The study of sex and gender has been a great interest to not only psychologists but sociologists as well. Over the past few decades the definition of gender and sex have been considered as synonyms for each other. This is because the words have not been established correctly. Sex is defined as the biological and psychological characteristics that differentiate male and female. Gender is defined as a well-being influenced by social and cultural beliefs. Previously in-depth research has been done based on gender and sex differences but very few are based on the current evolutions. This essay will further look into the factors involved in differentiating sex and gender as well as further development of them.
Three main factors are involved in
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There is a constant pressure put on children for the way they behave, this in other words could be known as conditioning where boys and girls are rewarded for behaving appropriately. Few studies also revealed that gender stereotyping is linked to stress and behavior a child is weaved in rather that biological differences. However, in today’s time femininity is viewed differently, a working woman providing for her home along side a man is not criticized by society. Yet culture dwells in the human mind. This study on the first female Prime Minister of Australia proves how socially negative judgments were made, emphasizing on gender stereotyping, due to her gender ( Sorrentino, J., & Augoustinos, M., …show more content…
This involves same-sex attraction and with further research and linking it to assumptions of (Freud, 1905) that every individual is blessed with bisexuality which is biological as well as psychological, Sometimes further developing into homosexuality; they often have trouble in gender identity due to social and cultural effects. As a child reinforcement of male or female like behavior is incorporated therefore when attracted to the same-sex they face complex issues in gender identity. Also acceptance by peers and family plays a very important role in this case, a study conducted on 1518 students in Amsterdam and Netherlands confirms that acceptance of same-sex attraction plays an important role in gender conformity. (Collier, K. L., Bos, H. M. W., Merry, M. S., & Sandfort, T. G. M.,
Introduction The concept of sex and gender has been socially constructed for a very long period of time, and it was a lot stricter in the past. As author Zimmerman indicated in his reading “Doing Gender” that “Those of us who taught courses in the area in the late 1960s and early 1970s were careful to distinguish one from the other.” (Zimmerman 1987) Nowadays, we know that the society is gradually changing and people are becoming more open-minded than before.
The society is a place where sexual identity is so tenuous that is challenged, and people tend to build a strong form of animosity against abnormal or irregular sexual standards. In this day and age, the general public expect a male to marry, date or have sexual intercourse with a female, likewise, it is principled to observe a male display masculine character and a female acts like a female. When these normalcy of life gets abolish; there is a problem. At a certain age, virtually every child believes in the law of gender (i.e. Boy and Girl) thus; any other gender except these two might establish a destructive notion from the perspective of the child and this could lead to
The documentary “The Pinks and the Blues” and the podcast “Can a Child be Raised Free of Gender Stereotypes” discuss the unconscious gender stereotypes and assumptions that our culture places upon children. Children are enculturated with ideas about who they should be, how they should think and behave, and this enculturation has distinct effects upon the child psychology and way of living in the world. The viewer is left with the question: Is it possible to raise a child without gender stereotypes? “The Pinks and the Blues” states that gendered treatment of children begins within 24 hours of the child’s birth. Descriptors for male infants and female infants were different, with boys being labeled as big, strong, and alert while girls were labeled as being delicate, petite, and inattentive.
Boys are told to not be a girl, that they cannot wear pink, and cannot play with Barbie’s. If a boy acts outside of this stereotype he is considered a homosexual. Stereotypes and traditional roles need to be squashed. Restricting a child to one set of behaviors can psychologically damage them. Maria do Mar Pereira, a sociological researcher, found in a study that “constant effort to manage one’s everyday life in line with gender norms produces significant anxiety, insecurity, stress and low self-esteem for both boys and girls, and both for ‘popular’ young people and those who have lower status in school” (Forcing
There are many approaches within psychology that study the influence of sex differences in human behaviours such as, behavioural, cognitive and biological approaches. There are many factors within each approach that contribute and influence the development of sex differences in human behaviours. Within biological psychology, there are many factors that combine to influence the difference between the sexes, such as genetics and hormones and brain structure and function. Research methods used by biological psychologists to investigate these differences involve methods such as animal and case studies, drug therapy, twin studies and scans (MRI, PET, CAT). Although there are many different approaches to studying sex differences, within each approach,
For a child to grow up having a bright future, it is necessary that from a young age, he or she develops a healthy childhood as well as being raised in a healthy family structure. Every child should have the right to be raised in a healthy family structure and the ideal one is being raised by a mother (female) and a father (male). Being raised by the same-sex parenting is harmful, complicated, and confusing for children, although it is already confusing for them the idea that people of the same-sex are getting married. Children can be comparable to little sponges that absorb everything they observe or hear, especially by their parent’s actions. Their earliest exposure to what it means to be male or female comes from their parents; for example, they see their father shaving as well as their mother applying makeup on her face.
Some folks assume that girls and boys behave and like different things based on their distinctive innate nature and physical differences. While it might be true that they identify themselves based on biological traits like their gender/sex, Penelope Eckert, the author of Learning to be Gendered, argued that receiving different treatments and nurture can have influence on how girls and boys learn to identify themselves. Penelope suggest that there’s a social matter where an individual’s gender can be a heavy label on how he or she would be like, but part of the gender label is developed by parenting while growing up. Even at birth, gender roles are conditioned by their milieu. Baby girls are given flowery or pink gifts while boys are
Gender: The roles and characteristics that a culture expects from those defined as male and female (DeWall & Myers, 109). Biologically, sex is determined in terms of chromosomes XX/XY providing directions for an individual to produce certain chemical baths/ bodily developments in the womb as a fetus. The biological trait of sex often defines ones ' gender. Culturally, rules or expectations are created for each specific gender; reflecting how each gender should behave or look. Psychologically, genders have temperaments, social power and social connections that normally reflect either male or female genders.
Although some people believe that nature affects the gender identity, others argue that, based on the education an individual receives, it is actually nurture. For example, John Moore, a teacher at a female-only school, says, “My findings suggest that, in some senses, the single-sex school is strongly feminist” (Moore, 2005). On the other hand, many societies teach the children gender stereotypes to try and limit them from becoming against what the society feels is appropriate. Gender roles or stereotypes are “a set of qualities, behaviors, and attitudes that are considered appropriate for males and females based on their biological sex” (Whalen & Maurer-Starks, 2008). Most of the time, these stereotypes are taught and explained to the children in the early stages of learning, since as mentioned above, gender identity is most likely detected after the child is two years old.
The expression of gender differences is not rooted in biology but society. People are socialized to recognize gender behaviors and categorize others
According to sexologists John Money and Anke Ehrhardt, sex and gender are separate categories. “Sex, they argued, refers to physical attributes and is anatomically and physiologically determined. Gender they saw as a psychological transformation - the internal conviction that one is either male or female (gender identity) and the behavioral expressions of that conviction” (Sterling 4). Although there are biological differences between the two sexes, but gender roles are socially constructed. They determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, behave and interact with society.
Unlike ‘sex’, which typically refers to the biological and physiological differences, gender is a sociological concept that describes the social and cultural constructions that is associated with one’s sex (Giddens & Sutton, 2013, p. 623-667). The constructed (or invented) characteristics that defines gender is an ongoing process that varies between societies and culture and it can change over time. For example, features that are overly masculine in one culture can be seen as feminine in another; however, the relation between the two should not be seen as static. Gender socialization is thought to be a major explanation for gender differences, where children adhere to traditional gender roles from different agencies of socialization. Gender
Given the potential variation in all of these, biological sex must be seen as a spectrum or range of possibilities rather than a binary set of two options. On the other hand, there is gender. And gender is the social construction of being a man or a woman as it relates to the sex designation. For instance,
There is also a belief that this distinction between sex and gender make biological constructs in a cultural context (Barker & Jane,
Throughout most of history and the usage of the word gender in the past, gender has been defined as groups of males or females and a class that is distinguished based off of certain