cognitive explanations

Question 1

What happens during the stage of gender identity(2-3 years old)?

Answer 1

• Able to label own sex and opposite sex
• judge others sex on external features
• Dont understand gender is fixed
• Believe their gender may change overtime and across situations

Question 2

What happens during the stage of gender stability (3-5 yrs old)

Answer 2

• Realise gender is stable overtime
• They believe males may change into females if they engage in female activities
• heavy reliance on external appearances

Question 3

What happens during the stage of gender constancy (6-7 yrs old)?

Answer 3

• Realise gender is constant across time
• aquired gender accuracy
• developing awareness of biological differences.sense of permanence of being a boy or girl.

Question 4

What is the gender schema theory?

Answer 4

• Sees gender identity alone as providing children with the motivation to assume gender consistent behaviour
• Gender schema is a cognitive framework constructed though observation of older children and adults gendered behaviour
• it is a process of seperating people into two genders and can happen between the ages of two to three years of age.

Question 5

What is an in-group schema?

Answer 5

• socialise the child into gender consistent behaviour
• their sex

Question 6

What is an out-group schema?

Answer 6

• Recognised as inconsistent with the childs in-group and are initially ignored
• opposite sex

behaviour that is consistent with the appropiate gender schema is remembered better

Question 7

What happens at around the age of six?

Answer 7

• children stop ignoring out-group schemas and as their cognition develops begin to show an understanding that the opposite sex may want different things from them

Adolescents are more likely to reject the rigid binary view of gender and dress and act in a more androgynous manner

Question 8

negative impact

Research by Martin and Halverson…

Answer 8

• Asked children under the age of 6 to recall pictures of people
• Found they called more gender consistent picturesthan gender inconsistent pcitures
• supports idea of gender schema negatively affecting memory for behaviour that is gender inconsistent

Question 9

Todd et al research…

Answer 9

• Naturalistic observation
• observed nursery age children and toy preferences
• Showed both boys and girls aged between 9 months and 32 months showed strongly gender consistent preferences for toys
• Gender identity motivates children to partake in gender consistent behaviour

Question 10

Strength of the gender schema theory(Bandura and Bussey)

Answer 10

P-research by Bandura and Bussey supports GST
E-Found children as young as 4 reported feeling good after playing with gender appropiate toys and felt bad about playing with toys that were not gender appropiate
E-validate theory as by the age of three children may of already developed gender schema and so will have a developed understanding of gender appropiate activities and behaviours
L-This explains why they feel so comfortable playing with gender appropiate toys.