9: Gender Development Flashcards
Stereotype threat
Anxiety experienced by a certain group that they will confirm a stereotype about their group - usually impair performance and reduce motivation (eg. women are bad at maths study by Fogliati & Bussey)
Biosocial theory
Biosocial theory claims that evolution did not design human psychological sex differences. It argues that these are the result of the allocation of men and women into different sex roles, based on physical differences.
Social role theory
Sex differences persist due to the gendered labour division which embodied certain psychological characteristics
Changing of gender-linked preferences
Infants: no preference
18 months: look more at same than other-gender stereotypical objects
2 years: prefer to play with same - gender stereotypical objects
As they age, early gender stereotypical activities expand to other domains
Children’s knowledge of gender stereotypes
Infants: little awareness
Serbin, Poulin Dubois, Colburne, Sen, & Eichstedt (2001)
12 months: both sexes showed a visual preference for dolls over trucks
18 months: both sexes showed more interest in the matching sex-typed toys. Girls looked more at the faces that ‘matched’ the preceding toy standard
23 months: same as above
5 years: expand knowledge from concrete differences (physical appearance) to abstract differences (personalities). Become more flexible in gender stereotypic conditions (Conry-Murray & Turiel)
Children’s rigidity in applying gender stereotypes
- most rigid when beginning school, become flexible in middle school and then return to rigidity in adolescence
- girls more flexible, beginning mid childhood (blakemore et al)
- 6-8 yo decreased in gender stereotyping if they were put in condition where female robot was in masculine job (Song-Nichols & Young, 2020)
Biological theory of gender development
The biological approach suggests there is no distinction between sex & gender, thus biological sex creates gendered behavior. Gender is determined by two biological factors: hormones and chromosomes.
Psychoanalytic theory of gender development
Identification with same sex parent
issues with this (eg. claims women less feminised bc don’t fear castration, don’t fall into roles)
Cognitive developmental theory of gender development
Kohlberg - Gender constancy (sex is fixed and tied to biology) is comprised of:
- Gender identity
- Gender stability
- Gender consistency
Gender schema theory
Bem
Children learn gender roles from culture.
- Androgenous people most mentally healthy
Social cognitive theory of gender development
- Modelling
- Enactive experience
- Direct tuition
How do parents influence gender development?
- perceive children differently
- respond differently to same emotional response
- provide different environments
- converse differently with different sexes (technical vs emotional)
- may model gendered behaviour
- effect is truncated when at odds with the rest of society
How do peers impact gender development?
- praise children for gender stereotypical activities and censure them for non-conformity (effect stronger for boys)
- model gender stereotypical behaviour
- younger children more direct, adolescents indirect
- gender segregation begins early and increases in middle childhood
- not all peers are intolerant of gender nonconformity - will find peers with same values
how does the media impact gender development?
- affirm gender stereotypes (more authoritative, muscular men - focus on sexually provocative women - Coltrane & Messineo)
- print media focused on appearance for girls and hobbies/occupations for boys
- more time on media = more gender stereotypic
Regulators of gendered conduct and role behaviour
- gender linked social expectations / young men to conform to same gender, women to conform to opposite gender/ men avoid opposite gender (Jackson & Bussey, 2020).
- gender linked self expectations
- perceived self efficacy
