Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Explanations of Gender Development
- Biological explanations
- Biological theories
focus on the biology
behind sex and gender.
- Evolution provides an
explanation for gender differences
as it would say that men and
women have evolved to pass on
genes, e.g. women are carers
- The effect of chromosomes
- Each cell in the human body has 23
pairs of chromosomes. Sex is
determined by the combination of
chromosomes for the 23rd pair.
- Typical chromosome
patterns, male=XY and
female=XX
- Atypical Chromosome patterns
- Any chromosome
patterns other than XX
and XY are seen as
atypical.
- It is good to study people with atypical
chromosome patterns as they can compare
typical and atypical behaviours to see if
chromosomes effect gender
- Turners Syndrome
- Higher than average verbal ability, lower than
average spatial ability, visual memory and
maths skills. Difficulty relating to peers
- Klinefelter's syndrome
- Lack of interest in sexual activity, shy, passive, poor
lang. skills/reading ability, higher than normal level
of gender identity confusion
- The effect of hormones
- Hormones; chemical
substances produced by the
body that control/regulate the
activity of certain cells/organs
- Male hormone; testosterone, female
hormone; oestrogen
- Van Goozen et al.
- Aim; To investigate the effect of sex
hormones on adult behaviour
- Method; used experimental method, studied
transexuals of both sexes who were going under
hormone treatment, injected with hormones of
opposite sex.
- Given a range of treatments before treatment and
then again three months later
- Results; male to female transexuals show
decreases in aggression and increases in
verbal fluency. Female to male show the
opposite
- Conclusion; Sex hormones effect gender behaviours
- Evaluation; not controlled experiment, changes may have
been due to uncontrolled variables e..g. transexuals own
expectations
- CAH
- Female born with normal XX chromosomes
but exposed to excessive androgens in the
womb. Have male like genitals but most
identified as girls at birth.
- Many studies show that most identify
themselves as tomboys
- Brain differences
- Hypothalmus
- Larger in men than women, makes
women coy and men promiscious
- Cerebral Hemispheres
- Differences in the
structure, women have
superior language and
men have superior
visual spatial and
mathematical skills
- Evaluation of Biological Explanations
- Some evidence supports the view
that biological differences between
males and females affects gender
behaviour
- The biological approach cannot
explain why gender behaviours
change over time
- This is a reductionist view, reduces gender to
biological factors and ignores the environment
- The biological view is deterministic as it states that
biology determines how we act and we have no
choice