3

+case study of David Reimer - suffered castration as a baby - a doctor believed gender was a result of nuture and suggested David raised as a girl

-completely ignore role of nuture may be an oversight

+Batista family - 4 children born with external female genitalia and raised as girls - large amounts of testosterone produced during puberty caused external male genitalia - were genetically XY. The girls accepted their new male role without any difficulty - ease of transition from female to male highlights importance of culture

-Double blind study - Tricker et al - 43 males given weekly injection of testosterone or placebo - no significant differences in aggression found after 10 week period between them = not just hormones - other factors

Cognitive explanations of gender

Cognitive theory = Kohlbergs theory

Cognitive stage theory based on Piagetian ideas

Kohlberg said children aged 18 months to 3 years were in stage 1 = gender identity - where children label themselves as either a boy or girl based of appearance e.g. long hair for girls. If appearance changes, children will change their gender label

Stage 2 occurs around the age of 4 = gender stability - where children start to realise gender is constant over time - boys grow into men and girls grow into women - however they do not think it is constant over situations - e.g. girl playing football becomes boy

Stage 3 occurs around age of 6 = gender constancy - children begin to see gender as constant over time and situations as they are now able to conserve - have the ability to understand that there is more to appearance of something - children will only enter a new stage once they have matured - motivated to seek out same sex models and imitate them

AO3

+Slaby and Frey - gave questions to 2 to 5 year old children - assess their level of gender constancy and then several weeks later showed them a film clip of a man and woman performing gender stereotyped activities. Children with high levels of gender constancy paid more attention to same sex models than those with low levels of gender constancy showing gender constancy is cause rather than effect

-Bandura with Kate Bussey found children as young as 4 reported feeling good about playing gender appropriate toys and bad about doing the opposite - showing that children start to show gender appropriate behaviour before Kohlbergs gender constancy stage so we cannot claim conclusively that Kohlbergs theory of gender development is accurate - however this methodology is highly subjective and therefore lacking some validity

+made significant contribution to our understanding of how thinking about gender changes over time - however contribution primarily been to describe relevant processes rather than to explain them - e.g. kohlbergs stages tell us how children are likely to think at different ages but relatively little about why gender thinking changes in this way - reliance on quasi experimental methods is problematic for same reason - such studies can tell us that boys and girls think differently but does not allow us to make casual inferences about why

-neglected biological influences - therefore some aspects of gender development cognitive approach has difficulty to explain e.g. boys thinking about gender more rigid than girls. Furthermore there are universal features of gender role that are found in all cultures that suggest that some elements of gender are innate - these are most easily explained within a biological framework

Gender schema theory:

Having a gender identity is what provides the child with motivation to assume sex typed behaviours

Martin and Halverson - gender begins to develop around 2-3 years once gender identity is established and children learn schemas related to gender from interaction with other children, adults, TV and media

Schema = mental framework about world around us

schemas provide basis for interpreting environment and selecting appropriate forms of behaviour

ingroup schemas = formed concerning attitudes and expectations about ones own gender

outgroup schemas = schemas about other gender e.g. pink is a girl colour and blue is a boy colour

identification with a group leads to positively evaluate their own group and negatively evaluate outgroup (same sex model) which leads to actively seek information about what their group does

early on children focus on ingroup behaviours and avoid outgroup behaviours

AO3

+Masters et al - children aged between 4 and 5 selected toys by gender label (e.g. doys for girls) rather than which gender was seen playing with toy - showing application of gender schemas - supporting theory

+Bradbard et al - told 4-9 year old girls that contain gender neutral items (e.g. pizza cutter) were either boy or girl items - participants took more interest in toys labelled as ingroup - 1 week later they could remember more about ingroup objects increasing validity of theory.

+Martin and Halverson - when children shown gender inconsistent gender pictures and gender consistent pictures - children showed distorted memories and described girl holding other object = ingroup bias

-Kohlberg - children are older when gender develops and require ability to understand gender is consistent over time and situations (gender constancy) - slaby and frey gave questions to 2-5 year old children to assess level of gender constancy and then several weeks later showed them a film clip of a man and woman performing gender stereotyped activities - children with high levels of gender constancy paid more attention to same sex models than those with low levels of gender constancy - gender constancy is cause rather than effect - strong evidence that children need to know more than gender identity for gender to develop

-cognitive approach leaves room for biological influences but has tended to neglect them = aspects of development that cognitive approach has difficulty explaining - including consistent gender differences e.g. most studies found boys thinking about gender us more rigid than girls - difficult to account for in cognitive - also universal features of gender role found in all cultures = elements of gender innate - easily explained with a biological framework

Psychodynamic explanation of gender

Freud says children develop gender by age of 6 in phallic stage (3-6)

During this stage the Oedipus and Elektra complex take place

Oedipus complex = takes place in boys who develop a sexual desire for mother and display frustration and hostility towards father due to jealous - boys will have castration anxiety due to this

Elektra complex = takes place in girls who develop desire for father and show hostility towards mother - develop penis envy due to thinking they were castrated as a baby

Conflict is resolved by identification with same sex parent and internalisation which is where a representation as mother or father incorporated into psyche - resolution of conflict allows gender development to happen

Includes ideals to aspire to, moral rules and gender identity = development of gender

Boys use repression as a defense mechanism to push desire for mother and hostility to father into the unconscious reducing tension between son and father to allow for identification

AO3

-Freuds use of case studies e.g. Little Hans - rather than showing empirically the existence of processes like oedipus complex, Freud would interpret anything they find in ways that made it consistent with theories already held e.g. Freud chose to ignore that Hans mother would threaten him with castration in order to support claim that father threatens castration

-implies child must grow up in nuclear family - mother and father figures in order to develop normal gender identity. Green proved this is not case - studied 37 children growing up in non traditional nuclear families and in all cases but one, children developed typical gender identities and role behaviours, therefore portraying that identification and internalisation does not cause gender development

-suggests child gender identity is absent before age of 3 and not fully formed till 6 - however children show gender based preferences for toys as early as 1 year old usually have clear ideas about own gender identity by age of 3 - conflicts with Freuds theory

-Freuds theories reflect prevailing views of time in which they were developed - e.g. notion of penis envy implies that women inferior to men which is not an idea that current people would agree - furthermore, whole theory relies heavily on constructs whose existence is difficult or impossible to test directly. Many would argue that this makes the theory unscientific as it is impossible obtain evidence that could directly test it - therefore lacking falsifiability

Social learning theory

gender is learnt from environment - observational learning and imitation

ARMM - Attention, retention, motor reproduction, motivation

same sex role models - children attend to and imitate people it perceives as similar to itself

vicarious reinforcement - motivation to imitate

direct tuition = when child receives explicit instructions about behaviour e.g. ‘thats right’

children may tryout different gender behaviours and consequences reinforce gender appropriate and punish gender inappropriate behaviours e.g.

AO3

+Fagot - observational study - observed children around age of 2 playing at home with parents, recording reinforcements and punishments parents provided - found girls and boys reinforced and punished for different behaviours - conforming hypothesis that boys and girls reinforced for gender appropriate and punished for gender inappropriate behaviour = gender role behaviour learned for childs environment

+Martin et al - shown that preschool boys played with toys labelled boys toys even if they saw girls playing with them = direct tuition more important than modelling - key concept of SLT that has important role = direct tuition. Furthermore - Perry and Bussey showed importance of similarity in attention - showed children same sex and opposite sex adult models picking fruit - children tended to pick same fruit as same sex models

-Smith and Lloyd -

-some aspects of gender role appear to be universal e.g. men consistently more aggressive than women regardless of culture - some aspects of gender role result of innate, genetic influences that SLT does not take account of

Culture and Gender roles

cross cultural research noted for valuable contribution to nature nurture debate in gender

universal features suggest innate basis for gender and support nature view - supports biological approach (etic = universal)

culturally specific features would suggest that gender is learned and support nurture view supporting learning theories (emic = culturally specific)

interactionism = gender differences are caused by innate tendencies that are modified by environmental factors

Meads papua new guinea study

looked at 3 different tribes who lived totally independent of each other
Arapesh tribe = males involved in childcare, boys and girls both raised with gentle, loving and cooperative qualities - ‘feminine’
Mundugumor tribe = ex cannibals, males and females in tribe are arrogant, fierce and quarrelsome - we hate pregnancy and rearing children - ‘masculine’
Tchambull tribe = females interested in economic affairs and look after trading and food gathering, males are sentimental, emotional and unable to make a decision
= gender roles aren’t universal

AO3

-Mead become too involved with tribes - subjective - maybe exaggerated differences and characteristics of each male and female groups - also language barrier = difficult communication

-Buss - carried out survey in 37 countries where participants has to rate importance of characteristics of potential mate - males rated good looks and youth as important, women rated financial prospects and dependability - supports proposal that there are cross cultural similarities in gender roles - many women and men instinctively seek similar traits (universal features)

Media and gender roles

media provide role models with whom children may identify and want to imitate

rigid stereotypes = media may play a role in reinforcing stereotypes concerning male and female behaviour

media exposure = children have more exposure to popular forms of media tend to display more gender stereotypes

McGhee and Frueh = found people who view a lot of television tend to display more gender stereotypical views in behaviour and attitudes than people who view a little

Media does more than confirm gender typical behaviour, it may also give information to males and females in terms of likely success or of adopting behaviours

seeing other people perform gender appropriate behaviours increases the child’s belief that they are capable of carrying out such behaviours in the future

AO3

+Furnham and Farragher - investigated use of sex role stereotypes in advertising - men tended to be used in power positions and women in familial roles within domestic settings - voiceovers male = males have more authority = media may play a role in reinforcing social stereotypes

-counter stereotypes - challenge traditional notions of masculinity and femininity. Pingree - gender stereotyping reduced when children shown TV adverts featuring women in non stereotypical roles - however also found that pre-adolescent boys stereotypes became stronger following exposure to non-traditional models - explained by boys desire to maintain a stereotypical view

-correlation not causation - difficult to establish cause and effect - media has considerable influence on formation and maintenance of children’s gender stereotypes but does the media create these or simply reflect prevailing social norms about male and females

Atypical gender development

Biological explanation

Gender dysphoria = condition wherby external sexual characteristics of body are perceived as opposite to psychological experience of oneself as male or female

brain sex theory - brain structure and function of individuals with GD don’t match biological sex

genetic - androgen receptor = influences action of testosterine and is involved with masculinisation of brain. Hare et al - examined gene samples from male gender dysphorics and non-dysphorics - correlation found between gender dysphorics and variants of androgen receptor genes, implying gene to be involved in failure to masculine brain during development in brain

hormonal - masculine hormones not released - hormonal surges in foetus must occur at right time and in sufficient amounts for masculinisation to happen - process not carried out successfully due to issues with mothers endocrine system etc. = gender dysphoria

AO3

+Green and Fleming - treatment of individuals with GD by hormonal therapy was 87% successful in females reporting gender dysphoria and 97% in males - shows hormones are involved

+Garcia-Falgueras and Swab - compared post mortem data from 17 deceased people who had undergone gender reassignment surgery with 25 controls - found certain area of brain similar in male to female reassignments (men who felt they were women) to female controls = more biological than social

-Drummond - biological explanations don’t support lack of continuity between childhood gender dysphoria and gender dysphoria in adulthood - 30 girls sent to gender identity cliic betwen 2 and 3 - at age 7 a variety of measurements used including observation of free play, playmate preference questionnaire, measurement of sex typed behaviours - at 18 asked about current gender identity, desire to be man, sexual orientation - 88% of girls who shown strong GID at age 7 showed no signs - only 12% continued to show gender dysphoria - GID decreases from childhood to adulthood

-Alternative explanation - learning theory plus Bennett to support

Social explanation

Gender dysphoria = condition wherby external sexual characteristics of body are perceived as opposite to psychological experience of oneself as male or female

learned behaviour - children reward system for cross gender behaviour

observation and imitation

AO3

+Bennett - atypical gender development caused by conditioning therapy might be supported by datawhich suggests more children than adults are identified as gender dysphoric - children more exposed to parental influences who might reward cross gender behaviour and peers might punish children for atypical gender behaviour which might be source of dysphoria

-therapies not working - however SLT cannot explain resistance to therapy as if conditioning causes belief then therapy should be able to condition less anxious way of thinking - doesn’t seem to work = biology more appropriate explanation

-alternative explanation - biological explanation plus green and flemming to support - however if biological then results should be continous however drummond

as drummond not continuous it points to other factors - holistic - suggest learning theory does have a role - gender is COMPLEX