1. Sex, gender and androgyny

• Sex

  • A person's biological status as either male or female determined by a pair of sex chromosomes
  • Chromosomes influence hormonal differences as well as anatomy
• Gender

  • A person's psychosocial status as either masculine or feminine
  • Heavily influenced by social norms and cultural expectations
  • Mostly influenced by the environment - nurture
  • Social construct
• Gender dysphoria

  • When an individuals biologically prescribed sex does not reflect the way they feel inside and the gender they identify as
  • Some may choose gender-reassignment surgery for sex and gender to align
• Sex-role stereotypes

  • Shared expectations in society or a culture about what is acceptable behaviour for men and women
  • Reinforced by parents, peers and the media
  • Can lead to sexist assumptions such as women not being able to achieve high roles in the workplace and being 'over-emotional'
• AO3 - Sex-role stereotypes

  • Smith and Lloyd - dressed babies 4-6 months half the time in girls clothes and half the time in boys clothes. When observed interacting with adults babies assumed to be a ‘boy’ were more likely to be given a stereotypical boy toys and when assumed to be girls were given 'girls' toys
  • Furnham and Farragher - performed content analysis on tv adverts. Found men were more likely to be shown in professional contexts whereas women were more often seen occupying familial roles
  • Demonstrates how socialisation processes reinforce stereotypes
• Androgyny

  • A personality type characterised by a balance of masculinity and femininity
  • The BSRI suggested that high levels of androgyny leads to better mental health and wellbeing as having a balance of traits means individuals can better adapt to situations
• Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI)

  • Bem's scale presents 20 characteristics commonly seen as 'masculine' and 20 as 'feminine'. A further 20 'neutral' traits are also included
  • Respondents rate themselves on a 7 point rating scale for each item and scores are then classified
  • High masculinity + low femininity -> masculine
  • High femininity + low masculinity -> feminine
  • High masculinity + high femininity -> androgynous
  • Low femininity + low masculinity -> undifferentiated
• AO3 for Androgyny - Valid and reliable

  • The scale was developed by asking 50 male and 50 female judges to rate 200 traits in terms of how much the traits represented 'maleness' and 'femaleness
  • The traits that scored highest in each category became the 20 masculine and 20 feminine traits on the scale
  • Piloted with a large sample of 1000 students - representative
  • A follow-up study involving a smaller sample of the same students produced similar scores when the students were tested a month later, demonstrating test-retest reliability
  • Temporal validity
• AO3 for Androgyny - No validity or reliability

  • The BSRI was developed over 40 years ago and behaviours that are regarded as 'typical' and 'acceptable' in relation to gender have changed - lacks temporal validity
  • Stereotypical definitions of masculinity and femininity - they are now more fluid
  • In addition, the scale was devised using people all from the United States - culturally biased
  • This suggests that the BSRI may lack generalisability, and not be a suitable measure of gender identity today
• AO3 for Androgyny - open to social desirability

  • Due to stereotyping being reinforced and so dominant in society, pps may answer in a way to seem more favourable towards others - particularly male respondents
  • To avoid being labelled as feminine, they may rate themselves higher for masculine traits such as risk taking or bravery
  • Demand characteristics arise and creates unhonesty providing unrepresentative findings
  • Weakened validity as system is flawed and can be deceived
• AO3 for Androgyny - People lack insight to their degree of androgyny

  • Asking people to rate themselves on a questionnaire relies on them having an understanding of their own personality and behaviour
  • Gender is a social construct open to interpretation than sex which is a biological fact
  • Scoring system is also subjective as people's application may differ
  • Not objective or scientific