Gender is how a person identifies his or her self, which is different than what a person's sex is. Sex is the biological term as to what someone technically born as whether it is male or female. Many people identify with a different gender than what their biological sex is and it is important to recognize the difference. Gender roles are the expectations of how a person should act and behave based on how the identify themselves. These can have a big impact on the development of a person's personality and identity. Sex roles are based on the biological make up of an individual, for example a female being able to breast feed her baby.
Physical Development
The sex of an egg is determined as soon as it is fertilized, the egg either results in a female human or a male human. The chromosome pairing for a female is XX and the pairing of XY chromosomes results in male humans. However, every 1 in 100 births a chromosomal disorder occurs. For example an embryo could develop into intersexual which results in an ambiguous gender. Hormones released from the brain has an important part in determining a person's gender. When reaching puberty the brain will send out either male or female sex hormones. People who are born with ambiguous genitalia are assigned a sex and it is uncertain if the correct sex was chosen until the brain starts releasing hormones.
Social Learning Theory
Albert Bandura's theory of modeling reoccurs during gender role development. He says that the people who a child looks up to will start to mimic their actions. Through mimicking their actions they are adapting the exhibited gender roles. An example is of a little girl who puts on her mother's make up because she has seen her mother do it. Another example is a little boy pretending to shave because he has seen his father shave.
Jerome Kagan is another octal learning theorist who notes the importance of modeling. He also theorized that gender role awareness begins in infancy by being treated differently because of what their gender is. This theory is broken down into 4 phases of how a person's gender identity is established, they are: identifying with the model, acting like the model, feeling what the model feels, and being the model.
Physical Development
The sex of an egg is determined as soon as it is fertilized, the egg either results in a female human or a male human. The chromosome pairing for a female is XX and the pairing of XY chromosomes results in male humans. However, every 1 in 100 births a chromosomal disorder occurs. For example an embryo could develop into intersexual which results in an ambiguous gender. Hormones released from the brain has an important part in determining a person's gender. When reaching puberty the brain will send out either male or female sex hormones. People who are born with ambiguous genitalia are assigned a sex and it is uncertain if the correct sex was chosen until the brain starts releasing hormones.
Social Learning Theory
Albert Bandura's theory of modeling reoccurs during gender role development. He says that the people who a child looks up to will start to mimic their actions. Through mimicking their actions they are adapting the exhibited gender roles. An example is of a little girl who puts on her mother's make up because she has seen her mother do it. Another example is a little boy pretending to shave because he has seen his father shave.
Jerome Kagan is another octal learning theorist who notes the importance of modeling. He also theorized that gender role awareness begins in infancy by being treated differently because of what their gender is. This theory is broken down into 4 phases of how a person's gender identity is established, they are: identifying with the model, acting like the model, feeling what the model feels, and being the model.
Cognitive Developmental Theory
Kohlberg theorized that there are three processes that occur that assist in determining gender role. These three processes are gender identity, gender stability, and gender constancy. Gender identity is when a child has the ability to distinguish others as either male or female. However they do not know that gender is permanent. Gender stability happening over time helps children to learn that boys will stay boys and girls will stay girls. Around the age of 7 the child begins to understand the concept of gender constancy. This is when children realize that if they are male they will stay male and vice versa regardless if their appearance seems to the opposite.
Gender Schema Theory
According to Sandra Lipsitz Bem schema development occurs through cognitive development. Bem claims that gender is a part of every schema and has influence over it. Her theory also proposes that men and women's aren't judged based on the same criteria. She created The Bems Sex Role Inventory which has 60 characteristics to rate on a scale of 1 to 7 and based on the score determines whether a person displays more feminine or masculine traits. The score is either feminine, masculine or androgynous. In this case androgynous is psychological and is when an individual shows equal amounts of feminine and masculine traits.
How this has influenced my development
When I was born I was put into a pink outfit and had a pink blanket, because I am female. When I was a toddler I would always tell my mom that I wanted "boy toys" which for someone so young there really shouldn't be a gender for a toy, a toy is a toy. I have always been athletic and played sports growing up, I never thought of anything being wrong of different about me but there were girls who didn't dare run or participate in sports during gym class. My parents have supported me through all my choices and never forced me to do anything that I didn't want to do just because they were girl appropriate.
How this will influence my career path
As a person of society it is important to understand these concepts and be respectful of others choices and how they wish to identify themselves. For my career as an OT this is important to understand this because I do not want to ever make a patient feel uncomfortable because of their gender identity. I think people should have the choice to be who they wish to be whether it was how they were biologically born or how they wish to identify themselves gender wise.
When I was born I was put into a pink outfit and had a pink blanket, because I am female. When I was a toddler I would always tell my mom that I wanted "boy toys" which for someone so young there really shouldn't be a gender for a toy, a toy is a toy. I have always been athletic and played sports growing up, I never thought of anything being wrong of different about me but there were girls who didn't dare run or participate in sports during gym class. My parents have supported me through all my choices and never forced me to do anything that I didn't want to do just because they were girl appropriate.
How this will influence my career path
As a person of society it is important to understand these concepts and be respectful of others choices and how they wish to identify themselves. For my career as an OT this is important to understand this because I do not want to ever make a patient feel uncomfortable because of their gender identity. I think people should have the choice to be who they wish to be whether it was how they were biologically born or how they wish to identify themselves gender wise.