Our Gender topic is dominated by the nature nurture debate, where 'nature' means biological and evolutionary explanations for observed gender differences. You need to be able to outline how sex chromosomes and the genes on them lead to hormonal differences (mainly levels of androgens including testosterone) which in turn lead to differences in brain structure at birth (mainly in the hypothalamus). Make sure you can include some evidence for these biological differences - and briefly evaluate this. None of this is really in doubt - the controversy is over whether these biological differences between the sexes are the main reason, or even a contributing reason, for (psychological) gender differences.
We are examining three strands of evidence which aim to answer this question: research involving manipulating sex hormones in animals, case studies of individuals with sex / gender mismatch, and correlation studies looking at hormonal differences and gender differences in normal populations - we will conclude this next Thursday.
Here is the PowerPoint from last Friday's lesson.
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