Gender, Cognition, Emotion and Motivation

Abstract

The terms sex and gender have been used interchangeably not just colloquially but in the field of research and literature as well. Only recently attempts have been made to understand the terms as distinct from each other. Gender has been considered dichotomous for an extended period, and psychologists, when studying gender differences, have focused on men and women only. However, we understand today that gender is not binary and neither synonym for sex. Gender can be understood as the psychological, behavioural, and social characteristics of the individual, whereas sex refers to their biological aspects (Pryzgoda & Chrisler, 2000). In 1955 (Money & Ehrhardt, 1972), a distinction between sex as a biological construct and gender as a social construct of an individual was made. The relationship between gender, cognition, emotions, and motivation is crucial to understand the experiences of individuals of various genders. It helps clinicians understand the life experiences of their clients based on which gender group they identify with, along with the influence of their gender identity on their cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes. This paper attempts to explore and understand the existing literature on gender as a separate phenomenon from sex.