1420 



HORMONAL REGULATION OF BEHAVIOR 



TABLE 23.8 



to result in more sophisticated fantasy ma- 

 terial. The data also show that, although 

 auto-erotic genital activity, usually mas- 

 turbatory, occurred more often among girls 

 who had been supplied with estrogen, such 

 activity was by no means precluded by the 

 total absence of gonadal hormones. The one 

 patient noted in the column for homo-erotic 

 activity of any sort had engaged in transient 

 homo-erotic play during her preteen years; 

 this girl has been described in greater detail 

 elsewhere (Hampson, Hampson and Money, 

 1955). In a general way, it appeared that 

 with increasing age, the likelihood of at 

 least some heterosexual social and erotic 

 encounters was increased even in the ab- 

 sence of estrogen therapy. In this regard, 

 however, both qualitative and quantitative 

 differences were observed before and after 

 the secondary sexual changes of puberty 

 had been induced with estrogen treatment. 

 It seemed likely that this difference could 

 be accounted for by the increased social 

 opportunities opened up by a maturing body 

 appearance. 



3. Gender Role Identification and Gender 

 Role Preference 



It is a common observation, substantiated 

 by clinical and experimental findings 

 (brown, 1956; Rabban, 1950), that be- 

 ginning as early as the third year of life 

 some children express a preference to have 

 been born, or even to be, of the sex opposite 

 that in which they are being reared. This 

 unexpected role preference, in our western 

 civilization at least, is encountered far more 

 frequently in girls than in boys. In Brown's 

 ( 1958) study of middle-class children be- 

 tween the ages of 3V2 to IP/2 years, the 

 boys expressed a considerably stronger pref- 

 erence for the masculine role than did the 

 girls for the feminine role. A number of 

 studies have shown that even among adults, 

 up to 12 times as many women as men re- 

 port sometimes wishing that they were of 

 the opposite sex (Terman, 1938; Gallup, 

 1955) . Unless one is aware of this phenome- 

 non and the reasons for its occurrence it 

 may be a major source of error in the 



