GENQEft
Sex and Gender;
Sex: When a person Is biologically male or female.
Gender. When a person Is psychologically masculine or feminine.
Different sexes have different sex-role-stereotypes: Most of these stereotypes are created by society on how they
believe O mole and female should behove, such as men are more aggressive, women ore more nurturing, men d o t he
DIY and women should look ofter children.
H Sex-role-stereotypes hove a negative effect on society, as women and may not go Into fields of the ir liking due to
~hem being 'female' or 'mole' dominated such as women not going Into science fields due lo It being a 'mole'
industry and men may not go Into nursing or childcare due to It being a 'female' Industry.
(+) Some sex-role-stereotypes ore valid, for e,comple the stereotype that men ore more aggressive Is valid a s there Is
biological evidence to suggest that men ore.
(-) Some sex-role-steroetypes ore not valid as they ore culturally constructed stereotypes created by a society on
how men and women should be such as that pink is a girls colour and that blue is a boys colour.
The Rem Sex Bole lnventncx
Androgyny: When a person displays a balance of both male and female traits/characteris tics.
Bem created the BSRI to measure a person's masculine and feminine traits, It is a self report method. Bem describes
four brood personality types: masculine (high masculinity and low femininity), feminine (high feminin ity and low
masculinity), androgyny (high masculinity and high femininity), undifferentiated (low masculinity and low femininity).
Bern argues that Androgyny is highly advantageous as O person is able to adapt and excel in more situations
compared to a person who only scored highly on one skill set.
EVALUATION:
(+) Prakash found a positive correlation between androgyny and psychological health as Bern predicted, as females
with a high feminine score hod higher depression scores but females with high masculine and feminine scores
(androgyny) had lower depression scores.
(·) Validity is compromised due to this being a self report method, as the researcher cannot be aware whether or not
the participants ore giving socially desirable answers or if they are just unaware of the traits that they hove which
con negatively influence their resu;ts on the test. Gender identity also cannot be quantified as this is subjective from
person to person along with the measure of 1-7 which will differ from person to person.
(·) Gender is socially constructed as masculine and feminine will differ over time and between societies,
individualistic and collectivist cultures will see gender traits differently and will express them differently. Also what is
classed as masculine and feminine will differ over time showing that this locks temporal validity.
Ibe bjotoajcat exptanqtio□-
Betieve that sex and gender ore the some. Our biological sex determines our gender identity and development.
The role of chromosomes: There are 46 chromosomes, 23 pairs, the 23rd pair determines the biological sex of the
baby. The chromosomal structure for females is XX and the chromosomal structure for moles is XY, the b iological
sex is determined by which sperm fertilises the egg, the Y chromosome causes the testes to develop, the embryo
then produces androgens which allows the obby to turn into a male.
The role of hormones: most gender development is due to hormones, prenatally (around 6-8 weeks) hormones act
upon the brain and cause the development of reproductive hormones, later at puberty hormonal activity triggers
sexual characterist ics e.g. breast development. The mole hormone Is testosterone, the female hor mone is
oestrogen, oxytocin produced in larger amounts for women than men.
Hormones and brain development In the hypothalamus there Is the SON (the sexually dimorphic nucleus),
testosterone affects the SON making it 2x as large and more dense compared to women who produce oestrogen
the SON remains smaller and less dense.
EVALUATION:
(+) Gorski; injected female rats with testosterone which led to ambiguous genitalia, changes in mating behaviour as
the female attempted to mate as if it was o mole rat and the SON in the female rat which was injected with
t estosterone increased to the size of o biological mole's SON. However, there ore problems extrapolating findings
from animal studies to humans as humans are qualitatively different there is no way to know if the rat now "feels.
mole.
(+) Swaob; collected a sample of 100 human brains ofter death and found that the SON in moles is 2x b igger than
that found In females this shows the Importance of testosterone on gender development as this study proves that
there is b iological differences b etween males and females on why a mole and female will feel like their gender.
Sex and Gender;
Sex: When a person Is biologically male or female.
Gender. When a person Is psychologically masculine or feminine.
Different sexes have different sex-role-stereotypes: Most of these stereotypes are created by society on how they
believe O mole and female should behove, such as men are more aggressive, women ore more nurturing, men d o t he
DIY and women should look ofter children.
H Sex-role-stereotypes hove a negative effect on society, as women and may not go Into fields of the ir liking due to
~hem being 'female' or 'mole' dominated such as women not going Into science fields due lo It being a 'mole'
industry and men may not go Into nursing or childcare due to It being a 'female' Industry.
(+) Some sex-role-stereotypes ore valid, for e,comple the stereotype that men ore more aggressive Is valid a s there Is
biological evidence to suggest that men ore.
(-) Some sex-role-steroetypes ore not valid as they ore culturally constructed stereotypes created by a society on
how men and women should be such as that pink is a girls colour and that blue is a boys colour.
The Rem Sex Bole lnventncx
Androgyny: When a person displays a balance of both male and female traits/characteris tics.
Bem created the BSRI to measure a person's masculine and feminine traits, It is a self report method. Bem describes
four brood personality types: masculine (high masculinity and low femininity), feminine (high feminin ity and low
masculinity), androgyny (high masculinity and high femininity), undifferentiated (low masculinity and low femininity).
Bern argues that Androgyny is highly advantageous as O person is able to adapt and excel in more situations
compared to a person who only scored highly on one skill set.
EVALUATION:
(+) Prakash found a positive correlation between androgyny and psychological health as Bern predicted, as females
with a high feminine score hod higher depression scores but females with high masculine and feminine scores
(androgyny) had lower depression scores.
(·) Validity is compromised due to this being a self report method, as the researcher cannot be aware whether or not
the participants ore giving socially desirable answers or if they are just unaware of the traits that they hove which
con negatively influence their resu;ts on the test. Gender identity also cannot be quantified as this is subjective from
person to person along with the measure of 1-7 which will differ from person to person.
(·) Gender is socially constructed as masculine and feminine will differ over time and between societies,
individualistic and collectivist cultures will see gender traits differently and will express them differently. Also what is
classed as masculine and feminine will differ over time showing that this locks temporal validity.
Ibe bjotoajcat exptanqtio□-
Betieve that sex and gender ore the some. Our biological sex determines our gender identity and development.
The role of chromosomes: There are 46 chromosomes, 23 pairs, the 23rd pair determines the biological sex of the
baby. The chromosomal structure for females is XX and the chromosomal structure for moles is XY, the b iological
sex is determined by which sperm fertilises the egg, the Y chromosome causes the testes to develop, the embryo
then produces androgens which allows the obby to turn into a male.
The role of hormones: most gender development is due to hormones, prenatally (around 6-8 weeks) hormones act
upon the brain and cause the development of reproductive hormones, later at puberty hormonal activity triggers
sexual characterist ics e.g. breast development. The mole hormone Is testosterone, the female hor mone is
oestrogen, oxytocin produced in larger amounts for women than men.
Hormones and brain development In the hypothalamus there Is the SON (the sexually dimorphic nucleus),
testosterone affects the SON making it 2x as large and more dense compared to women who produce oestrogen
the SON remains smaller and less dense.
EVALUATION:
(+) Gorski; injected female rats with testosterone which led to ambiguous genitalia, changes in mating behaviour as
the female attempted to mate as if it was o mole rat and the SON in the female rat which was injected with
t estosterone increased to the size of o biological mole's SON. However, there ore problems extrapolating findings
from animal studies to humans as humans are qualitatively different there is no way to know if the rat now "feels.
mole.
(+) Swaob; collected a sample of 100 human brains ofter death and found that the SON in moles is 2x b igger than
that found In females this shows the Importance of testosterone on gender development as this study proves that
there is b iological differences b etween males and females on why a mole and female will feel like their gender.
