Final answer:
The term 'Gender' refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, and traits that society expects based on someone's biological sex. 'Masculine' and 'feminine' pertain to these cultural expectations, which vary by society and can change over time.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term referring to social/psychological characteristics of women and men is b) Gender. Gender refers to the behaviors, personal traits, and social positions that society attributes to a person's biological sex. Gender roles are the expectations and norms prescribed by society for behavior, actions, and thoughts based on an individual's perceived sex, making it a social construct rather than a biological one. These are distinct from biological sex, which relates to physical attributes such as chromosomes, reproductive systems, and secondary sexual characteristics.
Therefore, the terms "masculine" and "feminine" typically refer to gender because they encompass a range of culturally defined characteristics that society associates with men and women, respectively. Gender is a sociological category that individuals learn through socialization processes involving family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Unlike sex, which is determined by biology, gender roles vary across different cultures and historical time periods, underlining their nature as a social construction.