5. Gender Development Flashcards
What is biological sex?
- typically assigned at birth
- determined by our chromosomes, genitalia and hormones
What is gender?
- typically assigned at birth
- however not just biologically determined
- refers to a broad social construct
- takes into account psychological, behavioural, social and cultural aspects that change over time
What are gender-typing and gender expression?
- processes which adopt observable behaviours in line with our construction of gender
- social norms teach us how to identify
What are the three stages of development?
- gender identity (2-3yrs)
- gender stability (4-5yrs)
- gender constancy (6-7yrs)
Are the three stages of development nature or nurture?
Why?
nurture
- children develop concepts of gender from those around them through observation and practice
What is stage one of gender identity? (three stages of gender development)
- children begin to label themselves and others as a ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ (based on external appearance)
- they do not understand the difference between biological sex and gender or that both tend to remain stable over time
What is stage two of gender stability? (three stages of gender development)
- children now recognise that gender typically remains constant over time
- however, this understanding is still based on appearance
- kohlbergs theory assumes gender to be binary
What is stage one of gender constancy? (three stages of gender development)
- now understand that gender identity is constant, despite changes in dress, appearance etc
- seek out same-sex playmates and engage in gender-typed behaviours
Why is gender constancy key to developing gendered behaviour?
- doesn’t make sense to learn about your gender and gender-typed behaviours if your gender doesn’t remain constant
What evidence has been found for the three stages of cognitive development?
- when low gender constancy is present, children played with the toy from both adverts
- high gender constancy children were much less likely to play with the toy from the advert with the opposite sex child
What evidence has been found against the three stages of cognitive development?
- even 2 year olds made categorical judgement
- gender constancy may not be necessary for gender typing development
What role have hormones seen to have on gender development?
- focussed on the hormones androgens
- androgens affect physical development
- higher levels in men than women e.g testosterone
- responsible for forming external genitalia during prenatal development and linked to aggression
- fluctuations influence behaviour
What have biological accounts looked at in intersex individuals and related conditions?
androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS)
- occurs in those who are genetically male but their androgen receptors malfunction leading to external characteristics associated with women
congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)
- affects the adrenal glands
- genetically female individuals may develop male genitalia
What are arguments for the biological approach?
- trans children prefer to engage in gender-typed behaviours that match their gender identity (not due to social factors)
- discrepancy between assigned gender and gender identity occur in early life and cannot be altered by parenting
What are arguments against the biological approach?
- causal link between hormones, genes and behaviour has not been established
- difficult to disentangle hormonal/genetic influences from social ones
- biological sex is complex and different aspects may contribute to gender development to different extents
What is the social cognitive theory?
Bussey and Bandura proposed three interacting causal factors that determine gender development
1. personal factors
2. behaviour patterns
3. environmental factors
What does the social cognitive theory propose in the 3 ways which gender-typed behaviours develop?
- tuition: when children are directly taught gendered behaviours
- enactive experience: when children learn to guide their own behaviour by considering others reactions
- observational learning: seeing others behave and watching the consequences
Why is gender typing more rigid for boys?
- less likely to express preferences or engage with activities that are ‘stereotypically female’ than girls
- parents and peers often respond more negatively to boys who do girl ‘things’
- fathers instill stereotypical male behaviours into sons
- males traditionally have a higher status in society and feminine behaviour would deteriorate this
What have marketing influences shown in gender typed toy preference?
- labelling of toys i.e ‘for girls’ and the colours blue or pink affects which toys boys and girls play with
What is the gender similarity hypothesis?
- not as many gender differences as we think
- differences are larger within genders
What are two examples of gender differences in development?
- math skills
- aggression
How do maths skills differ between genders?
Why?
- woman take a small percentage of the workforce in STEM
- stereotypes about maths ability is prominent along children, parents and teachers
Why are the differences in maths skills between genders only found in later development?
- girls often show higher maths anxiety and less confidence
- tuition/biological factors: teacher perceptions
How does aggression differ between genders?
- aggression emerges at about 1yo
- 5% male toddlers aggressive compared to 1% of females (tends to increase with development)
What is direct vs indirect aggression?
direct: verbal and physical acts
indirect: relational aggressive acts by manipulating peer relations and damaging the targets social position
Why might there be variations in the type of aggression used across the genders?
biological explanation:
- females have lower physical strength and therefore reliance on indirect means
sociocognitive:
- girls peers are often smaller but closer than boys therefore indirect aggression is more hurtful among girls
tuition:
- differences in the degree to which parents and other adults discourage directly aggressive behaviours in girls: more covert means
What are spatial skills?
What are the 3 primary components?
involve comparing, manipulating and transforming mental pictures
three primary components:
- mental rotation: identifying a model in different orientation
- spatial perception: determines the spatial relations of objects with respects to ones own body
- spatial visualisation: being able to visualise spatially presented info
What gender differences are there in spatial skills?
- favour boys especially with mental rotation
- however getting smaller with time
Why might there be gender differences in spatial skills?
- boys often get more experience in spatially complex environments
- correlational studies have shown participating in spatial activities are positively correlated e.g playing ball
- differences are more pronounced in societies with greater gender inequality
