SOCIAL

• What are the strengths of the social explanations for atypical gender development?

  1. Research support for mother-son relationship
  2. Cultural support for third gender
• What are the limitations of social explanations for atypical gender development?

  1. Inadequate explanation
  2. Different outcomes
• Strength SE = research support for mother-son relationship

  • Zucker et al. (1996) assessed the presence of traits of separation anxiety disorder in boys referred clinically for gender dysphoria
  • 115 boys were referred to a specialty clinic for concerns about their gender identity development
  • They were divided into two subgroups - one group met the complete diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria and the other did not meet it
  • Found that 64% of boys with gender dysphoria also displayed diagnostic traits of separation anxiety disorder compared to only 38% of boys with subclinical symptoms
• Strength SE = cultural support for third gender

  • Third gender is a concept in which individuals are categorised, either by themselves or society, as neither a man nor a woman
  • Also a social category present in societies that recognise 3 or more genders
  • The hijras of South Asia are one of most recognised groups of third gender people with legal recognition in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan
  • In Samoa the fa’afafine are recognised as distinct
  • More people identifying as non-binary = cultural understanding beginning to catch up with lived experience
  • Suggests best seen as social construct
• Limitation = inadequate explanation

  • Ovesey and Person's explanation does not provide an adequate account of gender dysphoria in biological females as the theory only applies to transgender women (people assigned male at birth who identify as women)
  • Females (according to their theory) do not feel the same pressure to take on the role of the mother in fear of separation
  • Rekers (1986) found that gender dysphoria in those assigned male at birth is more likely to be associated with the absence of the father than the fear of separation from the mother
  • In other words, gender dysphoria in biological males is more motivated by the lack of a father during the critical period for attachment formation, as opposed to an absent mother
  • Psychoanalytic theory doesn't provide a comprehensive account as subjective nature of the unconscious concepts proposed by the psychoanalytic theory reduces the scientific credibility of explanations
• Limitation = different outcomes

  • Some people who experience gender dysphoria will decide to have gender reassignment surgery
  • With appropriate support, those individuals are able to reconcile their external appearance with the gender they have always identified as
  • However, a significant proportion of people who experience dysphoria in childhood do not do so as adults
  • Drummond et al. (2008) followed a sample of 25 girls who were all diagnosed with gender dysphoria in childhood
  • At follow up only 12% (3 out of 25) were still classified as having gender dysphoria
  • Wallien and Cohen-Kettenis (2008) studied 77 children (59 boys, 18 girls who had been referred in childhood to a clinic because of gender dysphoria
  • At follow-up 27% (12 boys and 9 girls) were still gender dysphoric and 43% (28 boys and 5 girls) were no longer gender dysphoric
  • Evidence suggests that gender dysphoria may lessen overtime, potentially due to social factors