Atypical gender development

• what is gender dysphoria

  when a person's biological sex doesn't match with the gender they identify with

  
  

  seen as a mental disorder due to levels of stress and anxiety caused
• Biological explanations of gender dysphoria

  brain sex theory

  genetic factors
• brain sex theory


  bed nucleus of soria terminals- responds to emotional responses and male sexual behaviour

  IT is larger in men compared to Women
• brain sex theory supporting research

  BST is larger in

  men than women and has been found to

  be female-sized in transgendered

  females.

  Average BST neuron number is

  female range.
• Genetic factors


  This is explained through twin studies and the measure

  of the concordance rates
• genetic factors research support

  Coolidge - found 62% of

  GD could be accounted for by genetic

  factors in twins suggesting a strong

  heritance in GD

  Heylens - found that 9/23

  MZ twins were concordant for GD

  compared to 0/21 DZ twins - genetic

  basis
• evaluations of the biological explanations of gd


  contradictory evidence

  other brain differences
• contradictory evidence


  central claims of bst have been challenged

  Pol - studied changes in transgender individuals'

  brains using MRI scans taken during hormone treatment.

  
  

  The scans showed that size of the BST changed significantly

  over that period.

  
  

  Kruijver et al. and Zhou

  et al studies - the BST was examined post-mortem and after

  transgender individuals had received hormone treatment

  during gender reassignment treatment.

  
  

  the differences in bst is an effect of hormone treatment rather than a cause of gd
• other brain differences


  evidence shows there may be other brain differences associated with GD

  
  

  Rametti- studied another sexually dimorphic

  aspect of the brain - that of white matter

  - There are regional differences in the proportion of white matter in male and female brains.

  - he analysed the brains of both male and female

  transgender individuals, crucially before they began

  hormone treatment as part of gender reassignment.

  - In most cases, the amount and distribution of white matter

  corresponded more closely to the gender the individuals

  identified themselves as being rather than their biological

  sex.

  there are early differences in the brain of transgender individuals
• Social explanations of GD

  social constructionism

  psychoanalytic theory
• social constructionism


  Gender identity is a concept 'invented' by societies.

  - People have GD due to society forcing people to be either a man or a woman.

  - GD is not a pathological condition but a social phenomenon which arises when people are required to choose one path out of two
• supporting resaerch for social constructionism

  McClintock - studied a genetic condition in New Guinea

  - causes biological males to be categorised as girls at birth as they have a labia and a clitoris.

  These individuals are known as (female to male) and are judged as have GD
• psyhoanalytic theory


  Social relationships within the family cause GD.

  - GD in biological males is caused by boys experiencing extreme separation anxiety before gender identity has been

  established.

  - The boy fantasises of a symbiotic fusion with his

  mother to relieve the anxiety and the danger of separation is

  removed.

  - The boy becomes the mother and thus adopts a

  woman's gender idnentity
• psyhoanalytic theory research support

  Stoller (1973) - in interviews with GD

  biological males; they display overly

  close relationships with their mothers

  suggesting stronger female identification

  and conflicted gender identity in the long

  term
• evaluations of social explanations of GD

  social constructionism

  psychoanalytic theory
• social constructionism EV


  one strength of this approach is that not all cultures have 2 genders.

  - Some cultures recognise more than two genders, such as

  the fa'afafine of Samoa.

  - This is a challenge to traditional

  binary classifications of male and female.

  -the increasing numbers of people now describe themselves as non-binary suggests that cultural understanding is only now

  beginning to 'catch up' with the lived experience of many

  
  

  gender idenity is a social construction rather than a biological fact
• psychoanalytic theory EV


  there are issues with the psychoanalytic theory of GD

  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

  - In any case, 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

  
  

  This suggests that psychoanalytic theory does not provide a

  comprehensive account of GD