cognitive explanation of gender development: Gender Schema Flashcards
What is a schema?
A cognitive framework that organises ideas and interprets information about something or someone.
What is a gender schema?
An organised set of beliefs and expectations of males and females that are derived from experience.
Describe the Gender Schema theory until in-group and outgroup schemas are established
- Martin and Halverson developed the gender schema theory and it suggests a child’s understanding of gender develops with age and they also actively construct their own learning of gender.
- A child’s basic gender identity is established at the ages of 2 to 3, they will then actively seek information to develop their gender schemas.
- The child will develop their gender schema by interacting with the environment such as their family the media. From this they will start to learn what toys and clothes are appropriate for them based on their gender.
- Experiences will continue to assimilate and they will start to show preferences for same sex playmates, sex role stereotyped activities and peer relationships are determined by their gender schema.
What is an in-group?
An in-group is the group the child will identify so for example if a child is male their in-group will also be male
what is an outgroup?
An outgroup is the group the child does not identify with and have opposite behavioural and physical characteristics.
What is suggested about in-group and outgroup schemas in the gender schema theory?
- the gender schema theory suggests that once children identify with their in-group they will positively view and evaluate their behaviours. A child will also negatively view and evaluate outgroup behaviours.
- Children will start to avoid information and behaviours from the out-groups, they will also actively seek information about their in-group and only focus on the consistent behaviours and ignore the inconsistent behaviours.
When do children start to develop elaborate schemas for both genders
-At 8 years of age
AO1 for Gender schemas
-Gender schema
-Gender identity
•experiences assimilated
-Environment
-2 types of gender schemas
-Elaborate schemas for both genders
AO3 For gender schemas
- David Reimer (Nature)
- Martin and Halverson (photographs) :)
- Baur (Beta Bias/SLT) :(
What did Martin and Halverson find from their research
P: Martin and Halverson provide research evidence that supports their gender schema theory of gender development.
E: They found that boys would more likely remember gender consistent photographs such as a male policeman than they would gender inconsistent photograph such as a male nurse. Additionally they also found that they would change the sex of the person in the gender inconsistent photographs.
L: This shows us that children will identify with their in-groups and only focus on consistent behaviours which supports the gender schema theory of gender development. It also supports the idea that information on gender inconsistent behaviour that needs to be recalled will be distorted by gender schemas.
What did Baur find from their research
P: A level of Beta bias is shown in the gender schema theory of gender development which is supported by Baur’s research
E: Baur found boys are more likely going to imitate the behaviour of their same sex role models compared to girls at 2 years of age.
E: This can be explained through the social learning theory as male role models are more powerful than female role models therefore male children are less likely going to deviate away from the behaviours of their same sex role model.
L: This shows us that the gender schema theory ignores the differences between males and females as it just assumes gender schemas will start to be established at the age of 2 between both sexes even though evidence has shown it only occurs in males.
