PSY 3105 Study Guide - Final Guide: Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, Prenatal Hormones And Sexual Orientation, Prefrontal Cortex
19 Dec 2016
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PSY3105 Final Exam Notes
Chapter 8: Gender
Biology, Sex, and Gender
• Sex differences and gender differences
• Gender roles and gender typing
• Effects of parental hormones on fetus
• Gender differences in amygdala, prefrontal cortex
• Prenatal testosterone levels and masculinity
• Contributions, interactions of genetics, environment
Clarifying the Difference
• Gender
o Refers to the social categories of male and female
o Result of developmental and social experience
• Sex
o Refers to the biological status of being male or female
• Gender difference vs. sex difference
o Cultural/social factors vs. rooted in biology (chromosomes)?
▪ What’s diffeetiatig gils ad os fo a ultual/soial poit of ie s.
difference rooted in biology?
▪ E.g. longer hair in women (cultural norm) vs. baldness in men (biological:
recessive gene in X/Y chromosome makeup)
o Notion of gender roles and gender typing
• Gender roles
o Set of shared cultural expectations about gender
o Typical attitudes and behaviours ou should hae ased o ou gede
o Established very early in life
• Gender Typing
o How children come to take on specific gender roles
1. Biological factors?
2. Socialization?
3. Cognition?
1. Biological Factors
• High level of testosterone (T) around 8th week of gestation lead to male genitalia
o Natural default is feale, if testosteoe is added at the ight tie, ou get a
boy
• Prenatal hormone may affect development of brain structures (but maybe
experience)
o Amygdala (emotions), prefrontal cortex (decision-making)
o Are these due to prenatal hormones? However, going through a social history of
being a boy/girl might change these brain structures
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• Higher preatal T leels i girls related to ore iterest i traditioall asulie
toys, games, activities at 3 ½ years old
o Similar effect also seen for both sexes
• Case of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH)
o Genetic condition that causes adrenal glands to overproduce androgens (male
sex hormones) prenatally
▪ Causes genitalia to develop in a masculine direction
▪ CAH boys not affected much (they have a feedback system that can take
care of too much androgen – can just lower level of androgen produced
by testes)
▪ CAH gils like o tos ad o atiities oe than the norm (girls);
play more with boys
▪ Better throwing skills than the norm (girls); less satisfied with being
women; less sexually interested in men
o Difference due to parenting approaches?
▪ Whe asked, paets of gils ith CAH de o oieted fail
practices
o Peatal adoge asuliizes ifluetial pats of the ai? Some of these
behaious likig etai o atiities a e pe-wired due to androgen)
• Genetic influence?
o How about atypical gender behaviour in twins?
▪ Male twins who seem to have more feminine characteristics, or female
twins who seem to have more male characteristics
▪ Monozygotic twins: more similarity – so genetic component? However
there is the argument that environmental influence might be more
important
o Research findings suggest genetics and environment make significant
contribution, but that environment may be more important
• Hormonal changes at puberty?
o Release of adeootial hooes liked to eegee of hild’s fist
romantic interest
▪ Gender typical characteristics considered particularly attractive
2. Socialization and Gender
• Socialization: effects of others, society
• Treatment differences from earliest days
• Clothing, toys, stories coded by gender
• Bandura: observing same-sex models
• Consequences to others affect standards, behaviours
3. Cognition and Gender
• Importance of ideas about sex and gender
o Is it the way we think that is driving these differences?
• Kohlberg (Pre-conventional, post-conventional thinking):
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o Cognitive-developmental theory of gender
o A way of organizing ideas about the world
▪ How does one think about gender?
o Gender consistency – knowing gender is stable/invariant (outward appearances
do’t hage se, opeatioal thikig – Piaget’s stages
o Gender identity – child identifies with own-gender role
▪ Involves self-labelling and gender stability (if I am a boy, I will become a
man, etc.) and gender consistency (if I ea gil lothes, I a still a
o
Cognitive Developmental Theory of Gender
• Gender is a fundamental way of
organizing ideas about the world
o How do we think about
gender at different stages
of development?
(Kohlberg way of
thinking)
• As adolescents become more
capable of reflecting on these
issues, they become more
concerned with compliance to
gender norms for themselves and others? – seems to be some evidence that in
adolescence is rigidity in gender roles
• Gender schemas: child constructs gender understanding
o Ways we gather and process (gender) information
o “heas diet peso’s attetio, ehaiou
• Gender schema theory (Martin & Ruble, 2004)
o Gender a fundamental way that people organize information about the world
o Gender one of most important schema in childhood
o People apply schemas to world around them as well as themselves (self-
socialization)
o Once gender identity emerges, children start to process gender-related
information differently
▪ Pay more attention to information about their own gender and
eee it ette e.g. gadgets peseted as o thigs o gil
thigs)
▪ Study: boys and girls are presented with a bunch of unique items (e.g.
kitchen gadgets) – told it as eithe a o thig o gil thig
▪ If boys play more often with boy things, and girls play more often with
girl things
▪ Later, child remembers more about the gadget that their gender was
associated with (might be because they played with those gadgets more
– we act in a certain way that will influence how you process
information)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Biology, sex, and gender: sex differences and gender differences, gender roles and gender typing, effects of parental hormones on fetus, gender differences in amygdala, prefrontal cortex, prenatal testosterone levels and masculinity, contributions, interactions of genetics, environment. Involves self-labelling and gender stability (if i am a boy, i will become a man, etc. ) and gender consistency (if i (cid:449)ea(cid:396) (cid:862)gi(cid:396)l(cid:863) (cid:272)lothes, i a(cid:373) still a (cid:862)(cid:271)o(cid:455)(cid:863)(cid:895) If boys play more often with boy things, and girls play more often with girl things: later, child remembers more about the gadget that their gender was associated with (might be because they played with those gadgets more. We act in a certain way that will influence how you process information) Gender intensification in adolescence: pressure to conform strengthens in early adolescence, pa(cid:396)e(cid:374)ts (cid:449)o(cid:396)(cid:396)(cid:455) a(cid:271)out (cid:862)i(cid:374)app(cid:396)op(cid:396)iate(cid:863) i(cid:374)te(cid:396)ests, a(cid:272)ti(cid:448)ities, peers less tolerant of cross-gender behaviours, dating and conformity to traditional roles, research evidence for gender intensification mixed.
