Environmental, Biological Factors and Gender

Environmental, Biological Factors and Gender

Gender behavior or the differences seen when considering gender behavior will focus on both biological and environmental influences. The biological factors will focus on the sex chromosomes that the child will have as well as their sex hormones. The sex chromosomes can be used to determine whether the child is a boy or girl since a girl will have XX chromosomes while the boy will have XY chromosomes. The environmental factors will revolve around socialization, that is, who the child socializes at school or home.

The primary biological factor that will govern gender behavior or lead to gender differences will focus the sex chromosomes. The sex chromosomes will contribute to the development of gender identity. Gender identity is highly essential since it will be linked to gender roles that have been established by society. The gender differences when it comes to gender behavior will focus on gender roles that have been established following the development of gender identity. Certain roles will apply to a particular gender. Girls will be expected to wear dresses while the boys will wear trousers. In other cases, girls will be soft-spoken while boys are allowed to be loud. The other primary biological factor, sex hormones, will also contribute a lot to the differences in gender behavior. Sex hormones in males will be secreted in the testes while for females, in the ovaries. The sex hormones will influence a person’s behavior to focus more on masculinity and less on femininity or vice versa. The hormones will highly have an effect on sexual behavior in both sexes, which will be different since each gender will have dissimilar hormones influencing their behaviors (Baker, 1980).

The environmental factors will also focus on gender identity. As established above, gender identity will be directly related to gender roles that have been established by society. The behavior of both genders will be different since society dictates it to be different. Some of the differences will focus on how the girls ought to behave since they are supposed to be feminine and soft-spoken. If a boy portrays such behaviors, he will be regarded as girlish since boys are supposed to be masculine and loud. Socialization, one of the environmental factors, will enhance the biological differences between the two genders since society will dictate how both genders ought to behave. However, socialization may also lead a girl to behave more masculine and a boy to be feminine. This will focus on the activities that each gender is interested in and what they deem is comfortable to them (Weiten, Dunn, & Hammer, 2014). Biological factors will be more influential since the two factors established above will lead to gender identity development and the establishment of gender roles. The environmental factors will only enhance the biological factors, and in a few cases, may counter the influence.

References

Baker, S. W. (1980). Biological influences on human sex and gender. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society, 6(1), 80-96.

Weiten, W., Dunn, D. S., & Hammer, E. Y. (2014). Psychology applied to modern life: Adjustment in the 21st century. Cengage Learning.