Biological Determinism

A derivative of the philosophical viewpoint, determinism, biological determinism is the perspective that all human behavior can be reduced to biological antecedents. That is, behavior is a direct expression of biological origins above and beyond the influence of social, contextual, or environmental factors. As such, due to the forces of natural law, accurate predictions of human behavior are possible at time 2 based on biological information at time 1. This perspective is often viewed in opposition to social determinism, which contends that human behavior is the outcome of social forces, for example, culture, class, race, and education.

Within the context of gender, biological determinism offers the perspective that sexually dimorphic behaviors, or behaviors believed different in men and women, are the result of innate biological differences between the sexes. Because of the perspective's emphasis on the physical and anatomical differences between the sexes, theoretical and empirical contributions are dominated by a gender binary lens, in that any form of deviation from the natural states of masculinity and femininity in men and women, respectively, is interpreted in terms of the biological mapping of the opposite sex. To elaborate further, femininity is the natural expression of being a woman, and masculinity is the natural expression of being a man because gender is rooted in the biology of men and women. Thus, for example, from a strict biological determinist perspective, a woman whose menstrual cycle is irregular or who does not possess fully developed sexual characteristics would be assumed to possess male-typical or masculine personality traits, like dominance and aggression. Biological determinism gained momentum in the late 1800s, and its [Page 67]influence is still evident in some contemporary biological theories of gender, sex differences in behavior, sexuality, and sexual orientation.