Gender Identity. The concept of identity popularized by Erikson (1959) is a description of eight stages of the life cycle during which we experience and express different styles of being a person. Identity combines the senses of who I am, what I do, and how I do it. The sense of identity may be inchoate, affective, and inarticulate in the young child, while the introspective adult may articulate precise descriptions of his or her identity. Gender identity is only a part of the whole sense of identity, yet at the same time it is a core component around which nongender aspects of identity are crystallized. Failure to achieve precise gender identity may impair the development of mature, complex adult identity, whereas the mature normal adult accepts gender identity as a given quality and elaborates other identity attributes.

Experience and Identity. Several aspects of personal experience must be identified and separated: the “me” experience, the “I” experience, and the “self” experience. Each is a part of the sense of identity but not necessarily gender-linked. The “me” experience refers to the sense of being alive, of possessing what happens to myself. Such experience is present probably in early infancy, later cognated upon, and then verbalized as the sense of me. The experience of me precedes and is distinct from the acquisition of sense of gender. The experience of “I” is the conscious appreciation of ego operations such as cognition, affect, and perception. That is, one experiences the sense of I am thinking, seeing, doing, feeling, deciding, acting. Again, the sense of I precedes and is distinct from the acquisition of sense of gender.

The term ego shall be construed operationally to describe mental operations—that is, cognition, perception, affect systems. Ego operations are experienced and directed. But ego operations are impersonal. We acquire different styles of ego operation that may become part of our identity formation, for example, “I am a fuzzy-thinking person” versus “I am a clear-thinking person.” Ego styles are gender-linked. In a given culture males and females are differentially socialized in different styles of ego operations. We may say, for example, “You think like a woman” and thereby make an accurate observation of cultural influence on gender-linked ego style (Spence & Helmreich, 1978).

Self is the image of Who am I? It is a complex mental construction, including my ideal self or what I ought to be (the combined psychoanalytic ego ideal and superego), my desired self (a consciously constructed self-model), and my actual self (the observation of my person in action). Self-identity is neither innate nor epigenetic, as is true of me and I experiences. Rather, self-identity is learned, constructed, formulated, modified, and elaborated on throughout life (Gergen, 1971). Gender plays a major role in the development of self-identity. One can experience me, I, and ego operations apart from a sense of gender, but one does not experience self apart from a sense of gender.

It is obvious that sexual impulse, desire, and behavior are entwined with gender identity. Sigmund Freud interpreted sexuality as a basic determinant of identity. However, a century of research has demonstrated that sexuality is a reflection of gender identity rather than a determinant. That is, sexuality is acted out in terms of impulse, arousal, desire, and action on the basis of one’s gender-identity formation (Stoller, 1968).

Anatomy and Destiny. A major question is raised by the obvious differences between male and female appearance, behavior, and role functions. Is this biological determinism or cultural artifact? It is appealing to assume that innate biological instincts account for male-female differences. In animal species we observe highly complex social behavior that is gender-linked. However, the biologic determinants of behavior shift with animal complexity; basic instincts are the same in human, monkey, pigeon, or worm. These generate drives, which become less directive as we ascend the phylogenic ladder, so that when we reach the level of humans, instinctual drive stimuli no longer determine specific behavioral complexes.

An example of this is the sexual instinct. The amoeba reproduces asexually at a predictable rate of fission. The earthworm has both male and female sex organs and copulates with another earthworm by matching male and female genitalia in random fashion. Frogs and birds mate only during a mating season, with gender-linked stereotyped courtship behavior and with a partner for the season. Higher mammals, such as the gorilla, form generational families, choose specific mates, mate during estrous seasons, and care for the young within the family structure. Young monkeys who are reared apart from the mother do not successfully copulate or care for their own young. In the human sexuality may never be expressed, in that celibate persons may live a normal and psychologically healthy life without significant sexual experience. Or persons may use sexual behavior to quell loneliness, anxiety, or conflict without experiencing any sexual pleasure. At the same time human sexual behavior is not necessarily linked to reproductive mating.

To conclude, in terms of biologic principles we cannot appeal to differences in male and female instincts to account for male-female variations in behavior per se.

The influence of genetic variation and hormonal influences on behavior must be considered. Persons with abnormal gender chromosomal patterns may exhibit genetic defects of deformations of skeleton or muscle formation. But their behavior may not differ from that of persons with normal gender chromosomes. If we administer sex hormones to a person, what will happen? In the average person, nothing. However, in some experiments, if one administers hormones to homosexual persons, they increase their homosexual activity level. That is, sex hormones increase the drive stimuli but do not change the sexual orientation of the person. Clearly then, gender behavior, including sexual behavior, cannot be accounted for primarily on biological grounds (Money & Musaph, 1977).

Facets of Gender Identity. The development of identity is biopsychosocial. We can truly speak of psychosexual identity, but more accurately we should speak of psychogender identity, since sexuality is an expression of gender sense. Eight variables contribute to psychogender identity (Money & Ehrhardt, 1972).

Variable 1: Chromosomal Gender. In the normal pattern the female has an XX sex chromosome pattern, the male an XY. In genetic abnormalities there may be five to six sex chromosome gene patterns, each giving rise to different clinical syndromes and involving different hormonal, musculoskeletal, and genital patterns and different levels of sexual potency. Yet a person with a female chromosome pattern may be born with male-appearing genitalia, be reared as male, and behave as male, and vice versa. The sex chromosome pattern obviously does not determine gender behavior.

Variable 2: Gonadal Gender. This refers to the presence of either testes or ovaries. In the embryo the human is bisexual, and under hormonal influence one set withers and the other grows. Yet in some cases of aberrant chromosomal and/or hormonal influence, the external genitalia may develop of one gender while the gonads are of opposite gender. Thus an infant may be born with female-looking genitals along with well-developed undescended testicles, or vice versa. Again, the primary gonads do not determine gender orientation or behavior.

Variable 3: Hormonal Gender. Males and females do have distinctive hormonal systems, produced by both the gonads and other body organs. Malfunction or disequilibrium in the hormonal systems may influence the male-female balance of hormones. In turn this may result in masculinization or feminization of body traits, such as voice, hair pattern, breast development, fat deposition, skeletal growth, and development of external genitalia in embryo. In children this may result in a chromosomal and gonadal male with a female hormone balance that causes feminization of body structure, or vice versa. Nonetheless, the person will act male or female in accord with that person’s rearing, regardless of the hormonal balance or body habitus.

Variable 4: Internal Genitalia. This refers to the vagina and uterus in the female and prostate in the male. These internal organs develop in accord with embryonic hormonal patterns.

Variable 5: External Genitalia. These organs are the most visible evidence upon which we first assign gender. Yet they may be misleading. As noted, variations in chromosomal, gonadal, and hormonal variables may produce external genitalia that appear of one gender yet are opposite to all other previous gender variables. A male may not develop closure of the bilateral pubic genital tissues and appear to have a vulva. A female may have overdevelopment of the clitoris that looks like a penis. But the external genitalia do not determine gender identity.

In the case of transsexualism the person has the identity of one gender (I experience my identity as female) while having all the normal body attributes of the other gender (I live in a male body). In this instance the distinction between gender body attributes (biological) and gender identity (psychological) is clearly seen.

Variable 6: Gender of Assignment and Rearing. This refers to the label the parent gives the child as either male or female. Boys and girls are handled differently as infants by their parents. They are treated differently long before they can talk or cognate on their own gender identity. The child is socialized into a basic gender identity long before language acquisition. Such gender acquisition precedes language. The threshold for fixation of gender identity is about 18 months, while the point of no return for change in gender reassignment is about 30 months. After 4 years of age it is almost impossible to change gender assignment without severe psychological conflict in the child.

Variable 7: Core Gender Identity. This is the first basic sense of identity that is crystallized via cognition as part of self-identity. The child cognitively is able to state, I am a boy or girl. This appears to be organized as a cognitive construct between ages three or four. In contrast, the gender assignment has already been well established. It appears that when parents assign the child one gender (male) and treat the child as the other gender (female), the psychological conditions for transsexualism are created (I have been labeled a male but am treated as and expected to be a female). In psychotic regressive states we can observe similar confusion about core gender identity in patients who demonstrate no gender confusion in normal states. Persons with primitive character disorders similarly demonstrate gender identity confusion.

Variable 8: Gender Role Identity. This refers to the social patterns of appearance, behavior, and role performance associated with the sociocultural definitions of masculinity or femininity. There is probably some degree of psychological linkage between the sense of maleness or femaleness and behavior in masculine or feminine roles as defined by the culture. For example, in cultures with weak male roles the males demonstrate a higher incidence of identification with women, as in couvade (male pregnancy fantasies). One can experience a strong sense of maleness or femaleness, however, and not behave in traditional or expected gender-linked roles. For example, a feminine woman can be a police officer; a masculine man can knit doilies (Munroe & Munroe, 1977).

In the area of social gender roles there has been much confusion about the difference between gender identity and gender roles. The concept of androgyny has been promoted to do away with gender distinctions. This misses the point that gender identity is ineluctably a part of personal identity but that many social roles and behaviors need not be gender-linked (Sargent, 1977). The mature person with a secure gender identity is free to elaborate a wide variety of social role behaviors that become part of personal identity apart from gender.

Gender and Self-Identity. Although self-identity need not be tied to gender in many aspects, in another sense self-identity is always linked to gender. There are eight stages of psychological development of identity, according to Bemporad (1980). Each stage is not left behind but is incorporated into the next developmental level. Thus in the mature adult we continue to see reflections of each stage of identity.

Stage 1. In what is called an oral incorporative mode the newborn engulfs everything encountered. This style of relating to the world is to take it in and make it part of himself. The young infant does not differentiate between self and other. The lack of body boundaries, the timeless sense of fusion with the other, the experience of engulfing and being engulfed is reexperienced in adult life in sexual orgasm. The theme of incorporative identity is reflected in love play with nibbling or biting and in courtship with the primordial declaration: “I love you so much I could eat you up!”

Stage 2. Between 15 and 36 months the young child identifies the body as part of self, and body image becomes a major nidus of self-identity. Possession of body is possession of identity. The same motif is seen in adults who experience a sense of loss of identity when accident, surgery, or illness results in loss or immobilization of body parts. Where body is still a major source of self-identity and sexualized, the loss of genitalia (gonads, breasts) or sexual function may be experienced as a major loss of identity. The statement “I don’t feel like a man or a woman anymore” reflects a sexualized fixation on body as a source of identity and of gender identity.

A bit later the child extends the body boundaries to objects, clothes, or playthings as body extensions. My things are my body, are part of me. Again, in adults we see identity rooted in possessions as a source of identity or gender identity reinforced through possessions: “I have a gun, ergo I am a male!” or “I have a house, ergo I am a woman!”

Stage 3. Between 3 and 5 the child differentiates self from other objects. There is generic identification with children of the same gender. Boys and girls reinforce gender identity by modeling and emulating behavior and social roles of the same-gender parent. Play helps the child to learn how to be an adult person. Identity is related to how one looks, acts, behaves. Playing house is modeling behavior that reinforces gender identity. Identity is developed in terms of social custom that differentiates men and women. Little girls cook, bake, and sew. Little boys pound nails and mow grass. This need not and should not be preparatory role behavior for adulthood, but some gender-linked role modeling is necessary to reinforce the sense of “I am becoming a man or a woman.” This is identity through same-gender comparison.

Stage 4. Ages 5 to 7 is the oedipal period, in which identity development occurs through opposite-gender comparison. The child elaborates gender identity by modeling behavior of the same-gender parent with the opposite. The boy tries to behave with mother like father does. The girl treats father like mother does. Children will naturally emulate erotic and seductive behavior of the parent. Children act this way not because of infantile sexual strivings, as Freud suggested, but rather because they are modeling the sexy behavior of their parents. At this stage children need affirmation from both parents that these early strivings toward adult behavior are not bad and that in adulthood they will find mates to replicate the behavior of mother and father. Disapproval of either parent, fear of either parent, or failure to successfully identify with the parent of the same gender all lead to failure at this stage of identity development. In the view of some theorists, parents have, therefore, the potential to contribute to the development of a homosexual orientation. In such a view, homosexuality is not a problem of sexuality but a failure in maturation of identity development at the oedipal stage (Stoller, 1968).

Stage 5. In Latency, 7 to 12 years, the child elaborates personal identity via doing things. Skill acquisition enables the child to define personal abilities and ego coping style unique to him or her. Again, skill acquisition is in part linked to gender: learning male skills and female skills. But at this stage it is possible to also offer children androgynous skill acquisition not linked to gender but instead adding to development of unique individual skills and identity.

Stage 6. In adolescence the sense of self is heightened. Sexual drive stimuli are increased, and attraction to the opposite gender occurs. But what is the nature of the attraction? It is an exchange of mutual ideal images. The teenager falls in love with a projected image of an ideal, which is reciprocated. When the ideal image is tarnished by harsh reality, the puppy love dissolves. The attraction is reciprocated appreciation of an ideal self. When this is then eroticized, one feels a sexual attraction. Sexual interaction becomes a vehicle for reinforcement of self-identity.

Stage 7. In young adulthood a major transmutation of identity must occur from “what I do gives me identity” to “who I am gives meaning to what I do.” That is, external attributes have given value to self-identity. Now the young adult must invest in internal attributes, an internal constructed sense of self, and identity apart from external exigencies. Failure to accomplish this task results in persons who seek others, sexually or not, to reinforce their own identity, self-esteem, value, and self-worth. So-called identity crises may occur in adults who lean on external definitions of identity and therefore lose their sense of self when those externalities diminish or disappear.

Stage 8. Mature adulthood involves the capacity to share one’s identity with another. Mature love involves the capacity to retain one’s own autonomy and identity but also acquire a shared identity with a partner. Marriage and sexuality can occur without sharing the intimacy of identity. Mature love involves “growing together” (Curtin, 1973). Here gender identity merges into a joint male-female identity of a marital pair.

The biblical observations that “male and female created he them” and “the two shall become one” represent the journey of psychogender development. The child begins with genderless fusion, acquires a gender identity, and moves on to an autonomous unique personal identity. But the mature adult shares gender identity with a mate of the opposite-gender identity in a new fusion that is a gender and sexual union, two unique self-identities, and a conjoint mutual marital identity. Thus there is the sense of paradox, in that identity is on the one hand profoundly rooted in a distinct sexual gender and on the other hand unites and transcends gender.

E. M. Pattison

References

Bemporad, J. R. (Ed.). (1980). Child development in normality and psychopathology. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Curtin, M. E. (Ed.). (1973). Symposium on love. New York: Behavioral Publications.
Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. New York: International Universities Press.
Gergen, J. J. (1971). The concept of self. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Money, J., & Ehrhardt, A. A. (1972). Man and woman, boy and girl. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Money, J., & Musaph, H. (Eds.). (1977). Handbook of sexology. New York: Excerpta Medica.
Munroe, R. J., & Munroe, R. H. (1977). Cross-cultural human development. New York: Aronson.
Sargent, A. G. (1977). Beyond sex roles. St. Paul, MN: West.
Spence, J. T., & Helmreich, R. J. (1978). Masculinity and femininity. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Stoller, R. J. (1968). Sex and gender. London: Hogarth.