Psychology essay nature nurture
Psychology essay- Nature and Nurture in Gender development
The nature side of the arguments suggests that gender development is down to our genes and our hormones. However this view is deterministic, stating that our gender development is mostly influenced by our biology. This means it ignores important factors such as our social development, which can be seen in the changing roles men and women have in society. The theory is that because each sex shares the same physiology and anatomy, they have many psychological traits in common too. In the same way that genetics and hormones determine an individual’s sex, they also determine whether a person will behave in a more feminine or masculine way. Males are born masculine and females are born feminine. In other words, men and women, boys and girls are naturally different. A study to support the nature side of the argument in gender development is Imperato-McGinley et al 1979. This was a study carried out on 18 males who were part of the same extended family (the Batista family) who were born in the Dominican Republic. They had been born with a rare hormone deficiency which meant their genitals appeared to be female and so were raised as girls. Evidence suggests that they had no problem with adopting a feminine identity and role until they hit puberty. At puberty, the increased production of male hormones caused their testicles to descend and their clitoris-like organs to grow into a penis. Following the males biological transformation at puberty, nearly all of the boys easily adapted to their true sex. They began to ‘behave like men’. This supports nature as it shows that although their sex had not changed over time, their gender had. When they were investigated they had fully embraced the gender role, showing gender is flexible. Furthermore, even though they were raised as girls, when they hit puberty, they embraced life as a male, this shows that it was biological and down to hormones, which is nature. Imperato
The nature side of the arguments suggests that gender development is down to our genes and our hormones. However this view is deterministic, stating that our gender development is mostly influenced by our biology. This means it ignores important factors such as our social development, which can be seen in the changing roles men and women have in society. The theory is that because each sex shares the same physiology and anatomy, they have many psychological traits in common too. In the same way that genetics and hormones determine an individual’s sex, they also determine whether a person will behave in a more feminine or masculine way. Males are born masculine and females are born feminine. In other words, men and women, boys and girls are naturally different. A study to support the nature side of the argument in gender development is Imperato-McGinley et al 1979. This was a study carried out on 18 males who were part of the same extended family (the Batista family) who were born in the Dominican Republic. They had been born with a rare hormone deficiency which meant their genitals appeared to be female and so were raised as girls. Evidence suggests that they had no problem with adopting a feminine identity and role until they hit puberty. At puberty, the increased production of male hormones caused their testicles to descend and their clitoris-like organs to grow into a penis. Following the males biological transformation at puberty, nearly all of the boys easily adapted to their true sex. They began to ‘behave like men’. This supports nature as it shows that although their sex had not changed over time, their gender had. When they were investigated they had fully embraced the gender role, showing gender is flexible. Furthermore, even though they were raised as girls, when they hit puberty, they embraced life as a male, this shows that it was biological and down to hormones, which is nature. Imperato