Sexuality Flashcards
What is sex typing?
The process by which children acquire sex / gender identity and learn gender appropriate behaviours.
Describe androgen insensitivity syndrome.
Males develop female external appearance due to insensitivity to androgens.
Describe androgenital syndrome.
Females develop male external appearance due to prenatal exposure to high levels of androgens.
Describe DHT deficiency in males.
Males develop female external appearance due to a deficiency of alpha-reductase.
Give two examples of chromosomal abnormalities that cause intersexuality.
Turner syndrome (X; females only) and Klinefelter syndrome (XXY).
List 6 symptoms of Turner syndrome.
1 - Short stature.
2 - Swollen hands / feet.
3 - Webbed neck.
4 - Infertility.
5 - Amenorrhoea.
6 - Incomplete pubertal development.
List 5 symptoms of Klinefelter syndrome.
1 - Gynaecomastia.
2 - Small testes.
3 - Less hair.
4 - Infertility.
5 - Tall with abnormal body proportions.
What is Money and Ehrhardt’s critical period of gender identity?
If the final decision about sex assignment isnt made before 18-24 months, the child will be vulnerable to psychological nonhealthiness.
What is paternal investment theory?
- An investment by a parent in an offspring that increases the chance that the offspring will survive is at the expense of the parent’s ability to invest in other offspring.
- historically, maternal investment > paternal investment.
According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, in which stage of psychosexual development does gender development take place?
In the phallic stage.
Describe the cognitive development theory of gender development.
Children’s discovery that they are male / female causes them to identify with and imitate same-sex models.
What is gender labelling and at which age does it take place?
- The process of defining characteristics as male or female.
- Takes place at 3 years old.
What is gender stability and at which age does it take place?
- The identity that a child recognises themselves as does not change.
- Takes place at 4-5 years old.
What is gender constancy and at which age does it take place?
- A child’s understanding of the irreversibility of their sex.
- Takes place at 6-7 years old.
What is gender-schematic processing theory?
The theory that gender identity alone can provide a child with sufficient motivation to assume sex-type behaviour.
