Gender Role Development

Gender Role Development• Girls and boys are treated differently

from birth. Gender awareness emerges at a very early age.

• From about 18 months to the age of 2 years, sex differences in behavior begin to emerge.

• Toddler girls play more with soft toys and dolls, and ask for help from adults more

• Toddler boys play more with blocks and transportation toys (trucks and wagons), and play more actively

Gender Role Development• Between ages 2-3 years, children can identify

themselves and other children as boys or girls.

• Preschoolers start acquiring gender-role stereotypes for toys, clothing, household objects, games, and work.

• The concept of gender or sex, however is based more on outward characteristics such as clothing.

• After age 3 we see consistent gender differences in preferred toys and activities

Gender Role Development• Throughout the remainder of childhood,

boys and girls play primarily with members of their own sex. Also, boys play in larger groups.

• Children are far more rigid than adults in their beliefs in gender-role stereotypes

• As they grow older, girls grow more flexible in their gender role attitudes but boys become more rigid.

• In many ways, children’s behavior mirrors the gender-role stereotypes that are predominant in our culture.

Gender Role Stereotypes

• Stereotypes - The beliefs and expectations people hold about the typical characteristics, preferences, and behaviors of men and women

• In the US, men and women view the female stereotype more positively than the male stereotype. This is called benevolent sexism

• There is a high degree of agreement on the characteristics associated with each sex among people of many different cultures

• WATCH Psychology: The Human Experience: Segment 24: Gender Role Stereotypes (5:24)

Gender Identity Disorder: Introduction

• For the first seven weeks after conception, male and female embryos are anatomically indistinguishable. Then, the genes activate biological sex, which is determined by the sex chromosomes (XX, female; XY, male).

• Production of testosterone begins in the male embryo in about the seventh week, and the external male sex organs begin to develop. Then in the fourth and fifth months, testosterone in the male and ovarian hormones in the female affect brain-wiring patterns.

• From an early age, individuals with gender identity disorder, or gender dysphoria, better identify emotionally and psychologically with the opposite sex than with their biological sex.

Less than a year after gender reassignment as a man, Brad describes his experience of being biologically female but feeling emotionally and psychologically male, and his feelings of wholeness since his reassignment.

Gender Identity Disorder

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Gender Identity Disorder: Questions

1. Discuss the possibilities that, for a transsexual person, gender reassignment will relieve any psychological problems.

2. Some cases of gender identity disorder have a biological origin. What events during fetal development could later result in a female individual perceiving herself as male?

3. Distinguish between the meanings of "gender" and "sex," using gender identity disorder to illustrate your distinction.