Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Sex and Gender
- SEX is determined at
conception and tells us
whether someone is
male or female
- GENDER is how a person
behaves or thinks,
MASCULINE = typical
male e.g aggressive traits.
FEMININE = typical
female e.g sensitivity trait
ANDROGYNOUS = many
female and masculine
traits rather than just one
- BIOLOGICAL APPROACH - an individuals gender is decided at the same
time as their sex, when the foetus is formed the sex chromosomes decide
whether the individual will me male or female, masculine or feminine. -
human behaviour is instinctive and so are gender roles. - evolution may
explain the different skills/traits males and females naturally possess e.g
men's visual spacial skills are necessary to help them 'hunt'.
- EVALUATION - ignores the idea gender roles may be learnt - if all men and all
women are biologically similar why do they show such a range of different
behaviours - gender roles can change, suggesting that it is more to do with
socialisation
- XX = female XY = male
- PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH - nurture not nature. Freud believed children
developed in stages and developed atattchments to the opposite sex parent which
causes problems for the same sex parents, OEDIPUS COMPLEX - boys fear their
father finding out their love for their mother and fear their father will cut of their penis
ELECTRA COMPLEX - girls develop penis envy and desire their fathers, they blame
their mother for them not having a penis and believe they have already been
castrated, so they istead desire a baby as a substitute, they realise they are the
same as their mother and develop a feminine identity. If a parent is not around then
a child's gender will not develop properly
- DIAMOND AND SIGMUNDSON - aimed to show a child
cannot be socialised to take on the opposite sex role. The
boy was a twin born in Canada, whilst being circumcised
most of Bruce's penis was burnt off so he was raised as a
girl instead, and she was led to believe she was born a girl,
at first Doctor Money would interview and observe 'Brenda'
and he claimed she had adapted well, however when she
reached puberty she had to be given hormones, although it
is reported she still fly like a boy and had more masculine
mannerisms, at 13 she was told the truth and she decided to
live the rest of her life as a man and renamed herself David
and had a penis reconstructed. In conclusion, they couldn't
socialise him as a girl, gender is more a product of nature
than nurture
- LIMITATIONS - difficult to generalise as it is based on only one sample -wasn't
possible to control key variables e.g his parents knew he was a boy so they may
have treated him differently than a girl - Money was accused of interpreting the
data to suit his result so he wasn't objective. It supports the biological approach