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Developmental psychology took a great leap forward as a result of the systematic investigations of Money and the Hampsons (1955a, b), Money and Ehrhardt (1972), and the clinical and theoretical contributions of Stoller (1968). Their work created the foundation for study of a whole new area of development, the acquisition of gender identity. Subsequently, the edifice constructed upon this foundation has become substantial and is still growing.
Several findings have emerged from the large number of studies on gender identity to date: Gender identity (the sense of either being male or female) is not directly determined by the genetic code. Rather it is a psychological construct that emerges early in life (between 12 and 18 months) as a result of interaction among biological, developmental, and psychological influences. Soon after it is acquired it appears to differentiate as a multipotential cell differentiates. Sometime before the oedipal phase it becomes a differentiated psychological structure in most people.
The psychological structure, core gender identity (CGI), becomes part of the bedrock self-image that is unchangeable over time (Stoller, 1968). The individual person understands that he or she will belong to one gender or the other during the entire life span irrespective of any vicissitudes or life experience. After the age of CGI differentiation, CGI cannot easily be altered by hormonal and surgical manipulations.
Following CGI differentiation, the self-recognition and representation to others that one is of one gender or another has an enormous impact on the unfolding of behavior. Future individual