0
0

Chapter 36. Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation

Kenneth J. Zucker, Ph.D.
DOI: 10.1176/appi.books.9781585623921.465192

Sections

Excerpt

Gender identity refers to a person's basic sense of self as a male, a female, or some other "third" type of gendered subjectivity. By the age of 3, most children demonstrate the rudimentary capacity to self-label their gender identity. Thus, most preschoolers can answer "correctly" the basic question "Are you a boy or a girl?" However, most preschoolers do not appreciate that gender is an invariant aspect of the self. Thus, 3-year-olds may not understand that they will grow up to be a man or a woman, or they may believe that if they engage in cross-gender surface behaviors this will alter their gender. It is not until a few years later that children appear to master the concept of gender constancy (Zucker et al. 1999). Children also attach affective meaning to being a boy or a girl. There is, for example, a tendency among young children to "overvalue" their own gender and "devalue" the other gender, a phenomenon that developmental and social psychologists have studied under the rubric of "in-group" and "out-group" biases (Susskind and Hodges 2007).

Your session has timed out. Please sign back in to continue.
Sign In Your Session has timed out. Please sign back in to continue.
Sign In to Access Full Content
 
Username
Password
Sign in via Athens (What is this?)
Athens is a service for single sign-on which enables access to all of an institution's subscriptions on- or off-site.
Not a subscriber?

Subscribe Now/Learn More

PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-IV-TR® library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development.

Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing PsychiatryOnline@psych.org or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.).

+

CME Activity

Add a subscription to complete this activity and earn CME credit.
Sample questions:
1.
By which age have most children established their gender identity?
2.
All of the following statements regarding epidemiology and comorbidity of gender identity disorder (GID) in children and adolescents are correct except
3.
Based on up-to-date research, all of the following statements regarding the etiology of gender identity disorder (GID) are correct except
NOTE:
Citing articles are presented as examples only. In non-demo SCM6 implementation, integration with CrossRef’s “Cited By” API will populate this tab (http://www.crossref.org/citedby.html).
Related Content
Articles
Books
Dulcan's Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry > Chapter 1.  >
Dulcan's Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry > Chapter 2.  >
Dulcan's Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry > Chapter 3.  >
Dulcan's Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry > Chapter 4.  >
Dulcan's Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry > Chapter 5.  >
Topic Collections
Psychiatric News
PubMed Articles
 
  • Print
  • PDF
  • E-mail
  • Chapter Alerts
  • Get Citation