Gender

• Androgyny


  Balance of masculine and feminine traits in one’s personality.
• Bem sex role inventory 


  A questionnaire that aims to assess a person’s masculinity or femininity.

  • Developed by Sandra Bem in 1974
  • 7-point Likert scale
  • 20 ‘feminine‘ traits, 20 ‘masculine’ traits, 20 ‘neutral‘ traits
• Electra complex


  A theory of gender development based on Freud‘s Oedipus complex, developed by Carl Jung. It suggests that, to develop gender identity, a female must overcome her jealousy to her father and her ‘penis envy’ and ultimately identify with her mother due to identification and then internalisation.
• Gender


  Psychological and cultural differences between males and females including attitudes, behaviours and social roles.
• Gender constancy


  The third stage of gender development according to Kohlberg where a child develops the understanding that gender does not change with superficial changes (e.g. a male growing long hair or wearing a dress)
• Gender dysphoria


  When there is an incongruity between a person‘s sex and gender.
• Gender identity


  The first stage of gender development according to Kohlberg when a child first identifies themselves and others as male or female
• Gender roles


  Social constructs that suggests specific roles for males and females (e.g. males = breadwinners, female = caregivers)
• Gender schema theory 


  A theory of gender development which suggests gender develops as a result of ideas from the environment that are reinforced.
• Gender stability


  The second stage of gender development according to Kohlberg where the child is now aware that their gender (and others) don’t change.
• Identification (gender)


  A stage of gender development according to Freud where the child ‘identifies‘ with their same-sex parent.
• Internalisation


  Another stage of gender development according to Freud where the child wholly and internally adopts the beliefs of the parent they identify with.
• Klinefelter‘s syndrome 


  A genetic disorder wherein a person is born with the chromosome profile XXY (affects males)

  • more female characteristics
  • Physical symptoms - tall, breast development, osteoporosis
  • Psychological symptoms - mildly impaired IQ, poor language development, poor social skills, low self esteem
  • Affects 1 in every 650 male births
• Kohlberg’s theory of gender development

  A theory to explain the development of the idea of gender within children, suggesting it arises in 3 stages; gender identity, gender stability and gender constancy.
• Oedipus complex 


  A theory of gender development according to Freud, suggesting that, to develop gender identity, a male must overcome his feelings of jealousy towards his father and then identify with them.
• Oxytocin


  A hormone released during childbirth, breastfeeding and bonding (sometimes referred to as the ‘love hormone’).
• Sex


  Biological differences between males and females including chromosomes, hormones and anatomy).
• Testosterone


  A hormone that plays an important role in the development of males.
• Turner’s syndrome 


  A genetic disorder wherein a person is born with the chromosome profile X0.

  • Physical symptoms - short, fertility problems
  • Psychological symptoms - social adjustment problems, social immaturity, certain learning disabilities, high level of verbal skill
  • Affects 1 in 2000
• Sex-role stereotypes


  Set of shared expectations that people within a society or culture hold about what is acceptable or unusual behaviour for males or females.
• Seavey et al (1975)


  Baby dressed in yellow jumpsuit

  1 in 3 participants told baby was either a boy, girl or didn’t reveal the gender (toys to choose from were a ball, doll or plastic ring respectively)

  • Found that the doll was more often given to the ‘female’ baby and the ring was often given to the ‘male’ baby
  • If the gender was unknown - attempted to assess baby‘s gender based on perceived strength
  • Women tended to handle the baby more + treated the baby differently according to what gender they believed them to be.
• Seavey et al AO3


  This study can be applied to the advertising of children‘s toys as it would allow advertising companies and toys shops to reassess what unconscious biases they may have about targeting certain toys towards boys or girls

  However, as this is a study from 1975, it may lack temporal validity as the children’s toy industry may have expanded so adults nowadays may have different opinions about which toys children ‘should’ play with
• Eccles et al (1990) 


  Children were encouraged by parents to play with gender-typical toys - idea that reinforces sex-role stereotypes

  • support from Lytton and Romney (1991) - parents praised sex-role stereotypical behaviour in boys and girls
  • High validity - support from other studies
• Buchart and Serbin (1982) 


  Application of BSRI - tested on undergraduates and psychiatric patients (not same numbers = validity issue)

  • Found that being androgynous positively correlated with good mental health
  • Androgynous personalities score well in mental health terms but as using types scored equally as well - suggests masculinity also assists with positive mental health
• Biological Approach to gender development (role of chromosomes


  Female - XX

  Male - XY --> Y chromosome carries the SRY gene which produces TDF protein for the development of gonads into testes - produce androgens (including testosterone - triggers development of external male organs)
• Role of chromosomes AO3


  + David Reimer (Money, 1975) - born male, raised female (penis burnt off), given hormones - never adjusted to life as a girl - began living as a man when told the truth —> Biologically male - gender - male;

  HOWEVER - case study - lacks external validity

  — Reductionist - reduces a person‘s gender down to whether their 23rd chromosomal pair is XX or XY

  — AIS (androgen insensitivity syndrome) - genetically male but don‘t respond to androgens so external female characteristics - sex and gender separate
• Biological approach to gender development (role of hormones)


  At 24 weeks, gonadal hormones are low in both sexes due to the natural regulation and maturation process of the reproductive system as most of the major developments influenced by gonadal hormones have already occurred, such as the formation and differentiation of reproductive organs.

  From 8 to 24 weeks, male foetuses are exposed to higher levels of testosterone than female foetuses

  • Oestrogen - female
  • Testosterone - male
  • Oxytocin - women typically produce it in larger amounts than men
• Role of hormones AO3 strengths


  + Application - hormone therapy for transgender people - Van Goozen et al (1995)

  + Dabbs et al (1995) - prisoners with the highest levels of testosterone - more likely to have committed violent or sex crimes - only correlation - could be other factors - biological determinism

  + Van de Poll et al (1988) - female rats injected with testosterone - more aggressive - typically caused by high levels of testosterone in males - should you really generalise it to humans though? - different biology
• Role of hormones AO3 weaknesses


  — Rodin et al (1992) - suggested that PMS is a social construct - not biological and used by men to dismiss female emotions - however this dismisses an aspect of the differing female experiences due to hormonal changes during menstruation as it generalises the experience to one type

  — Everyone has the same hormones - only different levels of them

  — Tricker et al (1996) - injected 43 males with either testosterone or a placebo - after 10 weeks - no difference in aggression - hormone levels != certain behaviours - small sample size so lacks generalisability
• Atypical sex chromosome AO3


  • Nature-nurture - biological makeup gives them physical differences that are not a part of typical gender development (e.g. Klinefelter’s - extra X chromosome, more ‘feminine’ characteristics) - BUT could be nurture - psychological symptoms
  • Useful applications - being able to develop ways of easing any physical or psychological difficulties they may have. E.g. a treatment for people with Turner’s syndrome is hormone therapy and has been found to be effective in easing some of the symptoms
  • Specific experiences so lacks generalisability
• Kohlberg AO3


  T - Structured interview - could confuse children, social desirability

  E - Thompson (1975), McConaghy (1979), Slaby and Frey (1975)

  A - Research into sex stereotyping from a young age

  C - Goes against SLT, gender schema theory

  I - Reductionist - doesn’t consider other factors such as genes, etc.

  Cultural bias - ethnocentric

  Social sensitivity - ‘gender-appropritate behaviour’ - could be controversial - androcentrism
• Gender schema theory


  • Schemas
  • Ingroups and Outgroups
  • Resilience of Gender Beliefs
  • Peer relationships
• Schemas


  A mental representation of an aspect of the world - a cluster of related items that, together, represent a concept

  • gender schemas - have the function of organising and structuring other information that is presented to children, such as toys, what clothes to wear, etc.
• Ingroups and Outgroups


  Ingroup - the group which a person identifies

  Outgroup - groups which a person does NOT identify with

  • When a child has identified with any group(s), they end up positively evaluating their own group and negatively evaluating any outgroups - enhances their self-esteem
• Resilience of Gender Beliefs


  GST can explain the power of gender beliefs as these beliefs lead children to hold fixed gender attitudes because they ignore any information they encounter that is not consistent with ingroup information

  • e.g. If a boy sees a film with a male nurse, this information is ignored as the man is not behaving consistently with the boy‘s ingroup schema
  • Gender schemas have a profound effect on what is remembered and perceptions of the world
• Peer relationships


  Play with other children leads children to believe that all girls share the same interests and all boys share the same interest, and to avoid children of the opposite sex as they are ‘not like me’ and therefore less fun to play with

  • children develop knowledge of the potential consequences associates with different social relationships - their peers may tease them if they play with the opposite sex
  • Gender schemas influence children’s likelihood of social relationships with the same and opposite sex peers (Martin, 1991)
• Gender schema theory AO3 (pt 1)

  T - 48 children (24 boys, 24 girls - aged 5-6) - small sample size— lacks generalisability/ecological validity

  E - Martin and Halverson (1983) - found that the children recalled more ‘gender consistent’ people from pictures than ‘gender inconsistent‘ - e.g. male firefighter vs. male nurse

  A - Research into the development of sex stereotypes, informing parents/nurseries about the influence they may have
• Gender schema theory AO3 (pt 2)

  C - There is evidence that children are not entirely fixed on gender schemas and can take on ’gender inconsistent’ ideas - Hoffman (1998) found that children whose mothers worked have less stereotyped views of what men do - also qualitative measures for studies = subjective

  I - Suggests that gender development is solely based on cognitive factors and does not take other factors into account - SLT,

  ALSO - deterministic as it suggests children are passive in their development

  + does support cultural differences in gender behaviours
• Freud‘s theory of gender development


  Occurs during phallic stage - realise the differences between males and females and become aware of sexuality

  • Oedipus complex
  • Male identification and internalisation
  • Electra complex
  • Female identification and internalisation
• Oedipus complex


  Boys are unconsciously sexually attracted to their mothers and develop castration anxiety during the phallic stage as they are scared if their father finds out then he will castrate them