Biological Bases of Psychological Sex Differences

Abstract

\s=b\The mammalian process of sexual differentiation is briefly outlined. It is argued that in becoming girl or boy there are certain constraints and biases placed on the developing individual, some of these stemming from physiological bases, others from sensory-perceptual ones. These bases in turn affect the salience environmental factors for the two sexes. The different "behavioral styles" of boys and girls are thus a consequence of the transaction between the environment and these predispositions. The psychosexual anomalies are reviewed as instructive cases. Differences in neural organization and cerebral asymmetry are considered as further evidence of sexual dimorphism in humans.(Am J Dis Child 132: [170][171][172][173][174][175][176][177] 1978) Phyl ogeneti cal l y, each individual belongs to a species and thereby shares with other members of that species certain characteristics, some of which may be unique to the species (such as tear ducts, opposition of thumb and first digit, or language, in From the

Are Short-Term Temporal Relationships between Depressive and Anxious Symptoms Moderated by Sex?

“…Fifth and last, the obtained sex difference in the present study is intriguing and points toward needed future work, but our present study was limited in that it was not designed to explicate mechanisms of obtained sex differences. Future work should identify what psychological, sociological, genetic, hormonal, and physiological differences between males and females are responsible for this observed sex difference (see Hutt, 1978). Findings from these multi-disciplinary threads of research would prove useful for the design and implementation of sex-tailored screening tools and interventions.…”

Evidence of Sex-specific Differences in Masticatory Jaw Movement Patterns

“…Neuroanatomists have found sex differences in the central nervous systems of laboratory animals Gorski, 1984;Hines et al, 1992) and humans (Gorski, 1978;Gorski, 1990, 1992;Allen et al, 1991;Aboitiz et al, 1992). These anatomical differences have been correlated with sex-specific behaviors in laboratory animals (Gorski, 1978;Hines et al, 1987Hines et al, , 1992Raum et al, 1990), and investigators have argued that sex-specific brain differences account for gender-specific perceptual, cognitive, and motor differences (Hutt, 1978;Stoner, 1978; Allen et al, 1991;Ames, 1991;Hines and Kaufman, 1994). Developmental psychologists have found compelling sex-and gender-specific differences in the behavior of infants, children, and adolescents (Goldberg and Lewis, 1969;Weisfeld, 1979;Zucker et al, 1982;Zuger, 1984;Phillips and Over, 1992;Hines and Kaufman, 1994;Alexander and Hines, 1994;Lobel, 1994), suggesting that sex specificity develops early.…”

Genetic and physical studies of male children with psychological gender disturbances

“…Meyer-Bahlburg, 1977), although biological abnormalities may theoretically be a potential contributing factor (e.g. Hutt, 1978). It is possible that some children referred for gender behaviour disturbance or cross-gender identification may be previously undetected cases of pseudo-or true hermaphroditism.…”