Sexing the baby: Part 2--Applying dynamic systems theory to the emergences of sex-related differences in infants and toddlers.

During the first three years of life, children acquire knowledge about their own gender and the gendered nature of their environment. At the same time, sex-related behavioral differences emerge. How are we to understand the processes by which bodily differentiation, behavioral differentiation and gendered knowledge intertwine to produce male and female, masculine and feminine? In this article, we describe four central developmental systems concepts applied by psychologists to the study of early human development and develop them in enough depth to show how they play out, and what sort of knowledge-gathering strategies they require. The general theoretical approach to understanding the emergence of bodily/behavioral difference has broad applicability for the health sciences and for the study of gender disparities. Using dynamic systems theory will deepen and extend the reach of theories of embodiment current in the health sciences literature.