Atypical gender development

• Gender dysphoria - AO1

  - String persistent feelings of identification with the opposite gender and discomfort and discomfort with assigned gender.

  - They desire to live as members of the opposite sex and often dress and behave with mannerisms associated with the opposite sex.

  - Also referred to as transgenerism or gender identity disorder

  Mismatch between biological sex and sex they feel they are (their gender identity)

  - Identify more with opposite sex than one they were assigned with as birth

  Psychological disorder in DSM-5.

  - Many individuals with GIN identify as transgender and opt for gender reassignment surgery.
• Biological explanations - AO1

  - Brain sex theory

  - Genetic factors
• Brain sex theory researchers - AO1

  - Zohu et al - 1995

  - Kruijver et al - 2000
• Zohu et al - 1995 - AO1

  - Studied the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTc) - developed at age 5 - 40% larger in men compared

  - Postmortem studies of 6 male to female transgender individuals - the BSTc was found to be smaller size of that of a typical female brain.
• Kruijver et al - 2000 - AO1


  - Same brain tissue but focused on the number of neurons in BStc rather than the volume. Six transgender individuals showed sex-reversed identity pattern with an average BSTc neuron number in the female range.
• Genitc factors researchers - AO1

  - Coolidge et al - 2002

  - Heylens et al - 2012
• Coolidge et al - 2002 - AO1


  - Assessed 157 twin pairs (96 MZ and 61 DZ) for evidence of GID using clinical diagnosis - criteria DSM-4

  - The prevalence of GID - 2.3% - 62% of cases were accounted for by genetic variance.

  - Suggests that strong heritable component to GID
• Heylens et al - 2012 - AO1

  - Compared 23 MZ twins woth 21 DZ twins where one of each pair was diagnoted with GID.

  9 of MZ twins were concordant for GID compared to none of DZ.
• Psychoanalytic theory - AO1


  - Based on Freudian theory and insights into cognitive psychology.
• Psychoanalytic theory researchers - AO1

  - Ovesy and Peron - 1973

  - Stoller - 1973
• - Stoller - 1973 - AO1


  - males with GID display close mother-son relationships - could lead to greater female identification and confused gender identity.
• Cognitive explanations - AO1

  - Extension of gender schema theory - emphasises individual differences in gender identity.

  Suggests two pathways of gender development - the dual pathway theory

  - The first pathway acknowledges development gender schema which directs gender appropriate attitudes and behaviours as part of normal development.

  - The second pathway describes how the child's gender attitudes are affected by his or her activity. Individual's personal interests may become more dominant than the gender identity.

  - If a child acts in a like the opposite gender this may lead to the development of a non sex typed schema. In most this leads to androgenous behaviour and a more flexible attitude towards gender. In a small minority - it may lead to GID.
• Contradictory evidence BSTc - 🙁


  - Claimed that BSTc is fully formed by 5 so any hormone treatment undergone by transgender individuals would not affect the size of BSTc

  - Hullshoff pul et al - 2006 - found hormone treatment did affect the size of BSTc

  - Therefore observed differences may be a result of hormone 0 therapy rather than gender dysphoria

  - Chung et al - 2002 - claims that pre-natal hormonal influences that affect the size of BSTc are not triggered until adult hood

  - Although hormonal influences occur before both the structural changes do not change until later
• Twin studies are inconclusive - 🙁


  - May explain that GD is hereditary

  - Tend not to yield high concordance rates - 39% in of MZ in Heyllens study

  - Very difficult to separate the influence of nature and nurture

  - Twins - more MZ twins - may influence each other and the environmental conditions they are exposed t are likely very similar

  - GD is rare so sample size for twin studies is relatively low - limiting g the extent tot which it can be generalised.
• Biological explanation oversimplifies a complex concept - 🙁


  - Criticised for simplifying a complex condition and behaviour to simpler genetic, neuroanatomical and hormonal levels

  - Other factors that may contribute as a higher level are ignored or obscured

  - More Interactionist combination of serval different level of explanation may provide more relevant to the case of GD - a complex condition that may have more than one influence.