This essay will be looking at the various perspectives on sex and gender, it will then go on to compare and contrast these views and look at the relationships between them.
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 could provide and protect herself and their child would ensure its survival making them choosier in their choice of mate and so less promiscuous then males. .
Males on the other hand are more promiscuous because he has a more extensive potential capacity to reproduce and would so increase his number of mating improving the chances of producing as many offspring as possible, this with his preference for young healthy females would be a effective reproduction strategy. Because of the competition for these more choosy females males, according to evolutionary psychologists males became larger and stronger in order to compete with other males for access to the females and also to win their approval.