Dse212

Psychologists can study the same topic from different perspectives, enabling them to focus their enquiry in different ways.   These perspectives ask different questions, use different methods and produce different evidence.   They can be seen as complementary, co-existing or conflicting.   This essay aims to examine the perspectives psychologists pursue when studying the topics of “sex and gender” and “language and meaning”, looking at the questions they ask, their methods and the knowledge they produce. Psychologists working within their perspective can be limited when conducting their research because of their particular focus of enquiry so perhaps for more knowledge to be gained on the same topic; more than one perspective must be studied.   The perspectives chosen for the above topics will be discussed and will show how they may work together to give a clearer understanding of the topic, co-exist or conflict.

The study of “sex and “gender” is concerned with the complex interaction of nature and nurture in shaping the similarities and differences between men and women (as cited in Hollway, Cooper, Johnston and Stevens, 2007).   Biological psychologists ask questions about differences between men and women at the level of hormones, genetic inheritance and brain structure (as cited in Hollway et al., 2007).   The biological perspective is concerned with the nature aspect and its contribution to the male/female behaviours.   Biological processes and their effects on behavioural differences between men and women are investigated through scientific procedures, including brain imaging techniques.   The scientific methods used in the biological perspective can sometimes be unreliable.   The genetic sex testing at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 was abandoned due to several cases beforehand where female athletes were found to have a male chromosome.   Testing for hormone levels through blood samples do show that the levels fall into the normal range for one sex.   However, it has...