Cultural and media influences on gender roles Flashcards
What is culture?
the rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members pf a society or some other collection of people.
Who provided evidence for the influence of culture on gender?
Margaret Mead’s 3 tribes study.
Outline Mead’s 3 tribes study.
Tribes in Papa New Guinea. Arapesh men and women were gentle, responsive and cooperative. Mundugumor men and women violent and aggressive. Thambuli had gender role differences: dominant, impersonal and managerial women and emotionally depended men.
How has culture influenced gender in the UK?
Historically: women are more domestic than men and have less powerful positions. However, this gender gap is decreasing, supporting the idea of changing cultural influences.
How are males portrayed in the media?
Independent, directive: pursue engaging occupations and recreational activities. Display control in situations.
How are females portrayed in the media?
Dependent, ambiguous and emotional. ‘At mercy’ to others. Shown as more flawless and passive than men.
Very briefly online evidence for the influence of the media on gender.
Individuals exposed to greater amounts of these gender representations in the media are more likely to display stereotypical behaviour.
Explain the role of vicious reinforcement in the media’s influence on gender.
Media also gives info on outcomes of gender behaviour. Seeing ‘similar others’ in the media succeed or fail when displaying stereotypical behaviours reinforces gender behaviour in individuals.
Explain the role of counter-stereotypes in the media.
Pingree found that stereotyping was reduced when children were shown commercials with women in non-traditional roles. Shows media has a responsibility to reduce the stereotypes that have been portrayed for so long.
(AO3) Describe an issue with Mead’s research.
Conducted most of her research alone. May have misinterpreted findings as no-one else can ensure inter observer reliability. Observer/researcher bias may have impacted her observations. Questions how accurate her findings were, and whether gender roles are actually so different between cultures.
(AO3) Explain how cultural similarities provide contradictory evidence for the role of culture in gender.
Biological differences between men and women allow for more efficiency when completing physical tasks. This is universal. Women are more suited to childbearing and nursing. Men are more suited to more intense physical tasks due to greater speed and upper body strength. These trends have been seen in tribes across the world, suggesting the importance of biology.
(AO3) What is the difficulty in providing research evidence for the influence of media on gender?
Almost all children watch some television or form of media. No control groups for comparison, except for rare cases of communities without TV. This means that when studies, such as one that used this method and found significant effects of media on gender attitudes, lack validity as due to the effects of extraneous variables and unique sample.
