Cognitive Explanations: Gender Schema Theory

Question 1

Define ‘gender schema’

Answer 1

• An organised set of beliefs & expectations related to gender that are derived from experience
• A generalised representation of everything we know in relation to gender

Question 2

Define ‘schema’

Answer 2

• Mental contstructs that develop through experience
• A concept introduced as a part of the cognitive approach

Question 3

What did psychologists find about gender schema after gender identity?

Answer 3

Martin & Halverson
- Once a child has established gender identity around the age of 2-3yrs he or she will begin to search the environment for information that encourages development of gender schema

• This contrasts with Kohlberg’s view that this process only begins after they have progressed through all three, stages, around age 7 with gender constancy

Question 4

How does gender schema determine behaviour?

Answer 4

• For young children, schema are likely to be formed around stereotypes such as boys play with trucks & girls play with dolls
• These provide a framework that directs experience as well as the childs understanding of itself
• By 6yrs old children have a fixed stereotypical idea about what is appropriate for their gender.

Question 5

How do ingroups and outgroups relate to schema?

Answer 5

• Children tend to have a much better understanding of the schema that are appropriate to their own gender (the ingroup)
• Children pay more attention to their relevant gender rather than of the other gender (outgroup)

It is not until children are around 8 that they develop elaborate schemas for both genders as opposed to their own

Question 6

Give one strength of the gender schema theory.

Answer 6

Its key principles are supported by evidence
- Martin & Halversons (1983) own study found that children under the age of 6 were more likely to remember photographs of stereotypically gender-appropriate behaviour (such as women washing the dishes)
- Than photographs of gender inappropriate behaviour (such as a woman fixing the car) when tested a week later
- Children tended to change the gender of the person carrying out the gender inappropriate activity in the photographs when asked to recall them so that the gender behaviour was now appropriate.

This provides support for gender schema theory which predicts that children under 6yrs would do this (in contrast with Kohlberg who predicted this would only happen when children are older)

Question 7

Give some limitations of gender schema.

Answer 7

• Gender schema theory does not fully explain why gender schemas develop in the way that they do, because it focuses too much on cognitive factors & not enough on social factors like parental influence and peer pressure
• Gender schema theory also cannot explain why some girls may prefer action figures & some boys may prefer dolls
• Gender schemas lack the same construct validity as general cognitive schemas in that they are internal mental processes that cannot be seen & their development cannot be explained, just described

Question 8

Give another strength of gender schema theory.

Answer 8

OS: Gender schema theory can account for cultural differences in stereotypically gender-apropriate behaviour
Kendra Cherry (2019)
Argues that gender schema not only influence how people process information but also what counts as culturally appropriate gender behaviour.
- Traditional cultures that believe women shld take a nurturing role & that men shld pursue a career, will raise children who form schema which are consisten w this view
- In societies where perceptions of gender have less rigid boundaries, children are more likely to acquire fluid gender schema
- Martin & Halversons therory can explain how gender schema are transmitted between members of a society & how cultural differences in gender stereotypes come about

This contrasts with other explanations of gender development, such as psychodynamic theory which suggests gender is identity is driven by unconscious biological urges