Verified Document

Psychology - Gender Identity The Essay

Typically, male and female infants are presented with very different types of toys and encouraged to pursue very different activities throughout childhood. Female infants are dressed in pink and encouraged to participate in certain types of games and interactions, such as those that emphasize cooperative activities. Meanwhile, male infants are dressed in blue, presented with toys that reflect societal roles consistent with cultural concepts of masculinity and encouraged to pursue games and activities that emphasize competition and more physical pursuits.

Therefore, in many respects, the respective tendencies of male and female children to exhibit characteristic behaviors associated with gender are highly influenced by external environmental factors as well as hormonal factors, making it difficult to understand exactly how much each set of factors is responsible for apparent gender-based behavioral differences. In that respect, some of the most useful information comes from individuals with gender-identity issues that persist in spite of strong environmental influences (Gerrig & Zimbardo 2005).:

Understanding the Respective Roles of Biology and Environment in Gender Identity: Gender identity confusion occurs where individuals exhibit strong preferences for and tendencies toward behaviors typically associated with the opposite gender instead of those typically associated...

The reason that these individuals present such crucial data with regard to understanding the basis of gender identity is precisely that their gender confusion occurs despite all of the same social and other external influences normally considered to play such a significant role in gender identity. This is particularly true in cases where, in retrospect, gender confusion was apparent from earliest childhood, especially when accompanied by recollections of some of these individuals themselves that they always felt they were born the "wrong" gender (Gerrig & Zimbardo 2005).
While both environment and hormones both play fundamental roles in gender identity, gender identity confusion occurs without any apparent external influences and specifically in spite of typical elements of gender identity socialization. This strongly suggests that gender identity is hard-wired in humans and primarily a function of biology rather than primarily a function of socialization and external environmental factors.

References

Gerrig, R, Zimbardo, P. (2005) Psychology and Life. 17th Edition. New York: Allyn & Bacon.

Macionis, J.J. (2002) Sociology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Zuk, Marlene. (2002) Sexual Selection: What We Can and Can't Learn about Sex from Animals. Berkeley: University of California.

Sources used in this document:
References

Gerrig, R, Zimbardo, P. (2005) Psychology and Life. 17th Edition. New York: Allyn & Bacon.

Macionis, J.J. (2002) Sociology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Zuk, Marlene. (2002) Sexual Selection: What We Can and Can't Learn about Sex from Animals. Berkeley: University of California.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Psychology Theories of Personality Focus on Inner
Words: 884 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Psychology Theories of personality focus on inner traits of individuals, which may or may not be viewed as static. The most important schools of personality psychology include Psychodynamic Theory, Freud's Theory of Personality, Humanistic Theory, B.F. Skinner's Theory of Personality, Social Learning Theory, and Evolutionary Personality Theory. While all these theories share in common their goal to explain, analyze, and understand human behavior in terms of personality explanations, there are important

Psychology of Consumer Behavior
Words: 1270 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Psychology of the Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior is a complex phenomenon to study and analyze. When it comes to the psychology of the consumer behavior, it is even complicated. Since the individual differences affect the biasness of the people towards certain brands therefore generalizing the things is much difficult. Consumer goods can share a same apparent purpose but the real meaning can be different for different people. Psychology of the consumer

Psychology Although the Wizard of
Words: 1378 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

" Dorothy deserves a lot of credit for the level of motivation she exhibits in the Wizard of Oz. When she gets to Oz, her primary goal is to reach the Wizard so that she can return home to Kansas. The motivation Dorothy exhibited to save Toto from the old woman was a more instinctual type of motivation; whereas in Oz she was also stimulated externally by several factors including

Psychology -- Erikson and Rogers Chaim Is
Words: 682 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Psychology -- Erikson and Rogers Chaim is a Hasidic Jew who hung out in the underground scene and became a very creative underground rock star. However, Chaim was internally conflicted: the underground lifestyle was the polar opposite of his Hasidic lifestyle and he tried to live Hasidic-by-day and underground rock-star-by-night. Chaim left it to God to determine whether he would get a Hasidic wife or a record contract first. Eventually, he

Psychology of Advertising: Since Early
Words: 1425 Length: 5 Document Type: Research Paper

The central persuasion route is an active and mindful process in the determination of the value of a persuasive argument. In the cognitive processing in The route to persuasion can be attributed to the many variables that affect the likelihood of thinking about the value of messages. One's motivation to think about issue-relevant information and the ability to do the cognitive processing has been affected by these variables. Notably, some

Psychology How Have You Been Labeled As
Words: 565 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Psychology How have you been labeled as a child or as an adult, and how has this impacted your identity and performance? As a child I was always labeled as intelligent. This impacted my identity by showing me how I was different from others (because of this special talent). When I became older, this established certain standards for academic performance. I used this to push myself to do more (based upon these

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now