Gender Identities (AQA A Level Psychology): Flashcards

It acts as the hidden foundation of much of everyday life, shaping perceptions of masculinity and femininity and influencing language, clothing and social roles.

Individuals are expected to conform to the norms of their assigned gender at birth, and failing to conform or challenging the binary can lead to punishment; many argue it is the foundation of gender inequality.

Binary distinctions are rooted in reproductive strategies such as division of labour and parental investment, with males competing for mates (aggression, risk-taking) and females caregiving (nurturing), so binary roles are adaptive, though describing how roles evolved does not justify them as natural or fixed.

Chromosomes and hormones are the biological definitions of sex, and the biological perspective ties genes and hormones to two distinct categories, so biological sex determines gender: 'anatomy is destiny', according to Freud.

False.

Research from biology, neuroscience and neuroendocrinology suggests sex is a spectrum, and diversity in sex development provides evidence against dividing individuals into two groups based on sex.

The categories are more similar than different: brain imaging shows no sexually dimorphic brain, hormone research reveals overlapping flexible endocrine profiles, large-scale studies find men and women far more alike, and healthy transgender and non-binary identities show lived experience outside two genders.

It supports a nature-based view, with gender following directly from biological sex, whereas social constructionists such as Oakley argue gender is learned through nurture via socialisation, cultural norms and stereotypes.

It reflects a Western-centric, historically dominant view of gender roles; cross-cultural and historical research shows rigid male/female categories are not universal but are socially taught, shaped by context and can be unlearned.

According to Monro (2019), non-binary is an umbrella term for people whose identity falls outside of, or in between, male and female, at different times, or who do not experience or want a gender identity; the term was first used around 2000.

Both share a 'dis-identification' with rigid gender binaries (Monro, 2019).

False.

Some youths with a non-binary gender identity do not identify as transgender (The Lancet Review, 2020).

According to official statistics, 0.4%, or 1 in 250 people, define as non-binary when offered a choice beyond male and female (Titman, 2014).

The Government Equalities Office (2018) found almost 52% of 14,320 trans respondents identified as non-binary, whereas Nieder et al.'s (2018) review found 80% identify as male or female, leaving 20% outside or between.

Over a third of people said they were to some extent the 'other' gender, 'both' genders or 'neither', suggesting felt experience beyond the binary is far more common than adopting a non-binary label.

The 2021 Census was the first time the ONS collected data on gender identity, as a voluntary question for those aged 16 and over.

Of the population aged 16 and over, 93.5% answered 'yes', 0.5% answered 'no', 30,000 (0.06%) identified as non-binary and 6.0% did not answer the question.

Some respondents found the question confusing and gave answers that did not reflect their identity; the ONS accepts the statistics are still being developed, so official figures may not reflect true prevalence.

The Hijra are a traditional third gender community in India, the most common non-binary identity recognised today, found in Hindu religious texts, believed to have the power to bless or curse, and recognised by India's Supreme Court as a third gender in 2014.

In Oaxaca, Mexico, there are three genders: female, male and muxe; muxes are assigned male at birth but dress and behave in ways associated with women, and have been celebrated since pre-Hispanic times.

The Bugis of South Sulawesi recognise:

• calalai, biological females who present in masculine ways and hold a social position like men

• calabai, biological males in roles like women, who do not identify as women

• bissu, who embody the totality of masculinity and femininity and bridge the earthly and the divine

False.

It is a person's sense of their own gender that makes their identity non-binary; gender expression alone does not determine gender identity.

According to Katz-Wise (2020), a gender fluid identity is unfixed and dynamic, with a person's gender expression and/or identity changing over time; it falls under the non-binary umbrella and has no standard definition.

For some it is a way to explore gender before a more stable identity, while for others it continues indefinitely; it may be expressed through clothes, makeup, hairstyles, voice and pronouns, and non-binary adolescents may express more fluidity (Doyle, 2022).

The Hijra, muxes and Bugis have recognised non-binary or third-gender identities for centuries, showing these identities are not a recent Western development but reflect long-standing global diversity in gender experience.

In 17 semi-structured interviews, non-binary individuals in the US described 'gender euphoria' and resilience built from authentic self-expression alongside the stress of oppression, rich qualitative evidence that quantitative methods cannot capture.

There is no agreed definition, and Katz-Wise et al. (2023) note limited research focusing on it, making it hard to measure or compare across studies and reducing its construct validity.

It must avoid stigmatisation or marginalisation; inaccurate or binary survey designs risk invalidating identities and limiting representation in policy and healthcare, and The Lancet Review (2020) highlights the vulnerability of non-binary people.

They challenge biological essentialism, supporting the idea that gender is socially constructed and shaped by cultural and individual experience, which aligns with nurture-based views such as Oakley's socialisation theory.

The Bem Sex Role Inventory is a scale developed by Sandra Bem in 1974 to measure gender by rating a person on masculine and feminine traits.

An androgynous person is psychologically roughly equal parts masculine and feminine; Bem argued such people adjust better to a variety of settings than a very masculine woman or a very feminine man.

50 male and 50 female judges rated 200 traits for how desirable they were for men and women, and the highest-scoring traits in each category were included.

The BSRI is made up of 20 masculine, 20 feminine and 20 gender-neutral traits.

Respondents rate themselves on each item on a scale of 1 to 7, receiving a score for masculinity and a score for femininity; androgyny is defined as scoring high on both.

The four categories are:

• masculine: high masculinity, low femininity

• feminine: low masculinity, high femininity

• androgynous: high masculinity, high femininity

• undifferentiated: low masculinity, low femininity

True.

Analytical is a masculine item on the BSRI, alongside traits such as assertive, competitive and dominant.

Feminine items include affectionate, cheerful, compassionate and gentle; neutral items include adaptable, friendly, happy and helpful.

When piloted with over 1,000 students, the results broadly corresponded with the participants' own descriptions of their gender identity.

A follow-up with a smaller sample of the same students a month later produced similar scores, and Bem (1981) reported test-retest correlations of +.76 to +.94 over four weeks.

The 30-item version correlated +.90 with the original, having removed less socially desirable terms such as 'childlike'.

Scoring oneself requires insight into one's own personality, which people may lack, and gender is a hypothetical construct far more open to subjective interpretation than biological sex.

They argue that people with a greater proportion of masculine traits are better adjusted, as these are more highly valued in Western societies, so context and cultural values rather than androgyny may determine which identity is most adaptive.

It was developed in the 1970s from American university students' views of masculine and feminine traits; concepts of gender have since evolved, so those traits may no longer apply universally.

It applies general laws about gender by categorising individuals using standardised scales across large groups, whereas an idiographic approach would focus on individual experience of gender as personal, fluid and context-dependent.