This document provides details about the case study of Bruce/Brenda Reimer, who underwent a failed gender reassignment experiment in the 1960s. After Bruce's penis was burned in a circumcision accident, psychologist John Money advised raising him as a girl. For over a decade, Brenda was brought up as a girl according to Money's "nurture over nature" theory. However, Brenda experienced severe gender identity issues and depression. She eventually learned the truth and transitioned to living as male. The case highlighted ethical issues and showed that core gender identity cannot be altered. Unfortunately, Brenda later committed suicide.

1. Introduction to Psychology with Elements of
Cognitive and Developmental Psychology
By: Gaurav Gill

2. Case Study- To question Nature vs Nurture
• Biologically it is sex hormones, physical
appearance and the sex chromosomes - XX for
a woman, XY for a man - which dictate
whether someone is male or female.
• But what happens if you bring up someone
who was a boy as a girl?
• There was a case just like this in the 1960s, a
case which ended in tragedy.

3. • Twins Bruce and Brian Reimer were born in Canada as two perfectly
normal boys. But after seven months, both were having difficulty
urinating.
• Acting on advice, the parents, Janet and Ron, took the boys to the
hospital for a circumcision.
• The next morning, they received a devastating phone call - Bruce had
been involved in an accident.
• Doctors had used a cauterizing needle instead of a blade, and the
electrical equipment had malfunctioned and the surge in current had
completely burned off Bruce's penis.
• "I could not comprehend what he was talking about," Janet Reimer
remembered.

4. • Ideal experiment
• Months passed, and they had no idea what to do until one evening they
met a man who would change their lives, and the lives of their twins,
forever.
• Dr John Money was a psychologist specialising in sex changes.
• He believed that it wasn't so much biology that determines whether we
are male or female, but how we are raised.
• "We just happened to be watching TV," remembers Mrs Reimer.
• "Dr Money was on there and he was very charismatic, he seemed highly
intelligent and very confident of what he was saying."
• Janet wrote to Dr Money, and within a few weeks she'd taken Bruce to
see him in Baltimore.
• For Dr Money the case provided the ideal experiment.

5. • Here was a child he believed should be brought up as the
opposite sex, who even brought his own control group with
him - an identical twin.
• If it worked this would provide irrefutable evidence that
nurture could over-ride biology - and Dr Money genuinely
believed that Bruce had a better chance of living a happy
life as a woman than as a man without a penis.

6. • Lonely girl
• And so, when Bruce was 17 months old, he became
Brenda. Four months later, on 3 July 1967, the first surgical
step was taken - with castration.
• Dr Money stressed that, if they wanted the sex change to
work, the parents must never let Brenda or her twin
brother know that she had been born a boy.
• From now on they had a daughter, and every year they
would go and visit Dr Money who was keeping track of the
twins' progress in what became known as the John/Joan
case. Brenda's identity was kept a secret.

7. • She was very rebellious. She was very masculine, and I could
not persuade her to do anything feminine. Brenda had
almost no friends growing up. Everybody ridiculed her,
called her cavewoman.Janet Reimer
• Although, in contrast, he also noted: "The girl had many
tomboy traits, such as abundant physical energy, a high level
of activity, stubbornness, and being often the dominant one
in a girl's group."
• By 1975, the children were nine years old, and Dr Money
published a paper detailing his observations. The experiment,
he said, had been a total success.

8. • Yet by the time Brenda reached puberty at 13, she was feeling
suicidal.
• "I could see that Brenda wasn't happy as a girl," Janet recalled.
• "She was very rebellious. She was very masculine, and I could
not persuade her to do anything feminine. Brenda had almost
no friends growing up. Everybody ridiculed her, called her
cavewoman.
• "She was a very lonely, lonely girl."
• Faced with their daughter's sadness, Brenda's parents stopped
taking her to see Dr Money

9. • Soon after, they did the one thing Dr Money had warned
them against: they told her she had been born a boy.
• Within weeks Brenda had chosen to become David.
• He had re-constructive surgery and eventually he even
married. He couldn't have children himself, but he loved
being a stepfather to his wife's three children.
• Yet what David did not know was that he had still been
immortalised as 'John/Jane' in medical and academic papers
about gender reassignment, and that the "success" of Dr
Money's theory was affecting other patients with similar
gender issues.

10. • Depression
• Now well into his thirties, David had become depressed. He'd
lost his job and he was separated from his wife.
• In the spring of 2002 his brother died from a drug overdose.
• Two years later on 4 May 2004, when David was 38, Janet and
Ron had a visit from the police. David had committed suicide.
• "They asked us to sit down and they said they had some bad
news, that David was dead. I just cried."

11. Meaning of Development
• According to Elizabeth, B. Hurlock (1975) the term
development implies a progressive series of changes that
occur as a result of maturation and experience.
• As Van den Daele has pointed out, “ development implies
qualitative change”.
• This means that development is just not adding inches to
ones height or refining one’s ability but it is a complex
process which involves integration of many structures and
functions.

12. Is Development Paradoxical?
• Development involves two paradoxical processes in it, that is
growth or evolution and atrophy (decay) or involution. The
two processes begin at the time of birth and end at death. In
the early phases of life, growth predominates, as for example,
• the development of teeth, hair, increase in height etc., while
atrophy or decay is dominant in the later years of life when
we lose our teeth, there is loss of hair and sagging of muscles
etc.

13. Domains of Development
• three dimensions, viz.,
• (i) Physical development
• (ii) Cognitive development
• (iii) Emotional and social development.

14. Trolley Dilemma

15. Trolley Dilemma Experiment- Situation 1
• A trolley is barreling down a train track out of control. 4
workers are making repairs farther down the track and you
bystander quickly realize that they will all be killed by
runaway trolley.
• Then you notice that there’s a lever nearby that can divert
the trolley onto another track.
• But, hang on, you can see 1 worker on that diverted track.
• So if you pull the lever, 1 worker will be killed however if
you don’t pull the lever 4 workers will be killed.
• What would you do in such a situation?

16. Situation 2

17. Situation 2 Trolley Experiment
• Now consider a slightly different but same scenario.
• A trolley is barreling down a train track out of control. 4 workers
are making repairs farther down the track and you bystander
quickly realize that they will all be killed by runaway trolley.
• But this time you re standing at the deck of water tower
overlooking the tracks and you notice there’s a large man
standing ahead of you at water tank. You realize that if you push
the man off the water tank, his weight is enough to stop the
trolley though he will get killed but you will end up saving the 4
workers on the track.
• Would you push the man on water tank?

18. • In Situation 1 it seems like a Maths problem to
the brain.
• In situation 2 when you actually have to
physically push off a man your brain region’s
corresponding to emotions get activated.

19. • Formula of I.Q. is
• Mental Age
Intelligent Quotient = ---------------------- x 100
Chronological Age
M. A.
= -------------------------x 100
C. A.
• CA should not go beyond 15 years of age, cause it is
said after 15 years brain starts declining.

20. • If you give a child same test twice with enough time between
two tests, you will find that his scores would improve as he
grew older.
• He would certainly do better at the age of 18th than at the
age of 4 years. However, a time would come when his ability
to answer the test questions would no longer improve.
• A person does not stop learning even he reaches to mental
maturity. Generally mental maturity reached some where
between 14 to 18th age. The generally accepted figure is 15th
year.

21. Who am I?
• I was a Swiss clinical psychologist known for
my pioneering work in child development.
• At a young age I published a paper on
mollusks.

22. • Cognitive approach to development was postulated by
Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980). Piaget stated
that children are not passive learners but they actively
explore and manipulate the world around them.
• Would anyone help with stages of Cognitive
development proposed by Jean Piaget?

23. • Jean Piaget believed in “Constructivism”- children are
active thinkers who are constantly trying to construct or
more accurate understanding of the world around them.
• Schemas- mental frameworks for organizing, interpreting
and processing social information.
• For instance if you visit a doctor at a clinic you might wait in
queue and then get examined by the doc, pay the bill and
leave.
• You almost know what to expect when you appear for an
interview and how it would be at a family gathering, all of
this is done through schemas.

24. Assimilation & it’s example
• The process by which new information is taken into the
previously existing schema is known as assimilation.
• For example, a small child may have a schema about a type
of animals. The child’s only experience with dogs is their
pet dog, and he knows that dogs have four legs. One day
this child sees another dog. He identifies the new animal as
a dog based on his previous knowledge of his dog. Labeling
it as a dog is an example of assimilating the animal into the
child’s dog schema.

25. Accommodation & its example
• Accommodation is the process by which pre-existing
knowledge is altered in order to fit in the new
information. A new schema might be created in this
process.
• For example, a child knows that a dog has four legs.
When the child sees a horse for the first time, he calls it
dog as it has four legs. He fits in the new animal with the
existing knowledge; this is assimilation. But an adult
points out that it is a horse, not a dog; then the child
alters his knowledge that all four-legged animals are not
dogs.

26. • Piaget described four stages of development
• 1) Sensorimotor stage ( birth – 2 years),
• 2) Preoperational stage (2-7 years),
• 3) Concrete operational stage (7-11 years),
• 4) Formal operational stage ( 11 years and
older)

27. • “ The Descent of Man” by Charles Darwin.
• According to this theory, Darwin’s evolutionary theory is applied
to explain development. In this the main focus is on natural
selection.
• It foucses on genetic factors as well as environmental factors
contributing to human development .
• According to this theory genetic and environmental mechanisms
are the basic influence in the development of humans and
according to Darwin this is a universal phenomenon.
• Those who are genetically strong will develop into a stronger
human as compared to those who have inherited weak genes.

28. Do you think that being Gay is to do with choices or
with genes?
• Male sexual orientation may be influenced by genetics, a new
study suggests.
• The findings, shared at the annual meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago
, revealed that in a study that tested the DNA of 409 gay men,
at least two chromosomes may affect a man’s sexual
orientation.
• "Sexual orientation has nothing to do with choice. Our
findings suggest there may be genes at play, and we found
evidence for two sets that affect whether a man is gay or
straight," said Michael Bailey of Northwestern University,
who carried out the research.

29. • The study involved drawing blood from 409 gay brothers and
heterosexual members of their families. Analysis confirmed
that an area on the X chromosome – which men inherit from
their mothers -- known as Xq28 has some impact on sexual
orientation. Another stretch of DNA on chromosome 8 also
affects male sexual behavior, they said.
• In a follow-up work, he found 33 out of 40 gay brothers had
similar genetic markers on the Xq28 region of the X
chromosome, the Guardian reports.

30. SRY Gene- determiner for male gene
• The SRY gene provides instructions for making
a protein called the sex-determining region Y
protein. This protein is involved in male sexual
development, which is usually determined by
the chromosomes an individual has. People
usually have 46 chromosomes in each cell.

31. • The sex chromosomes in birds are designated Z and W, and
the male is the homomorphic sex (ZZ) and the female
heteromorphic (ZW).
• The ZW sex-determination system is a chromosomal
system that determines the sex of offspring in birds, some
fish and crustaceanssuch as the giant river prawn, some
insects (including butterflies and moths), and some reptiles,
including Komodo dragons.

32. • Glands help regulate the internal environment
of our body. There are two types of glands-
endocrine glands and exocrine glands.
• While the Endocrine glands secrete hormones
directly into the blood stream,
• the latter that is the exocrine glands secretes
hormones through ducts.

33. Endocrinology
• Endocrinology- the branch of physiology and medicine
concerned with endocrine glands and hormones.
• Hormones has been derived from Greek word “ Hormon”
which means to set in motion , excite, stimulate)

34. The following glands make up the endocrine
system: Mnemonic “ HP PPT AT TOP
1. Adrenal Glands
2. Hypothalmus
3. Ovaries
4. Pancreas
5. Parathyroid
6. Pineal Gland
7. Pituitary Gland
8. Testes
9. Thymus
10. Thyroid

35. • Our body has 2 bosses they are:
• 1) Endocrine system
• 2) Nervous system.
• They are constantly trafficking information across the
human body.
• Our Nervous system uses action potential and lightening
fast pace of neurons to

36. • Endocrine also transmits messages but relatively slowly,
hormones that travel through your blood and not through
your neurons.
• On the other hand endocrine glands are those which
secrete their hormones directly into the blood and are
also known as ductless glands. Major endocrine glands
• are (i) Pituitary (ii) Adrenal (iii) Pineal and (iv) Thyroid
gland.

37. Master Gland
• Which is the master gland in your body? Why is it called
so?
• The pituitary gland is sometimes called the "master"
gland of the endocrine system, because it controls the
functions of the other endocrine glands. The pituitary
gland is no larger than a pea, and is located at the base
of the brain. It produces many hormones which in turn
signals Thyroid, Parathyroid, Adrenal and Pineal glands
to make their own hormones.

38. • Glands that makes and secretes hormone.
• Endocrine system also includes organs like
Pancreas, Gonads and Placenta in pregnant
women.
• Hypthalamus is also in Endocrine club.

39. • Hormones can only trigger a reaction in a specific cell
called Target Cell which have right receptors for it.
• Thyroid gland produces throxine.
• Thyroxine is the main hormone secreted into the
bloodstream by the thyroid gland. It plays vital roles in
digestion, heart and muscle function, brain development
and maintenance of bones.

40. • Pituitary Follicle Stimulating Hormone- Follicle stimulating
hormone is produced by the pituitary gland. It regulates
the functions of both the ovaries and testes. Lack or
insufficiency of it can cause infertility or subfertility both in
men and women.
• The Luteinizing hormone or LH stimulates formation of
egg inthe ovaries of women, while in males it promotes the
development of testosterone, growth hormone or GH also
known as somatotropic hormone.

41. • Pancreas releases Insulin and glucagon.
• Adrenal gland is located above the kidneys. It has two parts (i)
adrenal medulla
• and (ii) adrenal cortex. Adrenal medulla helps prepare the body
for emergency
• The adrenal glands, located at the top of each kidney, produce
hormones that help the body control blood sugar, burn protein
and fat, react to stressors like a major illness or injury, and
regulate blood pressure. Two of the most important adrenal
hormones are cortisol and aldosterone. The adrenal glands also
produce adrenaline and small amounts of sex hormones called
androgens, among other hormones.

42. Phineas Gage- Biological basis of brain

43. In 1848, Gage, 25, was the foreman of a crew cutting a railroad
bed in Cavendish, Vermont.
On September 13, as he was using a tamping iron to pack
explosive powder into a hole, the powder detonated. The
tamping iron—43 inches long, 1.25 inches in diameter and
weighing 13.25 pounds—shot skyward, penetrated Gage’s left
cheek, ripped into his brain and exited through his skull,
landing several dozen feet away. Though blinded in his left eye,
he might not even have lost consciousness, and he remained
savvy enough to tell a doctor that day, “Here is business
enough for you.”

44. • John Harlow, the physician who attended to Gage at the
scene, noted that the tamping iron was found some 10
metres away, "where it was afterward picked up by his
men, smeared with blood and brain".
• The tamping rod fractured the frontal and parietal bones
extensively. Remarkably, Gage survived this horrific ordeal,
and by all accounts was conscious and walking within
minutes.

45. • Several days later, one of the wounds became
infected and he fell into a semi-comatose
state. Fearing the worst, his family prepared a
coffin, but Gage soon recovered and by
January 1849 was leading an apparently
normal life. But those closest to him began to
notice dramatic changes in his behaviour.

46. • Harlow described the "mental manifestations" of Gage's injury
in the Bulletin of the Massachusetts Medical Society:
• His contractors, who regarded him as the most efficient and
capable foreman in their employ previous to his injury,
considered the change in his mind so marked that they could
not give him his place again. He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at
times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his
custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows,
impatient of restraint of advice when it conflicts with his
desires, at times pertinaciously obstinent. In this regard, his
mind was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends and
acquaintances said he was "no longer Gage".

47. Do you know?

48. Do you know?
• Dolphins babies are born swimming and giraffes learn to
stand within hours and a baby zebra can run within 45
minutes of birth whereas a human takes almost a year to
walk.
• Would anyone know the reason?
• Baby animals develop quickly because their brains are
wired according to a largely preprogrammed routine.
• However when a human baby is born the brains are
remarkably unfinished.

49. • ) Myencephalon: This is the first and oldest part of the brain. It
extends from spinal cord. It has within it Medulla oblongata. The
main function of this structure
• is to take care of the autonomic activities of breathing,
respiration etc.
• 2) Metaencephalon: This is the next part of the brain which is
old in terms of evolution. It has within it pons and cerebellum.
The main function of this structure of the brain is to maintain
balance between different physical
• activities, as for example rhythm and coordination between the
movements or hands and leges and other parts of the body.

50. Nervous System

51. Mnemonic for learning Nervous System
• There are 2 types of Nervous people
• 1) Nervous people see critical situations
• 2) Nervous people also seek peace
• And other category is :
• New confidence brings strength.

52. Sympathetic- Fight or Flight
• It is a nice, sunny day...you are taking a nice
walk in the park. Suddenly, an angry bear
appears in your path. Do you stay and fight OR
do you turn and run away? These are "Fight or
Flight" responses. In these types of situations,
your sympathetic nervous system is called into
action - it uses energy - your blood pressure
increases, your heart beats faster, and
digestion slows down.

53. Parasympathetic Nervous System
• It is a nice, sunny day...you are taking a nice
walk in the park. This time, however, you
decide to relax in comfortable chair that you
have brought along. This calls for "Rest and
Digest" responses. Now is the time for the
parasympathetic nervous to work to save
energy. This is when blood pressure can
decrease, pulse rate can slow, and digestion
can start.

54. • CNS- This comprises of two parts i.e. brain and spinal cord.
Spinal cord runs from cervics to the end of waist. It is filled
with fluid which is covered with meninges.
• Brain is located in the bony skull. Within the skull, the brain is
protected by
• three layers of tissues called meninges. Outer most layer is
called dura matter
• and inner most layer is called pia matter.
• White matter is called so because it is covered with a sheath
known as mylin sheath.

55. • A) Fore brain ( thalamus, hypothalamus and
cerebrum).-HTC
• B) Mid brain (situated between forebrain and
hind brain)
• C) Hind brain (medulla, pons, cerebellum and
reticular formation

56. • Peripheral Nervous System
• This comprises of all those neurons which lie outside the
brain and spinal cord and connect these two with receptors,
effectors and glands. It is divided into two
• parts i.e. somatic and autonomic nervous system.
•  Somatic nervous system is primarily related to voluntary
activities. Central nervous system sends impulses to voluntary
muscles through somatic nervous system.
• It is further divided into cranial nerves and spinal nerves.

57. • The reptilian brain, the oldest of the three, controls the
body's vital functions such as heart rate, breathing, body
temperature and balance. Our reptilian brain includes the
main structures found in a reptile's brain: the brainstem
and the cerebellum. The reptilian brain is reliable but tends
to be somewhat rigid and compulsive.

58. Old brain
• Brain Stem- where the spinal cord enters the skull. ( most
ancient part of the brain)- It includes three main parts – the
"midbrain," the "pons," and the "medulla.“It has a key role in
regulation of basic body functions, including breathing, eating,
blood flow and the nervous system (including sensitivity to
pain). It is also central in managing wakefulness and the sleep
cycle.
• The brainstem is an evolutionary ancient part of the brain and is
sometimes called the 'reptilian brain' as it provides the basic
bodily control in reptiles and other non-mammals.
• Generally reptiles have Old brains or reptilian brains.

59. • Some regulation of body functions is automatic, for example
control of breathing. We do not need to think about this and
if we try to stop it, the brainstem will override such cortical
foolishness (if necessary, making us unconscious to do so).
• Other activities need the body to take conscious actions, such
as eating

60. • Medulla- beating of heart, breathing of lungs.
The medulla oblongata helps regulate breathing, heart
and blood vessel function, digestion, sneezing, and
swallowing. This part of the brain is a center for
respiration and circulation.
• Pons is perched on Medula and it helps coordinate
movements. Arousal,Autonomic Function: Breathing
Regulation,Relaying Sensory Information Between
the Cerebrum and Cerebellum Sleep

61. • Thalamus- The thalamus is involved in several functions
of the body including:
• Motor Control
• Receives Auditory, Somatosensory, and Visual Sensory
Signals
• Relays Sensory Signals to the Cerebral Cortex
• Memory Formation and Emotional Expression
• Pain Perception
• Controls Sleep and Awake States

62. • The cerebellum is one of the most identifiable parts of the
brain due to its unique shape and location.
• It is extremely important for being able to perform
everyday voluntary (done with purpose and intent) tasks such
as walking and writing.
• It is also essential to being able to stay balanced and upright.
• Patients who have suffered from damaged cerebellums often
struggle with keeping their balance and maintaining proper
muscle coordination.
• It gets impaired under the influence of alcohol

63. Limbic Brain- Higher functions
• The limbic brain emerged in the first mammals. It can
record memories of behaviors that produced agreeable
and disagreeable experiences, so it is responsible for what
are called emotions in human beings.
• The main structures of the limbic brain are the
hippocampus, the amygdala, and the hypothalamus.
• The limbic brain is the seat of the value judgments that we
make, often unconsciously, that exert such a strong
influence on our behaviour.

64. • Limbic System has :
• 1) Amygdala- aggression and fear
• 2) Hypothalamus- regulating body temperature. The
hormones from the hypothalamus govern physiologic
functions such as temperature regulation, thirst, hunger,
sleep, mood, sex drive, reward and the release of other
hormones within the body. This area of the brain houses the
pituitary gland and other glands in the body.
• 3) Hippocampus- learning and memory

65. • The neocortex first assumed importance in primates and
culminated in the human brain with its two large cerebral
hemispheres that play such a dominant role.
• These hemispheres have been responsible for the
development of human language, abstract thought,
imagination, and consciousness.
• The neocortex is flexible and has almost infinite learning
abilities.
• The neocortex is also what has enabled human cultures to
develop.

66. • The neocortex is part of the cerebral cortex - t
is involved in higher functions such as sensory
perception, generation of motor commands,
spatial reasoning, conscious thought, and in
humans, language.

67. Glial Cells
• Nearly 90 percent of the brain is composed of glial cells,
not neurons.
• Glial cell: A supportive cell in the central nervous system.
Unlike neurons, glial cells do not conduct electrical
impulses.
• The glial cells surround neurons and provide support for
and insulation between them.
• Glial cells are the most abundant cell types in the central
nervous system. Types of glial cells include
oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, ependymal cells, Schwann
cells, microglia, and satellite cells.

69. • The Cerebrum largest portion of the brain is divided into two
hemisphere by the longitudinal fissure. Both right and left
hemispheres are composed of gray matter.
• Cerebral Cortex is divided into 4 lobes.
• The cerebral cortex is divided into four sections, called
"lobes": the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and
temporal lobe.
• The frontal lobe is located at the front of the brain and is
associated with reasoning, motor skills, higher level cognition,
and expressive language.

70. • The parietal lobe is located in the middle section of the
brain and is associated with processing tactile sensory
information such as pressure, touch, and pain.
• A portion of the brain known as the somatosensory cortex
is located in this lobe and is essential to the processing of
the body's senses.
• Damage to the parietal lobe can result in problems with
verbal memory, an impaired ability to control eye gaze and
problems with language.

71. • The temporal lobe is located on the bottom section of
the brain. This lobe is also the location of the primary
auditory cortex, which is important for interpreting
sounds and the language we hear.
• The hippocampus is also located in the temporal lobe,
which is why this portion of the brain is also heavily
associated with the formation of memories.
• Damage to the temporal lobe can lead to problems with
memory, speech perception, and language skills

72. • The occipital lobe is located at the back
portion of the brain and is associated with
interpreting visual stimuli and information.
The primary visual cortex, which receives and
interprets information from the retinas of the
eyes, is located in the occipital lobe.

73. • Brain is divided into 3 parts Forebrain,
midbrain and hindbrain.
• Forebrain is the largest part of the brain, most
of which is made up of Cerebrum also known
as Telencephalon and Diencephalon.

74. • There are two regions, outer grey matter is
cortex and the inner matter is white.
• Two cerebral hemispheres are connected
through corpous callousm.
• Cerebrum is associated with higher brain
function such as thought and action.