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| Sex And Gender Explorer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sex And Gender Explorer Test Technical Details Version 2.5 Features & Fixes (10 Septemeber 2002)
Versions 2.3 & 2.4 (01-08 September 2002)
Version 2.2 Features & Fixes (02 July 2002)
Version 2.1 Features & Fixes (08 November 2001)
Version 2.0 Features & Fixes (01 November 2001)
Versions between 1.0 and 2.0 (27 October 2001)
Version 1.0 Features & Fixes (12 October 2001)
Beta Versions prior to Version 1.0 (June - August 2001)
BACKGROUND INFORMATION Many people who are confused about their gender identity are looking for some kind of validation that they aren't insane, and that there IS some reason for their feelings. In many cases these doubts and this need for validation lead a person to seek psychological counsel, support groups, or "self help" psychological analysis via testing. One of the most well-known and popular tests for gender identity problems is the COmbined Gender Identity and Transsexual Inventory (COGIATI), developed by Jennifer Diane Reitz. There are as many detractors as there is praise for this test. In many ways, the S.A.G.E. test could be considered a derivative work (more on that in a moment). The COGIATI itself is a variation of the Minnesota Multi-Phasic Inventory (MMPI) developed by the University of Minnesota. The MMPI is an empirically-based assessment of adult psychopathology used by clinicians to assist with the diagnosis of mental disorders and the selection of appropriate treatment. Incidentally the MMPI has been supplanted by the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A versions of the test. The original version was considered outdated by more recent research data, the widespread use of the two alternative versions in clinical and research settings, and to eliminate confusion among test administrators over which test to administer (the original or the other versions). Regardless, the basic nature of the MMPI remains the same. It takes the form of a lengthy questionnaire, but there are actually only about 15 or so questions that comprise the test. These questions are asked in many different ways. The success of the test is that it is so long and repetitive it breaks down the test taker's barriers by sheer mental exhaustion. The other tests the COGIATI draws from are the BEM, developed by psychologist Sandra Bem, Phd., and the Moir-Jessel Brain Sex Test. So if all these other tests are out there, why not just use them? Jennifer Diane Reitz explains on her web site: "It was designed for only one target: the curious, unsure, pre-operative POTENTIAL Male-To-Female transsexual (not a post-op, not someone who is already certain, not a Female-To-Male, not anyone else who fails to fit the stated definition target). Further, it was constructed for that given target only because no scientifically and medically based test for such people exists. None. Anywhere. I saw that there was a void, no physicians were filling it, and so I set to work. The COGIATI is a challenge to the scientific and medical community to follow my example, and do a better job than I." Much criticism has been heaped on poor Diane because she doesn't have any psychological credentials, which invalidates the test completely in the eyes of many people. The S.A.G.E. test will likely be invalidated for the same reason - I, as the author of it, also have no psychological credentials. I'm not even a computer programmer, so that probably invalidates the JavaScript I wrote as well. So if the COGIATI exists, why make up the S.A.G.E. test at all? Well, I think what Jennifer Reitz says in the quote above partially answers that question. The COGIATI was targeted at a "curious, unsure, pre-operative POTENTIAL Male-To-Female transsexual." What I sought to do with the S.A.G.E. test was to create a smarter automated gender assessment tool that would be accessible to a wider audience of potential users. How does S.A.G.E. differ from the COGIATI test? First of all, it differs in length. The S.A.G.E. test is more than twice as long. It asks many of the same kinds of questions, but makes no assumption that the person taking the test is male nor does it assume the test subject actually believes they may be a transsexual, or has ANY gender identity problems for that matter. The default for the test (if a question is unanswered) is "Androgynous." However, the default level of conflict is "mild," because logically if someone's gender is ambiguous in our society it causes them problems that will lead to mild conflicts about their identity. As mentioned, the QUESTIONS make no assumptions about the sex of the test subject. I've read comments from females who have taken the COGIATI who don't know how they should answer questions like "You are having an erection, how does that make you feel?" Similar questions in the S.A.G.E. test have been reworded to be "gender neutral." In this way, a man, woman, or intersexed individual should at least be able to answer all the questions on the test. The other major difference between S.A.G.E. and the COGIATI is how they calculate the score. In the COGIATI test each answer is assigned a value (-10,-5,0,+5, or +10) to indicate the range from a "masculine" to "feminine" response. The score is a simple addition of the answer values of all the questions, which is then compared to a table for analysis. Since the COGIATI (in its current incarnation) consists of 65 questions, the maximum score for "masculine" is -650 and the maximum score for "feminine" is +650. The S.A.G.E. test uses the same value assignments for the range of answers to each question. The "Raw Score" is essentially a simple mathematical calculation as well, but it is presented only for the sake of comparison. The result generated simply rates the overall average score within the range from "Very Masculine" to "Very Feminine." But that's not where the S.A.G.E. program stops! It also subdivides the questions into six subcategories: Phenotype, Neurological, Sociological, Autogyne/androphilic, Appearance, and Gender Conflict. These are tabulated independently. The program lends greater weight to some of the answers and also conducts "cross checks" that either increase or decrease scores within or across categories or try to determine what you may have meant by your answer. For example, did you mean you thought you were "smart" or "attractive?" It then ranks each subcategory along the same range as the Raw Score and compares them to one another looking for potential conflicts. There are some things that I did to try to make it a bit harder to "trick" the test. Not really because I think that's what people are trying to do - it was more to help the test accurately identify people who were not being totally honest with themselves or were suffering denial or guilt about their own gender conflicts. One of those things was to have the test add more "weight" to certain responses to certain questions. Not all the questions are treated equally, because some of them are more relevant to identifying the nature of a person's conflicts. The other big thing was to have it do those "cross-checks" to try and determine what a person may have meant or what their motivation might be. In that respect the test aims to be a little "smarter" than other tests. Can't you figure out which questions to answer to skew the results however you want? Yes, you can. Quite easily, in fact. The first answer is the "most masculine" and the last answer is the "most feminine" generally. This isn't true for ALL the questions, but it is for enough of them that, if you wanted to, you could easily convince the program you were more masculine or feminine for any given question. However, no single question has enough weight to skew the answers overall. Furthermore, this test is for YOUR benefit and self discovery, why would you WANT to "fake it out?" Frankly, if you can outsmart my JavaScript you haven't out-thought much. You could look at the HTML code of the page to see what the values of the questions are, but it wouldn't tell you which questions are lent greater weight by the S.A.G.E. program. You also wouldn't be able to tell which questions are part of the evaluation and which ones aren't. Only 132 or the 160 questions are considered, the remaining 28 are irrelevant and are there just as diversions or to add length (and tedium) to the test to mentally exhaust you. The only reasons there aren't MORE questions is that I couldn't think of that many more different ways to ask the core questions and increasing the length of the test would only be useful for increasing the subject's fatigue. Taking a test online is more tiring than taking it on paper, so the medium itself is more tiring, so length became less important. I recommend you actually take it at least FIVE TIMES in one sitting to break down your own "defensiveness." I know this actually works, while I was testing the program I was inputting the answers for the aforementioned "extreme scenarios" and after several run-throughs I was getting a bit "punchy" and started to make mistakes. When I clicked the "Submit" button it generated an unexpected analysis. When I went back an double-checked WHICH answers I had actually input, the analysis turned out to be correct. The program had correctly processed the data I had given it, even though I was unaware that I had given it that data in the first place. So, seriously, TAKE IT FIVE TIMES IN A ROW! That's the equivalent of taking a 800 question test, which is more than sufficient to wear you out. Aren't these questions kind of stereotypical? Some of them are, some aren't. There are certain behaviors that are socially accepted as "feminine" or "masculine" and engaging in those behaviors will define you socially. In that respect, it can be very useful in identifying a "gender incongruity." Other questions are based on psychological research to help determine if the subject's brain is "wired" more like the typical male or female brain. Some of the questions favor the thought processes typical of women over men, and vice versa. This isn't to say that men are "smarter" than women or vise versa either. Due to neurological differences in the structure of the brain, men and women each have, GENERALLY, strengths in different areas of thinking. Still other questions rely on statistical probabilities to determine if they are "male" or "female" answers. Most of these would be related to body measurements and ratios, which will STATISTICALLY break down along gender lines. And some of the questions simply are "sexist." We live in a society that, despite efforts to change it, IS quite sexist in the views about what roles men and women play in that society. Why does it ask so many questions about childhood? It is trying to develop a psychological profile of you as an adult. How you behaved as a child, or what you wanted as a child, will be very indicative of your TRUE feelings. Children aren't overburdened with the "weight of the world" like adults are. They don't often know what the acceptable social roles are. If you exhibited a gender incongruity as a child, but not as an adult, you may simply have "learned" how to play your expected role, while you actually don't LIKE it. Also, some gender problems don't statistically manifest until after puberty, so a comparison between your pre and post-pubescent life can be a useful diagnostic in determining the nature of a gender conflict. How It Works Each of the 160 questions has a numerical range from -10 to +10. The questions fall into six subcategories, with some questions considered in more than one category or the answer may act as a "modifier" for other questions. In this way the test attempts to figure out what the INTENDED meaning of the answer was. For example, was the person indicating they were "Clever" or "Smart?" The six subcategories are:
The first thing the test does is go through and tallies a "Raw Score" comprised of 122 of the 160 questions. "Why not all of them?" you might ask. Well, not all of them are relevant to a conflict with one's gender identity. There are 28 questions that are included as "diversions" or to simply make the test longer and more exhausting. The remaining 10 questions are part of the calculations to help the test categorize Autogynephelia/Autoandrophelia (if it should determine it is present). This "Raw Score" is simply an unadjusted additive number checked against a range:
Each category has the same numerical range. The default for the test (if no questions are answered) is ZERO for everything, which generates an "Androgynous" result. Any answers to questions move the target away from Androgynous and toward one or the other ends of the range. This is done mostly to let test takers easily see a comparison of results to other tests which score in a similar manner, such as the COGIATI, and also to demonstrate that the more in-depth analysis of S.A.G.E. provides more detail than a simple "score." The program then calculates a number for each subcategory. These are not calulated through simple addition. Some questions are given more "weight" than others, because they are more relevant or a specific answer to the question might be a stronger "statement" by the test subject. Once the numbers for each subcategory have been calculated, those values are passed on to a "Range Calculator" for each, except for Autogynephelia/Autoandrophelia, which is calculated differently. Once each subcatogory has been defined within its given range, the values are passed on to the "Conflict Calculator" function of the script. The "Gender Conflict" category, though, is NOT passed on to this function. That may seem a bit counter-intuitive, but here's why it isn't: the "Gender Conflict" calculation is used to determine what level of distress the test subject BELIEVES he or she has. The "Conflict Calculator" function scours the test questions and builds an assessment independent of what the test subject SAID their level of conflict is. If the birthsex is MALE, the values for each category are reduced to "0," "1," and "2" for Male, Androgenous, and Female respectively. For an INTERSEXED (Androgynous) individual the values are 1, 0, 1 and for FEMALE they are 2,1,0. The script then compares the Physical Sex : Physical Appearance : Brain Sex : and Social Sex. The values are added across the categories to build a "baseline level of conflict." For example, if all the values are "Male" (i.e., ZERO) the level of conflict would be ZERO. If the Physical Sex is FEMALE, but all the other values are "Male" (which would each be "2" in this scenario), the baseline level of conflict would be SIX. The program then checks specific questions to determine if there is a "CD Skew" for crossdressers, if there is a "TS Skew" for possible transsexuals and a "TSIT Skew" for transsexuals in transition or post-operative. Depending on answers for each of the questions it checks, the baseline value is bumped up in fractional increments. The adjusted number is compared to the result of an independent calculation of the subjects "self identification" as Male, Female, or other. If the self ID is seriously out of phase with the physical sex the level of conflict is increased another half point. This number is then run through a range that categorizes the person as:
The two broadest categories are Crossdresser and Transsexual. There is a seperate check of a number of questions to determine if the conflict has its roots in childhood or if it surfaced in adolescence or adulthood. This has nothing to do with whether or not the person "presented" for therapy, which is a key difference in the way S.A.G.E. defines "early onset." As previously mentioned, there is an independent calculation for possible Autogynephelia/Autoandrophelia. This is because a person can meet the definition for such and NOT have any gender identity conflicts. In determining the analysis I used the statistical probabilities associated with these forms of Paraphelia (the use of this term here is not meant to indicate they are "perversions," by the way. "Phelia" is Greek and means "love or fondness" and "Para" means "beside." Literally translated it means something that is "beside love and fondness" - or, in other words, something that MODIFIES or MOTIVATES love). The criteria are that the individual be (based on physical sex) either heterosexual, bisexual, or anallophilic. Most of those identified with this psychology were not conflicted about their gender role as children, and unanimously are aroused by some form of contrasexual ideas - whether it be crossdressing (transvestic), acting in a contrasexual manner (behavioral), fantasizing about having physical attributes of the opposite sex (physiologic), and/or arousal from actually altering their physical appearance to be more like that of the opposite sex (anatomic). An individual can have more than one type. Since the identification of possible Autogynephelia/Autoandrophelia has nothing to do with one's level of gender conflict it is provided only as a notation to the analysis, but does not AFFECT the analysis in any way. This is also partially because autogynephelia/autoandrophelia is a somewhat contraversial theory within the medical and research community. I should also point out that "autoANDROphelia" is a term I invented for this test, as I couldn't find any literature or papers concerning what a similar phenomena would be called for a Female-to-Male person. To my knowledge it has never been observed among F2Ms, but the test needed to calculate the theoretical possibility at least one such person exists. To understand how the test works, it might help to follow a possible subjects calculations through the program. For my example, let's assume the individual is a heterosexual male crossdresser who has no desire to BE the opposite sex. He had a pretty normal childhood, playing rough-and-tumble sports and chasing girls in highschool. He is quite happy with being male, but is aroused by dressing in female clothing. He's possibly more "in touch with his feminine side" than most men, and sometimes acts rather effeminate. His co-workers think he may be gay. Okay, that's the scenario. The baseline level for this man would be:
Let's say he answers three of the four Crossdresser questions positively, each question is worth .5 points. (Baseline) + (CD Check 1) + (CD Check 2) + (CD Check 3) 2 + .5 + .5 + .5 = 3.5 adjusted for "CD Skew" This value is passed to the "Conflict Calculator" function, which ranks him as in the "Crossdresser" category (range is >=2 but < 4). Within that category it then checks his orientation as Heterosexual and delivers the analysis for a "Classic Heterosexual Crossdresser." Then it does the Autogynephelia check. This seperate function first checks to see if he had a gender conflict early in life. He didn't. It then checks to see if he is homosexual. He isn't, so it continues. The Autogynephelia function then checks the responses to a specific set of ten questions, with some crosschecks for either a positive match for "crossdresser" or "physical alteration." Based on his responses, he showed arousal only from crossdressing. The only Autogynephelic subtype returned is "transvestic." This isn't to say he IS Autogynephelic, though. Just that it is a statistical possibility that sexual arousal is his motivation for crossdressing. Since the test doesn't know for certain he is male, it also runs his answers through the calculations as a female:
You can see how the baseline level of conflict already places the analysis within "transsexual." The adjustement for "CD Skew" would increase this number to 5.5. This would place the subject as a "Female to Male Transsexual in doubt about transitioning." However, a cross-check performed by the program would reveal that the individual has made no physical alterations (such as facial surgery or hormones). The program then considers that, logically, this individual must either be Interesexed (in which case they may be quite masculine without undertaking any physical alterations , even though they have female genitalia), or they are a seriously conflicted "Female-to-Male Transsexual" who has not undertaken any alterations because they are doubtful or apprehensive about transitioning. When the AutoANDROphelia check is done it would again see that there was no conflict early in life. Then it checks for homosexuality. Since the original answer was submitted by a heterosexual male, it will indicate this individual is attracted to women. If this WERE a woman, she would be a lesbian by that definition, and therefore not autoandrophelic. As you can see, the processes and checks this program does are quite complex but are by no means infallable. Many thanks to all those who tested out the previous version. Your feedback was extremely valuable in my efforts to make the test more accurate. I hope that some credentialed psychologist, psychiatrist, or researcher will find this a useful foundation for a "legitimate" test. If that is the case, please read the TERMS of USE. System Requirements: You will need your brain and your honesty. You may need a tape-measure with both metric and Imperial (also called "Standard" or "English") measurements on it, if you don't know your body measurements. It does ask for a few. You will need to make sure JavaScripting is enabled on your web browser for starters. If you get those annoying little "Pop-Up" advertisements, your set. You can't even launch the test page if it's not enabled. There are also some "mouseover" image swaps for which it is required. S.A.G.E. has been tested on the following platforms: Windows 95/98 PC:
Macintosh OS 8.0:
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