Process of Sexual Differentiation - Essay Example

The influence of hormones on human behavioral development is most evident in children at play; females with the condition of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) have more androgen from the male parents. These high levels of androgen in the child’s body cause her to develop partial or full male characteristics such as the development of male genitalia. The androgen levels can be corrected by hormonal treatment and surgical removal of the male genitalia; however, these differences cannot be removed completely as a child who had CAH will still display signs of masculine behavior such as preferring male toys to female toys.

In males, it is hard to distinguish between a child who has CAH and who does not have it since they do not exhibit any significant deviations from the general masculine behavior. The individuals, who were interviewed, were above the age of 18 years due to ethical and practical considerations where they were accessed on their core gender identity and sexual orientation for a lifetime and for the 12months preceding the study. The study found out that women with CAH were more likely to display male-typical behavior in their childhood as compared to the unaffected females, this behavior proceeded into adulthood where they were more likely not to rank themselves as exclusively heterosexual and were not comfortable with being a female compared to the unaffected females.

The study also found out that there was no significant difference between childhood behaviors of the males with CAH and the unaffected ones, this trend continues into adulthood with a minimal recorded decline in the probability of regarding themselves as males or dissatisfaction with their sexual orientation. The study found out that girls suffering from CAH who showed more male-typical behavior in their childhood were more likely to develop dissatisfaction with the female gender in their adulthood than those who did not suffer from the condition.

This study and other previous ones did not show any differences in males with the CAH and those that were unaffected, however, some reports argue that the males who had the condition were more likely to show signs of demasculinization of spatial abilities and hypermasculinization of finger length ratios. This study found out that the sexual orientation for males with congenital adrenal hyperplasia was less male-typical than those who did not suffer from the condition, although not to a statistically significant extent.

In the case of gender identity, the males suffering from CAH were more male-typical although not to a statistically significant extent. The limitations of the study are that it was not longitudinal and therefore part of the data used was based on retrospective reports. In addition, the measure for childhood gender-role behavior, PSAI (Pre School Assessment Inventory), which was used, was standardized for parents responding about their 2? to 7year old children while in the study it was used by adults to describe their childhood gender role behavior.

Another limitation is that the study used a small sample; therefore, it might have failed to detect any trends or characteristics that are associated with large groups.

One of the implications of this finding is that the reduced satisfaction in being a female in girls with CAH was more likely to make them suffer from gender dysphoria. Secondly, it is very important to find out why some of the females suffering from congenital adrenal hyperplasia were less satisfied by being females than others were (Hines, Brook & Conway, 2010).

The results of this research correspond with the literature review since most of the results in previous researches were similar to those in this case for instance in “Fetal androgens, human central nervous system differentiation, and behavior sex differences” Ehrhardt and Baker found out that girls who had suffered from CAH displayed male-typical play behavior and less likelihood of being heterosexuals, a characteristic which was also found in this study (Ehrhardt and Baker, 1974). In addition, Berenbaum & Hines (1992) found out that there was no significant difference in men with the disorder and those who did not have; this is confirmed in the study, which found out that there was no significant difference in males who suffered from CAH and the unaffected males. A question that remains unanswered is why the disorder does not affect men in the same way it affected women.