The difference in sex is a mysterious aspect of the psychological field as it grapples many scientists. Many questions arise from the orientation of behavior that is accustomed to a specific gender. Why is there a difference in sexes? Does the prenatal environment affect this postnatal phenomenon? In what ways does the transaction between the social world and the brain lead to behavior? These questions are grappling the contemporary behavioral studies, and all of them converge in the effects of prenatal hormones on the gender development ( Berenbaum, 2018) . These changes also include the properties that exhibit the difference in sex and that are related to being male or female. Most initial works that form the cornerstone of hormones and behavior relationships are founded on the experiments involving nonhuman species. The paper focuses on the part sex hormones play in identifying these roles in early development
The results show that early exposure to sex hormones has permanent effects on the behavior that is related to gender, and the anatomy and functions of the reproductive system. These works thus show that prenatal stage is a sensitive period in the organization of brain by the hormones. There is a challenge in coming up with the results of the fetal study. First, social context plays a substantial role in the human behavior, and second, the manipulation of the hormones is experimentally impossible. However, several methodologies have been developed to counter the challenges ( Berenbaum, 2018) . These methods have made it possible to demonstrate the effects of prenatal androgens on the characteristics of gender differences. The studies have shown that the varying degrees of the hormones are responsible for this.
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Methodology
An online Google search was conducted in the scientific journals that involve the research on hormones and gender development and used the two as keywords. The rationale for choosing the material was done concerning relevance and publication time. This made it possible for the selection of only the relevant and recent articles. The articles were then reviewed to get the exact information that would be useful for this research.
Literature Review
Participation in activity interests that are associated with gender (from childhood preferences of toys to adult career choices) is an issue that has been highly associated with exposure to prenatal androgens ( Berenbaum & Beltz, 2016) . The relationships between the behavior and the hormone became a center for two major findings. Firstly, there were economic consequences of the effects of androgen on engagement and interest in an occupation associated with the males. This experiment also involved the females being exposed to high levels of prenatal androgens due to congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). In this case, the women were more likely than the control to be among the high-income top 20th percentile, which is a reflection of the employment in high paying jobs that are typical of the male. The experimental females achieved this despite having more psychological problems and lack of proper education. Secondly, the period in which the effective androgen is sensitive on influencing activity interest was found to be extended to the early postnatal months.
This is the same in the evidence seen in the relationship between urinary testosterone and parent-reported child play during the first six months after birth, and the length of the penis and that similar time (this period is known as mini-puberty as it marks the beginning of postnatal testosterone surge). The studies that have been speculating the cognitive and affective processes acting as foundations to the gender-typical toy preferences seen in children have been shown to be similar to the evidence seen in rhesus monkeys. The experiment indicated that the male monkeys (similar to boys) preferred wheeled toys while the female ones (similar to girls) preferred a variety ( Berenbaum, 2018) . This leads to the gender differences in the choices of toys between the wheeled and plush.
Results
A lot of studies have also indicated the early gender differences in a propulsive environment. In these experiments, the sex-typed activities were designed in such a way that the male predisposed behaviors were imitating propulsive environment. Additionally, gender roles in the selection of occupation and careers appeared to be driven partly by androgen effects on the interest of people versus things. The male is predominantly associated with occupations in science and engineering while the female is predominated with social services. Exposure to high levels of prenatal androgens is seen to influence the spatial abilities. In a study comparing two samples of females (one with CAH and the other without), the ones with hormones had the higher performance on the spatial ability test than the typical ones without the hormone ( Berenbaum, 2018) .
However, it is found that the adverse effects of the CAH can counter this facilitation. There is a positive relationship between spatial ability and amniotic testosterone in girls in small samples. This performance was also found to be high in females who are co-twins with a male than female co-twins, a result which was connected to the transfer of testosterone during pregnancy. To act as a control, a study found that girls with a non-twin brother did not have better spatial ability performance than the ones with a sister. Psychiatric disorders related to gender are also linked to the influence of sex hormones.
There has been a lot of studies to invoke the involvement of prenatal androgens to explain the reason why males are more susceptible to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and substance indulgence ( Berenbaum & Beltz, 2016) . There is no specification of the time androgen triggers autism or ADHD, but there is a connection that genes play an important role in the two. Psychiatric morbidity studies in Sweden based on population registry produced results that do not converge with the previously known facts about androgen effects. Despite the women and girls with CAH having a higher rate of substance abuse than the control sample, the rate was also higher than in control men. Furthermore, other female-typed conditions (adjustment and stress disorders) were increased, while autism and ADHD were not.
Boys and men having the disease were also having higher rates of psychiatric disorders than their control counterparts. In other words, the high rate of psychopathology in females and males with CAH reveals the limitations of natural experiments in that other factors such as diseases affect behavior. Thus, it is imperative to understand the indirect proofs of effects of prenatal androgens on some sex-related psychopathology. Besides the male-typed substance abuse and female-typed disordered eating, the women and girls with a male co-twin experienced more drug use and less disordered eating than those with a female co-twin. Of importance is the inclusion of siblings in this study to rule out the effects of the postnatal environment. Some traits of autism were associated with amniotic testosterone.
However, it is not simple to interpret this phenomenon because the presence of some autistic traits show sex differences in normal range hence would be expected to have a relationship with prenatal androgens for that matter. In other studies the women who had CAH recalled childhood behavior that is mainly accustomed to the male, and when adults, they were less likely to be identified exclusively as heterosexual as well as being comfortable with expressing themselves as females as compared to the control group ( Hines et al., 2004) . These reports are in tandem with the many previous studies that demonstrated an increased male-typed behavior in girls with CAH. In most cases, the research focused on psychopathology about the approach of understanding the psychiatric disorders in positions of underlying dimensions neurobiology and observable behavior. For instance, the fact that males express the effect of externalizing problems from childhood indicates that early exposure to androgens leads to the masculinization of the reward system.
A study on emotion in faces, the girls with CAH had less hippocampal activation while remembering faces full of emotion while they had higher amygdala activation while identifying the faces as compared to the normal girls. However, the two groups had different levels of performance. The study on boys is however difficult to interpret due to the fact that the amniotic testosterone is always seen as having within-sex effects on females. Thus, the study on typical males would see a linkage between testosterone and striatal responses to attractive facial cues and to behavior approach through activities that are related to the striatum.
The boys with CAH do not have a higher disparity in these studies when related to the ones that do not have it as compared to the female counterpart. In recalled childhood behavior, the affected males record the same results as the unaffected ones. The same is true for the sexual orientation during adulthood. This makes research on outcomes for males with CAH than for the females with the same condition. Thus, the conclusion is always done on the numerous prior studies that suggest no changes in the childhood play behavior.
Discussions
The previous studies are short of some of the critical issues that connect the androgens to the gender development. However, it is an exciting time to show how the relationship occurs. The psychological field is poised for some essential advances in the studies as it highlights the topics that are related to the studies that refer to the results associated with animals ( Hines et al., 2004) . Also, the research should use the prior findings to either demystify or concur. The other areas that are related to science should also be considered as necessary in adding to the significance of behavior studies. This can be done in several ways that would ensure the credibility and closeness to achieving the goal of the research.
First, it is imperative to understand the effect of varying levels of androgen across behaviors and also across different individuals. For instance, there should be a rationale for a reason behind the effect of prenatal androgen on gender identity being less than gender roles. Besides, there should be an explanation of why there is a difference between women with CAH who are bisexual and those who are heterosexual making the majority ( Berenbaum, 2018) . The other question is why the high levels of prenatal androgen result in autism and ADHD in some children and others just develop with it as normal.
Secondly, the results from animal-related studies can be extrapolated and used as a guide in works on humans. The tests might be applied to the later stages of development such as pregnancy and adolescence. This should be done primarily in cognitive studies and those involving children who are on drugs to suppress puberty due to difficult gender identity problems, and in women who are raising biological children as compared to those who are raising adopted ones.
Thirdly, there should be an additional window in the pursuit of studies involving prenatal androgen exposure. The research on CAH and CAIS have produced essential data but not flawless. Unluckily, most critics of the studies apply narrow arguments and ignore the consistency of the results. The methods employed in the direct measure of the hormones before birth have both pitfalls and promising results. On the same note, most procedures that rely on the exclusive use of indirect evidence of prenatal hormones bring more confusion than clarity.
Conclusion
The difference in sex is a mysterious aspect of the psychological field as it grapples many scientists as the results are always confusing. Most initial works that form the cornerstone of hormones and behavior relationships are founded on the experiments involving nonhuman species. However, they cannot be taken as an absolute fault but a foundation of further human studies. Prenatal androgen hormone has been found to affect the gender roles and behavior with most promising evidence found in women with CAH. The reviews should however not stop there as there are a lot of questions to be answered. The critics should allow for a reasonable window to the pursuit of prenatal hormones and their effects.
References
Berenbaum, S. A. (2018). Beyond Pink and Blue: The Complexity of Early Androgen Effects on Gender Development. Child Development Perspectives , 12 (1), 58-64.
Berenbaum, S. A., & Beltz, A. M. (2016). How early hormones shape gender development. Current opinion in behavioral sciences , 7 , 53-60.
Hines, M., Brook, C., & Conway, G. S. (2004). Androgen and psychosexual development: Core gender identity, sexual orientation, and recalled childhood gender role behavior in women and men with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Journal of sex research , 41 (1), 75-81.
