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gender - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Klinefelter’s Syndrome is characterised by the genotype XXY, and affects those who are biological males. However, due to this additional X chromosome, sufferers develop facial and physical characteristics similar to that of a female e.g. a soft face with no prominent jawline and gynecomastia (development of breasts, and therefore the associated risks of breast cancer). From a psychological viewpoint, individuals with Klinefelter’s Syndrome are generally clumsy (perhaps due to their long limbs) and achieve poorer than average scores on tests assessing visuo-spatial and reading skills. Therefore, the psychological and cognitive symptoms are generally negative
    - - Turner’s Syndrome is classified as an absence of two copies of the X sex chromosome, resulting in only 45 chromosomes and a genotype of X0. Females with Turner’s Syndrome develop facial and physical characteristics similar to that of a male e.g. broad shoulders and neck, a lack of menstrual cycles or ovaries (resulting in sufferers being infertile, but still able to reproduce through IVF) and having the appearance of being ‘young’ and developmentally immature. Sufferers will display significantly advanced reading skills, but struggle with social communication and visuo-spatial tasks. Therefore, the psychological and cognitive symptoms can be positive!
    - - The key differences between the two syndromes are who they affect (males or females), the symptoms they produce, their effects on chromosome numbers (those with Klinefelter’s Syndrome still have the normal 46 chromosomes) and the positive or negative nature of these symptoms
    - - The typical sex chromosome pattern for males is XY and for females, is XX. However, atypical sex chromosome patterns can result in Klinefelter’s Syndrome for males, and Turner’s Syndrome for females
    - - :check: An improved understanding of the biological basis and development of Klinefelter’s and Turner’s Syndrome may lead to the development of highly effective treatments for both
      - :no_entry: Biological determinism
  - - - Gender identity disorder occurs when an individual believes that their biological sex is not in accordance with their gender, and so they choose to identify with the opposite gender. The distress and anxiety that comes from this means that GID is considered a psychological disorder. • This disorder may have a genetic basis, as suggested by Zhou et al (1995). These researchers suggested that a potential cause for GID lies in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, which is significantly larger in males than in females, and was further supported by Kruijver et al (2000). If this dimorphic feature was to occur in females, then this may potentially cause the individual to favour identifying as a male, as opposed to a female
    - - Genetic explanations have mainly focused on twin studies, as suggested by Coolidge et al (2002). These researchers found that GID occurred in 2.3% of 157 pairs of twins and that over half of such a prevalence could be explained by genetics. Considering that MZ twins share 100% of genes with each other, whilst DZ twins are 50% of their genes, this is also indicative of a biological/genetic basis for GID