gender

Question 1

define sex

Answer 1

sex refers to being indentified as either male or female based on your biology- pre-dominantly determined by chromasomes XX or XY (female xx and male xy) and by hormonal influences which affect the development of the male/female anatomy at birth. (as a result of nature)

Question 2

define gender

Answer 2

refers to a psychological state of feeling either masculine or feminine. it includes the attitudes,behavioursand roles associated with being masculine or feminine. likely to be as a result of nurture.

Question 3

what are sex role steriotypes

Answer 3

a set of preconceived beleifs about the traits/behaviours/qualities/characteristics which are expected and appropriate for females and males in a given society.

Question 4

how do these sex role steriotypes spread

Answer 4

the sex role steriotypes are communicated through society and across generations due to socialisation

Question 5

whats the benefit of a sex role steriotype

Answer 5

it acts as a mental short cut about how we should behav appropriately in a given context. girls may act typically feminine whereas boys typically masculine

Question 6

whats a limitation of sex role steriotypes

Answer 6

these can lead to sexist assumptions being formed about the capacity each gender has

Question 7

what are the ways that sex role steriotypes can be learned

Answer 7

through reinforcement, through indirect (vicarious learning) and processes of observation, imitation- SLT theory
or due to cognitive development- kohlebergs theory and gender constancy or gender schema
freud-psychodynamic

Question 8

what did smith and lloyd support

Answer 8

supported the idea that sex role steriotypes are learned theough reinforcement. Adult ppts exposed to babies clothed in a typically boy or girl way. they found that the babies perceived as boys were treated differently- adults engaged the babies with more stimulating games and offered boy toys whereas babies perceived as girls were offered cuddly toys and calmer play. this suggests how socialisation processes like direct reinforcement may have an impact in the development of sex role steriotypes

Question 9

what did inghalikar support

Answer 9

supported the idea that sexx role steriotypes develop as a result of biology.
she scanned the brains of 949 young men and woman using mri scans and mapped the connections between the different parts of the brain. it was found that woman had far greater connections between the left and right side of the brain whilst mens brains displayed more intense activity in individual parts of the brain like the cerebellum which controls motor skills.
due to these findings they suggested that woman brains are hard wired to cope with multiple tasks at once whereas male brains prefer to focus on a single complex task. (this can explain why woman are better at multitasking)

Question 10

whats a weakeness for sex role steriotypes

Answer 10

children may not able to fulfil their dreams/aspirations as they beleive their interests do not align with their sex role steriotype- for example girls feel less able at stem subjects. this therefore can become embedded within the inequality of pay men and woman receive

Question 11

define androgyny

Answer 11

when an individuals posesses a combination of high levels of both masculine and feminie traits within a single personality. bem claimed that androgenous individuals have a different cognitive style and therefore they adopt traits independantly from the gender expectations. (androgenous people may select masculine or feminine traits to be displayed based on the situation)

Question 12

what were bems predictions

Answer 12

bem argued that being androgenous is positive and desirable and that androgenous individuals are more psychologically healthy than pre-dominantly masculine or feminine individuals. she argues that this is because androgenous people feel more comfortable with who theyre as theyre supressing any parts of themselves to fit with the societal expectations (sex role steriotypes).furthermore bem predicted that androgenous peopkle are able to handle situations in more flexible ways

Question 13

what did flaherty and dusek do

Answer 13

supported bems claim that androgeny is associated with better psychological wellbeing.
made ppts compete the bsri and found that androgenous people showed better adjustment to the enviorment, higher self esteem and emotional well being compared to individuals who were classifoed as ‘masculine’ or ‘femine’ by the bsri.
these findings show how being androgenous is advantageous as ppl diplay a wider variety abilities/traits making them more adept at dealing with a wider range of situations

Question 14

what did woodhills and samuels do

Answer 14

argued that bems claim isnt entirely valid as andogyny doesnt necessarily always lead to better/improved psychological wellbeing. they argued that it heavily depends on the type of characteristics the individual posseses. for example a combination of positive M+F traits led to improved psycholgical wellbeing for example cooperativeness and assertiveness however a combination of negative M+F traits- agressive and overly emotional led to low levels of psychological wellbeing

bems claim was too simplistic

Question 15

BSRI

Answer 15

AO1- the first systematic attempt of measuring androgyny. in 1974, 50 male and 50 female judges rated 200 behavioural traits in terms of how desirable they were for males and females. from their assement the top 20 traits for tha males and the top 20 trais for the females were used as the steriotypically ‘masculine’ or feminine traits in the bsri. The bsri also included 20 neutral traits(gender neutral traits) so the inventory consisted of 60 traits in total. an individual will rate themselves on each of the 60 traits on 7 point scale based on the degree they that thry posses each trait. this results in a final score of their level of masculinity,femininity and adrogyny.

Question 16

what were the 4 categories and what are they based off

Answer 16

based on the median
low masc, high fem= feminine
high masc, low fem= masculine
high fem,high masc=androgyneous
low fem,low masc-undifferentiated

Question 17

what was bems percentage finding on his sample

Answer 17

34% of males in the sample were androgenous and 27% of the females were androgenous

Question 18

pilot study

whats a strength of the bsri

Answer 18

as part of the piloting process the bsri was used to acess the gender indentity of over 1000 students and the results positively correlated with the ppts descriptions of their own gender indentity. it also showed to have good test-restest reliability. in a follow up of the study a small sample of the same students were tested again a month later using the bsri and produced very similar scores.

Question 19

methadology

weakeness of bsri

Answer 19

their are issues regarding the self report nature of measurement. It is possibly that the findings suffer from social desirability bias meaning that ppts may over/under exaggerate some of the masculine and or feminine traits in order to appeal more desirable as these traits may be ‘expected’ of them. for example a man may score high on the masculine traits when in reality theyre low leading to an unvalid measure.

Question 20

culture bias

another weakeness of bsri

Answer 20

all the students involved in the rating are from stanford university. this may be an issue as they may have had a westen bias in terms of whats considered typically masculine or feminine. this is supported by the fact that theirs some supporting evidence such as that by mead who demonstarted cultural differeneces in gender roles. the tchambili tribe in new guinea had the opposite ideas- femininity was represented by dominance and agression) therefore questioning the universality of the bsri

Question 21

what are the two social explanations for gender dysphoria

Answer 21

psychodynamic and cognitive explanations

Question 22

ao1 atypical gender development- gender dysphoria

Answer 22

1. recognised as a psychological disorder according to the DCM5
   1.characterised by the individual feeling a mismatch between their own gender indentity and their biologival sex
2. the individual finds themselves consistently indentifying with the opposite gender
3. the individuals experiences significant psychological distress due to this mismatch in gender and sex/

Question 23

what are the biological explanations for gender dysphoria

Answer 23

genetic explanation and brain sex theory

Question 24

ao1 how does the psychodynamic approach explain gender dysphoria

Answer 24

1. a strong gender indentity occurs as a result of sucessful resolution of the oedipus/electra complex. if this conflict isnt resolved it can lead to an inability with indentiy with the same sex parent 2. gender dysphoria develops due to high levels of seperation which occurs prior to the gender indentity stage as a result of an emotionally or physically absent mother. in these circumstances it was claimed that the boy fantasises a symbiotic fusion with their mother(in his unconcious mind he becomes her) and therefore any danger of seperation is removed as (shes always unconciously with him). this leads to a strong indentifixation with the mother rather than the father.ultimately this leads to an internalisation with the opposite gender indentity which means the boy feels like a woman but its trapped in a male body which according to this approach is how gf forms

Question 25

# supporting evidence who supported the psychodynamic approach as an explanation for gf

Answer 25

lowrey and zucker

Question 26

what did lowrey and zucker do

Answer 26

found high incidence of seperation anxiety 60% in boys with gf comapred to controls. this suggests that seperation anxiety may have been the basis for the symbiotic fusion with the mother and leading to gf later in life

Question 27

# turners atypical sex chromasome patterns ao1

Answer 27

* Turners syndrome occurs only in females. these females have 45 chromasomes instead of 46- theyre missing their second X chromasome therefore their sex chromasome pattern is XO * physical characterics- shorter than average,shield chest shape,underdeveloped ovaries leading to lack of monthly periods or even infertility,very limited breast development,high wasit to hip ratio * psychological characteristics-higher than average reading abilities,poor visual,spatial and mathematical abilities and socially immature

Question 28

weakeness of the psychodynamic approach

Answer 28

untestifiable and unfalisable. as the oedipus complex and the electra complexes, seperation anxiety and symbiotic fusion are occuring unconciously is it therefore imposible to scientifically test them. therefore its impossible to validate this theory

Question 29

atypical sex chromasomes kleinfelters

Answer 29

* occurs only in males. these males have 47 chromasomes rather than 46 they posses an extra x chromasomes so there sex chromasome pattern is xxy * physical characteristics- tall thin physicue, small infertile testes,enlarged breast tissue,broad hips,poor muscle tone,reduced facial and body hair * psychological characteristics- lower than average reading abilities and poor language, writing and spelling skills, shy low confidence difficulty socialising, low energy levels

Question 30

what are the two cognitive explanations for gender development

Answer 30

gst-gender schema theory and kohlebergs theory

Question 31

AO1 The role of chromasomes in sex and gender

Answer 31

an individual has 23 pairs of chromasomes, the 23rd pair determines the persons biological sex. The egg carries an X chromasomes and the sperm carries either X or Y chromasomes. If zygote is XX the sex of the child is female if child carries XY will be male. This is because the Y chromasomes carries special genetic information (SRY gene) This gene affects sexual dimorphism (differeneces between males and females) whether the gonads develop testes and therefore the sex chromasome testosterone. in the absence of this gene the gonads develop into ovaries and uterus and progesterone is produced.

Question 32

role of hormones ao1

Answer 32

after 8 weeks gestation these sex hormones then influence the developmenty of primary sex characteristics. It also influences the masculinisation/feminisation of the brain and therefore an individuals sence of gender and ultimately their gender related behaviours. later during puberty the sex hormones influence the devlopment of secondary sex characteristics

Question 33

testosterone

Answer 33

is an androgen (male sex hormone)although it is present in females,females have about 10% of the amount males have * primary sex characteristics= penis,brain is masculinised(it increases in volume of areas linked to spatial awareness and increases lateralisation * secondary sex characteristics- deep voice,face and pubic hair,growth spurts * behaviour-agression and competitiveness

Question 34

oestrogen

Answer 34

female sex hormone. oestrogen can also be found in males but in much smaller amounts * primary sex characteristics- vagina,brain is feminised(it increases the volume of area linked to communication and decreased lateralisation ehg more neural interconnections between left and right hemisphere * secondary sex charcateristics- menstrual cycle,pubic hair,hips widen * behaviours-emotionality,irritability especially during MS, multitasking and cooperation

Question 35

Oxytocin

Answer 35

often reffered to as the 'love' hormone. it is released by both males and females in relatively low levels day to day (althought fro females seems to be slightly higher) but is released in much bigger quantities for both during intamicy such as kissing. it is also found in large quantities in woman perinatally during and following birth. its also responsible for stimulating lactation after childbirth and is involved in reducing post natal stress by reducing cortisol levels which in terns fascilitates the maternal instinct and helps bonding between the chilkd and mother.

Question 36

David Reimer

Answer 36

supports the role of chromasomes in determing our sense of gender he was changed from a healthy boy to a girl at 24 months old after a surgical accident destroying his external genitalia. despite therapy and socialisation trying to turn him intio a girl he never indentified with the famle gender and he quickly reassigned and after finding the truth about his original sex he quickly reverted to living a lufe as a male. this suggests that he influence of chromasomes had hard wired his brain to think and feel as a male. this suggests that gender is biologically determined.

Question 37

tricker

Answer 37

however tricker gave 43 males weekly injections of either a placebo or testosterone for a period of 10 weeks. no significanse in gender relating behaviours were reported. this questions the role of hormones and whether they have any influence over gender behaviours

Question 38

Van Leengoed

Answer 38

supported the claim that hormones can influence nurturing behaviours in females.he injected female rats who had just been given birth to a letter of rats with an oxytocin inhibitor (blocks the effects of oxytocin). The female mothers rat showed limited maternal behaviours (grooming;picking up young) comapred to controls not given oxytocin inhibitor . they also found thyat their maternal behaviours returned when antagonist wore off. this suggests oxytocin is important in producing maternal behaviours and in developing the bond between a mother and infant

Question 39

cognitive explanations

Answer 39

Cognitive explanations focus on **thinking**; theyre trying to explain how and why childrens thinking about gender **changes/develops over time**. these explanations assume cognitive changes occur with **maturation** in that children's thinking/thoughts about gender change as they get older.cognitive explanations also tend to adopt a stage approach in that the changes in the childs thinking can be characterised by qualititvely different developmental stages. they claim that the child must achieve the stage before theyre able to progress to the next stage. finally they assume that although the exact ages may vary across individuals the sequence of the stages is universal across all children and therefore are not influenced by cultural variations

Question 40

kohlebergs theory gender indentity ## Footnote 3 stages to gender development and achieveing the final one gender constancy is crucial to the aquisition of gender related informtaion

Answer 40

gender indentity- approx 2-3 years . in this stage children of** 2 years can label/indentify themselves as being a boy or a girl **and from** 3 years old they can also label others Friends/famly) as a boy or a girl**. The basis for their indentification is heavily reliant on the persons** external appearance** (eg long hair=girl). they also beleive their** gender may change over time** (a girls may say that when she grows up she will grow up to become a daddy) or **across situations** eg if a boy has long hair will be perceived as a girl)

Question 41

gender stability 4-6 years

Answer 41

**in this stage children realise that their gender is stable OVERTIME.** for example they understand that if theyre a boy they will grow to be a man not a woman **but they struggle to apply this to others.** However they still dont appreciate that gender is constant/fixed as they beleive that gender can change across situations as their understanding is still heavily reliant on external appearance

Question 42

gender constancy 7+years of age

Answer 42

In this final stage they realise that **gender is constant overtime and across situations/context.** This is due to a greater awareness and understanding of** anatomical differences **between girls and boys and that these **biological differences are linked to gender. ** They understand that these biological difference**s cannot change even tho there appearance might change**. Kohleberg predicted that Only once a child has achieved gender constancy they would actively seek out gender appropriate behaviours from ROLE MODELS to confirm their understanding of whats acceptable for boys and girls to do.

Question 43

AO1 gender schema

Answer 43

gender schema **is an organised package/ file of knowledge about the characteristics associated with males and females** which is built overtime through experience in the world. Gender scehema helps the **child make sense of the world around them helps organise and interpret their experiences **and process neew information about gender and ultimately helps to choose gender appropriate behaviouurs. our **gender schema can result in sex role steriotypes**

Question 44

GST

Answer 44

suggests that once a child achieves **gender indentity** at about 2-3 years, the **active search for gender related** information begins. children look** increasingly to their environment** for further information about what it is meant to be a boy or girl. Overtime the gender schema becomes **more developed and each child REFINES THEIR OWN SCHEMA to** organise the behaviours,traits,objects associated** with 'own sex' forming their IN group schema** whilst also indentifying behaviours/traits/objects associated with the 'opposite sex' resulting in the formation of their 'out group schema' The childs attention is heavily directed towards activities associated with their own sex, 'in group' schema (so boys will pay close attentionto what other boys to do and what older males tend to ignore and reject activities associated with the opposite sex 'out group scchema' so boys will reject female role models. as the in group schema develops and strengthnens the child becomes more motivated to behave in wyas which are consistent with their in group schema as it increases self esteem.

Question 45

who supported kohlebergs theory

Answer 45

**slaby and frey ** they assesed whether a group of 2-5 year old children had achieved 'gender constancy' or not (via structured interview). When they showed the children a split screen 5.5 min programme (on one side of the screen there was a man and on the other a woman-both performing variety of tasks) they found that children who had achieved gender constancy spent significantly longer watching and paying attention to same sex model 88.6sec vs 96.6 sec) compared to a control hwho showed no preferance for either model.

Question 46

how do slaby and frey findings question/contradict gst

Answer 46

Becayse according to GST all of the children in the sample had a suffiecient enough age to have formed their in group and out group schema. and if GST is accurate then all of the children would be paying more attention to the same gender model therefore questioning the validity

Question 47

Who contradicts Kohlbergs theory

Answer 47

Bandura and Bussey- found that children as young as 4 reported 'feeling good' after playing with gender related toys (eg a boy playing with a truck) and 'feeling bad' about playing with toys that were not gender appropriate eg a girl playing with a truck. these findings contradict kohleberg as he cannot account why 3 years old children feel good or bad when playing with the appropriate toys as according to him they wouldvt have reaches gender constancy and wouldnt have a fully developed understanding of gender appropriate behaviours

Question 48

supporting evidence for gst

Answer 48

bandura and bussey there findings validate GST theory as this theory predicts that by the age of 3 children would have began to develop their schema and such they will develop an understanding of gender appropriate behaviours which explains why theyd feel good when engaging in gender appropriate activities

Question 49

whats a methadological issue with research into the cognitive explanations of gender

Question 50

AO1 psychodynamic explanations of gender development

Answer 50

Freud claimed that **the unconcious mind drives behaviour** he beleived this was the case for gender related behaviours just like any other kind of behaviour. He claimed that the **phallic stage** of the psychosexual stages was key to gender development. According to Freud** prior to this stage** children did** not have a sense of gender and he refered to them as bisexual. ** the phallic stage occur between ages 3-6 and it begins when the source of pleasure shifts from anus to genitals. the unconcious conflict occurs either oedipus or electra for girls

Question 51

electra complex

Answer 51

freud claimed that girls also develop **incestious feelings towards their father during **this stage and a **passionate desire for him.** Girls have an** unconcious resentment towards their mothers**; firstly because they **posses their father**, but also because they blame their mother for their lack of penis(as they beleive their motyher castrated them)- unconciously girls develop penis envy. girls realise theyll never have a penis and so replace their desire for a penis with a desire to have a baby with their father

Question 52

how is the electra complex resolved

Answer 52

the unconcious conflict betwee girls lust for their father and their fear of loosing their mothers love involves the girl repressing her desire for her father and relinquishing her resentment of the mother by indentifying with her( looking up to the mother/respecting her/sharing similar interests). In turn this indentification results in internalisation of the mothers attitudes/values and gender indentity.

Question 53

oedipus complex

Answer 53

Freud claimed that all young boys unconciously devlop incesteous feelings towards their mother and they develop a passionate desire for her. biys become frustaryed as they see the father as a rival as he 'posseses' the mother. unconciouslt tgis leads to developing jealouy and hatred towards the father to the point where they want the father dead. despite thi tension and frustration the boy realises the father is stromger and more powerful so the boy becomes fearful that the father might castrate him if he bceomes aware of the boys feelings towards the father.

Question 54

how is the oedipus complex succesfully resolved

Answer 54

the succesful reoslution of this unconcious conflict of lust for the mother and fear of the father involves the boy preventing castratioin and removing his catrstaion anxiety by repressing his desires for the mother and relinquishing his hatred for the father by indentifying with his father Look up to him,respect him,sharing his interests). In turn this indentification results in internalisation of the fathers attitides,values and his gender indentity. According to freud this is how boys develop their sense and understanding of the garessive,assertive dominant role

Question 55

# case study ao3 psychodynamic explanations for gender development

Answer 55

Freud used Little Hans's case study to offer some support for his oedipus complex. this is becaue little hans had a morbid fear of being bitten by a horse. Freud interpreted this fear of horses as a displaced fear of his father arising as a result of his lustful feelings towards his mother. as his phobia dissapeared Freud explained that it was as a result of the succesful resolutio of the oedipus complex

Question 56

# both parents must be present weakeness of freuds explanation

Answer 56

Freuds theory claims that **both parents must be present in order for a succesful resolution** of the Oedi/elec complexes to occur, as the **child must indentify with the same sex paren to acquire their gender indentity.** However their is no consistent evidence* which **suggests that children from non-nuclear families *(single parents/same sex parents) lack clear gender indentity. Golombok- found no differences in the strength of gender indentity of children rasied by single parent families.

Question 57

Bos and sandford

Answer 57

showed that although children from the same sex families felt less pressure to adhere to gender steriotypes they did not differ in their strength of gender indentity or psychosocial adjustment

Question 58

genetic explanations for gender dysphoria ao1

Answer 58

Gf may have a genetic basis. It has been found that certain individuals are predisposed to develop it as a result of potentially inheriting specific genetic information. Gene mapping studies have focused on the similarities and differences between people with gf and without. this research has indicated that certain variants of the androgen receptor gene maybe responsible for the condition. Androgen receptor gene is responsiblen for responding to sex hormones such as testosterone.

Question 59

brain sex theory as a biological explanation

Answer 59

There are** regions of the brain** which are** sexually dimorphic** (different in males and females) due to** prenatal exposed to sex hormones**. one is the **bsts** which is** loacted in the hypothalamus** and is linked to **emotional and sexual behaviour** in rats. This region is about 40% larger in males than in females. This explanation claims that if theirs an **imbalance of certain prenatal hormones** (if the foetus is under ofr over exposed to hormones like testosterone) then this could effect the masculinisation/feminisation of the foetus brain- potentially resulting in a male baby with femakle size bstc and vice versa- this could explain why a male might feels like a female

Question 60

supporting evidence for genetic explanation of gender dysporia

Answer 60

Heylens et al foucsed on assesing the heritability of gender dysphoria by comparing concoradnce rates of monozygotic twins. they found a 39% conc rate for GF in the MZ twins comapred to 0% conc rate in dz sample. therefore as mz twins share 100% of their genetic information this higher concordance rate indicates therey may be a genetic basis for gf

Question 61

heylens limitation for genetic explanation

Answer 61

however it can be argued that the findings of the twin-based research did not find 100% conc rate in MZ twins in fact relatively low conc rates of 39% which may mean that there were other similarities perhaps social/environmental that resulted in the increased conc rates

Question 62

variant of the androgen receptor genelimitation for genetic

Answer 62

although there has been claims ab the androgen receptor gene as a candidate gene for gd it has not bene found coonistsently in all sufferers with gd this questions whether this is the candidate gene or even if their is such a gene