1

Psychology 320: Psychology of Gender and Sex Differences

Lecture 25

2

Office Hour InvitationsNovember 20th, 1:30-2:30, Kenny 2517

11661113

12540126

14657084

19321116

23450117

26875112

43503119

43646108

64905086

75934091

3

Announcements

1. On Tuesday, November 20th, Jon Lowe from the UBC Centre for Student Involvement and Careers, will conduct a resume workshop for Psychology students (2:00-3:00PM, Swing 309). If you would like to attend, please RSVP to psa.vpacademics@psych.ubc.ca today. Include your first name, last name, and e-mail address in your RSVP.

4

2. The process of “matching” students to CSL partner organizations is complete. Please check your e-mail for instructions regarding how to proceed. Students placed with the following organizations must contact staff at the organization or complete an application this week to secure an interview:

• Beauty Night Society• Health Initiative for Men• West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)

The remaining organizations will contact students directly to schedule an interview.

5

Cognitive Theories of Gender Development and Gender Identity Disorder

1. What theories illustrate the cognitive view? (continued)

3. What is gender identity disorder?

2. What is the interactive model of gender-related behaviour?

6

By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:

2. describe the interactive model of gender-related behaviour.

3. define the term “gender identity.”

1. suggest how a “gender aschematic” individual may be raised.

7

5. identify contemporary controversies in the diagnosis of GID.

4. list the diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorder (GID).

8

Bem has proposed several ways in which individuals may become gender aschematic:

What theories illustrate the cognitive view? (continued)

2. Gender Schema Theory (continued)

9

Bem’s Ideas on How to Raise a Gender Aschematic Child

10

What is the interactive model of gender-related behaviour?

• The interactive model examines how the immediate context influences the expression of gender-related behaviour.

• Emphasizes three determinants of sex differences in behaviour: (a) the perceiver’s expectancies, (b) the target’s self-concept, and (c) the situation.

The Interactive Model of Gender-Related Behaviour

(Deaux and Major, 1987) 11

12

• Gender identity: One’s subjective experience of the self as female or male.

What is gender identity disorder?

• Most individuals develop a gender identity that is consistent with their assigned biological sex.

13

• However, some individuals report experiences of gender dysphoria:

“A persistent aversion toward some or all of those physical characteristics or social roles that connote one’s own biological sex” (DSM-IV-TR, 2000).

14

“I know I’m not a man—about that much I’m very clear, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m probably not a woman either, at least not according to a lot of people’s rules on that sort of thing. The trouble is, we’re living in a world that insists we be one or the other—a world that doesn’t bother to tell us exactly what one or the other is” (Kate Bornstein, 1994, p. 8).

“I have [n]ever understood what it is to be a man or a woman …. I seem to be neither, or maybe both, yet ultimately only myself” (Holly Boswell, 1997, p. 54).

15

• According to the DSM-IV-TR, gender dysphoria characterizes individuals with gender identity disorder

(GID).

• The diagnostic criteria for GID in the DSM-IV-TR are as follows:

16

A. A strong persistent cross-gender identification (not merely a desire for any perceived cultural advantages of being the other sex).

In adolescents and adults, symptoms include stated desire to be the other sex, frequent passing as the other sex, desire to live or be treated as the other sex, or the conviction that he or she has the typical feelings and reactions of the other sex.

17

In children, manifested by four (or more) of the following:

(a) repeatedly stated desire to be, or insistence that he or she is, the other sex.

(b) in boys, preference for cross-dressing or simulating female attire; in girls, insistence on wearing only stereotypical masculine clothing.

18

(c) strong and persistent preferences for cross-sex roles in make-believe play or persistent fantasies of being the other sex.

(d) intense desire to participate in the stereotypical games and pastimes of the other sex.

(e) strong preference for playmates of the other sex.

19

B. Persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex.

In adolescents and adults, symptoms include preoccupation with getting rid of primary and secondary sex characteristics (e.g., request for hormones, surgery, or other procedures to physically alter sexual characteristics) or belief that he or she was born the wrong sex.

20

In boys, assertion that his penis or testes are disgusting or will disappear or assertion that it would be better not to have a penis, or aversion toward rough-and-tumble play and rejection of male stereotypical toys, games, and activities.

In girls, rejection of urinating in a sitting position, assertion that she has or will grow a penis, or assertion that she does not want to grow breasts or menstruate, or marked aversion toward normative feminine clothing.

In children, manifested by any of the following:

21

C. The disturbance is not concurrent with physical intersex condition.

D. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

22

Cognitive Theories of Gender Development and Gender Identity Disorder

1. What theories illustrate the cognitive view? (continued)

3. What is gender identity disorder?

2. What is the interactive model of gender-related behaviour?