EPSY 256 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Sex Assignment, Gender Role, Cognitive Development
9 May 2020
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Document Summary
Sex implies that the characteristics of males and females have a biological basis. Gender implies that characteristics of males and females may be due to cultural and social beliefs, influences, and perceptions. The physical structure of one"s reproductive organs that is used to assign sex at birth. Biological sex is determined by chromosomes (xx for females; Xy for males); hormones (estrogen/progesterone for females, testosterone for males); and internal and external genitalia (vulva, clitoris, vagina for assigned females, penis and testicles for assigned males). Given the potential variation in all of these, biological sex must be seen as a spectrum or range of possibilities rather than a binary set of two options. One"s innermost concept of self as male or female or both or neither how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One"s gender identity can be the same or different than the sex assigned at birth. The process through which cultures communicate gender expectations to children and adolescents.
