How do psychologists distinguish sex, gender, and sexual orientation, and how do they develop?
Topic 3.3 Gender and Sexual Orientation: distinguish sex from gender, explain gender identity, gender roles, and gender typing, and describe the biological and environmental influences on gender and sexual orientation.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.3, distinguishing sex from gender, explaining gender identity, gender roles, gender typing, gender schema theory, and the social and biological influences on gender, and covering sexual orientation as a stable, biologically influenced trait.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
Have a quick question? Jump to the Q&A page
Jump to a section
What this topic is asking
Topic 3.3 asks you to handle gender and sexual orientation with the field's precise vocabulary. The College Board wants you to distinguish sex from gender, define gender identity, gender roles, and gender typing, explain how children develop gendered thinking (gender schema theory), and describe the biological and environmental influences on gender and on sexual orientation.
Sex versus gender
Gender identity, roles, and typing
- Gender identity: a person's own internal sense of being male, female, or another gender. It may or may not match the sex assigned at birth.
- Gender role: the cluster of behaviors, attitudes, and expectations a culture deems appropriate for a given gender.
- Gender typing: the developmental process by which children acquire a gender role, taking on the behaviors their culture associates with their gender.
- Androgyny: displaying a blend of both traditionally masculine and feminine traits.
How gendered thinking develops
Influences on gender
Gender reflects an interaction of biological factors (prenatal hormones, brain differences) and environmental factors (socialization, cultural norms, reinforcement). This is the nature-and-nurture theme of Topic 3.1 applied to gender.
Sexual orientation
The reason this topic carries so much exam weight is that the points are awarded for using the right word in the right slot, and the words are easy to blur in everyday speech. Sex and gender are not synonyms; identity, role, and typing name three different things (an inner sense, a cultural expectation, and a developmental process); and orientation is a separate dimension again. A scenario that describes a child sorting toys is about gender schema theory; one about a parent rewarding "boy" behavior is about social learning; one about an internal sense is about gender identity. Keeping these distinct, and remembering that both biology and environment contribute, is what earns the marks.
Try this
Q1. Distinguish gender identity from a gender role. [2 points]
- Cue. Gender identity is a person's internal sense of their own gender; a gender role is the set of behaviors a culture expects of that gender.
Q2. Explain what gender schema theory claims. [1 point]
- Cue. Children form mental frameworks (schemas) for each gender and use them to interpret and organize new information and guide behavior.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2023 (style)1 marksMultiple choice. A child learns that certain toys, colors, and activities are 'for boys' or 'for girls' and organizes new information into these categories. This process is best explained by which concept? (A) Gender identity (B) Sexual orientation (C) Gender schema theory (D) A primary sex characteristic (E) The Moro reflexShow worked answer →
The answer is (C) Gender schema theory.
Gender schema theory holds that children form mental frameworks (schemas) for what is associated with each gender and then use these schemas to interpret and organize new information, including toys and activities.
(A) gender identity is one's personal sense of being male, female, or another gender, not the categorizing process itself. (B) sexual orientation concerns the direction of one's attractions. (D) a primary sex characteristic is a reproductive organ. (E) the Moro reflex is a newborn startle response.
AP 2022 (style)4 marksConcept-application free-response question. A psychologist discusses gender development with parents. Explain how EACH of the following applies: sex, gender, a gender role, and gender identity.Show worked answer →
A 4-point concept-application FRQ; one point per term.
Sex (1): the biological category (typically based on chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy) of male, female, or intersex.
Gender (1): the socially and psychologically constructed set of characteristics and behaviors a culture associates with being male, female, or another gender.
Gender role (1): the set of behaviors and expectations a culture considers appropriate for people of a given gender.
Gender identity (1): a person's own internal sense of their gender, which may or may not match the sex assigned at birth.
Markers reward each term being correctly defined AND tied to the discussion of gender development.
Related dot points
- Topic 3.2 Physical Development Across the Lifespan: describe prenatal development and teratogens, infant reflexes and motor milestones, the changes of puberty and adolescence, and the physical and sensory changes of adulthood and aging.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.2, covering prenatal stages and teratogens, newborn reflexes and motor milestones, the physical changes of puberty and adolescence, and the physical and cognitive changes of adulthood including menopause and the distinction between fluid and crystallized abilities.
- Topic 3.6 Social-Emotional Development Across the Lifespan: explain attachment styles, parenting styles, temperament, Erikson's psychosocial stages, Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning, and ecological systems theory.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.6, covering Harlow's and Ainsworth's work on attachment styles, the parenting styles, temperament, Erikson's eight psychosocial stages, Kohlberg's preconventional, conventional, and postconventional moral reasoning, and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory.
- Topic 3.1 Themes and Methods in Developmental Psychology: explain the recurring themes of development (stability and change, nature and nurture, continuity and stages) and the research methods (cross-sectional and longitudinal) used to study them.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.1, covering the three big themes of developmental psychology (stability versus change, nature versus nurture, continuity versus discontinuity or stages) and the cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs used to study development across the lifespan.
- Topic 3.4 Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan: explain Piaget's stages of cognitive development, Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and the zone of proximal development, and the changes in cognition during adulthood and aging.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 3.4, covering Piaget's four stages of cognitive development (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational) with object permanence, egocentrism, and conservation, plus Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and scaffolding, and changes in fluid and crystallized intelligence with aging.
- Topic 1.1 Interaction of Heredity and Environment: explain how the interaction of nature and nurture, studied through twin, family, and adoption research, shapes psychological traits.
A focused answer to AP Psychology Topic 1.1, covering the nature-nurture interaction, heritability, the evolutionary perspective, and how twin, family, and adoption studies let psychologists separate genetic from environmental influences on behavior.
Sources & how we know this
- AP Psychology Course and Exam Description — College Board (2024)