Unit 3 – GENDER DEVELOPMENT

CONGRATULATIONS !!

Psychology Essay

A

A B grade bonanza !!!!!

A2 Psychology Course Structure

Unit 3 exam 1.5 hours June 2013

Cognition & DevelopmentAggressionGender

Unit 4 exam 2 hours June 2013

Research MethodsAddictive BehaviourSchizophrenia

Psychological Theories of Gender Development

1. Gender Constancy Theory GCT by Kohlberg2. Gender Schema Theory GST by Martin &

Halverson

“Teaching” Activity

1. Prepare mini-lesson on Kohlberg – Gender Constancy Theory –

What is a Cog Dev Theory? Utube clips Handouts? Quiz to check learning ?2. Prepare mini-lesson on Martin & Halverson – GSTWhat is a Schema (e.g. bank robbery)?--------------------------------------------------------------------------------•Both of these must include use of Powerpoint / Tables-diagrams / clips / activities (e.g. group role play) / Powerpoints will be handouts•Questions to check learning of class •Evaluation + IDA ------------------------------------------------------- 3. Prepare detailed essay plan as handout – “Describe and evaluate Kohlberg’s cognitive developmental theory of gender development (8+16marks)”4. Prepare detailed essay plan as handout – “Describe and evaluate gender schema theory (8+16marks)”

For info

Kohlberg’s Theory of Cognitive Development...

Cognitive developmental theories emphasise the importance of internal thought processes (cognition) in the development of gender. The two which have attracted the most attention

from researchers are presented here: Kohlberg’s theory and Gender Schema theory.

Kohlberg suggests that the child creates its gender schema through the following process:

1. The child labels itself as male or female2. The child perceives itself to be masculine or

feminine3. The child directs and organises its thoughts along

the lines of what it means to be male or female: ‘I am a girl therefore I must behave like a girl. What do girls do?

4. The child is motivated to adopt gender-appropriate behaviour because it becomes reinforcing to its self-image

Gender acquisition according to Cognitive Approach

IDA

Kohlberg suggests that the child creates its gender LABEL through the following process: continued

• It is only after the child has understood that gender is constant (age 5ish) that they show gender behaviour

Kohlberg’s Theory of Cognitive Development

• Kohlberg suggested that a child’s understanding of gender develops with their cognitive understanding of the world. He identified three stages in the development of gender identity.

• Stage 1 – General Labelling/ Basic Gender Identity: aged 2-3 years the child is aware of sex labels and whether s/he is a boy or a girl. They also know how to label others however children sometimes choose incorrect labels and do not realise that boys become men and that girls become women.

• Stage 2- Gender Stability: aged 3-5 years the child is aware that sex is stable over time i.e. boys become men and that girls become women. They however get confused about context and situation. For example a man in a dress maybe labelled as a women even if he has a beard because the child has not learnt to separate the clothes from the individual because they rely on superficial, physical signs such as the clothes.

• Stage 3 – Gender Constancy: aged 6 years the child is aware that sex is constant over time and across situations i.e. knowing that gender is constant regardless of changes in haircuts or clothes.

• Gender constancy represents a kind of conservation, an understanding that things remain the same despite changing appearance.

• Once children acquire gender constancy, they value the behaviours and attitudes associated with their gender.

PIAGET

• They then identify with adult figures possessing the qualities seen as relevant to their concept of themselves as male or female.

• This entails imitating same-sex models and following sex-appropriate activities. Maccoby and Jacklin (1974)

Kohlberg’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Note that in Kohlberg’s theory there is no significant relationship between children’s belief about gender and

their actual behaviour.

EVALUATION

Support - Slaby and Frey 1975 • They asked young children questions to assess

their understanding of gender labels; they asked girls for example ‘when you grow up could you ever be a daddy?’

• They found that little girls of two or three often thought they could become boys, or Dads, perhaps by changing their clothes or hairstyle or playing with guns. They also found that boys also thought they could change their gender.

However.. Slaby and Frey 1975

A criticism of this study is that the children questioned did not fully understand the researcher as Turner (1995) found that when children were asked ‘direct questions about themselves’ .. three year olds seemed to have gender stability. A03 - Internal validity ?

Support - Damon 1977

• wanted to see whether children’s understanding of gender changed between the ages of four to nine years.

• He told children a story about a boy called George who liked to play with dolls. He then asked children about whether it was alright for George to play with dolls.

..Found that …

• Four year olds thought it was alright, six year old thought it was wrong, and nine year olds thought it was unusual.

• Damon concluded that children’s understanding of gender does change with age and reflects their cognitive development.

Bussey and Bandura

• also provide support for this theory. They found that three and four year olds reacted in very stereotypical ways and disapproved of any gender inappropriate behaviour e.g. a boy playing with dolls or a girl playing with a dumper trucks.

However - Bussey and Bandura

• They felt this behaviour originated from the child’s upbringing / experiences; “as a result of predominately external sanctions” that shift to the self; the process of self-evaluation is involved.

“General” Evaluation

Positive criticisms• Takes into account active

role of infant

• Child is agent in socialization process rather than being socialized by others through conditioning

Negative criticisms• Order of stages, and age

ranges, are questioned• Does not explain why

masculine and feminine behaviours are viewed differently

• Cannot account for mismatch between attitudes and behaviour

The Gender-Schema Theory of Cognitive Gender Development...

By Martin and Halverson 1981

Theory based on schema formation

Also like.. PiagetThinking about experiences..

A schema is…..

• a mental framework for representing information about oneself, other people, and other social events…People construct schemas to help them organise their current knowledge and to help future understanding…

• Schemas are based on collections of information based on past experiences and memories….they continually become more complex as we grow and learn…

The Gender-Schema Theory of Cognitive Gender Development...

• Martin and Halverson’s (1981) agreed with Kohlberg that children’s thinking is the basis of their developed gender role behaviour BUT believed the process starts much earlier at the age of 3!!

The Gender-Schema Theory of Cognitive Gender Development...• They then actively seek information about

appropriate behaviours and actions of the in-group and dismiss out-group behaviour = they look to the environment to develop and build their schemas – which become more complex as they categorise toys, games, sports, school subjects, musical instruments from neutral to ‘right’ for girls or boys.

Schemas AS Memory (EWT) AS Attachments - the internal working model A2-Unit 3 - Piaget.

The Stage Theory ..

The Gender-Schema Theory of Cognitive Development

• Any information that conflicts with the child’s gender schema is disregarded forgotten or misremembered. According to Martin and Halverson gender schemas are built up gradually in three stages as the child experiences the social world:

The Gender-Schema Theory of Cognitive Development

• Stage 1 Child learns what things are associated with each sex (i.e. girls play with dolls).

• Stage 2 Child begins to make links between different components of the schema, so that knowing what someone likes to play with will allow the child to predict other things about them

The Gender-Schema Theory of Cognitive Development

• For example, someone who plays with dolls is likely to wear dresses and have long hair. In stage 2 a child can only make these links for their own sex.

• Stage 3 Child can now use linked components for both sexes.

Evaluation

• In support of gender schema theory, there is evidence to show that young children seem to have a better understanding of the activities typically associated with their own sex than those typically associated with the opposite sex.

Support

• Children as young as four years old are aware of their gender roles such as preferring gender typed toys and activities (Loge 1989).

Support

• Gender schema theory explains why children are more likely to model behaviour that is seen to be appropriate for their gender than automatically copy a same sex model; Durkin (1995) states that it is ‘currently the most influential approach to understanding gender’.

Support

• Rathus (1990) found that children learn that strength is linked to the male role stereotype and weakness to the female role stereotype. This supports the idea that gender schemas provide a basis for interpreting the environment and selecting appropriate forms of behaviour and for children’s self- perceptions to become sex typed.

However…

• Bauer (1993) found that boys but not girls are aware of and more willing to imitate gender matched scripts as young as two, suggesting a gender difference in when gender schemas are established.

• This is supported by Campbell (2000) who found that infants as young as three months had a preference for watching same sex babies but again this trend was more noticeable in boys than girls.

Support• The idea of gender schemas is further

supported by Martin and Little (1990) who found that pre-school children have ideas of appropriate gender stereotypes before they fully under the term gender.

• Maters et al (1979) had also found that children aged between four and five selected toys by their gender label (boy toy/girl toy) rather than which gender was seen playing with the toy.

Support

• Poulin-Dubois et al (2002) asked two to three year olds to choose a doll to carry out stereotypical male or female jobs and found that children could support the idea of a gender schema and also showing that young children learn from models on the basis of their own sex.

Support

• Aubry et al (1999) performed a longitudinal study into preferences for gender-related articles. It was found that once a belief had taken hold that an item was for the opposite sex, a reduced preference for that item developed implying that gender schemas affect behaviour.

Support

• Martin and Halverson (1983) asked children to recall pictures of recall pictures finding that children under the age of six years recalled more gender consistent ones e.g. a male footballer than gender non-consistent ones e.g. a male nurse.

However..

The theory may be reductionist as it criticised for overemphasising cognitive factors and underestimating the importance of social factors (Snode, 1986) IDA

clipAn example of a possible ‘stimulus’ for schema creation…

CDT True false quiz1. Kohlberg was influenced by Vygotsky’s work2. His theory is called gender consistency theory 3. It focuses on three stages of biological gender development4. Kohlberg’s stage 2 – gender stability is quite different from Piaget’s conservation

idea5. At the age of six children come to realise that gender is inconsistent across time

and situations.6. Slaby & Frey supported Kohlberg’s GCT7. Slaby & Frey also supported his theoretical age boundaries8. Martin & Halverson suggest children enter a ‘pretend’ mode when answering

gender related questions9. GST proposes that it is the same as GCT in that both describe gender constancy

as being paramount in children’s development10. GST is about children forming schemas of gender appropriate behaviour11. This is formed from TV, other children, adults, etc12. Hoffman suggests children may be receptive to inconsistent gender stereotypes 13. Differences between the two theories focus mainly on when the child gains

gender awareness14. Stangor and Ruble suggested a means of unifying the two theories

Answers1. Untrue2. Wrong3. Untrue – cognitive4. Untrue it is the same5. Untrue it is consistent6. True7. Untrue8. True9. Untrue– GST says it is gender identity/labelling that happens first not

constancy10. True11. True12. True13. True14. true

Exam Tip:

Social learning theory and Psychodynamic theory are not directly mentioned on the

specification but is very useful to know them in order to understand the cognitive-

developmental theories in this topic. They also provide you with additional evaluation points

for any essay that you write for your exam.

HOMEWORKFor homework carefully plan and then write an answer to the following question:

A1 Describe and evaluate Kohlberg’s explanation of gender development. (8 + 16 marks)

Remember that your essay should contain a minimum of 600 words and you are also aiming to write 300 words of evaluation (AO2/AO3).

OPTIONAL QUESTION : Stretch and challenge …..

A2 Outline and discuss cognitive development theory (4 + 6 marks) This essay should be around 400 words: