Biological explanations of gender development by Andy Watson The biological approach takes an extreme nature view of gender development as it believes that an individual’s gender is decided at conception. However this is a reductionist view as both social learning theory and psychodynamic theory have shown that our environment plays an important role in shaping our gender identity. Gender is a psychological term, which may reflect a person’s biological sex but is more to do with how they behave or think. This contrasts with the term sex which refers to biological status as male or female. When a foetus is formed, it has 2 sex chromosomes which decide if the foetus will be male or female.
A Cross Cultural Examination of Sexuality: Modern vs Underdeveloped Societies Psychologists have highlighted a number of divisions regarding sexuality across a variety of cultures. The word ‘sex’ has different meanings. Sex refers to the biological and physiological differences between men and women, the most obvious being differences in their reproductive systems. Every culture controls the sexuality of its members to a certain extent, by embedding it in the institutions of family, religion and law. According to Potts & Short (1999) the core social arrangement within the institution of the family is the marital relationship.
Outline and evaluate the Biological approach to gender development The biological approach to gender development tells us that sex determines if an individual is genetically a male or female but that gender determines your own feelings about who you are as a person, either masculine or feminine, and this is due to the differences in their brains. This usually is due to the chromosomes a person has or hormonal differences. Every individual has 23 pairs of chromosomes. Women have 2 X chromosomes while men have an X and a Y chromosome. As an embryo, a male’s Y chromosome starts to produce testosterone and other male sex hormones.
Reviewing this article helped me understand when abortion should be an option. No women should have to give birth to a child from the man that sexually abused her. In the book, pro-life and pro-choice opinions are heard and help predict the future with abortion. The opinions did not change my views on abortion but informed me of what it might do in the future. The newspaper article is about a bill that will imprison anyone who kills a fetus that has a heartbeat.
– A good introduction and link to the title When investigating about homosexuals, some people try to understand by looking for what may be the cause of their sexuality. A group of scientists in 2012 suggested that homosexuality is passed down through the generations from mother to son and from father to daughter leading American scientists to suggest that homosexuality is an epigenetic link and not a genetic one. Epigenetics explains how gene expression is regulated by temporary switches (epi-marks) which are attached to the backbones that determine their effect on our development. Sigmund Freud claims that homosexuality is a personality disorder and a result from the person failure to deal with repressed infancy and traced the causes back to the parent-child relationship. This is supported by Elizabeth Moberly who said “a homosexual orientation does not depend on a genetic predisposition, hormonal imbalance, or abnormal learning processes but on difficulties in the parent-child relationship”.
It is thought that these brain differences cause differences in the behaviour of males and females and could provide insight into the cause of gender dysphoria. The suggestion is that pre-natal hormones cause atypical brain development in the foetus and the child’s brain develops in a way that is not consistent with its genitalia and chromosomes. A strength of the brain sex theory is that it has supporting evidence, Kruijver (2000) carried out a post mortem analysis of
The rights of homosexuals are gradually turning out to be equivalent to those of heterosexuals in the United States. In my opinion, homosexuality is a biological trait. This paper will present some theories and other empirical evidences to prove the biological influence on homosexuality. Homosexuality An indisputable fact about humanity is that every individual owes their existence to the physical union between their father and mother, and this reality forms the basis for the concept of family. However, anthropologists clearly point out that the existence of homosexuality has been identified in some societies at different degrees of prevalence throughout the history.
1. INTRODUCTION Feminism foresees a genderless area where women should be perceived as equal to males. Femininity has been socially crafted due to the idea that men are perceived superior above women. Open-minded feminism quarrels that gender contrasts are not established in biology hence on the society’s comprehension of gender. Women and men are not disparate as they are both able to envision therefore no variation of gender ought to be imposed.
One form of social difference is gender. The term gender refers to the biological categorization of humans according to their genitals (Weiten 2010). Males and females are expected to follow different etiquette concerning sexuality. The different organization of male and female lives has encouraged the development of different social norms (Baumeister & Vohs 2004). Society mostly accepts heterosexuality as normal which has led to there being social norms regarding how males and females
1:28-29) It is true that everyone is equal under the law. This equality, however, is juridical, not biological. It does not and cannot eliminate the anatomical, physiological and psychological differences between the sexes, which create the conditions for marriage and constitute its natural foundation. Same-sex “marriage” destroys the integrity of true marriage by turning traditional marriage into a species within the marriage genus. This broad marriage genus would supposedly encompass traditional marriage, homosexual or heterosexual unions, and whatever other bizarre new relationships might arise.