MEASURMENT
OF GENDER IDENTITY
Introduction
Gender identity is one’s personal
experience of one’s own gender. Gender identity can correlate with assigned sex
at birth, or can differ from it completely. All societies have a set of gender categories
that can serve as the basis of the formation of a person’s social identity in relation
to other members of society. In most societies, there is a basic division
between gender attributes assigned to males and females, a gender binary to
which most people adhere and which includes expectations of masculinity and
femininity in all aspects of sex and gender :biological sex, gender identity
and gender expression. In all societies, some individuals do not identify with
some of the aspects of gender that are assigned to their biological sex : some
of those individuals are transgender or gender queer. Some societies have third
gender categories. Core gender identity is usually formed by age three.
Definitions of Gender Identity
v
‘‘Gender identity is the
accumulation of characteristics by which an individual is recognized by himself
and others.’’ -Encyclopedia
of Gender.
v
‘‘It refers to the sexual
orientation and sexual identity categories gay, lesbian and bisexual.’’
-Wikipedia.
v
‘‘Gender identity is one’s
perception of having a particular gender, which may or may not correspond to
the gender they were assigned at birth. -Oxford
Dictionaries’’
Age of Formation
There are several theories about
how and when gender identity forms and studying the subjects is difficult
because children’s’ lack of language requires to make assumptions from indirect
evidence. Lawrence Kohlberg argues that
‘gender identity does not form until age three’. It is widely agreed that
core gender identity is firmly formed by age three. At this point, children can
make firm statements about their gender and tend to choose activities and toys
which are considered appropriate for their gender (such as dolls and painting
for girls, and tools and rough-housing for boys).After age three, core gender
identify is extremely difficult to change and attempts to reassign, it can
result in gender dysphoria (gender identity disorder) .
Factors influencing formation
v
Nature Vs nurture (environment Vs
heredity)
v
Family, authority figures, mass
media and other influential people.
v
Biological Factors : Sex
determining hormones
Present Views
As
of 2014, there is some changing of views and new discrepancies about the best
way to deal with gender nonconformity. Some members of the medical field, as
well as increasing number of parents, no longer believe in the idea of
conversion therapy. On the other hand, there are still a large number of
clinicians who believe that there should be interventions for gender
nonconforming children. They believe that stereotypical gender-specific toys and
games will encourage children to behave in their traditional gender roles. Trans
sexual self identified people sometimes wish to undergo physical surgery to
refashion their primary sexual characteristics, secondary characteristic or
both, because they feel they will be more comfortable with different genitalia.
This may involve removal of penis, testes or breasts.
Measurement of Gender Identity
Early gender identity research
hypothesized a single bipolar dimension of masculinity-femininity, with masculinity
and femininity being Opposites on one continuous series. Assumptions of the one
– dimensional model were challenged as social stereotypes changed, which led to
the development of a two – dimensional gender identity model. In the model, masculinity
and femininity were conceptualized as two separate and orthogonal dimensions, coexisting
in varying degrees within an individual. This conceptualization on femininity
and masculinity remains the accepted standard today.
Two
instruments incorporating the multi dimensional nature of masculinity and femininity
have dominated gender identity research :
·
The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI)
and
·
The Personal Attributes
Questionnaire (PAQ).
The Bem Sex Role Inventory
The
Bem Sex Role Inventory is a measure of masculinity-femininity and gender roles.
It assesses how people identify themselves psychologically. Sandra Bem’s goal
of the BSRI was to examine psychological androgyny and provide empirical
evidence to show the advantage of a shared masculine and feminine personality
versus a sex- typed categorization. The
test is formatted with 60 different personality traits which participants rate
themselves based on a 7 point Likert scale. Traits are evenly dispersed,20
masculine,20feminine and 20 filler traits thought to be gender neutral. All
traits in the BSRI are positively valued personality aspects..Rate yourself ion
each item from 1 (never or almost true) to 7(always or almost true).This test requires approximately 7-15
minutes.
Personal Attributes Questionnaire
Personal Attributes Questionnaire was
developed by Spence, Helmreich & Stapp in 1973.
Instructions
The
items below inquire about what kind of person you think you are. Each item
consists of a PAIR of characteristic with the letters A-E in between. For example
Not
at all realistic A-B-C-D-E Very realistic
The letters from a scale between
the two extremes. You are to choose a letters which describes where you fall on
the scale. For example, if you think that you have no artistic ability, you
would choose A. If you think that you are pretty good, you might choose D. If
you are only medium, you might choose C and so forth.
Both instruments categorize
individuals as either being
v
Sex typed
v
Cross sex typed
v
Androgynous
Conclusion
The
Bem Sex Role Inventory and Personal Attributes Questionnaire are the most
popular measures of personality traits that pertain to men and women. Bem’s
scale in particular,helped to popularize the concept of psychological androgyny
or the notion that an individual may possess both masculine and feminine
characteristics.
Bibliography
Soundararajan,M.(2016).Course material for B.Ed. Chennai:Department
of Value
Education.
Anitha.(2016).Gender ,School and Society.Chennai:
Everest Publishers
McHugh,C.M.(1997).Gender related measures overview.Retrived
from
Alexander,Z.(2003).Gender identity and its measurement in
children.Retrived from
www.journal.sagepub.com.
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