Cognitive Explanations of Gender Development - Gender Schema Theory Flashcards
How is this similar to Kohlberg’s theory?
Martin and Halverson share the idea that children’s understanding grows with age. It shares the view that children develop their understanding by actively structuring their own learning, rather than by passively observing role models.
How is the concept of gender schema related to gender identity?
A gender schema is a generalised representation of everything we know in relation to gender and gender-appropriate behaviour. According to Martin and Halverson, once a child has established gender identity, he or she will begin to search the environment for any information that encourages development of gender schema. This contrasts with Kohlberg’s view that this process only begins in gender constancy.
How does schema direct behaviour and self-understanding?
The schema are likely to be based around stereotypes, such as boys play with trucks and girls play with dolls, which provide a framework which directs experience and self-understanding. By 6 years the child has a relatively fixed and stereotypical idea about what is appropriate for their gender.
How do In-groups and Out-groups relate to this?
In-groups are people who are appropriate to their own gender. This is consistent with the idea that children pay more attention to information relevant to their gender identity rather than that of the outgroup. Its not until they are around 8 that they develop elaborate schemas for both genders. Also serves to bolster self-esteem.
What is the strength - supporting evidence?
Martin and Halverson’s own study found children under the age of 6 were more likely to remember gender-consistent behaviour than photographs of gender-inconsistent behaviour. They tended to change the sex of the gender-inconsistent person upon recall. This supports the idea that memory may be distorted to fit with existing schemas.
What is the strength - rigidity of gender beliefs?
This can account for the fact that young children hold rigid and fixed gender attitudes. Information that conflicts with existing schemas is discounted in favour of information that confirms in-group schema. Similarly, they display a strong in-group bias in terms of how they process information.
What is the strength - complements Kohlberg’s theory
It is theorised that gender schema and gender constancy are two different processes. Gender schema is concerned with how organisation of information affects memory, but gender constancy is linked with motivation, Once children have an established concept of what it means to be a boy or girl they are motivated to find out more about the role and engage in gender-appropriate activities.
