SEX & GENDER
Batista Boys: unique family living in Dominican Republic, four of the
children were identified as girls at birth but during puberty their vaginas
closed over and they grew normal sized penises (rare genetic disorder,
male genitalia not external at birth), all four abandoned their female
gender identity and quickly adopted to their new roles as men, suggesting
gender identity is not fixed, but, the Dominican Republic was highly
patriarchal and men were valued over women
Furnham & Farragher: male & female researchers analysed content of 200
adverts and found that men were most likely to be presented in
autonomous roles, promoting motoring products, whilst females were
presented in familial roles advertising household products
Madhura Ingalhalikar et al: scanned brains of 949 young men and women
using an MRI to map connections between different parts of the brain -
discovered that women's brains have better connections between the two
hemispheres whilst men's brains display more intense activity within the
brain's individual parts (especially the cerebellum, controls motor skills) -
females can multi-task but men prefer to focus on a single task, suggests
sex-role stereotypes may be well-founded
Bem: developed method for measuring androgyny and suggested that
high androgyny is associated with psychological wellbeing as people are
better equipped to adapt to a range of situations than non-androgynous
people, developed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) in 1974 which
included 20 'masculine' characteristics, 20 'feminine' and 20 'neutral'
(established by 50 male and 50 female US judges) which the respondents
had to rate themselves on a 7-point rating scale, classified scores on two
dimensions: masculine-feminine and androgynous-undifferentiated
EXPLANATIONS
Jost: injected female rats with testosterone to demonstrate the link
between testosterone and aggression - they became more aggressive
David Reimer: born Bruce Reimer, sexually reassigned and raised as
female after his penis was accidentally destroyed during circumcision
when he was 6 months old, psychologist Money believed it was possible
for someone to develop the gender identity of the opposite sex so Bruce
underwent surgery at 22 months old to remove his testes, he was
renamed Brenda and dressed in girls clothes but never adjusted - age 15
she reverted back to being male as David, the experience caused so much
psychological trauma that he committed suicide
Batista Boys: unique family living in Dominican Republic, four of the
children were identified as girls at birth but during puberty their vaginas
closed over and they grew normal sized penises (rare genetic disorder,
male genitalia not external at birth), all four abandoned their female
gender identity and quickly adopted to their new roles as men, suggesting
gender identity is not fixed, but, the Dominican Republic was highly
patriarchal and men were valued over women
Furnham & Farragher: male & female researchers analysed content of 200
adverts and found that men were most likely to be presented in
autonomous roles, promoting motoring products, whilst females were
presented in familial roles advertising household products
Madhura Ingalhalikar et al: scanned brains of 949 young men and women
using an MRI to map connections between different parts of the brain -
discovered that women's brains have better connections between the two
hemispheres whilst men's brains display more intense activity within the
brain's individual parts (especially the cerebellum, controls motor skills) -
females can multi-task but men prefer to focus on a single task, suggests
sex-role stereotypes may be well-founded
Bem: developed method for measuring androgyny and suggested that
high androgyny is associated with psychological wellbeing as people are
better equipped to adapt to a range of situations than non-androgynous
people, developed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) in 1974 which
included 20 'masculine' characteristics, 20 'feminine' and 20 'neutral'
(established by 50 male and 50 female US judges) which the respondents
had to rate themselves on a 7-point rating scale, classified scores on two
dimensions: masculine-feminine and androgynous-undifferentiated
EXPLANATIONS
Jost: injected female rats with testosterone to demonstrate the link
between testosterone and aggression - they became more aggressive
David Reimer: born Bruce Reimer, sexually reassigned and raised as
female after his penis was accidentally destroyed during circumcision
when he was 6 months old, psychologist Money believed it was possible
for someone to develop the gender identity of the opposite sex so Bruce
underwent surgery at 22 months old to remove his testes, he was
renamed Brenda and dressed in girls clothes but never adjusted - age 15
she reverted back to being male as David, the experience caused so much
psychological trauma that he committed suicide
