atypical gender development

• gender dysphoria/atypical gender development

  when men and women experience a mismatch between their biological sex and they gender they feel they are

  gender dysphoria is a source of stress and discomfort and is recognised as a psychological disorder in the DSM-5
• biological explanation - Brain sex theory

  • gender dysphoria has a basis in brain structure
  • this structure is involved in emotional responses
  • this area is larger in men than women and has been found to be female sized in transgender females
  • suggests people with gender dysphoria have bst which is the size of the gender they identify with, not the size of their biological sex
• biological explanation

  • heyens et al (2012) - compared 23 MZ twins with 21 DZ twins where one of each pair was diagnosed with gender dysphoria
  • found 9 of the MZ twins were concordant for gender dysphoria compared to none of the DZ which could indicate a role for genetic factors in development of gender dysphoria
• social explanation - social construction

  • gender identity is invented by societies
  • for individuals who experience gender dysphoria the confusion arises because society forces people to either be a man or a women
  • gender dysphoria is not a condition but a social phenomenon which arises when people are required to choose one of two paths
• social explanation - psychodynamic theory

  • emphasise social relationships within the family as the cuase for gender dysphoria
  • gender dysphoria in biological males is caused by a boy experiencing extreme separation before gender identity have been established
  • boy then fantasises of a symbiotic fusion (becoming 1) with his mother to relieve the anxiety and danger of separation is removed
  • the boy in a real sense becomes the mother and adopts a woman's gender identity
• strength - biological explanations

  • may be other brain differences associated with gender dysphoria
  • there is a difference in proportion of white matter in male and female brains rametti et al analysed the brains of both male and female transgender individuals, before they began hormone treatment, in most cases amount and distribution of white matter corresponded more closely to the gender the individuals identified with rather than their biological sex
  • suggests there are differences in the brains of people with gender dysphoria, supporting biological explanations
• limitation - biological explanations

  • central claims of brain sex theory have been questioned
  • researchers have studied changes in transgender individuals' brains using MRI scans taken during hormone treatment, scans showed size of bst changes significantly over that period, studies that provide evidence for the brain sex theory examined the bst in post-mortem and after transgender individuals had received treatment during gender reassignment
  • suggests difference in bst size may have been an effect of hormone therapy rather than the cause of gender dysphoria
• strength - social explanations

  • not all cultures have 2 genders
  • some cultures recognise more then 2 genders eg group in samoa and a group in sambia, challenge to traditional binary classifications of male and female, the fact that increasing number of people that describe themselves as non-binary suggest that cultural understanding is only now beginning to catch up with the lived experiences of many
  • gender identity and dysphoria are best seen as social contructs rather than biological fact
• strength - social explanation

  • support for psychodynamic theory of gender dysphoria
  • zucker at al studied 115 boys who were struggling with their gender identity and also studied their mothers, out of the boys who eventually diagnosed with gender identity disorder 64% where also diagnosed with separation anxiety disorder, suggests experiencing separation anxiety from the mother can lead to gender dysphoria, another study found boys with GID tended to have mothers who showed high levels of emotional over-involvement
  • research support the idea that abnormal social relationships within the family are the cause of gender dysphoria