KEY THEME

Although the words are sometimes used interchangeably, sex refers to the biological aspects of being male and female, while gender refers to the psychological, social, and cultural aspects of masculinity and femininity.

KEY QUESTIONS

As our description of James’s life demonstrates, gender and sexuality are important components of everyone’s personal destiny. As you read this chapter, we encourage you to think about how your life has been shaped by your sex, gender, and sexual orientation. Some of the information we present in this chapter may challenge your preconceptions about sexual attitudes and behavior. Certain topics related to gender and sexuality are controversial for some people. However, our primary goal in this chapter is to present research findings in an unbiased and evenhanded fashion.

Before we begin, we need to clarify terminology. The English language is less than precise in the arena of gender and sexuality. For example, the word sex can be used to describe an activity, as in the phrase “having sex.” But the word sex is also used to indicate whether someone is biologically male or female. In this sense, the term sex refers to biologically determined physical characteristics, such as differences in genetic composition and reproductive anatomy and function (Pryzgoda & Chrisler, 2000).

In contrast, gender refers to the cultural, social, and psychological meanings that are associated with maleness and femaleness (Wood & Eagly, 2009). Think of “male” and “female” as designating the biological categories of sex, while “masculine” and “feminine” designate the social, cultural, and psychological categories of gender. As psychologists Rhoda Unger and Mary Crawford (1993) put it, “Gender is what culture makes out of the ‘raw material’ of biological sex.”

Gender roles consist of the behaviors, attitudes, and personality traits that a given culture designates as either masculine or feminine. Gender identity refers to a person’s psychological sense of self as male or female (Egan & Perry, 2001). Finally, sexual orientation refers to the direction of a person’s emotional and erotic attraction, whether toward members of the opposite sex, the same sex, or both sexes.

By the time most people reach adulthood, both gender identity and sexual orientation are well established. Often without our awareness, our behaviors, attitudes, and aspirations have been strongly influenced by the gender-role expectations of our particular culture. But it’s important to note that biological sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation can be independent of one another. For example, James’s gender identity is male, despite that fact that his biological sex at birth was female. Like most transgender people, he prefers the pronouns— he, him, his—that match his gender identity rather than his biological sex. Further, his sexual orientation is toward women rather than men. As a transgender man, he considers himself to be heterosexual.

In this chapter, we’ll take a close look at the development and consequences of male and female gender roles. We’ll also examine how sexuality develops. Later in the chapter, we’ll consider some of the ways in which the expression of sexuality can become disrupted and psychologically troubling. In Psych for Your Life, at the end of the chapter, we’ll look at ways to resolve conflicts in intimate relationships.