Biological Explanations of Gender
- Created by: rhallett
- Created on: 21-09-15 16:58
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- Biological Explanations of Gender
- Genes and Hormones
- Evidence
- Girls with high levels of test. in womb - CAH - more tombyish - 95% grow up to live happily as women
- Unusual socialisation - abnormal genitals - can't generalise; so unusual - many grow out of it
- Quandango - fem. monkeys exposed to test. prenatally - more aggressive
- Monkeys are very dissimilar to humans - social influences have less of an affect
- Swaab - Dutch research - 6 male to female trans. - area near hypothalamus called BST is smaller; more feminine
- Small sample; hard to generalise - RPs would have been taken hormone therapy; could have affected brain
- Bruce Reimer - penis destroyed, reared as girl, given fem. genitalia, named Brenda. Unhappy in fem adulthood, reverted back to male, self named David
- Unusual situation; he had a twin - family trauma; late reassignment - only a case study; can't generalise - some cases of reassignment have been successful i.e. Brady
- Girls with high levels of test. in womb - CAH - more tombyish - 95% grow up to live happily as women
- XY - Boy - Testosterone - testes - "male" traits - 'organising' effects - may do this by shaping the hypothalamus
- ** - Girl - Oestrogen - ovaries - another surge of sex hormones during puberty
- Evidence
- Evolution; Parental Investment Theory
- Males - v little interest and physical effort - can produce many offspring - evolved not to be choosy - tend to be promiscuous and more competitive
- Females - lots of effort - feed and carry child - can only have 1/year - evolved to be choosy to a mate with good genes to ensure survival of young
- Evidence
- Clark & Hatfield - approached students on uni campus - asked to have sex - 75% males said yes - 0% females said no
- Could be a variety of reasons why the women said no: social sigma, fear of pregnancy, periods, fear of violence
- Daly & Wilson - married men were more likely to want to have an affair than married women
- Research was questionnaire based
- Holloway - females are choosy thus males compete against each other and being physically large would help - men are 1.5x bigger than females
- Clark & Hatfield - approached students on uni campus - asked to have sex - 75% males said yes - 0% females said no
- Mate Choice
- Buss argued that males and females have evolved to be attracted to different things
- Female carry and rear children; evolved to prefer older males who can provide resources and protection
- Males prefer younger and attractive fertile females to cope with childbearing
- Buss studied 37 cultures - questionnaire - about mate preference - in 90% females valued earning potential and men valued physical attractivenes more than women
- Differences could be due to culture or social factors - women often financially disadvantaged; could explain why key value was earnings
- Buss argued that males and females have evolved to be attracted to different things
- Toy Choice
- Heins - animal research - male vervet monkeys preferred playing with male toys like trucks than they did female toys
- Monkeys are very dissimilar to humans - social influences have less of an affect
- Heins - animal research - male vervet monkeys preferred playing with male toys like trucks than they did female toys
- Genes and Hormones
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