Developmental Psychology CIA-IISemester IV, 2014-15Gender Identity

Date of Presentation: December 15, 2014 Group Members: Mallika Chawla (204) Rujuta Date (207) Nayanika Ghosh (230) Devika Gupta (233) Priyal Parekh (273) SaanchiSaxena (286)

Summary of Presentation: 1. Introduction to the Concept of Gender Identity

In the 1960s, Hooker and Stoller used the term gender identity to describe a young childs developing, fundamental sense of belonging to one sex.The current understanding of the terms sex and gender differentiates the two for the former is based on an individuals biological make-up and the latter is socially assigned. Gender identity in its current conception, is viewed as consisting of biological as well as social components. It is rooted in the premise of sexual dimorphism. Gender identity has also led to the emergence of specific gender roles because it is based on the assumption that men and women are fundamentally different. Gender roles are theoretical constructs involving a set of behavioral norms that, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex.

Gender Identity Development in Childhood: According to Kohlberg (1966), a childs understanding of gender takes place in three stages:(i) The first stage is gender identity, which is usually reached by the age of 2 years. At this stage the child is able to correctly label its own sex. (ii) The second stage is gender stability, which is usually reached by the age of 4 years. At this stage the child realizes that gender remains the same across time. However, its understanding of gender is heavily influenced by external features like hair and clothing. A boy at this stage might say that if he put a dress on he would be a girl. (iii) It is not until the third stage of gender constancy that the child begins to understand that gender is independent of external features. This stage is usually reached by the age of 7 years.An alternative view, gender schema theory, suggests that children play a more active role in their own gender development from an earlier age. Gender schema theory suggests that a childs gender development reflects the increasing complexity of the schemas it develops around maleness and femaleness. The child identifies activities and objects associated with its own gender and starts to ignore or reject those that do not fit in with this. 2. Gender Identity and Adolescence

Adolescence is an important transitional stage when boys and girls learn gender roleattitudes and behaviors (Erikson, 1968). The increase in gender-stereotyped behaviours generally peaks during middle adolescence, and then begins to subside. By late adolescence, youths' gender identity typically becomes more stable, but without rigidity.

3. Factors Influencing Gender Identity FormationThese factors include the following: i. The Onset of Puberty ii. Hormones iii. Socializationiv. Culture 4. The Onset of Puberty During early to mid-adolescence, youths' understanding of gender is quite rigid and stereotyped. As a result, younger adolescents will typically participate in more gender-stereotyped behaviours than do older adolescents. This means that girls will gravitate toward more "girly" activities and present an ultra-feminine appearance, while boys will lean toward more "guy" activities and present a masculine appearance. There are a number of reasons for these gender-stereotyped behaviours which are associated with the phenomenon of puberty. Pubertyis the process of physical changes which enables sexual reproduction. At puberty teenagers bodies begin to resemble adult bodies. Some of these changes are liked and some are not liked. As a result,adolescents may want to enhance the physical changes they find desirable or appealing, and downplay or conceal the changes they dislike. Secondly, because adolescents become more interested in dating and forming romantic relationships, they are likely to perform stereotypical, gender-specific behaviours in an effort to appear attractive to the opposite sex. Boys are likely to date girls possessing these typically feminine characteristics and girls are likely to be interested in boys with typically masculine characteristics. Thirdly, during early adolescence, friends and family influence how teens express their gender. Thus, stereotypical behaviours are passed down from one generation to the next. Puberty is associated with sexual maturity. Sexual maturity is associated with a certain degree of responsibility. It is the ideal time for parents to inculcate ideals of femininity and masculinity within their children. 5. Hormones Some research suggests that the same-sex hormones that enable sexual organ differentiation in utero and which later trigger puberty also play an important role in shaping gender identity. Boys tend to have more androgens (male sex hormones) than girls. However, some boys and girls are born with a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), which causes them to have significantly higher levels of androgens than their non-affected peers. Scientists have studied children with CAH in order to understand how their extra androgen levels affect behaviour. Boys with excess androgens play and behave much like normal male peers. However, girls with high androgen levels tend to display more gender-stereotypic male traits.6. Socialization Banduras Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another via observation, imitation and modeling. Most human behaviour is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action. Parents treat sons and daughters in more similar than different ways. One way parents treat girls and boys differently is in providing sex-typed toys and sex-typed environments. Lytton and Romney in 1991 evaluated parents socialization practices with adolescents and concluded that parents overall treatment of boys and girls was similar, except that they encouraged sex-typed toys. But these differences were not been found to be statistically significant. There is a small effect of parents gender-role beliefs on adolescentss gender-related cognitions. The correspondence is greater between parents beliuefs and adolescentss beliefs about others (ie stereotypes) rather than adolescentss perceptions of their own masculine and feminine traits. However Cunningham (2001) found that more egalitarian mothers had adolescents who grew up to believe household chores should be divided equally between men and women.A study by Rust et al (2000) found that boys with older brothers and girls with older sisters were more sex-typed than only adolescents. Boys with older sisters and girls with older brothers were the least sex-typed and most androgynous of all.Brody and Hall (1993) found that differences in girls and boys early peer groups could lead to differences in emotional expression. Boys play in larger groups which have the potential for conflict and aggression. The potential for anger is high but the potential for the expression of vulnerable emotions like fear and sadness, is low. Girls play in small groups which minimize conflict and emphasize cooperation. The potential for the expression of emotions that foster relationships like sadness and fear, is high.Ernst (1995) found that award-winning adolescents books depict male characters having an impact on and changing the world while female characters follow the lead of others. Ochman (1996) developed a set of stories about a child that meets a dragon. The child was male in one version of the story and female in the other version. 13-year olds read these stories over a 4-week period. She found that their self-concept increased at the end of the 4 weeks when they read a story about a same-sex character. Girls self-esteem increased more after reading the story about a female child than the male child, and boys self-esteem increased more after hearing the story about the male child than the female child.7. Media Adolescents are influenced by multiple socializing agents. One of these is the media. For example, body image is an important factor in adolescent girls self-evaluations. Numerous studies have shown that media images of skinny female modelsnegatively influence females perceptions of their bodies and their eating patterns. An experimental study by Lavine et al has shown that females perceive a greater differencebetween their ideal body size and their actual body size after watching sexistadvertisements. Popular examples include: i. Johnny Bravo ii. Mean Girls

8. Culture

Gender roles vary significantly across cultures. All gender roles are culturally and historically contingent, meaning they cannot be analysed outside of their cultural and historical contexts.In terms of gender identity, in most cultures, women are expected to be sensitive, maternal submissive and caring. Men, on the other hand are expected to be strong, ambitious and dominating. Accordingly, dominant cultural norms shape an individuals gender identity in terms of what is expected of them as a man or as a woman. However, Margaret Mead's study of the Arapesh, Mundugumor, and Tchambuli revealed different patterns. Among the Arapesh, both men and women were gentle, sensitive to others and cooperative.Among the Mundugumor, both men and women were masculine and aggressive.

Among the Tchambuli however, men and women had separately-defined gender roles. Men exhibited typically feminine characteristics. Whereas, women exhibited typically masculine characteristics.

9. Theories of Gender Identity

Some of the theories of Gender Identity formation are summarized include:

i. Psychoanalytical

There have been a variety of reformulations of Freuds classic psychoanalytic theory. One such alternative proposed by Chodorow (1978) gender identification begins in infancy rather than during the later phallic stage as proposed by Freud. Identification is expected to be stronger between mothers and their daughters (because they are of the same sex) than between mothers and their sons. During the course of development, girls continue to identify with their mothers and they also psychologically merge with her. Empirical findings are not supportive of Chodorows theory.

ii. Biological Theories

Evolutionary psychology is one such theory that views gender differentiation asancestrally programmed. Viewed from this perspective, contemporarygender differences originated from successful ancestral adaptation to the different reproductive demandsfaced by men and women.iii. Sociological Theories Gender is a social construction rather than a biological given. The sources of gender differentiation lie more in social and institutional practices than in fixed properties of the individual. iv. Social Cognitive theoryTheory given by Kay Bussey and Albert Bandura integrates psychological and socio-structural determinants within a unified conceptual structure. In this theoretical perspective, gender conceptions and roles are the product of a broad network of social influences operating interdependently in a variety of societal subsystems. Human evolution provides bodily structures and biological potentialities that permit a range of possibilities rather than dictate a fixed type of gender differentiation. People contribute to their self-development and bring about social changes that define and structure gender relationships through their agentic actions within the interrelated systems of influence.Gender development is promoted by three major modes of influence and the way in which the information they convey is cognitively processed. 10. Gender Role Violation and Identity MisclassificationAccording to Erik Eriksons Psychosocial Stages adolescents are going through the identity v/s role confusion conflict. Establishing ones identity is of extreme importance to an adolescent individual. When people violate certain social role norms, they risk false categorization into a stigmatized group. For example, heterosexual men who perform female stereotypic behaviors are often misclassified as gay. This identity misclassification is aversive because it threatens fundamental psychological needs. Researchers interested in the male gender role have long noted mens reluctance to embrace female stereotypic behaviors, traits, and pursuits (Bem&Lenney, 1976; Herek, 1986; Pleck, 1981). Elsewhere, we proposed that heterosexual mens unwillingness to violate gender rolenormsby enacting female stereotypic behaviorsstems from a desire to avoid identity misclassification, or erroneous classification into a socially devalued group (Bosson, Prewitt-Freilino, & Taylor, 2005).As personality and identity becomes more stable with age and the threats to belonging and coherence subside, people in a later stage of life might find identity misclassification less problematic as compared to adolescents and people in early adulthood. Moreover, heterosexual adult gender role violators may harbor fewer expectations of IM than adolescents do, given that marriage and parenthood can serve as indirect proof of heterosexual status.11. Gender Identity Disorder Gender Identity Disorder or GID essentially arises from a discrepancy between ones biological sex and assigned gender. In the current scenario, individuals experiencing such a discrepancy are termed as transgenders. The GID has been included in the 10th edition of the International Classification of Diseases and the 5th edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual. However, it is now termed as gender dysphoria. Because the mismatch between ones bodily organs and psychological sense of gender is not a mental illness. Instead, what needs to be addressed is the stress, anxiety, and depression that go along with it. Such symptoms occur because society does not necessarily accommodate and accept transgenders. Since changing mind-sets in the larger picture is a more difficult task, currently, gender dysphoria is treated by medically altering the concerned persons genitalia in order to fix this discrepancy in the direction of the gender they identify with. Its inclusion in the DSM, however, is still controversial because of the damage associated with such a diagnosis. At the end of the day, such experiences are collectively classified under a medical illness.According to a study by Hewitt et al, children as young as 3years of age may experience gender dysphoria and cross-gender behaviour; however, only 16% of these children will continue to have persistent GID in adolescence and adulthood.In the group with profound and persisting cross-gender identification it is characteristic for severe distress to be exacerbated at the onset of puberty, due to revulsion toward unwanted physical changes. Of the larger group of children who do not continue to have persistent GID in adolescence and adulthood, it is reported that 42% will eventually identify as homosexual or bisexual.In addition to ongoing psychological support, peri-pubescent adolescents with persistent GID may be given hormonal treatment using gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogue to suppress puberty once it has commenced, followed later by cross-sex hormone therapy to promote physical development in the affirmed gender. Current evidence suggests that when a strict assessment and clinical protocol is followed, hormone treatment to suspend the development of puberty is associated with a good outcome and a low rate of regret.The rationale for hormone treatment to suppress puberty is to reduce the psychological distress associated with unwanted pubertal development in the biological sex (which can result in hormonal self-medication, self-harm or suicide). This allows additional time for continued psychological support during the process of either resolving gender dysphoria or coping with its persistence, and to prevent irreversible secondary sex changes, which may be difficult to address later on and may significantly compromise adjustment in adulthood.12. Androgyny The concept of androgyny was proposed by Sandra Bem. Androgynous individuals possess both masculine and feminine traits and identify with neither gender. This is what makes them different from transgenders for transgenders identify with a particular gender. The Bem Sex-Role Inventory is used to classify individuals as feminine, masculine, androgynous or undifferentiated. Individuals high on expressive traits have been classified as feminine. Individuals high on instrumental traits have been classified as masculine. Individuals high on both traits have been classified as androgynous. Individuals low on both feminine and masculine traits have been classified as undifferentiated. 13. Conclusion In conclusion, students were asked what in their opinion was problematic about the video that was shown to them in order to shed some light upon how the concept of gender identity is potentially problematic.