Biological Explanations For Gender Development

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The biological explanation for the development of gender identity, lies in the in the size of the hypothalamus in the brain and prenatal development. Between 4-8 weeks after conception, the gene on the 23rd chromosome instructs the gonads to release hormones. In the male embryo, the testes are instructed to release testosterone which acts on an area of the hypothalamus called the sexually dimorphic nucleus or INAH. This area in males is said to be 2.5x larger than in females. This is what is said to cause differences in gender identity. Research on animals has helped to give a better understanding on the effect of hormones on the INAH. Young (1966) had injected male hormones into female rats and vice versa during a critical stage in early development. He found that the mating positions for the rats had been reversed and that the male rats had adopted the ‘lordosis’ position, with the female rats attempting to mount the male from behind. It was said that the injections had effected the INAH and as a result different gender behaviour shad been shown. This experiment was strong in the sense that it could be very easily replicated and therefore repeats experiments could be set up in order to ensure the validity of the results. It was also a controlled experiment which allowed manipulation of the independent variable and the effects of extraneous variables were kept limited. Additionally, the use of rats was another strength to the experiment as it is relatively easier to experiment on rats than humans. The findings had also reinforced the nature side of the nature-nurture debate in regards to gender development. However there are many issues that compromise the strength of the research for example, generalizability in regards to comparing rats so closely to humans. As rats and humans are very different species, it is a big statement to assume that they work in
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