The four main perspectives are: The Biological perspective, the evolutionary perspective, the social constructionist perspective and the psychoanalytic perspective.

In order to answer the question what is an individuals’ sex and gender?, the biological perspective looks at an individual’s anatomy and any other biological differences that are apparent within the brain.

Evolutionary psychology perspectives believe that sexual selection can explain sex differences. They look at how male and female behaviour relates to evolutionary factors, unlike biological psychologist who look for a biological explanation such as brain differences and chemicals such as hormones, they believe that to promote successful reproduction different characteristics and patterns of behaviour have developed in males and females. Reasons given for these differences in behaviours are factors such as the way females have a bigger investment in their offspring, the prolonged care needed in order for them to survive. A healthy and strong mate who co

It appears to be the case that boys are more rebellious and likely to reject authority then girls during school years making their education suffer, one reason for this put forward by social constructivists is the way males are made to feel that do otherwise would be to show femininity, (Willis, 1977) and this would put them in a more vulnerable position. Through history it has been a common idea that to be male gives one the advantage of having more power then to be female, it could be a case that a male who wants to belong to this advantaged group does not wish to jeopardise this position and so show the manly trait of power and rejection of rules. (Connell, 1995, Mac An Ghaill , 1994. Stainton-Rogers, 2001)

Freud believed that with the realisation of being a female an individual may realise she will miss out on many of the privileges that comes with being a male and also how they are looked upon in society as being the more powerful, with this he believed females felt penis envy, meaning she envied what it symbolised, power.

They believe that these meanings of what it is to be male or female and how they are perceived within ones own culture are taken on board by us and incorporated into our identities. Unlike social constructivists they believe that we are not conscious of this construction of our identity , rather that is an unintentional, they also do not believe our identity is constructed through language as d social constructivists do but more through our feelings towards relevant others, parents or siblings for example.

This would be the reason given by social constructivists , who look for answers about male and female identities as stemming from an individuals particular culture, they believe that all we believe to be true facts about human nature may not just be natural behaviours but also in fact constructed within our cultures through language , and changes depending on our histories and by social contexts.

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