In conclusion, I think that cross-cultural studies into gender differences has certainly provided a lot of evidence over the years to show that gender differences are a socially shaped. Traditions and values certainly shape cultural ideas

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Tutor-marked Assignment C

Question 1

a) The term androgyny is the meaning for a person who uses both male and female characteristics.

b) Content analysis is the analysing of different communications and the sort of message they're giving out. An example of this is a study of British TV adverts conducted by Manstead and McCulloch in 1981. They found evidence that stereo-typing of the male and female role was significant and that because of this, the adverts are likely to play an active part in shaping cultural attitudes towards women.

c) One study in which the experimental method was used was by Money & Erhardt (1972). They were interested in seeing whether a boy who's identity had been changed would develop as a biological male or, because of his new identity, a male. They could compare this with his identical twin brother.

The method was that due to an accident during surgery, this child of 7 months suffered injuries to his genitals so badly that the doctors advised to the parents that he should be castrated and given plastic surgery to create a female appearance. During adolescence, the hormone oestrogen was given to the child (known as Joan) to encourage breast development. Money monitored the behaviour of Joan until early adolescence.
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The results were that Joan did in fact develop as a normal female. She assumed a traditional female identity and was far more feminine than her identical twin brother.

The conclusion to this experiment is that if it was presented in the nature vs. nurture debate, nurture would win in this case. Even though Joan was a biological male, the results showed that Joan developed a female gender identity.

d) The use of cross-cultural research to investigate gender differences is essentially to point the differences in cultures by environmental factors, shaping the development of gender identity.
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