Sex and Gender

• Sex

  A person's biological status as male or female. This is biologically determined by different chromosomes, leading to different hormonal influences. This results in differences in physical anatomy such as reproductive organs, body shape and hair growth
• Gender

  A person's psychosocial status as either masculine or feminine. This includes all attitudes, roles and behaviours we associate with being "male" or "female"/ These are heavily influenced by social norms, cultural expectations and sex role stereotypes
• Sex role stereotypes


  A set of shared expectations that people within a society or culture hold about what is acceptable or normal behaviour for males and females. These are reinforced by parents, peers and the media. The concepts are learnt through socialisation
• Gender dysphoria


  Where the biological sex doesn't reflect the gender that an individual identifies with
• Androgyny


  A personality type that is characterised by a mixture of masculine and feminine traits, attitudes, or behaviours. Andro (Male), Gyny (Female)
• Who introduced the concept of psychological androgyny?

  Sandra Bem who argued that a person can show both masculine and feminine traits
• Being androgynous is psychologically healthy because it avoids fixed sex role stereotypes.
• Those who are androgynous can adapt to a range of contexts and situations that non-androgynous people would find difficult
• What did Sandra Bem invent to measure androgyny

  Bem's Sex Role Inventory (BSRI)
• How was the BSRI developed

  Asking 50 males and 50 females to rate 200 traits in terms of how desirable the traits were for both. The highest scoring traits for each category became the 20 masculine and feminine traits. 10 positive and 10 gender neutral items were included to ensure participants are not overly influenced
• How does an individual complete the BSRI

  Rate themselves on a scale from 1-7 on a likert scale. The scale provides an average score for femininity and masculinity
• High masc, low fem - Masculine

  Low masc, high fem - Feminine

  High masc, high fem - Androgynous

  Low masc, low fem - Undifferentiated
• 34% of males in the BSRI and 27% of females were psychologically androgynous - Large minority of people are androgynous rather than masc or fem
• + BSRI is valid and reliable

  It was piloted with over 1000 students and found results corresponded with the participants' own perceptions of their gender identity

  • As results are accurately displaying their perceptions, the BSRI has a high internal validity

  4 weeks later after the pilot, a follow up study involving 60 of the same students showed a correlated coefficient of +0.90

  • There is a strong correlation between the scores and replicability provided the same results so a high test retest reliability
• + Evidence to support the link between androgyny and psychological well-being

  Burchardt and Serbin investigated the relationship between androgyny and psychological health. Males and females completed the BSRI and an adult psychopathology test.

  • Found androgynous females scored low on depression and social introversion than feminine females, and were lower on SZ and mania scales
  • Androgynous males scored lower on social introversion than feminine males

  Supports the idea that androgyny is positively correlated with a good mental health
• -Link between androgyny and mental health has been challenged


  Those who display more masculine traits are better adjusted to because masculine qualities such as independence and competitiveness are more valued in Western society that feminine ones such as co-operation and nurturing

  Burchardt and Serbin found masculine and androgynous males scored equally well, showing masculinity is linked to positive mental health especially in males. Suggests sex role conformity relates differently to psychological functioning in males and females
• -BSRI is a self report questionnaire


  Subjective scoring system - May score depending on how they interpret the words or their personality

  Social desirability bias - Risk of lying or over exaggerating in order to achieve a specific score. People may desire to fit into a strong masculine or strong feminine personality so will lie to fit social stereotypes

  Demand characteristics - May score themselves to achieve androgyny if they figure out the purpose of the questionnaire
• -Historical bias

  Historical: Developed in 1970s and behaviours that were "acceptable" in relation to gender have significantly changed since then. BSRI is developed from stereotypical ideas about masc and fem, so this now may be outdated so lacks temporal validity (eg: fem - loves kids)
• -Cultural bias

  Cultural: Developed from answers of American students. So a western view of femininity and masculinity is adopted and this may not be shared amongst all cultures. Eg: Korea is a collectivist culture and values cooperation whereas USA is individualistic and values independence. Shows culture shapes the contents of gender stereotypes