SEX, GENDER AND BSRI
Sex
● A biological status, either male or female, defined by chromosomes hormones and
anatomical differences (eg reproductive organs, body shape)
● Cannot change - innate
Gender
● Psychological, refers to the notions of expected roles behaviours and attitudes of
males and females in a society, social construct
● Can change - nurture
Gender identity disorder (GID)
● When someone’s sex does not reflect the gender they identify themselves as being
● Gender reassignment corrects this
Sex roles - jobs, behaviours, attitudes for each sex
Sex role stereotyoes - attitudes, beliefs, behaviours expected of each sex in a given society
● Belief females are better at multitasking - (Ingalhalikar) mapped male and female
brains with MRI
● Females - have better connection/communication across the hemispheres - allows
multitasking
● Males - have more intense activity in specific areas in 1 hemisphere
Rubin et al (1977)
● Aim: to find out if new parents stereotype their babies
● Method: parents were asked to describe their new babies within 24 hours of the baby
being born
● Results/findings: found that parents of baby boys described their babies as being
strong and alert, and parents of baby girls described their babies as soft and delicate
● Conclusion: parents stereotype their children from a very early stage despite no
stereotypical behaviour being shown, for a lot of parents who know the sex of the
baby before birth this stereotyping behaviour starts before the baby is born by
painting a room pink for a girl or blue for a boy
Batista boys
● “Penis at 14”
● 4 boys from the Dominican Republic were born with ambiguous genitalia, looked
more female so raised as female, but during puberty (12-14) the penis and testes,
sex was XY
● After realising they were male, they socialised absolutely fine as male (societal) (bc
of the breadwinner role, would’ve been harder the other way round), they married
and had children
● Androgyny - used to describe a flexible gender role, a balance of both masc and fem
traits/flowing better between masc and fem
Sex
● A biological status, either male or female, defined by chromosomes hormones and
anatomical differences (eg reproductive organs, body shape)
● Cannot change - innate
Gender
● Psychological, refers to the notions of expected roles behaviours and attitudes of
males and females in a society, social construct
● Can change - nurture
Gender identity disorder (GID)
● When someone’s sex does not reflect the gender they identify themselves as being
● Gender reassignment corrects this
Sex roles - jobs, behaviours, attitudes for each sex
Sex role stereotyoes - attitudes, beliefs, behaviours expected of each sex in a given society
● Belief females are better at multitasking - (Ingalhalikar) mapped male and female
brains with MRI
● Females - have better connection/communication across the hemispheres - allows
multitasking
● Males - have more intense activity in specific areas in 1 hemisphere
Rubin et al (1977)
● Aim: to find out if new parents stereotype their babies
● Method: parents were asked to describe their new babies within 24 hours of the baby
being born
● Results/findings: found that parents of baby boys described their babies as being
strong and alert, and parents of baby girls described their babies as soft and delicate
● Conclusion: parents stereotype their children from a very early stage despite no
stereotypical behaviour being shown, for a lot of parents who know the sex of the
baby before birth this stereotyping behaviour starts before the baby is born by
painting a room pink for a girl or blue for a boy
Batista boys
● “Penis at 14”
● 4 boys from the Dominican Republic were born with ambiguous genitalia, looked
more female so raised as female, but during puberty (12-14) the penis and testes,
sex was XY
● After realising they were male, they socialised absolutely fine as male (societal) (bc
of the breadwinner role, would’ve been harder the other way round), they married
and had children
● Androgyny - used to describe a flexible gender role, a balance of both masc and fem
traits/flowing better between masc and fem
