Outline and evaluate biosocial explanations of Gender Dysphoria
Biosocial explanations claim that biological influences interact with social influences to cause gender dysphoria. Biological influences include genetic and hormonal factors which can create a vulnerability in affected individuals to develop gender dysphoria. However, this biological vulnerability will only result in gender dysphoria if it is also combined with social influences, such as family relationships or gender-inappropriate reinforcement by parents. Therefore, the biosocial approach uses a ‘diathesis-stress’ model to explain gender dysphoria.
The biological approach to gender dysphoria is based on the idea that there are genetic and hormonal influences on brain development which create psychological differences between males and females, and may play a role in gender identity.
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It would also help to explain why there are more biological males with GD than vice versa, since fathers are much more frequently absent than mothers.
However not all males with gender dysphoria have absent fathers, only 75% according to Rekers, and there are males with absent fathers who do not go on to develop gender dysphoria, therefore these social factors can also not be the only factors influencing gender dysphoria and biological factors are likely to be important too. Further supporting how it is likely to be biological and social factors working together.
Therefore gender dysphoria is likely best explained through a biosocial approach of nature and nurture working together. It could be the biological differences in brain structures in some people which cause a vulnerability, and then social developmental factors, such as having no father figure or overly close mother-son relationship is more likely to trigger gender dysphoria, working as a diathesis-stress model. Individual differences in people will mean that this doesn’t always apply to