1416 



HORMONAL REGULATION OF BEHAVIOR 



of life as largely occupied by OedipaP" 

 operations culminating in the resolution of 

 the innate bisexual conflict. 



Despite the fact that the concept of in- 

 nate bisexual instincts has been repeatedly 

 challenged on theoretical grounds (Rado, 

 1940) during the past two decades, the no- 

 tion continues to enjoy doctrinaire status. 

 That this is so is rather remarkable, for the 

 bulk of modern research, both in animals 

 and man, points unequivocally to the im- 

 portance of learning in the establishment of 

 those behavioral and psychologic character- 

 istics which in humans we speak of as per- 

 sonality. Thus an individual learns ways of 

 behaving through the experiences he en- 

 counters and transacts and not by virtue of 

 an endowment of inbuilt imperatives for one 

 or another mode of functioning and behav- 

 ing. The evidence of human hermaphro- 

 ditism, as cited earlier, is substantially in 

 agreement with this point of view provided 

 it be allowed that learning includes an in- 

 dividual's experiences, as mediated by his 

 own uniquely individual perceptual-cogni- 

 tional capacities, with his own body mor- 

 phology and physiologic functioning. 



The accrued evidence strongly suggests 

 that the beginnings of gender-specific psy- 

 chologic characteristics are, to an important 

 extent, acquired, and so become manifest, 

 very early in life, probably during the first 

 2V2 or 3 years. This early period for gender 

 role learning may quite legitimately, it is 

 thought, be designated a critical -period, the 

 effects of which persist throughout the life 

 of the individual. One item of evidence for 

 this comes from the psychologic studies 

 (Hampson, 1955) of children and adults 

 who had undergone a reassignment of sex 

 status at some time in their lives. Some, but 

 not all of these hermaphroditic individuals 



fantile genital stage maleness had emerged but no 

 femaleness. Not until puberty was the polarity of 

 male and female established. 



'" Stated briefly, the Freudian Oedipus complex 

 consists of a sexual attraction for the parent of the 

 opposite sex and a hostile dislike for the parent of 

 the same sex. The child's sexual identification is 

 then thought to occur as a defense against his 

 projected hostile impulses and a fear of retaliation. 

 Although it cannot be denied that this sequence 

 of events may sometimes occur it is contrary to 

 the facts to consider seriously that this is the only, 

 or even the most important means by which a 

 child establishes his gender identity. 



were hyperadrenocortical hermaphrodites. 

 Data on 12 of these patients are shown in 

 Figure 23.2. Only patients who had been 

 studied at least 6V2 years and up to a maxi- 

 mum of 20 years after the reassignment of 

 sex were included. In each instance an ap- 

 praisal was made of the pervasive thorough- 

 ness of sexual orientation in the sex assigned 

 at the change using the criteria for gender 

 role discussed earlier in this chapter. An ap- 

 praisal was also made in each case of the 

 successfulness and stability of day-to-day 

 adjustment with deliberate intention, if any 

 doubt existed, of erring on the side of over- 

 scrupulousness rather than allowing any 

 benefit of the doubt. 



Of the 5 who were reassigned before their 

 first birthday all but 1 had no subsequent 

 disturbance psychologically. This one child, 

 living as a girl, growing uj) in circumstances 

 of family turmoil and chaos, and subjected 

 to repeated thoughtless comments about the 

 time "when you were a boy" had begun to 

 disi)lay truant behavior at school and some 

 degree of uncertainty about her gender 

 status. With only 1 exception the 7 patients 

 reassigned later than the first birthday were 

 rated as inadequately adjusted. The ex- 

 ception was a boy who, in all fairness, had 

 to be rated as adequately adaptive, inas- 

 much as the problems he had were typical 

 for many boys of his religious and moral 

 upbringing, and likely to be transient. The 

 three patients reassigned at the age of 4 

 or after had varying degrees of confusion 

 and ambivalence with regard to their gender 

 status. 



The importance of the earliest years of 

 life for gender role learning is illustrated in 

 Figure 23.2. However, one should not infer 

 from such data any hard and fast date-line 

 for either the beginning or the ending of the 

 early critical period for gender orientation 

 but merely the broad limits. Such a view is 

 in agreement with the findings of other in- 

 vestigators who have seen gender-role dif- 

 ferentiation beginning about the second 

 year of life and becoming firmly established 

 by the third year, by which age roughly 75 

 per cent of children can distinguish between 

 the sexes and identify themselves as boys or 

 girls (Gesell, Ilg and Ames, 1940; Seward, 

 1946). Although the development of gender 

 role is a continuing process throughout the 



