In this final video we will be discussing A-typical gender development.
Now I know there are a lot of strong beliefs around this topic,
and I’m not here to tell you what you should and shouldn't believe, that is totally up to you.
What I am going to attempt here isn't a reflection of my own beliefs on this topic,
it's as clear an outline of current psychological theory as I can manage, along with some evidence
and evaluation from each side that you can use when writing about the topic yourself.
I will be keeping an eye on the comment section of this video, I don't mind if you fancy criticising
some of what I have to say, especially if you have a thoughtful and reasoned argument.
But what I don't want to see is offensive or derogatory comments
attacking people who don't believe what you do, if I see that I will just delete
the comment thread and block those people from commenting on the rest of the channel.
To be fair the comment sections of my videos are always really positive
and thank you for being an amazing community,
but I do want to keep it that way and I know this particular topic can get contentious.
Let's get started. A-typical Gender Development - A01
When we say A-typical gender development, because its un-typical,
it's easier to start with what we see as typical gender development,
most people would define themselves as cisgender, even if they may not use that term themselves.
Cisgender basically means someone’s gender identity, their
sense of being a man or a woman matches the sex that was assigned to them from birth.
The sex assigned at birth is on the basis of external genitals or XX or XY chromosome patterns.
The term A-typical is simply used to define a group that is in the minority,
A-typical gender is any individual whose gender identity
doesn't follow the typical male equals masculine female equals feminine pattern.
This obviously will then include a wide range of experiences,
and the term gender diverse is helpful here.
Some more specific examples are transgender,
this is when gender identity doesn’t match the sex assigned at birth. Non-binary, which means
their gender identity isn’t male or female but a blend. Gender fluid, which is when the individual
switches between gender identities and Agender, when someone doesn't identify with any gender.
Now when it comes to the specification it seems that there is much more of a focus
on something called gender dysphoria. This is a clinical condition in the DSM 5. again its
when there is a mismatch between gender identity and sex assigned at birth, but importantly there
needs to significant psychological distress associated with this mismatch. So someone with
gender dysphoria may say they feel trapped in the wrong body, and this then results in depression.
But not all people who would describe themselves as gender diverse experience gender dysphoria.
And in the evaluations I will make clear why that's an important point to make.
But as the specification focuses on the concept of gender dysphoria,
everything I say from this point on can be linked to that diagnosis
So we can divide explanations for atypical gender development and associated gender
dysphoria into two categories, biological and socio psychological.
Is it a genetic hormonal process or is it due to early life experience?
# Biological explanations for gender dysphoria A01
One of the leading biological theories for gender dysphoria is brain sex theory,
this is based on observations of areas of the brain like the hypothalamus
in male to female transgender individuals being closer to the size of females than males.
If areas of the brain are the same size, this raises the possibility that this results in
a feminisation of whatever behaviour that that area of the brain is responsible for.
If we say that A-typical gender development is a genetic process then we are saying that
a variation in genes leads to a biological process that changes gender expression, so
perhaps a gene that leads to the changes we see in the hypothalamus, or levels of hormones the body
produces, for example less testosterone produced leading to more feminine behaviour in males.
The mother’s hormone levels may also play a part in gender development,
if the growing foetus is exposed to unusual levels of testosterone for example,
this could lead to a change in gendered behaviour. So potentially over exposure in female foetuses
leading to masculinisation and under exposure of male foetuses leading to feminisation.
# Biological explanations for gender dysphoria - Research Evaluations A03
I have three pieces of research evidence and between them they cover genetics,
brain sex theory and hormones,
The first by Van Beijsterveldt is genetic evidence, this large scale
twin study collected gender identity data from over 8000 twin pairs in the Netherlands.
These twin pairs were a combination of genetically identical monozygotic twins,
and dizygotic twins who share half of their genes. Despite these genetic
differences other aspects of their lives should be similar, like education, diet and parenting.
When the large data set was analysed, looking at how likely it was that if one twin was
experiencing a-typical gender identity the other twin was, 70% of the variance in gender
identity of the twins could be explained by the genetic difference between them.
Put more simply, monozygotic twins were more likely to both show atypical or atypical gender
development, and in dizygotic twins it was more likely for one of them to be experiencing
atypical gender development but not the other, a difference that seems to be down to their genes.
A really interesting additional finding of this study,
was females with a female co twin, were more likely than females with a male twin
to show cross gender behaviour. If you think about this finding,
it's completely the opposite to what would be expected by social learning theory, SLT would
predict that the girls should have used their twin brothers as models for cross gendered behaviour.
So, you could use this study as a critical
evaluation of social learning theories and explanations of gender development.
Garcia-falgureas’s work is evidence for brain sex theory, 42 subjects had and area of their
brain called the INAH in the anterior hypothalamus dissected in post mortem.
The researchers found that the male to female transgender subjects
had a closer volume and neurone density in this area to biological female controls, than to
control males. This suggests the INHA is associated with gender identity,
potentially meaning Atypical gender development is a result of a sexual differentiation in the brain.
The third study links genetics and hormones. Theisen scanned the complete genomes of 13
transgender individuals and compared these with 88 non transgender controls.
This revealed 21 gene variations that are associated with how the infant
brain processes the hormone oestrogen before birth. This suggests early hormonal influences
on the developing infant brain could lead to gender dysphoria later in life.
Psychological explanations for gender dysphoria A01
If we are explaining gender dysphoria with a social psychological explanation then we
are suggesting that factors like the influence of family and peers,
as well as wider society like culture and media results in a typical gender development.
A behaviourist would say people's behaviour, including gendered behaviour, are shaped by
operant conditioning. So we assume most children receive direct reinforcement and punishment
of gendered behaviour, like praise and shame for playing with certain toys.
Now if a child is rewarded by their parents for cross gendered behaviour, the argument is
that will be more likely to repeat cross gendered behaviour and eventually develop gender dysphoria.
Social learning theorists agree with this behaviourist process, but in addition they
suggest children who observe non gender conforming role models being rewarded will be more likely to
show cross gendered behaviour through vicarious reinforcement. Also social learning theory would
suggest cross gender behaviour is more likely if a child has few same sex models available to them.
Cognitive psychologists think gender dysphoria is due to the development of schemas.
One main cognitive idea is called the dual pathway theory.
This suggests that children do develop the typical set of schemas that are sex typed,
this is the attitudinal pathway. But children who go on to experience gender dysphoria
develop a second set of non sex typed schema
from personal experiences that are not sex typed this is called the personal pathway.
Now if this second set of personal schemas override the attitudinal pathway
then the child becomes androgynous, or potentially gender dysphoric.
Psychological explanations for gender dysphoria Research evaluations
Now there isn't a huge amount of high-quality research into
psychological explanations for gender dysphoria. But there are some results that we can use.
Firstly, we can point to data that shows early childhood gender dysphoria tends to be temporary
in most cases. Drummond showed only 12% of a group of 25 young girls still had gender
dysphoria when followed up around ten years later, Wallien produced similar results showing only 27%
of a group of 55 young girls and boys still experienced gender dysphoria after ten years.
Now while these results are not direct evidence of psychological effects on gender,
they do suggest in early childhood gender identity isn't fixed as we
would expect if we took a purely biological approach, Social psychological factors like
social learning theory are much more able to explaining these shifts in gender identity,
children adjust their gender identity and behaviour on the basis of their experiences.
Zucker conducted interviews with the mothers of 115 male to female children.
This interview assessed the level of separation anxiety the child had with their mother.
Zucker found the children who met the full criteria for gender identity disorder,
the old diagnosis before gender dysphoria, were significantly more likely to also have
separation anxiety disorder. This suggests there may be a link to how the mothers have
interacted with their sons and the sons developing gender dysphoria.
General evaluations gender dysphoria A01
I think because it's such a sensitive topic it would be appropriate to reflect on the
impact this research can have on the people who are being researched.
So my first point is some people with atypical gender development, but not all,
think that their gender identity is due to purely biological processes.
This fits better with a personal belief that their gender identity is unchangeable. Researchers
looking for evidence that supports psychological explanations for gender dysphoria should be aware
of how they report findings, miss-understanding by wider society could lead to stigma, interpreting
results as atypical gender identity being a choice, or something that should be treated.
Perhaps a step in the right direction, psychologists who helped create the DSM5
replaced the old term gender identity disorder with gender dysphoria. The important distinction
is the old term defined anyone with a-typical gender identity as someone diagnosable with a
mental health condition, while with gender dysphoria the individual needs to show
physical distress. I think this is an example of the scientific community
attempting to be socially sensitive towards the group they are studying.
A final point, we have looked at biological and psychological explanations,
now of course we could suggest that these processes work in combination.
Its likely reductionist to suggest that A-typical gender identity is fully biologically determined,
but perhaps hormonal and genetic factors do produce the conditions in some people
where they are predisposed to develop an Atypical gender identity
during childhood. But this identity persists into adulthood depending on the social psychological
experiences they have as they age. So, an interactionist explanation for gender development.
Here is a real gender exam question from 2017 on Atypical gender
development. Give it a go see how you do. I want to give a quick thank you to everyone
who has supported this channel over on Patreon during the development of the gender unit. You
help make these free A-level videos possible. A quick reminder. if you are a psych boost
patron at the neuron level and above you can access 6 bonus gender
tutorial videos over on psych boost.com. In them I will talk you through a model
answer for the exam questions, and I give some general exam tips based on the examiner reports.
for everyone else don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss the videos released right
up to your exams, and I will see you in the next psych boost video.