Chromosomes and hormones

• The biological explanation of gender outlines how in 23rd pair of chromosomes, the y chromosome contains the information to produce androgens and is thus involved in creating males.
• When the SRY gene is present, testis developing factor (TDF) is produced which facilitates the development of testosterone causing the gonads to become testis and also causes the penis to develop.

  When the SRY gene is absent, the gonads become ovaries and the females produce oestrogen.
• Women have been implicated with having better verbal skills and males are superior with visual spatial skills.
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  Research to support the biological explanation of gender comes from the case of David Reimer who, as a baby, had a botched circumcision and as a result was raised as a female but soon transitioned back into a male as he had never fully adjusted to life as a girl.

  The case shows how chromosomes outweigh socialisation factors and how there is a biological basis to gender, thus increasing the validity of the explanation.
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  Research to support the biological explanation of gender comes from Van Goozen who studied transgender individuals undergoing hormone treatments.

  He found the transgender females had a decrease in aggression and visuo-spatial skills and transgender males had an increase in them.

  This therefore shows the influence of hormones in gender related behaviour and increases the explanations validity.
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  Further research support comes from Gorski et al who found that sexually dimorphic nucleus was larger in male rats than females.

  They attributed this to the exposure of testosterone at a prenatal stage which can account for differences in males and females.

  However, the research may not be generalisable to human gender related behaviour due to them being rats which don't display the same characteristics as humans and therefore this brings into question the validity of the explanation.
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  The issue with the biological explanation of gender is that it's reductionist.

  This because it reduces gender down to a neurochemical level stating hormones and chromosomes influence gender.

  However it underplays other explaantions like the cognitive which states gender is the result of schemas and maturation and the psychodynamic one which acknowledges childhood experiences and family interaction.

  This shows that gender is more complex that just hormones and chromosomes and need to account for other factors to explain gender holistically.