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從未分化的胚胎期到完全分化的成年期，恰恰在一個人的生理的性發育了許多年的時候，他/她的性別也在這個時期逐漸分化和構建起來。當然羅，每一個嬰兒出生的即刻，按照顯而易見的初級性徵，就被歸屬於兩性中的一個性別成員。繼而，這又決定著家庭、朋友和鄰居等等如何對待這名新生兒。然而，這種性別歸屬是否固定得下來，就是說，這個孩子是否真正地接受這種歸屬，則另當別論。就我們所知道的來說，一個孩子作為女性還是男性的性自認在他/她的生命的早幾年裏就成型了。還有，這個孩子能夠在外在表現上按照所期望的角色去行事，而沒有內在的心理抵觸。如此一來，一個孩子可能在扮演女性性別角色的同時，內心裏卻不聲不響地憤恨女性性別角色。換一句話說，一個外觀上是女孩的人，可能內心的性自認是一個男孩（反過來也是可能的）。幸運的是，絕大多數的孩子們沒有如此的麻煩。對於他們來說，性別角色和性自認是一個硬幣的兩面。在任一案例中，隨著年代的進展，每個個體的生物學的男性或女性，通過女性或男性社會心理特質會得到強化。此外，這種性別角色的發展，開始于出生，加強於青春期。發展到這個特定的時候，青少年會被期望成長為“真正的”女人或“真正的”男人。

Development of tertiary sexual characteristics

Just as a person's physical sex develops over many years from the undifferentiated embryo to the fully differentiated adult, so is a person's gender gradually constructed over a period of time. Of course, immediately at birth every baby is assigned one of the two sexes according to the obvious primary sexual characteristics. This, in turn, determines how the newborn is treated by family, friends, neighbors, etc. However, whether this sex assignment will stick, i.e. whether the child really accepts it, is another question. We know that a child’s sexual self-identification as female or male becomes permanent with the first few years of life. Still, the child may outwardly play the desired role without inner conviction. Thus, a child may play the female gender role while secretly resenting it. In other words, an apparent girl may secretly identify as a boy (the reverse is also possible). Fortunately, in the overwhelming majority of children there is no such problem. For them, gender role and sexual self-identification are merely two sides of the same coin. In any case, over the years, each individual's biological femaleness or maleness is augmented by the psychosocial dimensions of femininity and masculinity. Again, this development, which begins at birth, is greatly reinforced during puberty. At this time particularly, adolescents are expected to grow into "real women" or "real men".