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Gender Identities and Gender Roles
One has very little choice as to what sex one is born with, but identifying with a certain gender is a different story. Although an individual can be born with a given sex, that does not guarantee the development of a specific type of gender (Lahey, 2005). Gender identity can have both biological and social influential factors, and it is this that in the end, define these concepts.
By the time a child is 30 months old, they have learned what the concept of gender identity is (Coon & Mitterer, 2008). Children learn that they are part of a certain category, whether it is boy or girl, and they know how to differentiate between a boy and a girl. Although at the beginning stages of gender identity development children still believe that gender could be changed, they are aware of its existence (Lahey, 2005). In a sense however, gender is not necessarily stable, just as sex is. Gender identity is based on a choice that an individual makes....
There are also certain stereotypes associated with gender identity (Lahey, 2005). For example, automatically when an individual sees a baby girl they automatically give them something pink, or associate the color pink with their identity, just as boys are then given the color blue as an assignment to their identity. Getting roughed up and playing in the dirt is also something associated with the male identity, while playing with dolls is something that is given more direct contact with girls. These are also preconceived notions that people cannot help but falling into (Coon & Mitterer, 2008). Of course this is all a very superficial concept of gender identity, as gender is something that is chosen, again unlike sex which is biological, and although the aforementioned is what is considered "normal," these identifications could be changed according to what the individual actually feels that they want to identify…
References:
Lahey, B. (2005). Psychology: An introduction. McGraw Hill: New York, NY. 9ed.
Coon, D. & Mitterer, J.O. (2008). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior with concept maps and review. Wadsworth Publishing: Belmont, CA. 12ed.
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