AQA A-level Psychology (7182): Paper 3 – Gender – Revision Notes

These notes condense the full Gender study guide. Read that first if any idea here is new.

They follow the Gender topic in the AQA AS and A-level Psychology (7181, 7182) specification, Version 1.4 (1 September 2025), for teaching from September 2025, section 4.3.3. Gender is one of three topics in option 1 of Paper 3: Issues and Options in Psychology, and is examined in Section B (24 marks). Paper 3 is 2 hours, 96 marks and 33.3% of the A-level. Track your progress on the AQA A-level Psychology checklist, find related material on the AQA A-level Psychology hub, and test yourself with the Gender practice questions.

Paper 3 in one box

Section	Content (as the specification prints it)	Marks
A	Issues and debates in Psychology (compulsory)	24
B	One topic from option 1: Relationships, Gender, Cognition and development	24
C	One topic from option 2: Schizophrenia, Eating behaviour, Stress	24
D	One topic from option 3: Aggression, Forensic Psychology, Addiction	24

Each section uses multiple choice, short answer and extended writing.

Key terms

Term	Definition
Biological sex	Physical differences: chromosomes, hormones, reproductive anatomy
Gender	The psychological and social experience of being a man, woman or another identity
SRY gene	Gene on the Y chromosome that triggers testes development
Testosterone	Androgen made mainly by the testes; drives male development before birth and at puberty
Oestrogen	Hormone made mainly by the ovaries; female secondary sex characteristics and menstrual cycle
Oxytocin	Hormone released in labour and breastfeeding; linked to social bonding
Androgen insensitivity syndrome	XY; cells do not respond (fully or partly) to androgens
Klinefelter’s syndrome	XXY; male; lower testosterone, usually infertile
Turner syndrome	One X chromosome (XO); female; short stature, ovaries develop atypically
Binary identity	Identifying as either a man or a woman
Non-binary	Identity not exclusively man or woman
Gender fluid	Identity that changes over time
Androgyny	On the BSRI, scoring high on both masculine and feminine traits
Gender identity (Kohlberg)	Can label own gender; thinks it could change
Gender stability	Knows gender is stable over time, not across situations
Gender constancy	Knows gender is stable over time and situations
In-group schema	Detailed knowledge about one’s own gender
Out-group schema	Knowledge about the other gender, largely ignored by young children
Gender incongruence	Marked, persistent mismatch between experienced gender and sex assigned at birth (ICD-11 term)

Theories and studies at a glance

Who	What	Finding	One evaluation point
Bem (1974)	BSRI: 60 traits, 7-point self-rating	Masculine and feminine scored separately; androgynous = high on both	Traits from 1970s US students; may lack temporal and cultural validity
Taylor et al. (2000)	“Tend and befriend”	Women’s stress response linked partly to oxytocin	Theoretical model; does not show gender differences are only hormonal
Berenbaum and Hines (1992)	Girls with CAH (high prenatal androgens)	Preferred toys typically chosen by boys more than female relatives did	Parents’ treatment may have played a part
Van Goozen et al. (1995)	Trans people receiving hormone treatment	Testosterone raised aggression; anti-androgens lowered it	Small sample; hormone effects only
Diamond and Sigmundson (1997)	Follow-up of David Reimer	Raised as a girl after an injury; rejected that identity	A single unique case
Imperato-McGinley et al. (1979)	Dominican Republic community, XY children appearing female at birth	17 of 18 raised as girls changed to a male identity during or after puberty	Community attitudes may also explain the change
Kohlberg (1966)	Stages: identity, stability, constancy	Gender learning driven by cognitive maturity	Gender-typed preferences appear before constancy (Martin and Little, 1990)
Slaby and Frey (1975)	Children watched a film of male and female adults	Higher-constancy children attended more to the same-sex model (significant for boys only)	Supports Kohlberg, but weaker for girls
Martin and Halverson (1981)	Gender schema theory	Gender identity alone is enough to start schemas	Does not explain where schema content comes from
Martin and Halverson (1983)	Memory for gender-inconsistent pictures	Children distorted them to fit stereotypes	Supports schema-driven memory
Bradbard et al. (1986)	Unfamiliar objects labelled for boys or girls	Children explored and recalled more about own-gender objects	Lab task; artificial
Fagot (1978)	Parents observed with toddlers	Parents reacted more positively to gender-typical play	Supports direct reinforcement
Smith and Lloyd (1978)	Mothers played with a six-month-old infant dressed and named as a boy or girl	Toy choice and play style varied with the perceived sex	Shows reinforcement starts early
Mead (1935)	Three societies in Papua New Guinea	Different gender roles, e.g. Tchambuli women dominant	Criticised as subjective; later fieldwork questioned her account
Williams and Best (1990)	Cross-national study of stereotypes	Broad agreement on stereotypes across many countries	Suggests some universality
Furnham and Farragher (2000)	Adverts in Britain and New Zealand	Men in autonomous roles, women in familial roles	Correlational; effect on viewers not measured
Williams (1986)	“Notel”, a Canadian town before and after TV	Children’s gender stereotyping increased	Natural experiment; other changes possible
Zhou et al. (1995)	Post-mortem BSTc in trans women	BSTc size female-typical	Chung et al. (2002): difference emerges only in adulthood

Must-know distinctions

• Sex vs gender. Sex is biological; gender is psychological and social.
• Klinefelter’s vs Turner. Klinefelter’s is XXY and male. Turner syndrome is one X and female.
• Non-binary vs gender fluid. Non-binary is not exclusively man or woman. Gender fluid changes over time.
• Stability vs constancy. Stability is across time. Constancy is across time and situations.
• Kohlberg vs gender schema theory. Kohlberg says active gender learning starts at constancy (about 6). Martin and Halverson say it starts with basic identity (about 2 to 3).
• Direct vs vicarious reinforcement. Direct: the child is rewarded. Vicarious: the child sees a model rewarded.
• BSRI vs identity. The BSRI measures self-rated traits, not gender identity.
• Gender incongruence vs gender dysphoria. Incongruence is the ICD-11 term for the mismatch itself. Dysphoria (DSM-5) refers to the distress it may cause.

Issues and debates hooks

Gender essays reward links to wider debates. Use them briefly and tie each to a named theory. The debates themselves are covered in the Issues and debates revision notes.

• Nature-nurture: biological explanations stress nature; SLT stresses nurture; schema theory sits between, with maturing cognition shaped by the information a culture supplies.
• Determinism: hormonal explanations are close to biological determinism; cognitive theories allow the child an active role.
• Reductionism: explaining gender through testosterone alone reduces a complex identity to one level of explanation.
• Cultural bias: much of the research, including the BSRI, comes from Western samples.
• Social sensitivity: research on gender incongruence can affect how a group is treated, so wording and interpretation matter.

Mini essay plan

Question type: “Compare Kohlberg’s theory with gender schema theory as explanations of gender development.” [16]

1. AO1 Kohlberg: three stages, approximate ages, constancy triggers imitation of same-gender models.
2. AO1 gender schema theory: identity starts schemas; in-group vs out-group; schemas filter memory and attention.
3. AO3 support: Slaby and Frey (1975) for Kohlberg; Martin and Halverson (1983) and Bradbard et al. (1986) for schemas.
4. AO3 challenge: gender-typed preferences before constancy (Martin and Little, 1990) challenge Kohlberg but fit schema theory.
5. AO3 issues and debates: both see the child as active, a strength over SLT. Both are nurture-light: they do not explain schema content without culture. Cultural bias: research is mostly Western.
6. Judgement: schema theory explains early gender behaviour better, but a full account combines cognition with social learning and biology.

Keep the description tight. Spend most of your time on linked evaluation; your teacher will confirm how the marks split.

Quick self-test

1. Which hormone is linked to labour, breastfeeding and bonding?
2. What chromosome pattern is found in Klinefelter’s syndrome?
3. What happens in complete androgen insensitivity syndrome?
4. Define a gender fluid identity.
5. How many traits does the BSRI contain, and how are they split?
6. What BSRI category describes someone low on both scales?
7. Name Kohlberg’s three stages in order.
8. What is an out-group schema?
9. Name one SLT process apart from reinforcement.
10. Which study looked at a town before and after television arrived?
11. What did Chung et al. (2002) find about the BSTc?
12. Where is gender incongruence classified in ICD-11?

Answers

1. Oxytocin.
2. XXY.
3. An XY person’s cells do not respond to androgens, so external genitals are female and testes are internal.
4. A gender identity that changes over time.
5. 60: 20 masculine, 20 feminine, 20 neutral fillers.
6. Undifferentiated.
7. Gender identity, gender stability, gender constancy.
8. Knowledge about the other gender, which young children tend to ignore.
9. Identification, modelling, or a mediational process (attention, retention, motor reproduction, motivation).
10. Williams (1986), the “Notel” study.
11. The sex difference in BSTc size does not appear until adulthood.
12. Under conditions related to sexual health, not as a mental disorder.

Where marks are usually lost

• Swapping the chromosome patterns for Klinefelter’s and Turner syndrome.
• Describing oxytocin only as “the love hormone” with no link to biological sex or bonding.
• Saying the BSRI measures gender identity or that it has three categories. It gives four classifications.
• Defining gender stability and constancy as the same thing.
• Giving SLT evaluation that could apply to any behaviour, such as aggression, with no gender example.
• Using David Reimer as proof without noting it is one unique case.
• Writing about gender incongruence in stigmatising language, or giving your own verdict instead of weighing evidence.
• Spending most of a 16-mark answer on description, leaving little room for evaluation.

Next steps

Revisit social learning theory in the Approaches in Psychology study guide, then attempt the Gender practice questions under timed conditions.

Official syllabus

AQA AS and A-level Psychology (7181, 7182) specification, Version 1.4 (1 September 2025), for teaching from September 2025. Gender is section 4.3.3; the Paper 3 structure is set out in section 2.2.