cognitive explanation: gender schema theory Flashcards
what is gender schema?
a mental representation or organised set of beliefs and expectations related to gender that are derived from experience. It is made up of everything we know about gender and gender appropriate behaviour.
what did Martin and Halverson argue about gender?
they argued that understanding of gender increases with age. They also agree with Kohlberg that children actively construct their understanding of gender, not learn it passively (explained by the social learning theory).
what did the claim happened with gender schema during gender identity and how does this differ to Kohlberg?
They claim that children search the environment or information that encourages the development of gender schema as soon as they establish gender identity (age 2/3).
This is different to Kohlberg who said they didn’t do this till they achieved gender constancy at age 6/7.
what are gender schemas thought to be build around?
Gender schemas are thought to be built around stereotypes. By the age of 6, they are reasonably detailed and can be rigid.
Children are likely to disregard or misremember information they encounter that doesn’t fit with their existing schema.
what happens to the development of schemas at around 8 years old?
Children tend to have a better understanding of schemas appropriate for their own gender. At around 8 years old, they develop a more elaborate schema for both genders.
AO3: how is ‘supporting evidence’ a strength to the gender schema theory as a cognitive explanation to gender development?
one strength to the gender schema theory as a cognitive explanation to gender development is that it has supporting evidence. For example, Martin and Halverson showed children of various ages photos of gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent behaviour. They then asked the children to recall the behaviours shown to them a week later and they found that the children under 6 years old had a better recall of gender-consistent behaviours. They also tended to change the gender of the child in the gender-inconsistent photos when recalling them. Therefore, this supports the idea that our memories can be distorted to fit a preexisting schema.
AO3: how is ‘real life application’ a strength to the gender schema theory as a cognitive explanation of gender development?
one strength to the gender schema theory as a cognitive explanation to gender development is that it can be applied to real life situations. This is because by understanding gender schema theory, it can help us to understand why smaller children hold such fixed and rigid attitudes about gender. This is important as It can be useful for settings who have contact with smaller children such as nursery workers and parents. This is because it will help them to understand why children may behave in a specific way and why they choose to do something towards a particular gender. Therefore, this supports the idea that by understanding how children think and behave towards different genders, nurserys and parents can learn to expect this behaviour and adapt to best help the children.
AO3: how is ‘oversimplistic’ a limitation to the gender schema theory as a cognitive explanation of gender development?
one limitation to the gender schema theory as a cognitive explanation to gender development is that it is too oversimplistic. This is because it overemphasises the role of the individual in constructing the schema. For example, it doesn’t focus on other social factors such as the parents or rewards and punishments towards the child. Therefore, it doesn’t fully help us to understand the complexity of the concept of gender as it doesn’t account for other influences.
AO3: how is ‘individual differences’ a limitation to the gender schema theory as a cognitive explanation of gender development?
one limitation to the gender schema theory as a cognitive explanation to gender development is that it doesn’t account for individual differences. This is because the gender schema theory cant explain why different children with the same environmental influences respond differently to gender appropriate behaviour. For example, why do some girls prefer action figures to babies and dolls and why do some boys prefer babies and dolls to action figures. Therefore, this suggests that there may be other biological differences that affect gender development such as the influence of hormones and genes which the gender schema theory ignores, meaning this explanation is only partial.
