Psychology - Gender Identity the Essay

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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 with one's biological gender (Gerrig & Zimbardo 2005).

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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......

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