Cognitive Explanations for Gender

Question 1

Cognitive Explanations for Gender

Answer 1

Cognitive explanations of gender focus on how children’s thinking about gender occurs in qualitatively different stages.

Question 2

Kohlberg’s Theory of Gender Constancy
Stages in development

Answer 2

• Kohlberg’s (1966) cognitive-developmental theory of gender is based on the idea that a child’s understanding of gender (including roles, behaviours, and attitudes) becomes more sophisticated with age. But the link with age is not because of experience.
• The link with age is not due to experience, but because of biological maturation - as the brain matures so does thinking.
• Gender understanding is parallel to intellectual development.
• Gender development is thought to progress through three stages. Kohlberg suggests that the progression is gradual instead of immediate.

Question 3

Stage 1: Gender identity/labelling (2 years)

Answer 3

• Around the age of 2 years, Kohlberg proposed that children can correctly identify themselves as a boy or a girl. This is gender identity.
• At 3 years, most children can identify other people as boys/men or girls/women.
• Their understanding of gender tends not to stretch much beyond simple labelling, however.
• Often children of this age group do not view gender as fixed. For instance, a two-and a-half-year-old boy may be heard to say, ‘when I grow up, I will be a mummy’.

Question 4

Stage 2: Gender stability (4 years)

Answer 4

• According to Kohlberg, at age 4 years, children acquire gender stability. With this comes the realisation that they will always stay the same gender.
• Children of this age cannot apply this logic to other people in other situations.
• They are often confused by external changes in appearance - they may describe a man who has long hair as a woman.
• They also believe that people change gender if they engage in activities that are more often associated with a different gender (such as a builder who is a woman or a nurse who is a man).

Question 5

Stage 3: Gender constancy (6/7 years)

Answer 5

• Gender constancy appears in the final stage of development.
• Kohlberg claimed that, around the age of 6 years, children recognise that gender remains constant across time and situations.
• This understanding is applied to other people’s gender as well as their own. They are no longer fooled by integration of roles.
• Children of this age and stage begin to seek out gender-appropriate role models to identify with and imitate.
• Once a child has a fully developed and internalised concept of gender, they search for evidence which confirms that concept.
• A tendency towards gender stereotyping begins to emerge at this age.

Question 6

what age is the first stage at and what is it called

Answer 6

2 years/ gender identify

Question 7

what age and what is it called for the stage 2

Answer 7

Stage 2: Gender stability (4 years)

Question 8

what age and what is it called for stage 3

Answer 8

Stage 3: Gender constancy (6/7 years)

Question 9

Evaluation
Research support

Answer 9

• One strength of Kohlberg’s stage theory is evidence suggests that gender stereotyping does emerge in the gender constancy stage.
• William Damon (1977) told children a story about George, a boy who liked to play with dolls. The children were asked to comment on the story. Four-year-olds said it was fine for George to play with dolls if he wanted to. In contrast, six-year-olds thought it was wrong for George to play with dolls.
• They had gone beyond understanding what boys and girls do, to developing rules about what they ought to do (gender stereotyping).
• This would suggest that children who have achieved constancy have formed stereotypes regarding gender-appropriate behaviour.

Question 10

evaluation counterpoint

Answer 10

• Other research challenges the idea that an interest in gender- appropriate behaviour only develops around age 6.
• Kay Bussey and Albert Bandura (1999) found that children as young as four reported feeling good’ about playing with gender-appropriate toys and ‘bad about doing the opposite.
• This contradicts what Kohlberg’s theory would predict, but may support gender schema theory, which suggests that children begin to absorb gender-appropriate information as soon as they identify themselves as either a boy or a girl (gender identity).

Question 11

Methodological problem

Answer 11

• One limitation of Kohlberg’s theory is that supporting research relies on unsatisfactory methods to assess gender constancy.
• Sandra Bem (1989) has criticised the methodology used in many studies of the link between gender and cognitive development.
• The key test of gender constancy in studies is whether a child understands that gender stays the same despite changes in appearance and context.
• Bern argued it is little wonder younger children are confused by this as, in our culture, this is how we determine one gender from another.
• We identify men and women through things like the clothes they wear and their hairstyle.
• Bem argued the best way to identify males and females is through physical differences, such as genitalia
• In her own study, Bem demonstrated that 40% of children aged 3-5 years were able to demonstrate constancy if they were shown a naked photo of the child-to-be- identified first.
• This suggests that the typical way of testing gender constancy may misrepresent what younger children actually know.

Question 12

Degrees of constancy

Answer 12

• A further limitation of Kohlberg’s theory is that other researchers have suggested there may be different degrees of gender constancy.