Biologically Based Theory

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Biologically based theories have also aimed to explain gender development, proposing that gender differences in socialisation are the outcome of physiological mechanisms existing either before, or after birth in later development. It has been proposed that gender identity develops early in life, and sex seems to be an important social category for children (Martin & Ruble, 2009; Serbin et al., 1994). Later, in puberty, perhaps due to the increasing sexual interest, opposite-sex peers regain prominence. Tezler et al. (2015) support this theory emphasising the role of the amygdala, part of the brain responsible for detecting salient and motivationally applicable cues in the social world (Cunningham & Brosch, 2012), and developmentally changing salience of social …show more content…
Their findings showed that children’s behavioural biases favouring sex in-group versus the out-group noticed from the age of four were associated with different parts of the amygdala response to in-group versus out-group sex faces. Furthermore, they confirmed prior research (Zosuls et al.,2011; Trautner et al., 1992) observing a developmental decline in participants favouring their own sex group over the opposite sex group. This proposes that sex-related behaviours change over time, in contrast with what Cognitive Developmental theory supports.
Research based on the biological approach has examined the extent to which hormones which influence the neural substrates of the brain, have an effect on gender differences in personal attributes and behaviours. Sex biases have been observed in a variety of species (Mahajan et al., 2011; Alexander & Hines, 2002) and have been found to increase during puberty when the brain undergoes a social reorientation (Nelson et al., 2005; Sisk & Foster, 2004). Research suggests that when females are exposed to androgenic hormones before birth, they tend to show increased
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