AO1

• Gender dysphoria - when person's gender identity doesn't fit their phenotype and this creates discomfort
• Psychologists have focused on a range of factors that may be associated with the development of gender dysphoria, including traumatic events, parent-child interactions and family dynamics.
• Another possible factor in the increase of cases of adolescent gender dysphoria related to a link with autism spectrum disorders with many psychologists reporting a co-existence of two conditions.
• Social explanations of GD percieve it as being learned through SLT and operant conditioning - observing and imitating role models of the opposite sex, or boy praised for wearing a dress which creates conflict between the boy’s biological sex and psychological gender
• Genetic explanation - condition is inherited, MZ studies support the idea as there is a higher concordance for GD in MZ than DZ studies
• Psychodynamic explanation - the child has extreme separation anxiety before gender develops. To resolve this, a male will fuse himself to his mother to remove the fear. The child has thus internalised the mothers gender identity and males then develop GD.
• Hormonal explanation -  there are key points in foetal development and early life where hormones are released, and if interrupted through maternal stress or illness GD will occur