Cog. Explanation Of Gender Development - Kohlberg's Theory

Question 1

What type of explanation is Kohlberg’s Theory?

Answer 1

A cognitive explanation

Question 2

What does the cognitive approach focus on?

Answer 2

The cognitive approach focuses on the role of thinking (cognition) in the process of development. To understand how gender develops, we must understand what is happening in the mind.

Question 3

Why is Kohlberg’s theory a cognitive development theory?

Answer 3

Because it states that a child’s mental concept of gender becomes more sophisticated with age.

Question 4

What are the two key cognitive theories of gender development?

Answer 4

• Kohlberg’s Stage Theory

* Gender Schema Theory

Question 5

Describe Kohlberg’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory

Answer 5

Kohlberg believed that children’s minds develop in set stages broadly related to age, and that the physical changes in our brain as we get older make the way we think change.

The consequence of this is that gender development occurs in three stages and children progress from one stage to the next as their thinking matures.

The development of gender role behaviour takes place when the child understands that gender is fixed and constant, in the third stage.

Children’s discovery that they are male or female causes them to identify with members of their own gender. Gender concepts develop as children actively structure their social experiences. Therefore it is an active process - not a passive one like SLT.

Question 6

What are the three stages of development?

Answer 6

• Gender Identity
• Gender Stability
• Gender Constancy

Question 7

At what age does gender identity occur?

Answer 7

2-3 years

Question 8

At what age does gender stability occur?

Answer 8

3-4 years

Question 9

At what age does gender constancy occur?

Answer 9

4 (4 1/2) - 7 years

Question 10

Describe a child’s understanding of gender at the gender identity stage

Answer 10

A child can correctly label their own gender (at 2) and others’ (at 3) based on outward appearance. However they don’t understand that gender is stable, and doesn’t change because of physical changes to appearance

Question 11

Describe a child’s understanding of gender at the gender stability stage

Answer 11

They understand that their own gender is stable across time, but don’t understand that gender is consistent across situations for other people. Physical changes to appearance affect other people’s gender.

Question 12

Describe a child’s understanding of gender at the gender constancy stage

Answer 12

The child has a fully developed understanding of gender. They understand that gender is constant across time and situations for themselves and others and are no longer fooled by changes to physical appearance.

They start to learn about gender appropriate behaviour and begin to seek out gender appropriate role-models to identify with and imitate. Once the child has a fully developed and internalised concept of gender at the constancy stage, they actively search for evidence that confirms their knowledge.

Question 13

What did Kohlberg’s believe about the stages, relating the wider world?

Answer 13

Kohlberg believed that these stages of cognitive development were universal (children from anywhere in the world go through the same stages at about the same ages). The difference is that they may learn different things about what it is to be feminine and masculine depending on the culture’s norms.

Question 14

EVALUATION OF KOHLBERG’S STAGE THEORY

Outline the evaluations points

Answer 14

• Evidence to support it
• Gender differences that the stages can’t explain are explained by SLT
• Research against the gender constancy stage
• Methodological problems using interviews and small children
• Stages are supported by biological approach and can therefore be seen as universal

Question 15

EVALUATION OF KOHLBERG’S STAGE THEORY

Is there any evidence to support it?

Answer 15

Slaby and Frey presented children with split screen images of males and females carrying out gender stereotyped activities. Equipment tracked their eye movements to measure the amount of time each child spent looking at both films.

The results found that younger children spent roughly the same amount of time watching both sexes. Whereas children in the gender constancy stage spent longer looking at the same sex model.

This supports Kohlberg’s assumptions that children who have acquired gender constancy actively seek gender-appropriate models.

Question 16

EVALUATION OF KOHLBERG’S STAGE THEORY

Evaluate how social learning theory challenged the stages

Answer 16

A further limitation is social learning theory challenges a focus on maturation.

Evidence suggests that boys have a less flexible concept of gender roles and show greater resistance to opposite-sex activities than girls.
This cannot be explained by a maturational theory. The evidence suggests that social influences (social learning theory) may play a more significant role in gender development than Kohlberg suggested.

Therefore understanding gender development in terms of ‘thinking’ may be too simple and SLT’s focus on the role of socialisation may be a more appropriate explanation of what occurs.

Question 17

EVALUATION OF KOHLBERG’S STAGE THEORY

Is there any evidence against the gender constancy stage?

Answer 17

A limitation is that Kohlberg’s theory is undermined by the observation that many children begin to demonstrate gender appropriate behaviour well before gender constancy is achieved. Research has found that children as young as 4 reported ‘feeling good’ when playing with gender appropriate toys and ‘bad’ about doing the opposite.

This contradicts Kohlberg, but may support gender schema theory which suggests that children begin to absorb gender-appropriate information as soon as they identify themselves as either male or female from around 2 years old.

Some argue that the theory focuses on cognitive aspects of gender development and therefore overlooks important social and cultural factors such as the influence of the environment.

Question 18

EVALUATION OF KOHLBERG’S STAGE THEORY

Are there any methodological problems?

Answer 18

Kohlberg’s theory was developed using language-based interviews with children as young as 2-3 who have limited understanding of language and speech production. It may have been that these children had complex ideas about gender from an early age but didn’t have the verbal ability to express them.

This is a limitation as it could be that the results gathered do not truly reflect the child’s actual understanding of gender.

Question 19

EVALUATION OF KOHLBERG’S STAGE THEORY

Evaluate the stage theory’s support from the biological approach

Answer 19

A strength is support from the biological approach.

Kohlberg’s stages are heavily influences by changes in the developing child’s brain and subsequent cognitive and intellectual maturation.

The biological basis of the theory is supported by Munroe et al’s cross-cultural evidence of Kohlberg’s stages in countries as far afield as Kenya and Nepal.

This suggests that gender development has a considerable maturational element and universality, supporting a biological approach.