Cognitive Explanations: Kohlberg’s Theory Flashcards
What did Kohlberg say
Children’s ideas about gender develop in stage like manner becoming more sophisticated with age
What is gender identity stage
Age 2 children able to correctly identify themselves as a boy or girl (but not constant- eg if boy wears a skirt he is a girl) and able to identify other people as male or female
What is gender stability stage
Age 4, realises they will always stay the same gender and this is an aspect of themselves that remains consistent over time, but cannot apply this logic to other people in other situations
-if boy wears a dress he is a girl
What is gender constancy
Final stage of development (6-12)
-at age 6 children recognise that gender remains constant and consistent across time and situations, applied to other peoples and their own gender, no longer fooled by changes in outward appearance
When does child imitate role models
When have reached gender constancy, actively seek out appropriate gender role models to identify with and imitate
What is process of imitating appropriate same sex role models called
Self socialisation
Expand on strength that there is evidence to support the sequence of stages and additional positive
-Slaby and Frey presented children with split-screen images of males and females performing the same tasks, younger children spent roughly the same amount of time watching both sexes whereas children in the gender constancy stage spent longer looking at the model who was the same sex as them= suggests Kohlberg was correct in his assumption that children who have acquired constancy will actively seek gender-appropriate models
-Munroe also found cross-cultural evidence of theory in countries eg Kenya and Nepal suggesting sequence of stages may be universal, suggests biological maturity plays key role rather than environment
Expand on limitation that there are methodological issues in the interviews used to develop the theory
-children as young as two or three may lack the vocabulary required to express their understanding of gender, may have relatively complex ideas about gender but do not posses the verbal ability to articulate these
-means what they expressed may tell us little about their understanding
Expand on limitation that Kohlberg may have underestimated the age at which gender development occurs
-most research testing the theory asks questions about the sex change of a doll, Martin et al used photographs of real boys dressed in gender inconsistent clothing and found 5yos were able to understand that it was still a boy and when they applied the question to themselves(eg if you wore a dress would you be a girl) younger children often replied with the correct answer
-this suggests children grasp gender constancy at a much younger age when tested appropriately therefore Kohlberg should adjust his stage theory to include more accurate ages
Expand on limitation that there are gender differences in the stages
-found that boys tend to demonstrate gender constancy before girls
-Huston found it was relatively easy to get girls to engage in masculine activities but not vice versa as boys generally resist
-can be explained by SLT, male role models tend to be more powerful(more likely to be imitated) than female counterparts so boys more likely than girls to identify with their same sex model and act appropriately, males also more likely to be punished for gender inappropriate behaviour than girls
-suggests stages not the same in girls and boys so theory should be adjusted to reflect these
