biological determinism

Examples of biological determinism in the following topics:

• Defining Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

  • Sex refers to biological characteristics, while gender is socially determined based on those characteristics.
  • Sex denotes biological characteristics and exists along a spectrum from male to female.
  • In humans, the biological sex of a child is determined at birth based on several factors, including chromosomes, gonads, hormones, internal reproductive anatomy, and genitalia.
  • The biological and physical aspects of sexuality largely concern the human reproductive functions, including the human sexual-response cycle and the basic biological drive that exists in all species.
  • The standard model of the difference between sex and gender says that one's sex is biologically determined (meaning that when a child is born, doctors classify the child as a particular sex depending on anatomy), while one's gender is socially or culturally determined (meaning that the way in which that child is raised, socialized, and taught determines whether they take on masculine or feminine traits).

• Genetics, the Brain, and Personality

  • The biological perspective on personality emphasizes the influence of the brain and genetic factors on personality.
  • In psychology, "temperament" refers to the personality tendencies that we show at birth (and that are therefore biologically determined).
  • These findings suggest that heredity and environment interact to determine an individual's personality.
  • One strength of the biological perspective is its strict adherence to scientific methodology.
  • The expression of inherited genes plays a role in determining personality.

• Gender Identity in Everyday Life

  • It is the result of socialization, but it also has a biological basis.
  • What causes individuals to sense a sort of confusion between their biological gender and their gender identity?
  • However, despite the deep relationship to biology, gender identity cannot only be biologically determined.
  • They are biologically male, but dress and behave in a manner that Polynesians typically consider female.
  • Discuss the difference between biological and social construction of gender identity

• Evaluating the Biological Perspective on Personality

  • The biological perspective on personality emphasizes the internal physiological and genetic factors that influence personality.
  • The biological perspective is useful in identifying the causes of and effective treatments for personality disorders.
  • Once research has gotten past this stage, the research power of experimental studies allows scientists to determine cause and effect to establish treatment options for those with personality disorders.
  • The biological perspective focuses on how biological factors determine personality.
  • Identify the strengths and limitations of the biological perspective on personality.

• The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Illness

  • The biopsychosocial model states that health and illness are determined by a dynamic interaction between biological, psychological, and social factors.
  • Engel that states that interactions between biological, psychological, and social factors determine the cause, manifestation, and outcome of wellness and disease.
  • Biological influences on health include an individual's genetic makeup and history of physical trauma or infection.
  • Certain non-biological (i.e., environmental) factors influence the expression of the disorder in those with a pre-existing genetic risk.
  • This diagram shows how biological, psychological, and sociological factors overlap to determine overall health.

• The Role of Biology

  • The hijras of the Indian subcontinent are traditionally either eunuchs (castrated biological males) or born with ambiguous genitalia.
  • Sex refers to a person's biological make-up as male or female.
  • Typically, a person's genotype (genetic makeup) and phenotype (observable traits) are used to determine a person's sex.
  • While sex is the determination of whether a person is biologically male or female, gender is the sociocultural determination of
  • Some physical differences between the male and female sexes are thought to occur as a result of both biological and cultural processes.

• Race and Genetics

  • Racial groups are sociologically, rather than biologically, different; that is to say, there is no "race" gene or set of genes.
  • There are very few biological differences between the races and there is no "race" gene or set of genes to speak of.
  • Today it is possible to determine, by genetic analysis, the geographic ancestry of a person and the degree of ancestry from each region.
  • Some anthropologists, particularly those working with forensics, consider race to be a useful biological category as it is often possible to determine the racial category of a person by examining physical remains, although what is actually being identified is the geographical phenotype.
  • While a person's race can generally be visually determined, different racial groups do not in fact differ biologically in substantial ways.

• Crystallographic Analysis

  • X-ray crystallography is the primary method for determining the molecular conformation of biological macromolecules, particularly proteins and nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA.
  • Electron crystallography has been used to determine some protein structures, most notably membrane proteins and viral capsids.
  • Studies of protein crystallography help determine the three dimensional structure of proteins and analyze their function alone or within multimolecular assemblies.
  • The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is a freely accessible repository documenting the structures of proteins and other biological macromolecules.
  • Computer programs like RasMol or Pymol can be used to visualize biological molecular structures.

• Annotating Genomes

  • Genome projects are scientific endeavors that ultimately aim to determine the complete genome sequence of an organism (be it an animal, a plant, a fungus, a bacterium, an archaean, a protist, or a virus).
  • DNA annotation or genome annotation is the process of identifying the locations of genes and all of the coding regions in a genome and determining what those genes do .
  • Genome annotation is the process of attaching biological information to sequences.
  • Functional annotation consists of attaching biological information to genomic elements: biochemical function, biological function, involved regulation and interactions, and expression.
  • These steps may involve both biological experiments and in silico analysis.

• Biological Theories of Deviance

  • A biological theory of deviance proposes that an individual deviates from social norms largely because of their biological makeup.
  • A biological theory of deviance proposes that an individual deviates from social norms largely because of their biological makeup.
  • Their explanation was that some individuals had a biological propensity for crime.
  • After an individual had been convicted of a crime, the state's responsibility was to protect the community and prevent the criminal from doing more harm—as his biology determined he would do.
  • Cesare Lombroso argued that criminality was a biological trait found in some human beings