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'.
1. 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
1. 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

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	Created by ellapotter over 10 years ago