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PubMed1986

The significance of social identities.

Common-sense meanings of the 'individual' and the 'social' are examined emphasizing the fallacy of viewing them as denoting separate entities given in nature. The concept of social representations is used to explain the construction of these categories in terms of the particular systems of values, ideas and practices of different societies. The concept of social identity marks the individual-social interface interpreted as the construction of individuals in relation to the social representations of significant groups in their society. The earliest constructions of a social identity are traced in the domain of gender because this is a ubiquitous feature of social life, involving the differentiation of only two groups; they are obligatory and use physical differences to provide the signifiers in a semiotic system of social representations. Empirical evidence is reviewed showing that the development of a social gender identity is a complex process and involves many aspects of children's activity slowly coming to be regulated by the particular social representation of gender dominant in their society.

Child↗
PubMed1986

The neuroendocrine response of luteinizing hormone to estrogen administration in heterosexual, homosexual, and transsexual subjects.

The neuroendocrine response of LH to estrogen administration may be related to sexual dimorphism of the brain, and therefore, homosexual and especially transsexual individuals may differ from heterosexual individuals in their responses. This study failed to find such differences among groups of female heterosexuals, homosexuals, and transsexuals. Specifically, after single dose estrogen administration, all subjects had an initial decline in serum LH levels, followed by a brisk rise of equal magnitude. Among males, the type of response was less uniform. After an initial fall in serum LH levels, the individual responses varied. In 12 of 23 male homosexuals, 10 of 15 male heterosexuals, and all 6 genetic male transsexuals studied, serum LH levels remained below pretreatment levels. In the remaining 11 male homosexuals and 5 of the heterosexuals, serum LH levels increased to values exceeding those before treatment, resembling the response found in the 3 groups of women. Those homosexual and heterosexual men with a rise in serum LH levels to above pretreatment values also had the greatest fall in testosterone levels after estrogen administration, while these same men had the lowest testosterone response to hCG stimulation. I conclude from these results that 1) the similarity of LH responses to estrogen administration in all groups of women studied does not support a theory of brain androgenization as a factor in the establishment of gender identity of sexual orientation; and 2) individual differences in men in the type of LH response to estrogen administration can be satisfactorily explained by endocrine factors, such as Leydig cell function, and need not be related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or other possible causes.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Race and gender influences on adjustment in early adolescence: investigation of an integrative model.

This research investigated an integrative model of race- and gender-related influences on adjustment during early adolescence using a sample of 350 Black and White youth. In the proposed model, prejudice/discrimination events, as well as race and gender daily hassles, contribute to a general stress context. The stress context, in turn, influences levels of emotional and behavioral problems in adjustment, with these associations mediated (in part) by intervening effects on self-esteem. Racial and gender identity similarly have positive effects on adjustment via their intermediary linkages with self-esteem. Structural equation modeling analyses provided support for all of these aspects of the model. Findings also revealed theoretically predicted differences in model parameters across race by gender subgroups. These include a direct effect of prejudice/discrimination events on emotional problems specific to Black youth and an effect of gender identity on self-esteem specific to girls. Black girls appeared to be most vulnerable to exhibiting significant adjustment difficulties as a result of the processes under investigation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Psychosocial development in a genetic male surgically reassigned as a female at birth.

This paper explores the psychological development of a child who is genetically a boy (Chromosome 46XY). However, because of multiple defects, a decision was made at birth to assign the child the gender status of a girl. Research has shown that the gender-feedback effect resulting from parent-and-infant interaction even at an early age leads to the development of sexual differences in behavior. Based on this conceptual framework, this paper investigates the complex interaction of the forces that shape sexual nature. It examines the process by which this 11-year-old girl is attempting to establish her gender identity. This paper also explores the conflicts resulting from the discordance between gender and identity, and the expression of this in developmentally regressive behavior and intellectual underachievement.

Anxiety, Castration↗
PubMed2003

Space and place in the construction and performance of gendered nursing identities.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: This paper draws on recent research conducted in two contrasting NHS hospitals: one a large District General, the other a small Community hospital; to look at hospitals as organizational spaces. This includes both the physical environment as well as how these spaces are inhabited and used. This paper aims to explore the ways in which hospital spaces impact on the working lives of nurses. METHODS: The research employed two main methods. Two phases of round the clock non-participant observation were carried out within each hospital, one at the beginning of the research period and one at the end. This generated thick description of the diversity of spaces, as well as individuals' use of space. In addition, more than 50 in-depth unstructured interviews were conducted with both nurses and doctors. FINDINGS: Three aspects of the relationship between nurse and hospital spaces are considered. First, the degree of access that nurses have to the different hospital spaces is limited, and many are confined to the wards in which they work. The high proportion of female nurses working on wards means that there are marked gender differences in access to hospital spaces. There are also marked professional differences when nurses are compared to doctors who have much greater freedom to roam and there are differences in the amount of private space allocated to nurses and doctors. Second, styles of bodily movement in space are also highly differentiated by profession and gender. Third, different spaces have very different meanings attached to them, and this has a strong impact on styles of performance and identity. Attention to space thus offers original insights to nurses working conditions as well as to inter-professional relations.

Ergonomics↗
PubMed2001

Sociocultural factors influencing adolescent preference and use of native Hawaiian healers.

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have examined the use of alternative therapies among adolescents. This study examines the predictors of Native Hawaiian healer preference in the treatment of physical or emotional problems as well as the predictors of healer use. DESIGN: This study is a longitudinal cross-sectional design. SETTING: The survey was conducted in five high schools in Hawai'i. PARTICIPANTS: 1,322 high school students selected preference for and/or use of allopathic or alternative practitioners. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Grade level, gender, ethnicity and cultural identity were used to predict healer preference. Healer preference, socioeconomic status and health status were used to predict healer use. RESULTS: Identification with the Hawaiian culture was the strongest predictor of healer preference for both Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian adolescents. Mental health was also predictive of healer preference for non-Hawaiians. Healer use by Native Hawaiian adolescents was also predicted by Hawaiian cultural identity. Gender, grade level, and socioeconomic variables were not predictive of healer preference or use. CONCLUSION: Cultural identity plays a significant role in the preference and use of alternative practitioners, especially for minority adolescent populations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Clinical observations and systematic studies of autogynephilia.

The term autogynephilia denotes a male's paraphilic tendency to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of himself as a woman. This term subsumes transvestism as well as erotic ideas or situations in which women's garments per se play a small role or none at all. This review article presents clinical examples of the lesser known types of autogynephilia (i.e., those in which the element of cross-dressing is secondary or entirely absent), sketches earlier attempts to label and conceptualize these phenomena, summarizes recent quantitative studies exploring the relationships between autogynephilia and other psychosexual variables (e.g., heterosexual attraction), and speculates on the etiology of autogynephilia and its relationship to transsexualism. It is concluded that the concept of autogynephilia is needed to fill a gap in our current battery of concepts and categories for thinking about gender identity disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Sex differences in androgen receptors of the human mamillary bodies are related to endocrine status rather than to sexual orientation or transsexuality.

In a previous study we found androgen receptor (AR) sex differences in several regions throughout the human hypothalamus. Generally, men had stronger nuclear AR immunoreactivity (AR-ir) than women. The strongest nuclear labeling was found in the caudal hypothalamus in the mamillary body complex (MBC), which is known to be involved in aspects of cognition and sexual behavior. The present study was carried out to investigate whether the sex difference in AR-ir of the MBC is related to sexual orientation or gender identity (i.e. the feeling of being male or female) or to circulating levels of androgens, as nuclear AR-ir is known to be up-regulated by androgens. Therefore, we studied the MBC in postmortem brain material from the following groups: young heterosexual men, young homosexual men, aged heterosexual castrated and noncastrated men, castrated and noncastrated transsexuals, young heterosexual women, and a young virilized woman. Nuclear AR-ir did not differ significantly between heterosexual and homosexual men, but was significantly stronger than that in women. A female-like pattern of AR-ir (i.e. no to weak nuclear staining) was observed in 26- to 53-yr-old castrated male-to-female transsexuals and in old castrated and noncastrated men, 67--87 yr of age. In analogy with animal studies showing strong activational effects of androgens on nuclear AR-ir, the present data suggest that nuclear AR-ir in the human MBC is dependent on the presence or absence of circulating levels of androgen. The group data were, moreover, supported by the fact that a male-like AR-ir (i.e. intense nuclear AR-ir) was found in a 36-yr-old bisexual noncastrated male-to-female transsexual and in a heterosexual virilized woman, 46 yr of age, with high levels of circulating testosterone. In conclusion, the sexually dimorphic AR-ir in the MBC seemed to be clearly related to circulating levels of androgens and not to sexual orientation or gender identity. The functional implications of these alterations are discussed in relation to reproduction, cognition, and neuroprotection.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Sexual orientation and consistency of sexual identity.

The semantic confusion in the use of the terms sexual and gender identity and role is discussed. Theories concerning the development of the sense of sexual identity in normals have been based largely on the sense of sexual identity in sexually deviant subjects. It is suggested that such subjects may have a stronger and more consistent sense of sexual identity than subjects unaware of sexually deviant impulses. Male medical students in two consecutive years anonymously completed a questionnaire concerning their sexual orientation, preference, role, and identity. In both years, students aware of a homosexual component answered the items investigating their sexual identity with greater consistency than did the students unaware of a homosexual component.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Two subgroups of gender-problem children.

Gender-referred children who met the DSM-III diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorder of childhood (n = 21) and gender-referred children who did not meet these criteria (n = 15) were compared with regard to demographic, gender role, and behavioral disturbance information. As judged by parental questionnaires and behavioral tests, the cross-gender role behavior of gender-referred children who met the DSM-III criteria was generally more extreme than that of their non-DSM-III counterparts. These two diagnostically defined subgroups did not, however, differ in the degree of their behavioral and emotional disturbance. The DSM-III children were significantly younger than the non-DSM-III children, but the extent to which the disparity in age accounted for the gender role differences appeared equivocal. The implications of these findings for the diagnosis and assessment of gender-referred children are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed2005

Gender dysphoria and gender change in androgen insensitivity or micropenis.

This review article answers three questions relevant to the medical management and care of individuals born with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS), partial androgen insensitivity syndrome (PAIS), or a micropenis: (1) Do any of these individuals reassign themselves from their initial gender assignment? (2) Do more reassign than the ones who do not? (3) Is there evidence of gender dysphoria in those who do not self-initiate reassignment? Reviewed were all articles on CAIS, PAIS, and micropenis cited in K. J. Zucker (1999) plus articles published through 2004. There were no documented cases of gender change in individuals with CAIS (N= 156 females) or micropenis (N= 89: 79 males, 10 females). Nine (9.1%) out of 99 individuals with PAIS changed gender. Thus, self-initiated gender reassignment was rare. Gender dysphoria also appears to be a rare occurrence. The best predictor of adult gender identity in CAIS, PAIS, and micropenis is initial gender assignment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Television and the reflexive project of the self: soaps, teenage talk and hybrid identities.

The purpose of this paper is to report on qualitative research into the role of television soap opera as a resource employed by teenagers in identity work. The central methodological strategy has been to enable young people to do the research themselves. Twenty groups of young people (aged 14-15) were recruited to talk about soap opera without an adult presence. The stress in the paper is on the formative nature of language in lending form to ourselves from the disorderly flow of everyday talk and practice. I argue that the girls construct reflexive identities in two grammatical forms. Identities are instanciated in the flow of language as well as in the self-narrative of 'I'. I am centrally concerned with the production of multiple, hybrid identities amongst British Asian girls. They see themselves as Asian yet distance themselves from aspects of tradition by virtue of their participation in other domains of British culture. They are both in and out of British society and Asian culture. These identities are complicated by gender relations so that ethnic and gender identities 'cross-cut or dislocate each other'.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Beyond the he and the she: toward the reconciliation of masculinity and femininity in the postoedipal female mind.

This paper concerns a postoedipal psyche organization in the female mind whereby early overinclusive body-ego representations and cross-sex identifications are recuperated symbolically in the context of a differentiated female identity. This reintegration allows the female to symbolize what has been "lost" upon awareness of sex differences, play out masculine aspects without there being a threat to her core, primary feminine identity, and by linking rather than prohibiting cross-gender representations, provide imaginative elaboration and empathic access to another as a subject. This state does not reflect a denial of difference; rather, it reflects a psychic organization that uses symbolization to play with differences. Bisexual conflict can be mastered rather than repressed. Such mastery transcends normative, rigid, polarized sexual positions and gender conformity, perversions, and disturbed gender identity. Within the classical discourse, this mastery is suggested as an expansion of our limited and archaic notions of a genital stage specifically for the female. A new elaboration of a specific female genital stage can deepen our understanding of adult femininity and the development of cross-gender transference.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Grief and rage: collective emotions in the politics of peace and the politics of gender in Israel.

Collective emotions of rage and grief dominate Israeli political discourses regarding the Middle East conflict. The weekly peace vigils of the Women in Black who protest the state's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the opposition which the vigils encounter, publicly display politicized collective emotions. In these weekly confrontations, grief and rage articulate intense contestations regarding the politics of peace as well as the politics of gender in Israel. Rage and grief unravel two drastically different visions of transcending national vulnerabilities and two disparate constructions of gender identity.

Emotions↗
PubMed2005

Transsexual subtypes: clinical and theoretical significance.

The present study was designed to investigate whether transsexuals can be validly subdivided into subtypes on the basis of sexual orientation, and whether differences between subtypes of transsexuals are similar for male-to-female (MF) and female-to-male transsexuals (FMs). Within a large transsexual sample (n=187), homosexual and nonhomosexual subjects were compared on a number of characteristics before the start of treatment. Differences within MF and FM groups were also investigated. Homosexual transsexuals were found to be younger when applying for sex reassignment, reported a stronger cross-gender identity in childhood, had a more convincing cross-gender appearance, and functioned psychologically better than nonhomosexual transsexuals. Moreover, a lower percentage of the homosexual transsexuals reported being (or having been) married and sexually aroused while cross-dressing. The pattern of findings was different for MFs and FMs. No differences between homosexuals and nonhomosexuals were found in height, weight, or body mass index. A distinction between subtypes of transsexuals on the basis of sexual orientation seems theoretically and clinically meaningful. The results support the notion that in the two groups different factors influence the decision to apply for sex reassignment. The more vulnerable nonhomosexual transsexuals may particularly benefit from additional professional guidance before and/or during treatment.

Female↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Transgender children and youth: a child welfare practice perspective.

Using an ecological framework, the existing literature and research, and the authors' combined 60 years of clinical practice with children, youth, and families, this article examines gender variant childhood development from a holistic viewpoint where children, youth, and environments are understood as a unit in the context of their relationship to one another. The focus is limited to a discussion about the recognition of gender identity; an examination of the adaptation process through which gender variant children and youth go through to deal with the stress of an environment where there is not a "goodness of fit"; and a discussion of the overall developmental tasks of a transgender childhood and adolescence. Recommendations for social work practice with gender variant young people are presented in the conclusion of the paper.

Child↗
PubMed1978

The development of cognitive gender constancy and sex role preferences.

The chief purpose of this study was to examine the development of stable concepts of "boy" and "girl" (gender identity constancy) in kindergartners and first and second graders. Gender constancy was explored in relation to cognitive level (assessed both by grade and conservation measures); whether the concept was applied to the subject himself or to another child; whether the concept was applied to live children or pictorial representations; and sex role preferences (games, television characters, peer preferences). In support of a cognitive-developmental position, gender constancy was found to be related to cognitive level, and most children conformed to a developmental sequence (Guttman scalogram) in which conservation preceded gender constancy. Gender constancy performance was better when the concept was applied to the self versus another child and when applied to pictorial representations versus live forms. Gender constancy was not related to sex role preferences.

Child↗