Cognitive Explanation: Kohlberg's Theory Flashcards
Belief of cognitive explanation on gender development:
A child’s mental concept of gender becomes more sophisticated with age
What did Kohleberg (1966) suggest?
A child’s understanding of gender develops in three stages
What are the three stages?
- Gender Identity
- Gender Stability
- Gender Constance
What is Stage 1?
Gender Identity
What age does stage 1 occur?
2-3 years
Define Gender Identity:
- Sex can change
- Label themselves ‘girl’ or ‘boy’ like their name
- Gender labels changes when appearances changes
- Believe that gender changes over time and situation
What is stage 2?
Gender stability
What age does stage 2 occur?
3-4
Define Gender stability:
- Recognise gender is consistent over time (Egocentric does not realise this applies to others)
- See certain characteristics as being fem or masc
- E.g someone doing heavy labour must be a man
- Boys=men
- Girls=women
What is stage 3?
Gender Constancy
What age does stage 3 occur?
6-7
Define gender constancy:
- Gender is fixed across time and situation despite external appearance changes
- actively seek out role models to imitate
- Realise that a female with short hair and doing a ‘masculine’ job is still female
Why is cognitive view similar to social learning theory?
-Gender appropriate role models to identify with and imitate
Why is cognitive view different to social leaning theory?
- SLT believes that this process can occur at any age
- Cognitive believes that this can only occur after stage two in order to confirm their concepts
Method of Marcus & Overton (1978)
- Flip book, children were shown ‘muddled’ pictures where hairstyles and clothes of a male and female character could be changed.
- The children were then asked what sex they thought the character was.
Findings of Marcus & Overton (1978):
- Younger children believed that changing clothes changes gender
- Older children understood gender constancy
Aim of Slaby and Frey (1975):
Development of children’s understanding of gender in relation to the attention they give to the same-sex models
Method of Slaby and Frey (1975):
- Age of 2-5 , divided into high and low gender constancy groups, shown a silent film
- 2 adult models, one male and one female carrying out the same task, screen was split
- Children watched both films at the same time and eye movement and direction of gaze were recorded to assess which film they looked at most.
Findings of Slaby and Frey (1975):
Children with higher levels of gender constancy spent more time watching sex-appropriate model
Does Slaby and Frey (1975) research support Kohlberg’s theory?
Yes
Findings of Bussey and Bandura (1992):
Children as young as four reported ‘feeling good’ when playing with gender-appropriate toys
Does Bussey and Bandura (1992) support Kohlberg’s theory?
No, supports gender-schema theory
What are the methodological issues with Kohlberg’s theory?
- Used interviews with children who were very young
- The questions were tailored but not necessarily understood nor have the ability to express understanding
Does Kohlberg’s theory support the biological approach?
Yes, stages occur due to the biological development of the brain and cognitive and intellectual capacity with age
Is it possible that Kohlberg’s theory is universal?
Yes (Munro et al showed cross-cultural findings of these three stages)
Limitation of Kohlberg’s Theory:
Description rather than explanation
