Hormones cause changes to the individuals internal and external genitalia
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AO1 2 Devlopment
everyones starts with the same female genitalia.
3 months, if male, testes produce testosterone which causes male genitalia to develop.
Baby is labelled as a boy or girl at birth creating their gender identity.
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AO1 3 Brain development
Geschwind and Galaburda - male hormones create a masculine brain
Baron Cohen:
Girls = understand how people think and feel
Boys = better at categorising and understanding systems.
Animal studies have shown female monkeys deliberately exposed to testosterone display more masculine behaviour, e.g. aggressiveness, more rough and tumble play.(Quadagno)
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AO2 1 Biological sex
Biological sex is not the main factor.
Money and Ehrhardt - sex of rearing is more important in determining gender identity. As long as it is done before 3 y/o
David/Bruce/Brenda Reimer
born a male
penis accidentally removed during suregery when infant
Bruce's parents raised him as Brenda
Money claimed this was successful
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AO2 2 Contradictory evidence
Diamond and Sigmundson
revealed Brenda's unhappiness as a girl and decision in adolescence to become a boy.
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AO2 3 Further support
Reiner and Gearhart
16 genetic males born with almost no penis
14 raised as females
By adolescense 8 had decided to re assign themselves as males
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IDA 1 Determenistic
Assumption it is biology alone is deterministic
Socialisation matters too
Dessens et al studied 250 cases where individuals were typed as females at birth and found 95% were content with their role, despite prenatal exposure to male hormones.
Further 33 patients were typed as males, 12 experienced serious gender problems.
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IDA 2 Olympics
Genetic sex was the determining factor for athletes as whether they compete as male or female since 1960s.
In 1991 new ruling meant genetics was no longer the decisive factor
individuals such as males were only excluded from events if they appeared obviously male
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AO2 4 Methodological issues - case studies
Case studies of individuals with unique characteristics
Each individual has a special set of circumstances e.g. the amount of testosterone exposure, gender role model availablity etc.
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