When a person feels distress or anxiety because their gender identity doesn’t match their biological sex, we call it…
Gender Dysphoria
When people with gender dysphoria live according to their gender identity, we say they are...
Transgender
The social learning theory explanation of gender says that we learn gender-appropriate behaviour by observing and imitating the behaviour of models of the same sex.
According to the social learning theory explanation of atypical gender development, if people closely identify with a model of the opposite gender and are reinforced for imitating them, then they develop a gender identity of the opposite gender, which causes gender dysphoria.
Zucker et al conducted interviews with 115 boys who were unhappy with their gender and also interviewed their mothers.
Of the boys who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria, 64% had very close relationships with their mothers.
Limitations to Zuckers experiment
He used a non-experimental method which means he didn't manipulate the independent variables and therefore cannot establish a cause-and-effect relationship.
What factors are there in the biological explanation of atypical gender?
Neural
Hormonal
Genetic
Biological explanations of atypical gender development focus on three types of factors:
Neural factors, like the size of the SDN (Sexually dimorphic nucleus)
Hormonal factors, like the levels of testosterone and oestrogen
Genetic factors, like the make-up of the sex chromosomes.
