atypical gender development

• Gender dysphoria - individuals who identify much more with the opposite sex than the sex they were given at birth
• Biological explanations for gender dysphoria:

  • brain sex theory
  • genetic factors
• Brain sex theory suggests that gender dysphoria is caused by specific brain structures that are incompatible with a person’s biological sex
• Zhou et al (1995) studied the BSTc, which is around 40% larger in males. Post-mortem studies of transgender women (male to female) found the BSTc to be similar in size to that of a typical female brain
• The brain sex theory was supported by Kruijver et al (2000) who researched the number of neurons in the same area and found that the six transgender individuals had similar numbers of neurons to biological females
• Dimorphic - different form in males and females
• evidence suggests that gender dysphoria may have a genetic basis
• Coolidge et al (2002) assessed 157 twin pairs (96 MZ and 61 DZ) for evidence of gender dysphoria using the DSM-4 to diagnose. The prevalence of gender dysphoria in these twins was 2.4%, 62% of these cases said to be accounted for by genetic variance
• Heylens et al (2012) supported these findings and found a concordance rate of 39% in MZ twins for gender dysphoria and none in DZ twins
• there are two social-psychological theories for gender dysphoria:

  • psychoanalytic theory
  • cognitive explanation
• Psychoanalytic theory - child fantasises and becomes the mother and thus adopts a female gender identity
• Cognitive explanation - gender schema directs attitudes and behaviour and the individual’s personal interests may become more dominant than the gender identity. In most people this leads to androgyny but for some may lead to gender dysphoria
• the psychoanalytic theory was proposed by Ovesey and Peterson (1973) and was based on Freud’s research
• the psychoanalytic theory suggests gender dysphoria is the result of extreme separation anxiety before gender identity is established so there is incomplete resolution of oedipal conflicts during the phallic stage or identification with an inappropriate role model
• Ovesey and Peterson observed close mother-son relationships in clinical interviews to determine what may cause gender dysphoria
• Liben and Bigler (2002) proposed the dual pathway, where there are 2 pathways for gender identity to develop

  • Pathway 1 is appropriate gender schema development
  • Pathway 2 considers how a child’s gender attitudes are affected by activities
• the dual pathway is a cognitive explanation for gender dysphoria and is a more flexible approach to gender
• research into the BSTc provides objective and scientific data which is measurable. This makes it reliable. However the sample size was very small so there are issues with generalisability
• The biological explanation has been challenged by Hulschoff Pol et al (2006) who found that transgender hormone therapy affected the size of the BSTc in transgender individuals
• Chung et al (2002) also claims that prenatal hormonal influences which affect the size of the BSTc are not triggered until adulthood suggesting that structural changes in the brain are a result of these early prenatal hormonal influences
• The use of post-mortems in this research can be criticised for the ethical issue of consent from the patient before death
• The MZ studies have a relatively low concordance rate of 39% which suggests other environmental factors also play an important role in the development of gender dysphoria
• a problem in twin studies is that it is difficult to separate nature and nurture
• these studies may generate socially sensitive data which may affect the individuals involved or wider groups of people and therefore must be treated with respect. The researchers must weigh up the pros and cons of publishing any data
• Biological explanations can be criticised for being reductionist by oversimplifying complex conditions such as gender dysphoria into simpler neuroanatomical (size of BSTc) or genetic explanations
• An interactionist approach which combines both biological and other environmental influences offers a more plausible explanation for a complex disorder such as gender dysphoria rather than trying to explain it by a single influence
• psychoanalytic theory is androcentric because it only applies to biologically male transgender individuals and so does not provide an adequate account for gender dysphoria in females-males
• Ovesey and Peterson's use of clinical interviews yields qualitative data which is rich in detail but hard to analyse and may have social desirability bias
• contradictory research by Rekes suggests gender dysphoria in males is more likely due to an absent father figure than fear of separation from the mother, which is very difficult to test (unfalsifiable)