Gender Key Terms

Question	Answer
Sex	Biological difference between males and females, including chromosomes, hormones and anatomy.
Gender	The psychological and cultural differences between males and females, including attitudes, behaviours and social roles.
Sex-role stereotype	A set of beliefs and preconceived ideas about what is expected or appropriate for males and females in a given society.
Androgyny	Displaying a balance of masculine and feminine characteristics in one’s personality.
Bem Sex Role Inventory	The first systematic attempt to measure androgyny using a rating scale of 60 traits (20 masculine, 20 feminine and 20 neutral) to produce scores across two dimensions: masculinity-femininity and androgynous-undifferentiated.
Chromosomes	Found in the nucleus of living cells carrying information in the form of genes; the 23rd pair of chromosomes determines biological sex.
Hormone	A chemical substance circulated in the blood that controls and regulates the activity of certain cells or organs.
Testosterone	A hormone from the androgen group that is produced mainly in the male testes (and in smaller amounts in the female ovaries). Associated with aggressiveness.
Oestrogen	The primary female hormone, playing an important role in the menstrual cycle and reproductive system.
Oxytocin	A hormone which causes contraction of the uterus during labour and stimulates lactation.
Atypical sex chromosome pattern	Any sex chromosome pattern that deviates from the usual XX / XY formation and which tends to be associated with a distinct pattern of physical and psychological symptoms.
Klinefelter’s syndrome	A syndrome affecting males in which and individual’s genotype has an extra X chromosome (in addition to the normal XY), characterised by a tall, thin physique, small infertile testes, and enlarged breasts.
Turner’s syndrome	A chromosomal disorder in which affected women have only one X chromosome, causing developmental abnormalities and infertility.
Kohlberg’s theory	An explanation of gender development that perceives children as developing an understanding of gender in stages. gender-role behaviour only becomes apparent once a child gains an understanding that gender is fixed and constant.
Gender Identity /labelling	First stage in Kohlberg’s theory. Acquired at about 2 yrs old. Child recognises that they are a boy or a girl and has the ability to label others as boys or girls.
Gender Stability	Second stage in Kohlberg’s theory. Occurs around the age of 4 yrs old. The child understands that their own gender is fixed and that they will remain male or female when they are older.
Gender Constancy	Third stage in Kohlberg’s theory. Usually at 6 or 7 yrs old. The child now realises that gender is consistent over time and situations. They can now begin to identify with people of their own gender and start to behave in gender-appropriate ways.
Gender schema theory	An explanation of gender development that sees gender identity alone as providing children with the motivation to assume sex-stereotyped behaviours.
Gender schema	An organised set of beliefs and expectations related to gender that are derived from experience. These schemas guide a person’s understanding of their own gender and gender-appropriate behaviour.
Oedipus Complex	Freud’s explanation of how a boy resolves his love for his mother and feelings of rivalry towards his father by identifying with his father – this identification is necessary for internalising the father’s gender identity.
Electra Complex	A process similar to the Oedipus Complex that is experienced by girls and occurs during the phallic stage of development. A girl develops an attraction to and envy of their father (penis envy) which they resolve through identification with the mother (again, this is necessary in order to internalise the appropriate female gender values)
Identification	A desire to be associated with a particular person or group, often because members of that group possess certain desirable characteristics.
Internalisation	The process where an individual adopts the attitudes and behaviour of another individual or group.
Hypothetical construct	An explanatory variable that cannot be directly observed.
Social Learning Theory	A theory which suggests that behaviours are acquired through direct and indirect reinforcement. It combines learning theory with the role of cognitive factors.
Gender roles	A set of behaviours and attitudes that are considered appropriate for one gender but inappropriate for the other gender.
Culture	The ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society.
Media	Communication channels, such as TV, film and books, through which news, entertainment, education and data are made available.

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	Created by Keziah Bunyan over 7 years ago