ATYPICAL GENDER DEVELOPMENT (GENDER DYSPHORIA): SOCIAL EXPLANATIONS

Question 1

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Psychoanalytic theory

Answer 1

• Ovesey and Person have argued that GID in males is caused by the child experiencing extreme separation anxiety before GI has been established
• The child fantasises of a symbiotic fusion with his mother to relieve the anxiety and the danger of separation is removed
• The consequence is that the child ‘becomes the mother’ and thus adopts a female GI
• This theory has some support; Stoller reports that in interviews with GID males, they were seen to display overly close mother-son relationships that would lead to greater female identification and confused GI in the long term

Question 2

Cognitive explanations

Answer 2

• Liben and Bigler did an extension of the gender schema theory emphasising individual differences in GI
• The theory suggest 2 pathways of gender development, the dual pathway theory
• The fist pathway acknowledges the development of gender scheme which then direct gender-appropriate attitudes and behaviours as part of normal development
• The second pathway describes how the child’s gender attitudes are affected by his or her activity. Here the individuals personal interest may become more dominant that the GI and these in turn influence the gender schema

Question 3

• Issues with psychoanalytic theory

Answer 3

• Ovesey and Persons theory don’t provide an adequate account of GID in females as the theory only applies to male trans people, research by Reckers suggests that gender disturbance in boys is more likely to be associated with the absence of the father rather than fear of separation from the mother.
• The assumption that GID is caused by separation anxiety in childhood is very difficult to test.
• The fantasies that trigger GID and centre on the mom are thought to occur at an unconscious level.
• This means even these individuals who were subject to these fantasies may not be aware of them

Question 4

• Issues with cognitive theory

Answer 4

• The theory is descriptive rather than explanatory.
• There is very little explanation of why a child may become interested in activities that are not consistent with its own sex, the development of non-sex typed schema.
• It describes the effects of GID but doesn’t tell us the effects