D1- Analyse the Significance of Genetic Influences as Opposed to Social Factors in Human Development
In D1 I will be assessing the genetic and social factors on a person’s development; I will be using the David Reimer and few case studies of my own about twins. I will then come to my own conclusion of which one I think is the most important in each story nature or nurture.
First of all David Reimer (then known as Bruce) was genetically born a boy however in 1966 his penis was destroyed by accident during a circumcision, his parents then took him to a psychologist and sexologists John Money. Money advised the parents to change the sex of their child since penis reconstruction wasn’t an option then, he was a supporter of the idea that gender wasn’t predetermined genetically and was from the influence of the environment.
At the age of 22 months Bruce Reimer suffered a surgery called orchiectomy which would remove his testicles and the sperm cord. He also started a hormone treatment that would change him into a girl; He became Money’s guinea pig called Brenda. The childhood of David Reimer i.e. Brenda wasn’t great; whenever her mother tried to dress her with a dress she would tear it off. She also liked playing with her brother’s toys and was often bullied by her classmates in school. Despite these, Money made his case public and wrote: "The child's behaviour is so clearly that of an active little girl and so different from the boyish ways of her twin brother” (1)
‘Brenda suffered terribly; no hormones were able to make her feel like a girl, for some time she urinated through a hole surgeons had placed in the abdomen. It was clear that she identified herself as male as she declared that when she grew up she would marry a woman, not a man. Besides a traumatizing childhood, her visits to Dr. Money were also highly traumatizing and tiring because she was supposed to visit him regularly. He would often show her and her brother pictures of people having sex and also forced them to take off their clothes and examine each other’s genitals (however these claims might
First of all David Reimer (then known as Bruce) was genetically born a boy however in 1966 his penis was destroyed by accident during a circumcision, his parents then took him to a psychologist and sexologists John Money. Money advised the parents to change the sex of their child since penis reconstruction wasn’t an option then, he was a supporter of the idea that gender wasn’t predetermined genetically and was from the influence of the environment.
At the age of 22 months Bruce Reimer suffered a surgery called orchiectomy which would remove his testicles and the sperm cord. He also started a hormone treatment that would change him into a girl; He became Money’s guinea pig called Brenda. The childhood of David Reimer i.e. Brenda wasn’t great; whenever her mother tried to dress her with a dress she would tear it off. She also liked playing with her brother’s toys and was often bullied by her classmates in school. Despite these, Money made his case public and wrote: "The child's behaviour is so clearly that of an active little girl and so different from the boyish ways of her twin brother” (1)
‘Brenda suffered terribly; no hormones were able to make her feel like a girl, for some time she urinated through a hole surgeons had placed in the abdomen. It was clear that she identified herself as male as she declared that when she grew up she would marry a woman, not a man. Besides a traumatizing childhood, her visits to Dr. Money were also highly traumatizing and tiring because she was supposed to visit him regularly. He would often show her and her brother pictures of people having sex and also forced them to take off their clothes and examine each other’s genitals (however these claims might
References: (1) http://curioustendency.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/nature-vs-nurture-case-of-david-reimer.html (2) http://brainworldmagazine.com/who-are-we/ (3) http://lornareiko.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/identical-twins-who-were-separated-at-birth-what-are-they-like/