PSYCHOLOGY OF GENDER AND TRANSGENDERISM

Gender is one of the most important categories, if not the most important category, in human social life. Though at first sight distinguishing between female and male may seem straightforward, a closer look readily reveals that this fundamental categorization is fairly complex -- it is imbued with a host of cultural meanings and practices group, and pervading societal and often each and every In aspect all on of individual, and interpersonal, exerting processes. subtle, known their

cultures, females and males meet with distinct sets of gender-related beliefs expectations powerful, influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Eckes & Trautner, 2000). The first distinction to make is between sex and gender. Sex refers to the biological categories of male and female, categories distinguished by genes, chromosomes and hormones. Male and female are biological terms. Culture has no influence on ones sex. Sex is a relatively stable category that is not easily changed. Gender, by contrast, is a much more fluid category: it refers to the social categories of male and female. Gender is determined by biological, psychological and sociological factors. Masculine and feminine are psychological terms, which refer to a person's gender. These categories are distinguished from one another by a set of psychological features and role attributes that society has assigned to the biological categories of sex. For example, emotionality is a trait we ascribe to women and competitiveness is a trait we ascribed to men. These traits are features of gender rather than sex. Where as sex is defined in the same way across cultures, gender differs because each society has its own prescriptions for how men and women ought to behave. Unger (1990) defines gender as the cognitive and perceptual mechanisms by which biological differentiation is translated into social differentiation. For example: one category of gender feature in United States is to wear a skirt, so if we encounter someone wearing a skirt, we can assume the person is psychologically female as well as biologically female (Helgeson, 2005).

Origin of Psychology of Gender: The term "gender role" was firstly used in a press
release, November 21, 1966, to announce the new clinic for transsexuals at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. This made people focus on concept of gender, and the sociologist and psychologist started focusing on gender identity and gender roles and why some people do not identify with their biological sex. As long as a persons perceived physiological sex is consistent with that person's gender identity, the gender role of a person is so much a matter of course in a stable society that people rarely even think of it. Only in cases where, for whatever reason, an individual has a gender role that is inconsistent with his or her sex will the matter draw attention.Such discordance between anatomical sex and gender identity is termed gender dysphoria. Transgendered were considered gender dysphoric. These discussions also lead the focus towards gender differences, and equality and ultimately lead to the development of the concept of feminism (Feinberg, 1992). Feminism: Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies concerned with gender inequalities and equal rights for women.A feminist is a person who believes that men and women should be treated equally. A defining feature of feminism is a high regard for women. Feminism advocates the political, economic and social equality of the sexes (Brabeck & Brown, 1997). Feminism is the belief that society is disadvantageous to women, systematically depriving them of individual choice, political power, economic opportunity and intellectual recognition. Most feminists argue that traditional gender roles are oppressive for women. They believe that the female gender role was constructed as an opposite to an ideal male role, and helps to perpetuate patriarchy The Feminist Movement is concerned with individual autonomy, rights, freedom, independence, tolerance, co-operation, nonviolence and diversity. Some themes explored and campaigned within Feminism include domestic violence, gender, stereotypes, sexuality, discrimination, sexism, objectification, patriarchy, abortion, reproduction, control of the female body, divorce, equal pay, maternity leave, breast feeding, prostitution and education. The majority of feminists today reject the relationship between our biological and cultural evolution. Thus implying that our biological makeup has no connection to informing social roles and behaviors (Brabeck & Brown, 1997). 2

Feminine Psychology As the first woman to present a paper on feminine psychology at an international meeting, Karen Horney pioneered and developed a feminine psychology that provided a new way of thinking about women. Horney was also a pioneer in the discipline of feminine psychiatry. She wrote fourteen papers between 1922 and 1937, which she compiled to form a volume titled "Feminine Psychology". She had a feeling that, as a woman, it was her task to work out a fuller understanding for specifically female trends and attitudes in life. In her book titled "The Problem of Feminine Masochism", Horney proved that culture and society encouraged women to be dependent on men for love, prestige, wealth, care, and protection. She pointed out the overemphasis on pleasing men and the overvaluation of men and love. Women, she found, were to be beautiful and charming, according to society. Also, women gained value only through their husbands children, and family. Her "The Distrust between the Sexes" compared the husband-wife relationship to a parent-child relationship. In "The Problem of the Monogamous Ideal", Karen focused on marriage, and six of her other papers were based on marriage problems. Finally, her "Maternal Conflicts", shed new light on the problems associated with raising adolescents. For Horney, psychic differences between men and women are not the result of anatomy but rather of cultural and social expectations (Fiest & Fiest, 2002).

Structure of Personality:
According to psychology of gender an individuals personality is made up of several elements that shape his/her personality: Gender role Gender identity Sexual orientation/preference

Gender Role: Another term that better captures societys influence on the biologically based categories of male and female is gender role rather than gender. A role is a social position accompanied by set of norms or expectations. For example female or a

daughter what role is expected of you? Gender role refers to the expectations that go along being male versus female. We typically expect men to be strong to refrain from crying to be independent and competitive. These are features of the male gender role. By contrast we typically expect women to be caring, emotionally expressive, polite and helpful. In other words we expect man to be masculine and women to be feminine (Helgeson, 2005). When expectations within a role conflict we experience intrarole conflict. For example, women are expected to be emotional and express their feelings but also to be sensitive to the needs of others. So should a woman who is unhappy with her marriage express those feelings to her husband, if she expresses those feeling, she is adhering to her role in terms of expressing emotions but she is contradicting her role by expressing feelings that might upset someone else. When expectations of one role conflict with the expectation of another role, we experience interrole conflict. People different roles in our lives apart from their gender roles such as the roe of student, daughter, teacher etc. at times the expectations of one role conflict with the other which results in interrole conflict (Helgeson, 2005). Sometimes we violate the norms associated with our roles, partly due to role conflict. The consequences of such behavior could be severe or minor; it will depend on how central that norm is to the role and how strongly the situation calls for adherence to the role. For example the consequences of male asking for help are probably minor, however the consequences of male wearing a female dress are likely to be severe. In the same way a women not showing emotion at a funeral may be judged quite harshly. But researchers believe that male suffer more negative consequences for gender role violation than women. It is acceptable for women to dress like a man and work in traditionally male jobs but its not acceptable for men to dress like women. The reason is status. Women who take on the characteristics of male gender role are moving towards a higher status, whereas men who are taking on the characteristics of the female gender role are moving towards a lower status. People applaud the move up but not the move down (Helgeson, 2005).

Gender identity: It is our perception of the self as psychologically male and female. A persons private, subjective sense of his or her own sex. Each of us has a gender identity a private feeling that we are male or female. But at times people who are male may feel as if they are female and vice versa. Such phenomenon is referred to as transgenderism. Transgendered individuals are said to have a gender identity problem meaning their biological sex is incongruent with their psychological sex. In some cases transgendered people who seek to have surgery to change their biological sex are called transsexuals (Helgeson, 2005). Sexual orientation / preference: Erotic desire for people of same or different sex. It refers to whether people prefer to have other-sex or same-sex persons as partners for love, affection and sex. Heterosexuals prefer other sex partners; homosexuals prefer same-sex partners such as gay and lesbians; and bisexuals are accepting of other sex and same sex partners (Helgeson, 2005). Other concepts included in personality are: Sex Typing Gender role attitude

Sex Typing: It is the process by which sex-appropriate preferences; behaviors skills and self-concept are acquired. People who adhere to the gender role society assigned to them are sex-typed. A man who thinks, feels and behaves in masculine ways and a female who thinks, feels and behaves in a feminine way are each sex-typed. A male who acts feminine and a female who acts masculine are each said to be cross sex typed. Moreover someone who incorporates both masculine and feminine qualities is not sex-typed and is often refereed to as androgynous (Helgeson, 2005). Gender role attitude: Ones own personal view about how man and women should behave is called gender role attitude (Helgeson, 2005).

Three other terms reflect ones attitude towards the category of sex. Each term maps onto one of the three components of an attitude: affect, cognition and behavior. These include the following: Sexism Sex stereotype/ gender role stereotype Sex discrimination

Sexism: The affective component of ones attitude towards the sex category is called sexism, or prejudice towards people based on their sex. This can entail both negative and positive feelings. For example, if a man dislikes the person his wife hired to take care of his children because the person is male, hes showing sexism. In the same way if he likes the person his wife hired merely because she is female, hes again showing sexism (Helgeson, 2005). Sex stereotype/ gender role stereotype: It is the cognitive component of ones attitude towards sex. These terms refer to ones beliefs about the features of the biological or psychological categories of male or female, like females are nurturant and males are assertive etc. So if the man perceives that a male nanny would not be competent because he lacks the required nurturant qualities, he is engaged in gender-role stereotyping (Helgeson, 2005). Sex discrimination: The behavioral component of ones attitude towards men and women is sex discrimination, which involves the differential treatment of people based on their biological sex. For example, if in the above example, the man fires the male nanny because he dislikes men as nannies and doubts his competence because he is a man, hes engaged in sex discrimination (Helgeson, 2005).

Gender Differences in Personality:

Gender difference is a distinction of biological and/or physiological characteristics typically associated with either males or females of a species in general.

Gender differences are the results of gender role, gender identity, gender role attitude and gender stereotypes etc. gender and sex comparisons have been made in a variety of areas (Hayward, 2003). Intelligence: During 1984 1936 researchers focused on differences between males and females. The primary purpose of this era was to prove that men were intellectually superior to women. On the basis of the size of the human brains it was said that men are intellectually superior because of the size of women brain is smaller than men. But the work of Lewis Terman on sex and personality concluded that intelligence tests do not reveal difference in overall intellect. Recent studies have shown inconsistent results in comparing the overall IQ performances of men and women, some showing little or no difference, and others showing advantages to men of variable statistical significance. However, these studies consistently show that there is greater variance in the IQ performance of men compared to that of women, ie. Men are more represented at the extremes of performance (Helgeson, 2005). Cognitive abilities: The result of Meta analysis of various studies shows only small differences in cognition. Differences in cognitive abilities exist in spatial ability, mathematical and verbal ability. Men outperform women in some visuospatial skills such as rotation of three-dimensional objects, throwing accuracy, and navigation with reference to compass directions; women navigate as well as or better than men with reference to landmarks, and they have better control of hand and finger musculature. Most recent researches have found only small differences in mathematical ability where men have outperformed women by a small margin. However men were found to be better at spatial ability and women at verbal ability, although the size of the difference was only moderate (Helgeson, 2005). Social domains: In social domain girls were found to be more empathetic than boys. Eisenberg and Lennon (1983) found a very small effect in girls scoring higher than boys in empathy (d = -.10). Whereas men show more helping behavior especially in situations of danger as compared to men. Moreover a comparison of the activity levels of girls and boys revealed that boys were more active than girls (Helgeson, 2005).

Emotions: Women report greater emotions than men. Men and women also differ in the frequency and amount of emotions expressed. Women are more expressive emotionally than males (Brody & Hall, 1993). Moral development: A recent Meta analysis of 160 independent samples showed a small sex differences in moral reasoning. Women scored higher than men on care and men scored higher than women on justice. Women show a morality of responsibility that emphasizes their connection to others, whereas men have a morality of right (Jaffe & Hyde, 2000 cited from Helgeson, 2005). Aggression: Males are generally more aggressive than females (Coi & Dodge 1997, Maccoby & Jacklin 1974). There is evidence that males are quicker to aggression more likely than females to express their aggression physically (Bjorkqvist et al. 1994). However, some researchers have suggested that females are not necessarily less aggressive, but that they tend to show their aggression in less overt, less physical ways (Bjorkqvist et al. 1994, Hines and Saudino 2003). For example, females may display more verbal and relational aggression, such as social rejection. Achievement: Researches indicate that women have lower need for achievement as compared to men because they are more likely then men to associate achievement with negative consequences. The basic concern is that achievement is inconsistent with female gender role, they viewed it might have interpersonal cost. Another reason women achieve less than men is that women have lower self-confidence as compared to men when an upcoming task is ambiguous whereas male face novel situations with greater hope to succeed. Women are also less confident when the task is of masculine domain. Another important factor that may have implications for men and women achievement has to do with the way they explain their success or failure. Women are more likely to attribute success to effort or luck, whereas men are more likely to attribute success to ability. Women are more likely to attribute failure to stable causes like lack of ability and difficult task, whereas men are more likely to attribute failure to unstable causes, such as lack of effort or bad luck (Helgeson, 2005).

Communication:

Tannens studies (1990) found these gender differences in

communication styles. Men tend to talk more than women in public situations, but women tend to talk more than men at home. Females are more inclined to face each other and make eye contact when talking, while males are more likely to look away from each other. Girls and women tend to talk at length about one topic, but boys and men tend to jump from topic to topic. Women are inclined to express agreement and support, while men are more inclined to debate. However, not all research supports these claims. One study by MacGeorge (2005) found only a 2% difference in the conversational styles of men and women, and reported that in general both sexes communicated in similar ways. Men are more dominant and influential as compared to women and are more likely to emerge as a leader in a situation involving strangers. Whereas women are less influential and are easily influenced. When women talk to each other they reveal a lot about their private lives. Let all speakers finish their sentences and try to have everyone participate. Men, on the other hand, rarely talked about their personal relationships and feelings but "competed to prove themselves better informed about current affairs, travel, sport, etc (Cathy, 1999). Friendship: Men identify shared activities as more important feature of friendship whereas females identify self-disclosure and empathy as more important features of friendship. Men tend to compartmentalize their friendship having different friends for different activities whereas female friendship is more holistic. Women also are more likely than men to have reciprocal and closer relationship in friendship. In some aspects of friendship men and women are similar they both consider trust and authenticity as more important dimension of friendship (Helgeson, 2005). Romantic relationships and Mate selection: In romantic relationship both men and women expect their love relationship to include closeness, security, mutual selfdisclosure and sexual exclusivity. Both are interested in a romantic relationship to have a good time, and are interested in dating for purpose of recreation and companionship (Roscoe, Diana & Brooks, 1987 c.f. Helgeson, 2005). There are some differences in mens and womens motivation for developing romantic relationships, men view sexual activity as greater motivation than women do and women view love and intimacy as 9

greater motivation than men do (Peplau & Gordon, 1985 c.f. Helgeson, 2005). In mate selection females are more likely than male to emphasize socioeconomic status and ambition and only somewhat more likely to emphasize intelligence and character, whereas man attach more importance to mates physical attractiveness (Feingold, 1992). Men focus on youth and attractiveness in mate selection whereas females focus on status and earning potential (Sprecher, Sullivan & Hatfield, 1994 c.f. Helgeson, 2005). In a cross-cultural study by David Buss (2003), men and women were asked to rank certain traits in order of importance in a long-term partner. Both men and women ranked "kindness" and "intelligence" as the two most important factors. Sexual orientation: Most surveys find that a greater proportion of men than women report that they are exclusively homosexual, whereas more women than men report being bisexual. In most societies, homosexual (lesbians) and bisexual women are more widely accepted than their male counterparts (gays). Men express far more permissive attitudes than women toward casual, premarital, and extramarital sex; women tend to view sex as a prelude to a long-term relationship. Males also have a larger number of sex partners (Larkin, 2003). Physical and mental health: Women in western society are more prone to depression than men, while men are more prone to paranoid schizophrenia than women. Researchers and clinicians think that the traditional signs of depression (sadness, worthlessness, excessive guilt) may not represent many men's experience of a depressive period. Men may instead express their depression in terms of increases in fatigue, irritability and anger (sometimes abusive in nature), loss of interest in work or hobbies, and sleep disturbances. It has also been shown that men use more drugs and alcohol, perhaps to self-medicate; this can mask the signs of depression, making it harder to detect and treat effectively (Helgeson, 2005). Men suffer more from heart attack as compared to women. Adolescent girls with diabetes and asthma are better able to cope with their illness as compared to adolescent boys. Moreover characteristics of the male gender role such as independence and selfcontrol are inconsistent with chronic illness. Because male gender is linked to physical

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strength, men have more difficulty than women in coping with physical limitations the illness posses. On the positive side male gender role predispose men into believing they can control their illness than females. Moreover eating disorders are much more prevalent in women than men because women are more concerned with body image than men (Helgeson, 2005). Personality tests: In the big five personality traits, women score higher in Agreeableness (tendency to be compassionate and cooperative) and Neuroticism (tendency to feel anxiety, anger, and depression). Demographics of MBTI surveys indicate that 60-75% of women prefer feeling and 55-80% of men prefer thinking. There were no sex differences in self-esteem and locus of control. Differences in personality were small but consistent in the direction of men being more assertive and women more nurturant. In personality traits, men score higher than women on aggressiveness, women score higher than men on emotional sensitivity and a sense of caring (Helgeson, 2005). Risk taking: Men are more prone to taking risks as comapred to women (Marano, 2003). Crime: Men are much more likely to be incarcerated than women, although women are a fast-growing demographic group in prison. Males are more likely than females to commit murder. Men are also far more likely than women to be the victims of violent crime (US Dept of Labor, 2005). Suicide: In western countries, males are much more likely to die by suicide than females (usually by a factor of 34:1); 69 out of 74 non-western countries found an excess male mortality from suicide. While there are more completed male suicides than female, females are more likely to attempt suicide (Cathy, 1999). Work Roles: Women are more underrepreented in occupation as comapred to males however the number of felames in work force is increasing they are still underrepresented in traditional male and white-collar jobs. More men than women occupy high status positions. Even if men and women occupy the same jobs men get paid more than women. Moreover women report more psychological distress as a result of occupational stress

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than men. However working women on average have better physical and psychological health as compared to housewives (US Dept of Labor, 2005). Sports: In general, men are taller and heavier than women. In sports, men tend to outperform women in strength and speed. Women seem to have greater endurance. In spite of many attempts, sports have never become completely unisex (Helgeson, 2005). Activity level: Male fetuses are more active than females, a difference that persists throughout childhood. Newborn boys are more wakeful than girls and cry more readily in response to pain (Hayward, 2003).

Development of gender differences in Personality:

Development of gender differences, gender roles, gender identity and sexual orientation can be explained with the help of biological and social-environmental models. Biological Model: Biological theories of sex differences identify genes and hormones, as well as structure and function of the brain as the causes of observed differences in physical appearance, cognition, behavior and even gender roles. Genes: According to the biological model individual differences start at the time of conception. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes within each cell; twenty-two of these are alike in both males and females. But, when we come to the twenty-third pair, the sexes are not the same; every woman has in her cells two of what we call the X chromosome. But a man has just one X---its mate being the much smaller Y." It is the presence of this influential Y chromosome, says Scheinfeld, "that sets the machinery of sex development in motion and results in all the genetic differences that there are between a man and a woman." Right down to the cellular level, males and females are different. According to Mitchell and colleagues says that genes explain 20 to 48 % difference in masculinity and femininity (Hayward, 2003).

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Hormones: There are two classes of sex relates hormones androgens and estrogens. They affect brain, immune system and over all behavior. In one out of 100,000 pregnancies, a genetic defect causes human female babies to be exposed to a bath of the male hormone androgen. These are CAH girls--short for a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia. These children are born female, but they behave like "tomboys." The male androgen influences their behaviors and desires. These girls typically play with "boy" toys more than their female counterparts. The high level of testosterone in males drives them toward aggressive behavior and dominance in the world, while the lack of high levels of this hormone in women creates a natural, biological push in the direction of less dominant and more nurturing roles in society (Helgeson, 2005). Brain: The brains of men and women are actually wired differently. Nadeau (1997) observes: "The human brain, like the human body, is sexed, and differences in the sexspecific human brain condition a wide range of behaviors that we typically associate with maleness or femaleness." Nadeau says that the sex-specific differences in the brain are located both in the primitive regions, and in the neocortex--the higher brain regions. Men and women process information differently because of differences in a portion of the brain called the splenium, which is much larger in women than in men, and has more brain-wave activity. Studies have shown that problem-solving tasks in female brains are handled by both hemispheres, while the male brain only uses one hemisphere (Helgeson, 2005). Socio-environmental factors: The socialization theory holds that gender related traits are inculcated in children by learning from their parents, teachers, siblings, peers, and society in general (Helgeson, 2005). Parents: Right from the time of birth parents start differentiating between boys and girls like buying blue clothes for boys and pink for girls. Even toys for girls and boys are different parents prefer boys to play with cars trucks and girls with dolls. Parents also encourage feminine behavior in girls and masculine behavior in boys (Helgeson, 2005).

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Peers: Apart from parents the most important influence on children is their peers. Their acceptance or rejection of certain behaviors led children to adopt those behaviors. Boys usually play in larger peer groups so the potential for conflict and aggression is high therefore they exhibit more aggression. On the other hand girls play in small groups, which minimize conflict and increase cooperation (Helgeson, 2005). Siblings: Apart from parents and peers siblings also have a role in gender-role behaviors. One study showed that boys with older brothers and girls with older sisters were more sex-typed than only children. Moreover boys with older sisters and girls with older brothers were more androgynous (Helgeson, 2005). Teachers: Another socializing agent that may influence children role behavior is teachers. One study proved that nursery school teachers responded differently to male and female infants (Fagot et al., 1985 c.f. Helgeson, 2005). Teachers gave more attention to boys who were assertive and girls who were communicative. Other features o environment affecting behavior: Toys: The toys children play with may influence sex differences in cognition and behavior. Toys may directly reinforce sex differences in cognitive abilities. For example in 1992 a tee talk Barbie was introduced that along with other things said, Math class is tough. Boys play with vehicles, machines; building blocks etc girls play with domestic toys, dolls, dress-up clothes. One possibility is that boys toys are more likely than girls toys to foster the development of spatial skills and girls toys are more likely to foster the development of verbal skills (Hughes, 1991). Books: The books children read also encourage gender-role appropriate behaviors. For example the classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes that are still read to children. Both boys and girls learn from Cinderella, sleeping beauty and snow white that man fall in love with beautiful women, good women are obedient and vulnerable and if beautiful will be rescued by men and a womens ultimate dream is to marry a rich handsome prince. Nursery rhymes portray women as quiet and sweet, as maids crying and running away from spiders while men are displayed as soldiers, kings (Helgeson, 2005). 14

Television: Television is also a way of learning about gender. A study of fourth and fifth graders showed that children who watched television held more stereotypical views about men and women. Even cartoons portray girls and boys differently. Males characters are more aggressive while females are fearful, polite. Only a few recent cartoons like powerpuff Girls show strong female characters. Even in dramas and movies men are most likely to be the main character that fights the evil and save the heroine of the film or drama. In advertisements, women are much more likely than men to serve a decorative function. In magazine advertisements, men are rarely portrayed doing housework. Instead, men are more likely than women to be shown working outside the home (Helgeson, 2005). Cultural influences: Different cultures also hold different stereotypical attitudes about men and women. In most cultures women are supposed to be shy, quiet, nurturant, caring whereas, males are expected to be assertive, self-confident. Males are considered the dominant figure in society. Such beliefs held by the society also influence gender role perception (Helgeson, 2005). Feminist theory claims that gender is influenced by socialization and not biology. This controversy of nature and nurture still continues.

Causes of Psychopathology:
For 99.9 percent of people, gender identity is consistent with sexual anatomy. Discordance between anatomical sex and gender identity is termed gender dysphoria. They may belong to one sex but feel as if they are members of the other sex or identify themselves with members of other sex. Such people are not comfortable with their biological sex and experience great distress in adjusting to their biological sex. Such as transgendered individuals. Transgendered and people with gender identity disorder are gender dysphoric, meaning that they experience discordance between their anatomical sex and their gender identity. A few transgendered individuals also go for sex reassignment surgery to alter their biological sex to match their gender identity (Helgeson, 2005).

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Moreover our societies also holds separate roles for males and females, but some individuals violate the norms associated with these roles partly because of inter and intra role conflicts. Such individuals may adopt behaviors that are not entirely typical either of females or of males. For example: Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothing commonly associated with another gender within a particular society. For example men wearing feminine clothes. Nearly every human society throughout history has distinguished between male and female gender by the style, color, or type of clothing they wear and has had a set of norms, views, guidelines, or even laws defining what type of clothing is appropriate for each gender. Cross-dressing is a behavior which runs significantly counter to those norms and such act is judged really harshly (Helgeson, 2005). Another reason that leads people to alter their biological sex is when people are born with ambiguous sex organs in that case they are reassigned a sex. For example certain biological defects may result in children born with either without male and female genitalia or underdeveloped genitalias. Transsexualism is the result of one such condition in which a person identifies with a physical sex different from the one that they were born with or assigned in cases where ambiguity of the child's sex organs led to assigning them a physical sex. Most transsexuals assert that their brain-based inner perception of their sexual self, their identity, is who they really are, is different from their biological sex and so change their physical sex in an effort to be on the outside as they feel they are on the inside (Helgeson, 2005). Another important feature in psychology of gender is sexual orientation is the direction of an individuals sexual attractions. Most, but not all, men are sexually attracted to women. Most, but not all, women are sexually attracted to men. Men who are attracted to other men (gays) and women who are attracted to other women (lesbians) were thought off as violating their gender roles since gay men tend to be somewhat more feminine, and lesbians somewhat more masculine, compared with heterosexual people of their own sex. That is, homosexual people tend to be relatively gender nonconforming. Homosexuality was thought of as a psychopathology however with increasing numbers of gays and lesbians in western societies led to gay/lesbian rights movements, which 16

pressured the countries to give equal rights and opportunities to gay and lesbians as enjoyed by heterosexuals and as a result homosexuality was removed from DSM-IV as a psychopathology.

Practical Application in different fields:

Psychology of gender has contributed to different areas of psychology and have lead psychologist to study gender differences in clinical and organizational context. In clinical context gender differences exists in psychopathologies certain disorders are more prevalent in one gender as compared to the other. For example, women in western society are more prone to depression than men, while men are more prone to paranoid schizophrenia than women. Not only in western cultures even in our own cultures depression is more prevalent in women as compared to men, women also suffer more from eating disorders as compared to men. Not only the gender differences exist in prevalence of certain disorders in males and females the appearance of symptoms of a particular disorder might also be different in males and females, researchers and clinicians are coming to think that the traditional signs of depression (sadness, worthlessness, excessive guilt) may not represent many men's experience of a depressive period. Men may instead express their depression in terms of increases in fatigue, irritability and anger (sometimes abusive in nature), loss of interest in work or hobbies, and sleep disturbances. Awareness of such differences can lead to selecting more appropriate intervention strategies for both men and women (Helgeson, 2005). In organizational context gender differences exist in the areas of leadership. Differences also exist in response to work place stress. Women are slightly more likely to be "transformational" leaders, serving as role models, helping employees develop their skills, and motivating them to be dedicated and creative. That approach may actually be more effective in today's less hierarchical organizations. But not all workplaces are alike. The participatory style may backfire in traditional male settings such as the military or organized sports. Conversely, the command-and-control style more typical of men may backfire in a social-service agency or retail outlet. So women in male settings should

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adopt more command and control style and males in female work settings should try to adopt female interpersonal style in order to succeed. Women also appeared to reward good performance more than men, a very positive part of transactional leadership. Men were more likely to criticize subordinates and be less hands-on, styles found to be ineffective (Helgeson, 2005). The feminist movement also emerged from this emphasis on gender and gender differences, which lead to the womens movement and resulted in change in various walks of lives. Feminism has altered aspects of Western society, ranging from culture to law. Feminist political activists have been concerned with issues such as a woman's right of contract and property, a woman's right to bodily integrity and autonomy (especially on matters such as reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, access to contraception and quality prenatal care); for protection from domestic violence; against sexual harassment and rape; for workplace rights, including maternity leave and equal pay; and against other forms of discrimination (Brabeck & Brown, 1997).

Criticism: Feminists and gay theorist have criticized psychology of gender for focusing
too much on gender differences believing that men and women are more similar than they are different and that the difference is due to socialization not biology. This view has been greatly criticized since many scientist believe that gender differences do exist and their basis is biological along with sociological. Moreover some researchers criticize that feminist approach has made psychology of gender to be psychology of women focusing more on women issues than equality of gender. The field of gender studies that emerged from psychology of gender is criticized for being a discipline that "philosophizes, theorizes and politicizes on the nature of the female gender" as a social construct, to the point of excluding the male gender from analysis. They also assert that the 'gender' in gender studies is "routinely used as a synonym for 'women'.

Recent Trends in Research:

Recent researches in psychology of gender have focused on the following topics: Gender differences and similarities in mate selection,

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Gender differences and similarities in sex and love, in the leadership styles and behaviour Gender differences in mathematical ability Gender differences and similarities in coping responses to anticipated workfamily conflict.

Gender Differences in Salary Gender differences in Dominance Affects of gender on personality change during adolescents The Psychology of Gender Differences in Religion Gender differences in depression, body dismorphic disorder.

Review of Research Articles: Sexual Orientation and Childhood Gender Nonconformity: Evidence From Home Videos Linsenmeier, Gygax and Bailey (2008) conducted a research to analyze whether homosexual adults tend to be more gender nonconforming than heterosexual adults in some of their behaviors, feelings, and interests. The primary aims of the research were: First, do videos reveal increased gender nonconformity in the prehomosexual children? Second, does gender nonconformity persist from childhood into adulthood? Third, do self-reports of childhood and adult gender nonconformity correspond with observer ratings? Finally, do individuals who are more gender nonconforming, both in their childhood and in adulthood, recall that others treated them more negatively as children? The authors studied indicators of childhood gender nonconformity using childhood home videos. The sample was consisted of 21 homosexual men, 20 homosexual women, 23

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heterosexual men, and 26 heterosexual women. Mean ages were 28.6 years (SD _ 7.9), 23.8 years (SD _ 5.3),25.0 years (SD _ 5.9), and 24.6 years (SD _ 7.4). Childhood gender nonconformity was assessed with the Childhood Gender Nonconformity Scale (Bailey et al., 1995), with 7 statements for each sex. Adult gender nonconformity was measured with the Continuous Gender Identity Scale (Bailey et al., 1995), with 10 items for each sex and Past Parental and Peer treatment was, A 40-item version of the Recollection of Early Child rearing Scale (Ross, Campbell, & Clayer, 1982), which is the English version of the Swedish EMBU (Egna Minnen Betraffande Uppfostran; see Gerlsma, Emmelkamp,& Arrindell, 1990), was used to assess past rejection versus acceptance by peers and parents. Along with analyzing childhood home videos the participants were videotaped for 20 min, during a casual interview. The rating of the interview and videotapes on dimensions of masculinity and femininity was done by heterosexual and homosexual raters. Multiple regression and correlation was used to analyze the result along with calculating inter-rater reliability. Results indicate that prehomosexual children were judged more gender nonconforming, on average, than preheterosexual children, and this pattern was obtained for both men and women. This difference emerged early, carried into adulthood, and was consistent with self-report. In addition, targets who were more gender nonconforming tended to recall more childhood rejection. Gender Differences and Similarities in Dominance Hierarchies in Same-Gender Groups Based on Speaking Time

In this study Mast (2001) aimed at investigating whether all-women and all-men groups differed in their hierarchical organization on the basis of dominance and stability of their rank orders across time. One hundred and sixteen European, middle-class, noncollege women and men participated in small-group discussions twice within a week with the same group members. Women were on average 36.2 years old (range: 27-47 years) and men 38.8 years (range: 28-63 years). Five participants lived together with their partner without being married, all other participants were married (average 9 years, range: 2-20 years). Participants formed 14 all-women and 14 all-men groups ranging in group size from 3 to 5. A 45-min group discussion was followed by a group decision task

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of about 30 min. Speaking time served as the behavioral dominance indicator on which group hierarchies were based. Additionally, group members rank ordered each other on dominance after each interaction. All the discussions were taped. One rater coded speaking time for all participants and a second rater coded 20% of all tapes. In the first session, all-men groups were more hierarchically structured on the basiss of dominance than all-women groups. During each session, all-women and all-men groups showed a similar significant increase in hierarchical structuring. For both women and men, rank orders remained stable during interactions and from the first to the second session.

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