Biological And Environmental Effects On Gender Identity

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Gender Identity Paper Nicole Good PSY/340 Dr. Colleen Greene February 25, 2013 Hormones and behavior, two words that make any person want to scream for the simple fact that that they know exactly what those two words do to a teenager or to anyone for that matter. Hormones cause a person to experience rambunctious behavior and uncontrollable sexual urges. However, hormones and behavior can have a different effect on us as they can have an effect on gender identity. When there is too much or too little androgen, which is a testosterone for developing masculinity in boys, when a fetus in still in utero that can have many lasting effects on the parents and the child as it grows up into an adult. This fluctuation of androgen…show more content…
Gender identity is not determined by chromosomes or gonadal or prenatal hormone influence but by rearing. Further, there is a critical period, between eighteen months and two years of life, after which successful sex reassignment will be difficult, if not impossible. However, there is ongoing research to determine if this irreversibility after two years is determined by the child's experience or by the parents' needs. Gender identity establishes itself by three to four years of age. 2. In contrast, gender-role behavior takes it shape by its prenatal hormonal environment. This difference in biological influence correlates to the fact that gender identity, unlike gender role behaviors, requires a psychic state of self-awareness, for which there is no known equivalent in the nonhuman animal world and for which there may be no biological…show more content…
John Money of John Hopkins University suggests that gender identity is easy to persuade during the first years of life, after that gender is permanent. However, this suggestion has its challenges. It is during infancy that parents create and determine the gender role by the decisions the parents make for the child. Social learning theories describe types of reinforcement in families, which places value on environmental factors and gender role. It is often that we see female babies cuddling with their mothers while the males are often seen playing with toys and balls with more aggression and with the fathers (Ghosh, 2013). Nature seems to have a stronger effect on the determination of gender identity as science proves through the course of time that genetically “we are born this way” through no fault of the parents. Naturally, genetic identity is strictly in God’s hands and believing on a spiritual level, to believe that God is sending parents a special angel from heaven. To raise and learn from, to guide, teach, love, cherish, and let the child make a difference in the world. Gender identified males and females such as today’s lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, and queers are the mark
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