Cognitive approach: Gender Flashcards
what are the 3 cognitive explanations of gender?
the role of biases, the role of schema,, cognitive priming
THE ROLE OF BIASES: gender
the way that we think about ourselves and others is often affected by unconscious biases. ie, our predisposition to think in particular ways. biases can lead to inequality, prejudice and discrimination
what are the 3 different biases?
alpha bias, beta bias, confirmation bias
alpha bias
the tendency to exaggerate differences between groups. eg, between men and women, binary and non-binary people etc. it usually devalues women in relation to men (and non-binary in relation to binary)
beta bias
the tendency to minimise or ignore differences between men and women, binary and non-binary people
confirmation bias
if a person holds stereotyped views of men, women, and androgynous and gender fluid people that are negative then they only notice information that confirms these views
THE ROLE OF SCHEMA: gender
a gender schema is a mental representation consisting of knowledge about the ways males and females are expected to behave. the schema affects how an individual (especially a child) processes incoming information which then influences their behaviour/preferences. ie, they display/select those that are appropriate for their gender. eg, i am a boy so i play with other boys and cars, i am a girl so i play with other girls and dolls
Martin and Halverson’s Gender schema theory
a child identifies their own gender from age 2/3 years
this motivates them to build a gender schema that contains information typical for their gender
to do this, they actively seek out information about their gender and so their gender schema expands. Toys, colours, sports, behaviours all become gendered
the child pays attention to information consistent with their gender and so this info is more likely to be added to their gender schema (and later retrieved)
according to Gender Schema Theory why does gender schema have an important effect on memory?
information that is consistent with gender schema is more likely to be stored in memory and later retrieved than inconsistent information
COGNITIVE PRIMING: gender
exposure to early material effects how we view and take on new material. this also applies to gender
how sex-role stereotypes prime gender behaviour
sex-role stereotypes are learned from birth as parents often bring them up in a certain way depending on their sex. eg, males are strong, sporty and protective. females are beautiful, caring and nurturing
how gender roles prime gender behaviour
you expect particular gender-related behaviour roles in others. eg, a girl sees an advert of a girl playing with a doll (the prime). later when playing, she chooses a doll to play with. therefore, exposure to a prime that activates a stereotype can lead to gender-consistent behaviour
name 1 strength of gender schema explaining gender
there is research to support gender schema (and GST) as an explanation of gender.
Martin showed children under 6 years old gender consistent photos (eg, a male firefighter) and gender inconsistent photos (eg, a female soldier). they were asked to recall the photos a week later. they found that the children tended to change the sex of the person carrying out the gender inconsistent activity in the photo. eg, they recalled the soldier as being male. this suggests that young children have fixed gender schemas that distort how they remember information that is inconsistent with their gender schema
name 1 limitation of the cognitive approach explaining gender
incomplete explanation
one limitation of cognitive explanations for gender is that they do not consider alternative explanations/approaches. for example, social learning theory assumes that gender is learnt via observation and imitation of models. therefore, cognitive explanations of gender are incomplete
