1. Chapter 12
Gender

2. What is Gender? Sex is being biologically male or female
Gender is the social psychological dimension of sex
Gender role – set of expectations of how a person will act, think & feel because of their sex
Gender typing/socialization – how a person acquires appropriate gender behavior

3. Gender – Biological or Plastic?
Prenatal hormone theory
CAH (congenital adrenal hyperplasia)
Androgen insensitive males
Pelvic field defect
Missing penis
Castrated & raised as girls
Do not accept this identify

4. Gender – Biological Influences
Testosterone
Sex & violence
Violent criminals have high levels
Pro-players have higher levels than ministers
Social Gregariousness
Math & Spatial Ability

5. Gender – Social Influence & Learning Theories
Social role theory
Power & status
Social-cognitive theory of gender
Observation, imitation & reinforcement

6. Gender – Cognitive Influence Theories
Cognitive developmental theory
Must have a masculine or feminine identity
Gender constancy
Gender schema theory
Organize the world as male/female

7. Gender Stereotyping Gender stereotyping is pervasive
Men – dominant, aggressive, independent, achievement-oriented, enduring
Women – nurturing, affiliative, less esteemed, more helpful in distress
Williams & Best (1982) 30 countries

8. Example Gender Differences
Physical – men taller, less body fat; stronger; more stress hormones; shorter life expectancy
Cognitive – men better in math/spatial; women in verbal
Communication – women like rapport talk; men report talk
Social-emotional – women read & express emotions more

9. Gender Differences – Emotional Expression
Elementary School
Boys hide emotions like sadness more
Girls hide disappointment
Adolescence
Girls feel more sadness, shame, guilt
Boys deny their emotions

10. Gender Differences - Emotional Regulation
Boys regulate their emotions more poorly than girls do.
This leads to
More behavior problems, aggression, teasing, low cooperation, overreaction to frustration

11. Gender Differences - SocioEmotional
Boys are more physically aggressive
Equally verbally aggressive
Girls are more relationally aggressive
Boys are more active, adventurous

12. Gender Differences - Brain
Females brains smaller, more surface
Larger corpus callosum; more bilateral use
Emotional expression areas more active; more general activity
Males
Larger area on hypothalamus related to sex drive
Larger parietal lobe area for visual-spatial

13. Are Gender Differences Important?
Janet Shifley Hyde (feminist psychologist)
Gender differences are exaggerated
Meta analyses minimize the verbal, math, etc.
Largest differences are in motor skills, sex, physical aggression

14. Are Gender Differences Important?
Sometimes.
Nurses vs. architects & engineers
Men have more accidents
Should women be in combat?
Women often disrespected
Double standard (morality)
Women have babies; men do not

15. What is Androgyny? Bem Sex-role Inventory Androgynous Masculine
Feminine
Undifferentiated
Gender-role transcencence

16. Gender Socialization Boys get earlier & more intense socialization
Male role models are less accessible to young boys
Socialization more flexible for girls

17. War on Boys? Told to act tough and not show feelings Pollock 1999
Others – “War on Boys”
Not allowed to be active, aggressive
Over-diagnosed ADHD
Do not do well in school

18. Are gender roles important?
The “weaker sex”
Women as property
Influence of Christianity
Influence of Technology
Women in the workforce
Changing the work team dynamics
Changing the family team dynamics
Who’s minding the children?

19. Gender in Adulthood Women Role overload Role conflict Men Role strain
Contradictory, inconsistent demands
Poorly-defined role
Problems with health & relationships )

20. What is Gender Identity Disorder and What Causes It?
Normal sex role development and adjustment may be hampered by father absence (Rekers, 1986)
Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood (American Psychiatric Association,1980)

21. A Study on Gender Identity Disorder
Young children try out a variety of sex-role behaviors
Four pathological patterns have been identified
Hyper masculine (male)
Violent, destructive, uncontrolled & lacking in social sensitivity
Hyper feminine (male)
Feminine movements, girls clothes, girl playmates, childbearing fantasies

22. A Study on Gender Identity Disorder
In one NIMH study of 70 gender-disturbed boys, the boys were found to be physically normal
However, 80% of mothers and 45% of fathers had a history of mental problems/psychiatric treatment.

23. Gender Identity Disorder & Father Absence
Findings
Fathers were absent in all cases of the most disturbed boys, and 54% of those less disturbed.
75% of most disturbed & 37% of less disturbed had no father or father substitute present in the home
Average age of separation from the father was 3.55 years; the most common cause was divorce.
Where a father or father substitute was present, he was described as “psychologically remote” in 60% of the cases.

24. A Study on Gender Identity Disorder
The same study reports results of treatment/intervention that appears to have been successful.
If untreated, by late adolescence or adulthood, about three-fourths of boys with a childhood history of Gender Identity Disorder report a homosexual or bisexual orientation, but without concurrent GID.

25. A Study on Gender Identity Disorder
Recommendations include:
Better communication of research on the effects of divorce of the parents on the children
Using preventive education to teach fathers the value and importance of their active, warm, emotional involvement with their children
Further research on claims regarding the therapeutic effects of religious conversion and church support on curing transsexualism

26. Transgender
An umbrella term coined by activists to describe individuals who are:
Heterosexual cross-dressers
Homosexual transvestites
Transsexuals
She-males

27. Gender Bill of Rights
Second International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy, Houston, Texas, 1993
“All human beings carry within themselves an ever-unfolding idea of who they are and what they are capable of achieving. The individual’s sense of self is not determined by chromosomal sex, genitalia, assigned birth sex, or initial gender role. Thus the individual’s identity and capabilities cannot be circumscribed by what society deems to be masculine or feminine behavior.
It is fundamental that individuals have the right to define, and to redefine as their lives unfold, their own gender identity, without regard to chromosomal sex, genitalia, assigned birth sex, or initial gender role.”

28. Gender Bill of Rights
Based upon the statement on the previous slide, the following rights are claimed:
Free expression of gender identity.
Right to control and change one’s body.
Competent medical & professional care.
Freedom from psychiatric diagnosis or treatment.
Right to sexual expression.
Right to form committed, loving relationships and enter into marital contracts
Right to conceive or adopt children & have custody of children & parental rights

29. Are Transgenders Mentally Disordered?
The DSM still lists transsexualism and transvestism as paraphilias.
(Homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1973.)
At the APA meeting in San Francisco in 2003, a case was presented that these along with sado-masochism and bestiality should be removed from the DSM since there is no longer a “baseline” for judging normal behavior.
However, it has been pointed out by opponents of this idea that sex/gender is determined in the DNA and is essentially unchangeable despite surgeries, hormone therapies and alternate lifestyles.

30. New Hate-Crimes Legislation
Gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation have been added to the list of protected categories/behaviors. The definition of these terms is unclear, permitting a broad interpretation.