Transgenderisam

8/14/2019 Transgenderisam

1/17

PSYCHOLOGY OF GENDER AND TRANSGENDERISMGender is one of the most important categories, if not the most importantcategory, in human social life. Though at first sight distinguishing betweenfemale and male may seem straightforward, a closer look readily reveals thatthis fundamental categorization is fairly complex -- it is imbued with a hostof cultural meanings and practices pervading each and every aspect ofindividual, interpersonal, group, and societal processes. In all known

cultures, females and males meet with distinct sets of gender-related beliefsand expectations exerting powerful, and often subtle, influence on theirthoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Eckes & Trautner, 2000).The first distinction to make is between sex and gender. Sex refers to thebiological categories of male and female, categories distinguished by genes,chromosomes and hormones. Male and female are biological terms. Culture has noinfluence on ones sex. Sex is a relatively stable category that is not easily changed.Gender, by contrast, is a much more fluid category: it refers to the social categories ofmale and female. Gender is determined by biological, psychological and sociological

factors. Masculine and feminine are psychological terms, which refer to a person sgender. These categories are distinguished from one another by a set of psychologicalfeatures and role attributes that society has assigned to the biological categories of sex.For example, emotionality is a trait we ascribe to women and competitiveness isa traitwe ascribed to men. These traits are features of gender rather than sex. Where as sex isdefined in the same way across cultures, gender differs because each society hasits ownprescriptions for how men and women ought to behave. Unger (1990) defines gender

asthe cognitive and perceptual mechanisms by which biological differentiation istranslated into social differentiation. For example: one category of gender feature inUnited States is to wear a skirt, so if we encounter someone wearing a skirt, wecanassume the person is psychologically female as well as biologically female (Helgeson,2005).1Origin of Psychology of Gender: The term "gender role" was firstly used in a press

release, November 21, 1966, to announce the new clinic for transsexuals at The JohnsHopkins Hospital. This made people focus on concept of gender, and the sociologist andpsychologist started focusing on gender identity and gender roles and why some peopledo not identify with their biological sex. As long as a persons perceived physiologicalsex is consistent with that person

s gender identity, the gender role of a person is so mucha matter of course in a stable society that people rarely even think of it. Onlyin caseswhere, for whatever reason, an individual has a gender role that is inconsistent

with his orher sex will the matter draw attention.Such discordance between anatomical sex and


2/17

gender identity is termed gender dysphoria. Transgendered were considered genderdysphoric. These discussions also lead the focus towards gender differences, andequalityand ultimately lead to the development of the concept of feminism (Feinberg, 1992).Feminism: Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements,

theories and moral philosophies concerned with gender inequalities and equal rights forwomen.A feminist is a person who believes that men and women should be treatedequally. A defining feature of feminism is a high regard for women. Feminism advocatesthe political, economic and social equality of the sexes (Brabeck & Brown, 1997).Feminism is the belief that society is disadvantageous to women, systematicallydepriving them of individual choice, political power, economic opportunity andintellectual recognition. Most feminists argue that traditional gender roles areoppressivefor women. They believe that the female gender role was constructed as an opposi

te to anideal male role, and helps to perpetuate patriarchy The Feminist Movement is concernedwith individual autonomy, rights, freedom, independence, tolerance, co-operation,nonviolence and diversity. Some themes explored and campaigned within Feminisminclude domestic violence, gender, stereotypes, sexuality, discrimination, sexism,objectification, patriarchy, abortion, reproduction, control of the female body,divorce,equal pay, maternity leave, breast feeding, prostitution and education. The majority offeminists today reject the relationship between our biological and cultural evol

ution. Thusimplying that our biological makeup has no connection to informing social rolesandbehaviors (Brabeck & Brown, 1997).2Feminine PsychologyAs the first woman to present a paper on feminine psychology at an internationalmeeting, Karen Horney pioneered and developed a feminine psychology that provided anew way of thinking about women. Horney was also a pioneer in the discipline offeminine psychiatry. She wrote fourteen papers between 1922 and 1937, which shecompiled to form a volume titled "Feminine Psychology". She had a feeling that,as awoman, it was her task to work out a fuller understanding for specifically female trendsand attitudes in life. In her book titled "The Problem of Feminine Masochism", Horneyproved that culture and society encouraged women to be dependent on men for love,prestige, wealth, care, and protection. She pointed out the overemphasis on pleasing menand the overvaluation of men and love. Women, she found, were to be beautiful andcharming, according to society. Also, women gained value only through their husbands

children, and family. Her "The Distrust between the Sexes" compared the husband-wiferelationship to a parent-child relationship. In "The Problem of the Monogamous I


3/17

deal",Karen focused on marriage, and six of her other papers were based on marriage problems.Finally, her "Maternal Conflicts", shed new light on the problems associated with raisingadolescents. For Horney, psychic differences between men and women are not the result

of anatomy but rather of cultural and social expectations (Fiest & Fiest, 2002).Structure of Personality:According to psychology of gender an individuals personality is made up ofseveral elements that shape his/her personality: Gender role Gender identity Sexual orientation/preferenceGender Role: Another term that better captures societys influence on thebiologically based categories of male and female is gender role rather than gender. A roleis a social position accompanied by set of norms or expectations. For example female or a

daughter what role is expected of you? Gender role refers to the expectations that go3along being male versus female. We typically expect men to be strong to refrainfromcrying to be independent and competitive. These are features of the male genderrole. Bycontrast we typically expect women to be caring, emotionally expressive, politeandhelpful. In other words we expect man to be masculine and women to be feminine(Helgeson, 2005).When expectations within a role conflict we experience intrarole conflict. Forexample, women are expected to be emotional and express their feelings but also

to besensitive to the needs of others. So should a woman who is unhappy with her marriageexpress those feelings to her husband, if she expresses those feeling, she is adhering toher role in terms of expressing emotions but she is contradicting her role by expressingfeelings that might upset someone else. When expectations of one role conflict with theexpectation of another role, we experience interrole conflict. People differentroles inour lives apart from their gender roles such as the roe of student, daughter, teacher etc. attimes the expectations of one role conflict with the other which results in interroleconflict (Helgeson, 2005).Sometimes we violate the norms associated with our roles, partly due to roleconflict. The consequences of such behavior could be severe or minor; it will depend onhow central that norm is to the role and how strongly the situation calls for adherence tothe role. For example the consequences of male asking for help are probably minor,however the consequences of male wearing a female dress are likely to be severe.In the

same way a women not showing emotion at a funeral may be judged quite harshly. Butresearchers believe that male suffer more negative consequences for gender role


4/17

violationthan women. It is acceptable for women to dress like a man and work in traditionallymale jobs but its not acceptable for men to dress like women. The reason is status.Women who take on the characteristics of male gender role are moving towards a higher

status, whereas men who are taking on the characteristics of the female gender role aremoving towards a lower status. People applaud the move up but not the move down(Helgeson, 2005).4Gender identity: It is our perception of the self as psychologically male and female. Apersons private, subjective sense of his or her own sex. Each of us has a gender identity -a private feeling that we are male or female. But at times people who are male may feelas if they are female and vice versa. Such phenomenon is referred to as transgen

derism.Transgendered individuals are said to have a gender identity problem meaning theirbiological sex is incongruent with their psychological sex. In some cases transgenderedpeople who seek to have surgery to change their biological sex are called transsexuals(Helgeson, 2005).Sexual orientation / preference: Erotic desire for people of same or different sex. Itrefers to whether people prefer to have other-sex or same-sex persons as partners for love,affection and sex. Heterosexuals prefer other sex partners; homosexuals prefer s

ame-sexpartners such as gay and lesbians; and bisexuals are accepting of other sex andsame sexpartners (Helgeson, 2005).Other concepts included in personality are: Sex Typing Gender role attitudeSex Typing: It is the process by which sex-appropriate preferences; behaviors skills andself-concept are acquired. People who adhere to the gender role society assignedto themare sex-typed. A man who thinks, feels and behaves in masculine ways and a female whothinks, feels and behaves in a feminine way are each sex-typed. A male who actsfeminine and a female who acts masculine are each said to be cross sex typed. Moreoversomeone who incorporates both masculine and feminine qualities is not sex-typedand isoften refereed to as androgynous (Helgeson, 2005).Gender role attitude: Ones own personal view about how man and women shouldbehave is called gender role attitude (Helgeson, 2005).5Three other terms reflect ones attitude towards the category of sex. Each term maps ontoone of the three components of an attitude: affect, cognition and behavior. Thes

e includethe following: Sexism


5/17

Sex stereotype/ gender role stereotype Sex discriminationSexism: The affective component of ones attitude towards the sex category is calledsexism, or prejudice towards people based on their sex. This can entail both negative andpositive feelings. For example, if a man dislikes the person his wife hired to t

ake care ofhis children because the person is male, hes showing sexism. In the same way ifhe likesthe person his wife hired merely because she is female, hes again showing sexism(Helgeson, 2005).Sex stereotype/ gender role stereotype: It is the cognitive component of ones attitudetowards sex. These terms refer to ones beliefs about the features of the biological orpsychological categories of male or female, like females are nurturant and malesare

assertive etc. So if the man perceives that a male nanny would not be competentbecausehe lacks the required nurturant qualities, he is engaged in gender-role stereotyping(Helgeson, 2005).Sex discrimination: The behavioral component of ones attitude towards men andwomen is sex discrimination, which involves the differential treatment of peoplebased ontheir biological sex. For example, if in the above example, the man fires the male nannybecause he dislikes men as nannies and doubts his competence because he is a man, hesengaged in sex discrimination (Helgeson, 2005).

Gender Differences in Personality:Gender difference is a distinction of biological and/or physiologicalcharacteristics typically associated with either males or females of a species in general.Gender differences are the results of gender role, gender identity, gender roleattitude and6gender stereotypes etc. gender and sex comparisons have been made in a variety of areas(Hayward, 2003).Intelligence: During 1984 1936 researchers focused on differences between males andfemales. The primary purpose of this era was to prove that men were intellectuallysuperior to women. On the basis of the size of the human brains it was said thatmen areintellectually superior because of the size of women brain is smaller than men.But thework of Lewis Terman on sex and personality concluded that intelligence tests donotreveal difference in overall intellect. Recent studies have shown inconsistent results incomparing the overall IQ performances of men and women, some showing little or nodifference, and others showing advantages to men of variable statistical signifi

cance.However, these studies consistently show that there is greater variance in the IQ


6/17

performance of men compared to that of women, ie. Men are more represented at theextremes of performance (Helgeson, 2005).Cognitive abilities: The result of Meta analysis of various studies shows only smalldifferences in cognition. Differences in cognitive abilities exist in spatial ability,

mathematical and verbal ability. Men outperform women in some visuospatial skills suchas rotation of three-dimensional objects, throwing accuracy, and navigation withreference to compass directions; women navigate as well as or better than men withreference to landmarks, and they have better control of hand and finger musculature.Most recent researches have found only small differences in mathematical abilitywheremen have outperformed women by a small margin. However men were found to be betterat spatial ability and women at verbal ability, although the size of the differe

nce was onlymoderate (Helgeson, 2005).Social domains: In social domain girls were found to be more empathetic than boys.Eisenberg and Lennon (1983) found a very small effect in girls scoring higher than boysin empathy (d = -.10). Whereas men show more helping behavior especially in situationsof danger as compared to men. Moreover a comparison of the activity levels of girls andboys revealed that boys were more active than girls (Helgeson, 2005).7Emotions: Women report greater emotions than men. Men and women also differ in t

hefrequency and amount of emotions expressed. Women are more expressive emotionallythan males (Brody & Hall, 1993).Moral development: A recent Meta analysis of 160 independent samples showed a smallsex differences in moral reasoning. Women scored higher than men on care and menscored higher than women on justice. Women show a morality of responsibility thatemphasizes their connection to others, whereas men have a morality of right (Jaffe &Hyde, 2000 cited from Helgeson, 2005).Aggression: Males are generally more aggressive than females (Coi & Dodge 1997,Maccoby & Jacklin 1974). There is evidence that males are quicker to aggressionmorelikely than females to express their aggression physically (Bjorkqvist et al. 1994).However, some researchers have suggested that females are not necessarily lessaggressive, but that they tend to show their aggression in less overt, less physical ways(Bjorkqvist et al. 1994, Hines and Saudino 2003). For example, females may displaymore verbal and relational aggression, such as social rejection.Achievement: Researches indicate that women have lower need for achievement ascompared to men because they are more likely then men to associate achievement w

ithnegative consequences. The basic concern is that achievement is inconsistent with female


7/17

gender role, they viewed it might have interpersonal cost. Another reason womenachieve less than men is that women have lower self-confidence as compared to menwhen an upcoming task is ambiguous whereas male face novel situations with greaterhope to succeed. Women are also less confident when the task is of masculine domain.

Another important factor that may have implications for men and women achievementhas to do with the way they explain their success or failure. Women are more likely toattribute success to effort or luck, whereas men are more likely to attribute success toability. Women are more likely to attribute failure to stable causes like lack of ability anddifficult task, whereas men are more likely to attribute failure to unstable causes, such aslack of effort or bad luck (Helgeson, 2005).8

Communication: Tannens studies (1990) found these gender differences incommunication styles. Men tend to talk more than women in public situations, butwomen tend to talk more than men at home. Females are more inclined to face eachotherand make eye contact when talking, while males are more likely to look away fromeachother. Girls and women tend to talk at length about one topic, but boys and mentend tojump from topic to topic. Women are inclined to express agreement and support, whilemen are more inclined to debate. However, not all research supports these claims. Onestudy by MacGeorge (2005) found only a 2% difference in the conversational style

s ofmen and women, and reported that in general both sexes communicated in similar ways.Men are more dominant and influential as compared to women and are more likely toemerge as a leader in a situation involving strangers. Whereas women are less influentialand are easily influenced. When women talk to each other they reveal a lot abouttheirprivate lives. Let all speakers finish their sentences and try to have everyoneparticipate.Men, on the other hand, rarely talked about their personal relationships and feelings but"competed to prove themselves better informed about current affairs, travel, sport, etc(Cathy, 1999).Friendship: Men identify shared activities as more important feature of friendshipwhereas females identify self-disclosure and empathy as more important featuresoffriendship. Men tend to compartmentalize their friendship having different friends fordifferent activities whereas female friendship is more holistic. Women also aremorelikely than men to have reciprocal and closer relationship in friendship. In som

e aspectsof friendship men and women are similar they both consider trust and authenticity as


8/17

more important dimension of friendship (Helgeson, 2005).Romantic relationships and Mate selection: In romantic relationship both men andwomen expect their love relationship to include closeness, security, mutual selfdisclosureand sexual exclusivity. Both are interested in a romantic relationship to have agood time, and are interested in dating for purpose of recreation and companionship

(Roscoe, Diana & Brooks, 1987 c.f. Helgeson, 2005). There are some differences inmens and womens motivation for developing romantic relationships, men view sexualactivity as greater motivation than women do and women view love and intimacy as9greater motivation than men do (Peplau & Gordon, 1985 c.f. Helgeson, 2005). In mateselection females are more likely than male to emphasize socioeconomic status andambition and only somewhat more likely to emphasize intelligence and character,whereas man attach more importance to mates physical attractiveness (Feingold,

1992).Men focus on youth and attractiveness in mate selection whereas females focus onstatusand earning potential (Sprecher, Sullivan & Hatfield, 1994 c.f. Helgeson, 2005).In across-cultural study by David Buss (2003), men and women were asked to rank certaintraits in order of importance in a long-term partner. Both men and women ranked"kindness" and "intelligence" as the two most important factors.Sexual orientation: Most surveys find that a greater proportion of men than womenreport that they are exclusively homosexual, whereas more women than men reportbeing

bisexual. In most societies, homosexual (lesbians) and bisexual women are more widelyaccepted than their male counterparts (gays). Men express far more permissive attitudesthan women toward casual, premarital, and extramarital sex; women tend to view sex asa prelude to a long-term relationship. Males also have a larger number of sex partners(Larkin, 2003).Physical and mental health: Women in western society are more prone to depressionthan men, while men are more prone to paranoid schizophrenia thanwomen. Researchers and clinicians think that the traditional signs of depression(sadness,worthlessness, excessive guilt) may not represent many men

s experience of a depressiveperiod. Men may instead express their depression in terms of increases in fatigue,irritability and anger (sometimes abusive in nature), loss of interest in work or hobbies,and sleep disturbances. It has also been shown that men use more drugs and alcohol,perhaps to self-medicate; this can mask the signs of depression, making it harder to detectand treat effectively (Helgeson, 2005).

Men suffer more from heart attack as compared to women. Adolescent girls withdiabetes and asthma are better able to cope with their illness as compared to adolescent


9/17

boys. Moreover characteristics of the male gender role such as independence andselfcontrolare inconsistent with chronic illness. Because male gender is linked to physical10strength, men have more difficulty than women in coping with physical limitations theillness posses. On the positive side male gender role predispose men into believ

ing theycan control their illness than females. Moreover eating disorders are much moreprevalentin women than men because women are more concerned with body image than men(Helgeson, 2005).Personality tests: In the big five personality traits, women score higher in Agreeableness(tendency to be compassionate and cooperative) and Neuroticism (tendency to feelanxiety, anger, and depression). Demographics of MBTI surveys indicate that 60-75% ofwomen prefer feeling and 55-80% of men prefer thinking. There were no sex differences

in self-esteem and locus of control. Differences in personality were small but consistentin the direction of men being more assertive and women more nurturant. In personalitytraits, men score higher than women on aggressiveness, women score higher than men onemotional sensitivity and a sense of caring (Helgeson, 2005).Risk taking: Men are more prone to taking risks as comapred to women (Marano, 2003).Crime: Men are much more likely to be incarcerated than women, although women are afast-growing demographic group in prison. Males are more likely than females tocommit

murder. Men are also far more likely than women to be the victims of violent crime (USDept of Labor, 2005).Suicide: In western countries, males are much more likely to die by suicide thanfemales(usually by a factor of 34:1); 69 out of 74 non-western countries found an excess malemortality from suicide. While there are more completed male suicides than female,females are more likely to attempt suicide (Cathy, 1999).Work Roles: Women are more underrepreented in occupation as comapred to maleshowever the number of felames in work force is increasing they are still underrepresentedin traditional male and white-collar jobs. More men than women occupy high statuspositions. Even if men and women occupy the same jobs men get paid more than women.Moreover women report more psychological distress as a result of occupational stress11than men. However working women on average have better physical and psychologicalhealth as compared to housewives (US Dept of Labor, 2005).Sports: In general, men are taller and heavier than women. In sports, men tend to

outperform women in strength and speed. Women seem to have greater endurance. Inspite of many attempts, sports have never become completely unisex (Helgeson, 2005).


10/17

Activity level: Male fetuses are more active than females, a difference that persiststhroughout childhood. Newborn boys are more wakeful than girls and cry more readily inresponse to pain (Hayward, 2003).Development of gender differences in Personality:Development of gender differences, gender roles, gender identity and sexual

orientation can be explained with the help of biological and social-environmental models.Biological Model:Biological theories of sex differences identify genes and hormones, aswell as structure and function of the brain as the causes of observed differences inphysical appearance, cognition, behavior and even gender roles.Genes: According to the biological model individual differences start at the time ofconception. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes within each cell; twenty-two oftheseare alike in both males and females. But, when we come to the twenty-third pair,

thesexes are not the same; every woman has in her cells two of what we call the Xchromosome. But a man has just one X---its mate being the much smaller Y." It isthepresence of this influential Y chromosome, says Scheinfeld, "that sets the machinery ofsex development in motion and results in all the genetic differences that therearebetween a man and a woman." Right down to the cellular level, males and femalesaredifferent. According to Mitchell and colleagues says that genes explain 20 to 48%difference in masculinity and femininity (Hayward, 2003).

12Hormones: There are two classes of sex relates hormones androgens and estrogens.Theyaffect brain, immune system and over all behavior. In one out of 100,000 pregnancies, agenetic defect causes human female babies to be exposed to a bath of the male hormoneandrogen. These are CAH girls--short for a condition called congenital adrenalhyperplasia. These children are born female, but they behave like "tomboys." Themaleandrogen influences their behaviors and desires. These girls typically play with"boy"toys more than their female counterparts. The high level of testosterone in males drivesthem toward aggressive behavior and dominance in the world, while the lack of highlevels of this hormone in women creates a natural, biological push in the direction of lessdominant and more nurturing roles in society (Helgeson, 2005).Brain: The brains of men and women are actually wired differently. Nadeau (1997)observes: "The human brain, like the human body, is sexed, and differences in the sexspecifichuman brain condition a wide range of behaviors that we typically associate withmaleness or femaleness." Nadeau says that the sex-specific differences in the brain are

located both in the primitive regions, and in the neocortex--the higher brain regions. Menand women process information differently because of differences in a portion of


11/17

thebrain called the splenium, which is much larger in women than in men, and has morebrain-wave activity. Studies have shown that problem-solving tasks in female brains arehandled by both hemispheres, while the male brain only uses one hemisphere (Helgeson,

2005).Socio-environmental factors: The socialization theory holds that gender relatedtraitsare inculcated in children by learning from their parents, teachers, siblings, peers, andsociety in general (Helgeson, 2005).Parents: Right from the time of birth parents start differentiating between boysand girlslike buying blue clothes for boys and pink for girls. Even toys for girls and boys aredifferent parents prefer boys to play with cars trucks and girls with dolls. Parents also

encourage feminine behavior in girls and masculine behavior in boys (Helgeson, 2005).13Peers: Apart from parents the most important influence on children is their peers. Theiracceptance or rejection of certain behaviors led children to adopt those behaviors. Boysusually play in larger peer groups so the potential for conflict and aggressionis hightherefore they exhibit more aggression. On the other hand girls play in small groups,which minimize conflict and increase cooperation (Helgeson, 2005).Siblings: Apart from parents and peers siblings also have a role in gender-role

behaviors.One study showed that boys with older brothers and girls with older sisters weremoresex-typed than only children. Moreover boys with older sisters and girls with olderbrothers were more androgynous (Helgeson, 2005).Teachers: Another socializing agent that may influence children role behavior isteachers. One study proved that nursery school teachers responded differently tomale andfemale infants (Fagot et al., 1985 c.f. Helgeson, 2005). Teachers gave more attention toboys who were assertive and girls who were communicative.Other features o environment affecting behavior:Toys: The toys children play with may influence sex differences in cognition andbehavior. Toys may directly reinforce sex differences in cognitive abilities. For examplein 1992 a tee talk Barbie was introduced that along with other things said, Math class istough. Boys play with vehicles, machines; building blocks etc girls play with domestictoys, dolls, dress-up clothes. One possibility is that boys toys are more likely than girlstoys to foster the development of spatial skills and girls toys are more likelyto foster thedevelopment of verbal skills (Hughes, 1991).

Books: The books children read also encourage gender-role appropriate behaviors.Forexample the classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes that are still read to childr


12/17

en. Bothboys and girls learn from Cinderella, sleeping beauty and snow white that man fall inlove with beautiful women, good women are obedient and vulnerable and if beautiful willbe rescued by men and a womens ultimate dream is to marry a rich handsome prince.

Nursery rhymes portray women as quiet and sweet, as maids crying and running awayfrom spiders while men are displayed as soldiers, kings (Helgeson, 2005).14Television: Television is also a way of learning about gender. A study of fourthand fifthgraders showed that children who watched television held more stereotypical views aboutmen and women. Even cartoons portray girls and boys differently. Males characters aremore aggressive while females are fearful, polite. Only a few recent cartoons like

powerpuff Girls show strong female characters. Even in dramas and movies men aremostlikely to be the main character that fights the evil and save the heroine of thefilm ordrama. In advertisements, women are much more likely than men to serve a decorativefunction. In magazine advertisements, men are rarely portrayed doing housework.Instead, men are more likely than women to be shown working outside the home(Helgeson, 2005).Cultural influences: Different cultures also hold different stereotypical attitudes aboutmen and women. In most cultures women are supposed to be shy, quiet, nurturant,caring

whereas, males are expected to be assertive, self-confident. Males are considered thedominant figure in society. Such beliefs held by the society also influence gender roleperception (Helgeson, 2005).Feminist theory claims that gender is influenced by socialization and not biology.This controversy of nature and nurture still continues.Causes of Psychopathology:For 99.9 percent of people, gender identity is consistent with sexual anatomy.Discordance between anatomical sex and gender identity is termed gender dysphoria.They may belong to one sex but feel as if they are members of the other sex or identifythemselves with members of other sex. Such people are not comfortable with theirbiological sex and experience great distress in adjusting to their biological sex. Such astransgendered individuals. Transgendered and people with gender identity disorder aregender dysphoric, meaning that they experience discordance between their anatomicalsex and their gender identity. A few transgendered individuals also go for sexreassignment surgery to alter their biological sex to match their gender identity(Helgeson, 2005).

15Moreover our societies also holds separate roles for males and females, but someindividuals violate the norms associated with these roles partly because of inte


13/17

r and intrarole conflicts. Such individuals may adopt behaviors that are not entirely typical either offemales or of males. For example: Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothingcommonly associated with another gender within a particular society. For examplemenwearing feminine clothes. Nearly every human society throughout history has

distinguished between male and female gender by the style, color, or type of clothingthey wear and has had a set of norms, views, guidelines, or even laws defining what typeof clothing is appropriate for each gender. Cross-dressing is a behavior which runssignificantly counter to those norms and such act is judged really harshly (Helgeson,2005).Another reason that leads people to alter their biological sex is when people areborn with ambiguous sex organs in that case they are reassigned a sex. For examp

lecertain biological defects may result in children born with either without maleand femalegenitalia or underdeveloped genitalias. Transsexualism is the result of one suchcondition in which a person identifies with a physical sex different from the one that theywere born with or assigned in cases where ambiguity of the child

s sex organs led toassigning them a physical sex. Most transsexuals assert that their brain-based innerperception of their sexual self, their identity, is who they really are, is different from theirbiological sex and so change their physical sex in an effort to be on the outsid

e as theyfeel they are on the inside (Helgeson, 2005).Another important feature in psychology of gender is sexual orientation is thedirection of an individuals sexual attractions. Most, but not all, men are sexuallyattracted to women. Most, but not all, women are sexually attracted to men. Menwho areattracted to other men (gays) and women who are attracted to other women (lesbians)were thought off as violating their gender roles since gay men tend to be somewhat morefeminine, and lesbians somewhat more masculine, compared with heterosexual people oftheir own sex. That is, homosexual people tend to be relatively gender nonconforming.Homosexuality was thought of as a psychopathology however with increasing numbersof gays and lesbians in western societies led to gay/lesbian rights movements, which16pressured the countries to give equal rights and opportunities to gay and lesbians asenjoyed by heterosexuals and as a result homosexuality was removed from DSM-IV as apsychopathology.

Practical Application in different fields:Psychology of gender has contributed to different areas of psychology and havelead psychologist to study gender differences in clinical and organizational con


14/17

text.In clinical context gender differences exists in psychopathologies certain disordersare more prevalent in one gender as compared to the other. For example, women inwestern society are more prone to depression than men, while men are more pronetoparanoid schizophrenia than women. Not only in western cultures even in our own

cultures depression is more prevalent in women as compared to men, women also suffermore from eating disorders as compared to men. Not only the gender differences exist inprevalence of certain disorders in males and females the appearance of symptomsof aparticular disorder might also be different in males and females, researchers andclinicians are coming to think that the traditional signs of depression (sadness,worthlessness, excessive guilt) may not represent many men

s experience of a depressive

period. Men may instead express their depression in terms of increases in fatigue,irritability and anger (sometimes abusive in nature), loss of interest in work or hobbies,and sleep disturbances. Awareness of such differences can lead to selecting moreappropriate intervention strategies for both men and women (Helgeson, 2005).In organizational context gender differences exist in the areas of leadership.Differences also exist in response to work place stress. Women are slightly morelikely tobe "transformational" leaders, serving as role models, helping employees developtheirskills, and motivating them to be dedicated and creative. That approach may actually be

more effective in today

s less hierarchical organizations. But not all workplaces are alike.The participatory style may backfire in traditional male settings such as the military ororganized sports. Conversely, the command-and-control style more typical of menmaybackfire in a social-service agency or retail outlet. So women in male settingsshould17adopt more command and control style and males in female work settings should try toadopt female interpersonal style in order to succeed. Women also appeared to rewardgood performance more than men, a very positive part of transactional leadership. Menwere more likely to criticize subordinates and be less hands-on, styles found tobeineffective (Helgeson, 2005).The feminist movement also emerged from this emphasis on gender and genderdifferences, which lead to the womens movement and resulted in change in variouswalks of lives. Feminism has altered aspects of Western society, ranging from culture tolaw. Feminist political activists have been concerned with issues such as a woman

s right

of contract and property, a woman

s right to bodily integrity and autonomy (especially onmatters such as reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, access to


15/17

contraception and quality prenatal care); for protection from domestic violence;againstsexual harassment and rape; for workplace rights, including maternity leave andequalpay; and against other forms of discrimination (Brabeck & Brown, 1997).Criticism: Feminists and gay theorist have criticized psychology of gender for focusing

too much on gender differences believing that men and women are more similar than theyare different and that the difference is due to socialization not biology. Thisview has beengreatly criticized since many scientist believe that gender differences do existand theirbasis is biological along with sociological. Moreover some researchers criticizethatfeminist approach has made psychology of gender to be psychology of women focusingmore on women issues than equality of gender. The field of gender studies that emerged

from psychology of gender is criticized for being a discipline that "philosophizes,theorizes and politicizes on the nature of the female gender" as a social construct, to thepoint of excluding the male gender from analysis. They also assert that the

gender

ingender studies is "routinely used as a synonym for

women

.Recent Trends in Research: Recent researches in psychology of gender have focused on the following topics: Gender differences and similarities in mate selection,18 Gender differences and similarities in sex and love,

in the leadership styles and behaviour Gender differences in mathematical ability Gender differences and similarities in coping responses to anticipated workfamilyconflict. Gender Differences in Salary Gender differences in Dominance Affects of gender on personality change during adolescents The Psychology of Gender Differences in Religion Gender differences in depression, body dismorphic disorder.Review of Research Articles:Sexual Orientation and Childhood Gender Nonconformity: Evidence FromHome VideosLinsenmeier, Gygax and Bailey (2008) conducted a research to analyze whetherhomosexual adults tend to be more gender nonconforming than heterosexual adultsinsome of their behaviors, feelings, and interests. The primary aims of the research were:First, do videos reveal increased gender nonconformity in the prehomosexual children?Second, does gender nonconformity persist from childhood into adulthood? Third,doself-reports of childhood and adult gender nonconformity correspond with observerratings? Finally, do individuals who are more gender nonconforming, both in thei

rchildhood and in adulthood, recall that others treated them more negatively as children?


16/17

The authors studied indicators of childhood gender nonconformity using childhoodhomevideos. The sample was consisted of 21 homosexual men, 20 homosexual women, 23heterosexual men, and 26 heterosexual women. Mean ages were 28.6 years (SD _ 7.9),23.8 years (SD _ 5.3),25.0 years (SD _ 5.9), and 24.6 years (SD _ 7.4). Childhood gender

nonconformity was assessed with the Childhood Gender Nonconformity Scale (Baileyet al., 1995), with 7 statements for each sex. Adult gender nonconformity was measuredwith the Continuous Gender Identity Scale (Bailey et al., 1995), with 10 items for each19sex and Past Parental and Peer treatment was, A 40-item version of the Recollection ofEarly Child rearing Scale (Ross, Campbell, & Clayer, 1982), which is the Englishversionof the Swedish EMBU (Egna Minnen Betraffande Uppfostran; see Gerlsma,Emmelkamp,& Arrindell, 1990), was used to assess past rejection versus acceptanc

e bypeers and parents. Along with analyzing childhood home videos the participants werevideotaped for 20 min, during a casual interview. The rating of the interview andvideotapes on dimensions of masculinity and femininity was done by heterosexualandhomosexual raters. Multiple regression and correlation was used to analyze the resultalong with calculating inter-rater reliability. Results indicate that prehomosexual childrenwere judged more gender nonconforming, on average, than preheterosexual children, and

this pattern was obtained for both men and women. This difference emerged early,carriedinto adulthood, and was consistent with self-report. In addition, targets who were moregender nonconforming tended to recall more childhood rejection.Gender Differences and Similarities in Dominance Hierarchies in Same-GenderGroups Based on Speaking TimeIn this study Mast (2001) aimed at investigating whether all-women and all-mengroups differed in their hierarchical organization on the basis of dominance andstabilityof their rank orders across time. One hundred and sixteen European, middle-class,noncollege women and men participated in small-group discussions twice within aweekwith the same group members. Women were on average 36.2 years old (range: 27-47years) and men 38.8 years (range: 28-63 years). Five participants lived togetherwith theirpartner without being married, all other participants were married (average 9 years,range: 2-20 years). Participants formed 14 all-women and 14 all-men groups ranging ingroup size from 3 to 5. A 45-min group discussion was followed by a group decision taskof about 30 min. Speaking time served as the behavioral dominance indicator on which

group hierarchies were based. Additionally, group members rank ordered each other ondominance after each interaction. All the discussions were taped. One rater code


17/17

dspeaking time for all participants and a second rater coded 20% of all tapes. Inthe firstsession, all-men groups were more hierarchically structured on the basiss of dominance20than all-women groups. During each session, all-women and all-men groups showed

asimilar significant increase in hierarchical structuring. For both women and men, rankorders remained stable during interactions and from the first to the second session.21

Transgenderisam

Documents

Transcript of Transgenderisam