Biological Theories and Approach to Gender in Psychology

Chromosomes

As you may or may not know from studying Biology, our DNA or genetic material is carried on chromosomes. Humans have 23 pairs (46 in total) of these. One of them is different depending on your sex.

1. 1
   Males - XY.

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2. 2
   Females - XX.

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This is very often used as the definition of male and female and plays a huge role in determining the physical characteristics that you'd associate with males and females. However, if chromosomes determine gender, what happens to your gender if it doesn't follow the typical pattern. In the table below, we will look at two different conditions resulting from atypical chromosomes.

Hormones

Hormones are very important in the body. They control everything from sugar levels to growth of body hair.

In terms of how hormones influence gender - during fetal development in the womb, a fetus will naturally follow the route of being a female. However, if it is exposed to higher levels of testosterone, it becomes male (develops penis and testes, masculine brain). If genetic males aren't exposed to enough testosterone it can give rise to another condition called Testicular Feminizing Syndrome, where the body does not respond to testosterone so becomes physically female, despite being genetically male. For this condition, there is the case study of Mrs. DW.

Mrs. DW always thought she was female, until visiting the doctor because she couldn't become pregnant. The doctor discovered the reason she couldn't become pregnant was because was biologically a male, with no female internal organs. However, she chose to remain a woman and adopted two children. This suggests social factors are important in determining gender; but also highlights the importance of chromosomes in gender development.

Another study that would at first appear to point towards this idea was by Money and Erhardt (1972).

The truth of the situation is very different to what Money and Erhardt portrayed it as. Many years later, the child in this study made his identity public, and said he had never felt like a girl and always displayed male characteristics. This is backed up by school reports.

When he discovered what had happened at 12, he refused to take hormones and so had a normal male puberty and lived his life as male. He then married and lives as a man and in 2004 he, tragically, killed himself.

This study, then, in fact, shows that biological factors are more important, because the child had the gender identity of a boy (in line with the genetics) despite the parents doing their best to socialize the child into being a girl.

If you need to reference this article in your work, you can copy-paste the following depending on your required format:

APA (American Psychological Association)
Biological Theories and Approach to Gender in Psychology. (2017). In ScienceAid. Retrieved Nov 28, 2023, from https://scienceaid.net/psychology/gender/biological.html

MLA (Modern Language Association) "Biological Theories and Approach to Gender in Psychology." ScienceAid, scienceaid.net/psychology/gender/biological.html Accessed 28 Nov 2023.

Chicago / Turabian ScienceAid.net. "Biological Theories and Approach to Gender in Psychology." Accessed Nov 28, 2023. https://scienceaid.net/psychology/gender/biological.html.

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