Atypical gender development Flashcards
(12 cards)
What is gender dysphoria?
Describes when a person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity
Source of stress and discomfort - psychological disorder
What is the brain sex theory?
Basis in brain structure
Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST)
Involved in emotional responses and male sexual behaviour in rats
Area larger in men, found to be female-sized in transgender females
People with gender dysphoria might have BST
Size of the gender they identify with not size of biological sex
Fits with report made by people who are transgender - feel from early childhood they were wrong sex
Follow up study
6 transgender individuals
Average BST neurone number in the female range
What did Coolidge et al find about genetic factors?
157 twin pairs
96 MZ and 61 DZ
62% of the variance could be accounted for by genetic factors
Strong hereditable component to gender dysphoria
What did Heylens et al find about genetic factors
Compared 23 MZ twins with 21 DZ twim
One of each pair was diagnosed with gender dysphoria
9 (39%) of MZ twins were concordant for gender dysphoria
None of DZ twins
Indicating role for genetic factors in development of dysphoria
What is a limitation of the biological approach?
Brain sec theory claims have been challenged
Hulshoff Pol et al
Changes in transgender individuals brains using MRI scans taken during hormone treatment
Showed size of the BST changed significantly over that period
Kruijver and Zhou et al
BST was examines post mortem and after transgender individuals had received hormone treatment during gender reassignment treatment
Suggesting differenced in BST may have been an effect of hormone therapy rather than cause of gender dysphoria
What is a strength of the biological approach?
Evidence support
Rametti et al
Studied another sexually dimorphic aspect of the brain
White matter
Regional differences in the proportion of white matter in male and female brains
Analyses brains of both female and male transgender individuals
Before they began hormone treatment as part of gender reassignment
Amount and distribution of white matter corresponded more closely to gender the individuals identified themselves as rather than biological sex
Suggesting there are early differences in the brains of transgender individuals
What is social constructionism?
Gender identity does not reflect underlying biological differences between people and these concepts are invented by societies.
Gender dysphoria - gender confusion arises because society forces people to be either a man or woman - they must pick a side and act accordingly
Not pathological condition but a social phenomenon which arises when people are required to choose one of two particular paths
What did McClintock find about constructionism?
Case of individuals with a genetic condition
Sambia of New Guinea
Biological males to be categorised at birth - have labia and clitoris
Puberty genitals change because of large increase in testosterone
Testes descend and clitoris enlarges into a penis
Genetic variation common among the Sambia - routinely accepted
Since culture has had contact with other cultures they are no judged as having a pathological form of gender dysphoria
What is the psychoanalytical theory according to Ovesey and Person?
Social relations within family as cause of gender dysphoria
Biological males is caused by boy experiencing extreme separation anxiety before gender identity has been established
Boy fantasises of a symbiotic fusion with his mother to relieve the anxiety - danger of separation anxiety is removed
Consequence - boy becomes the mother and adopts womans gender identity
How does Stoller support the psychoanalytical theory?
Interviews
GD biological males displayed overly close relationships with their mothers
Suggesting stronger female identification and thus conflicted gender identity in the long term
What is a strength of social constructionism?
Not all cultures have two genders
Challenge to traditional binary classifications of male and female
Increasing numbers of people now describe themselves as non binary
Cultural understanding is only now beginning to catch up with the lived experience of many
Suggesting gender identity is best seen as a social construct rather than a biological fact
What is a limitation of the psychoanalytical approach?
Not adequate account of gender dysphoria in biological females
Only applies to transgender women
Rekers
Gender dysphoria in those assigned male at birth is more likely to be associated with absence of father than the fear of separation from the mother
Suggesting the theory does not provide a comprehensive account of gender dysphoria
