Cognitive Explanations of Gender Flashcards
According to cognitive explanations of gender…
we use mental processes to understand gender
we develop an understanding of gender over the course of our childhood
According to Kohlberg’s theory of gender, a child’s understanding of gender is influenced by…
Abiological factors
Blearning
Cnature
Dnurture
According to Kohlberg’s theory of gender, our understanding of gender is…
refined by brain maturation
refined when our brains get bigger and more complex
constructed from our childhood experiences
What is gender stability
Gender stability is the understanding that gender remains consistent across time.
What is gender constancy
Gender constance is the understanding that gender remains consistent across different situations.
According to Kohlberg, gender labelling is when children…
Eare aged 2-3
Abegin to recognise gender labels
Bbegin to recognise their own gender
According to Kohlberg’s theory, children only begin to imitate same-gender models and adopt gender-stereotypical behaviour…
Eonce they understand that gender remains consistent across different situations.
Bonce they reach the gender constancy stage.
Slaby and Frey’s study supports Kohlberg’s idea that…
Cgender constancy comes after gender stability
Agender stability comes after gender labelling
Slaby and Frey’s findings support Kohlberg’s idea that…
children imitate the gendered behaviour of same-gender models only if they have acquired gender constancy.
Slaby and Frey’s study…
Awas a correlational study
Dtested children’s understanding of gender
Etested how much children paid attention to same-gender models
what did Slaby and Frey found
Slaby & Frey found that children first understand gender labelling , then acquire gender stability , and then acquire gender constancy .
Aolder children were more likely to pay attention to same-gender models.
Slaby and Frey’s
Aself-report method
Binterview technique
A limitation of self-report is…
Bparticipants don’t always provide accurate data
They didn’t understand the questions or thought it was a fun game
What does kolberg theory state?
Kohlberg’s theory states that children first recognise gender labelling at age
$2-3$
2−3 , first acquire gender stability at age
$3-5$
3−5 , and first acquire gender constancy at around age
$6$
Individuals differences evaluation Frey and slaby
First, Frey and Slaby’s study showed variation in the ages at which children entered each stage of Kohlberg’s theory of gender.
Gender differences in age eval Bauer
And, second, Bauer showed that there may be gender differences in when children begin to imitate gender-stereotyped behaviour.
Martin and Little’s study suggests that children might…
not require gender constancy in order to imitate same-gender models.
When children start to use gender labels, they…
Dhave learned the physical attributes that are associated with each gender.
Arecognise their own gender.
What is according to Martin and Halverson
According to Martin and Halverson, children begin to imitate models of the same gender at the gender labelling stage.
Martin & Halverson…
Bchallenged Kohlberg’s theory
Csaid that children imitate same-gender models as soon as they learn gender labels
Martin and Halverson’s gender schema theory says that…
Bchildren acquire an understanding of gender through constructing gender schemas.
Dgender schemas influence children’s behaviour.
What is an in-group
An in-group is a group of people with whom we feel we belong and identify.
Campbell et al
$(2000)$
Observational study
Campbell et al (2000) supports the idea that…
Ayoung children pay more attention to in-groups.
Cchildren identify with people of the same gender before they acquire gender constancy.
We’ve now seen two studies that support gender schema theory.
Martin and Little or Martin & Little measured children’s gender constancy, as well as their understanding of gender stereotypes and their preference for gender-stereotyped activities.
$$
Campbell et al or Campbell observed young children, and compared the amount of time that children spent watching models of the same gender and the opposite gender.
$$
Both studies support gender schema theory’s prediction that children identify with same-gender models before they have acquired gender constancy .
Martin and Halverson found that children…
Chave gender schemas that bias their memory
Awere more likely to remember pictures of people behaving according to gender stereotypes
When we receive information that’s inconsistent with our schema…
Bwe are likely to ignore that information.
Cwe are unlikely to remember that information.
When we receive information that’s inconsistent with our schema…
Bwe are likely to ignore that information.
Cwe are unlikely to remember that information.
Campbell et al’s
$2002$
2002 study supports one aspect of gender schema theory, which is that…
Dwe display gender-stereotyped behaviour before acquiring gender constancy
Two studies that show limitation of gender schema theory
Campbell et al found that there was no relationship between a child’s awareness of gender stereotypes and their tendency to behave in a gender-stereotyped way.
And Alexander et al found that gender-stereotyped behaviour may occur even earlier than suggested by Martin and Halverson. Visual tracking steostupling looked at their own genders toys
According to Kohlberg ’s theory of gender, children construct an understanding of gender during their childhood.
What is understanding refined as
This understanding is then refined by brain maturation , which causes mental processes to develop. So, our understanding of gender is influenced by both nature and nurture .
Timing
eval
Kohlberg’s and Martin and Halverson’s theories agree that children play an active role in their own gender development, searching for information in the environment that builds on what they already know. They disagree on the precise timing of when this starts to happen. Kohlberg argues that children must achieve gender constancy before they are able to look for examples of gender-appropriate behaviour to imitate, or start to form gender stereotypes. Once children realise that gender does not change irrespective of appearance or context, they search the environment for appropriate role models.
In contrast, Martin and Halverson claim that as soon as a child recognises themselves as a boy or a girl (gender identity), they will begin to form attitudes and select behaviours that align with their ‘ingroup’. This involves an active search for confirmatory evidence of gender stereotypical attitudes and behaviours. This explains why children rationalise or misremember information that does not fit with their existing schema.
This suggests that there is disagreement about when the child begins to actively search for gender-appropriate information in their understanding of gender.
Nature or nutune
Kohlberg’s stages are influenced by changes in the developing brain and increased intellectual capacity with age – a nature approach. This would account for the fact that studies have found broad cross-cultural support for Kohlberg’s theory (e.g. Munroe et al. 1984) which suggests that the cognitive changes he described may be universal, and therefore biological. This is because if intellectual changes follow a similar pattern in children the world over, we can assume the changes have a biological basis. Child rearing and socialisation processes are likely to be different in different societies, whereas biological development remains fairly constant.
That said, although Kohlberg claims that children search for confirmation of gender stereotypes in the constancy stage, he fails to properly account for the socialisation process in the development of gender. This would include learning processes ascribed by nurture, such as the influence of significant others. Bandura and Bussey (1999), in their social-cognitive theory of gender, claim that social processes of observation, imitation and identification with role models play a much more influential role in gender development than cognitive structures. For instance, a little boy may develop ‘gender-appropriate’ behaviour and attitudes through identifying closely with his father.
This suggests that it is likely that the development of gender-related concepts in the maturing child involves an interaction of nature and nurture.
