Boyd, D. & Bee, H. (2012). Lifespan Development (7th. Ed.). New York: Allyn & Bacon
A Closer Look: Gender Issues in Young Children: What would you do?
So far, you have been exposed to different theories and perspectives on how our sex and gender identity develops. This has included information in your text on prenatal development (also seen in the film Life’s Greatest Miracle, infancy, and soon you will read in your book & learn in lectures how it develops in early-childhood development). In addition, for this assignment you must view the 20/20 documentary My Secret Self, which explores the often hidden world of children dealing with transgender issues (see below for the documentary links). The purpose of this paper is to provide an opportunity to explore and reflect on this issue.
Objective:
Place yourself in the role of a parent of a child dealing with transgender issues, and consider how you would deal with certain issues. Using information from both your text and the media you have been exposed to (feel free to bring in outside sources as well), compose a 2-3 page paper (does not include title or references pp & yes, you can go over this amount) that addresses the following points/questions. The first part of the paper will ask you to provide information about sex/gender development, while the majority of the paper will be your own personal reflection & analysis. Try to avoid 1st person early in your paper and/or when reviewing the material (APA). However, it’s fine when personally reflecting. Try to introduce your paper well, have the body meeting the expectations and a clear conclusion.
Grammar is very important when writing and is a part of your grade of course. APA is also a part of this paper and will count for 10% of the paper.
Discussion Points
1. Introduction
2. How is our sex determined?
3. How is our gender developed?
The following questions are based on the hypothetical scenario that you have a child that is, like Jazz, experiencing transgender issues, considering the choices that Jazz’ parents made. Ensure you introduce the story briefly and/or refer to the story and cite it as a point of reference. Pretend anyone reading can “get it” reading your brief paper vs. saying something like “the video we saw in class”.
4. How do you think you would react, as a parent, to learn that your child was transgender?
5. Considering how you answered above (4), what could you do to prepare for such a situation?
6. Remembering Jazz’ parents’ decision, would you allow your young child to dress like a girl? Why or why not?
7. What types of special challenges do you think your child would face in life?
8. What are the criteria for Gender Identity Disorder? (you may have to look this up) What do you think of this being labeled as a disorder?
9. Conclusion:
Format:
Standard APA format (see Brightspace in the coming days for tips & resources for APA but utilize the writing center as needed—see syllabus for information). Please include citations where necessary (no extra references beyond your book & the documentary are necessary unless you wish to cite and reference more). Some expectations of APA are to include having a title page, page numbers in your header, 1 inch margins all around, citations to support the references and a references page all formatted to APA.
The link to Jazz and his story is: Original full program (45 min or so):
Jazz follow-up (13 min or so):
References required:
Once again (as mentioned above) please ensure you cite & reference your book & the documentary per APA. You can also cite class lecture notes for other materials & points as you wish & always cite any other outside materials you wish to reference (but your book & the documentary are the only mandatory references you need for this paper). Citing class notes can be confusing so below is the best way to do it and you’ll be set to go. Please cite any and all content that is not your own (not just quotes).
To cite in-text do as below but put the correct date for each lecture and each time you need to cite in-text..
“(Meyer, PSY 225 lecture, October 15, 2014)” or you can say “According to Meyer (PSY 225, lecture, October 12, 2013)…..
And for the reference on the references page:
Meyer, D. (Fall, 2013). PSY 225: Lifespan Development [Class notes]. Department of Psychology