Gender Flashcards
Gender Schema Theory
Martin and Halverson
Schemas- learnt from intetractions from children, adults, peers, media… (help organise and structure information they are presented with)
Appropriate- children learn what toys, clothes etc are ok
ingroup- refers to the group with which the person identifies, they positively evaluate this group. this motivates a child to be like their group, this leads to ingroup schemas.
outgroup- a child will negatively evaluate this group.
Resilience- this leads to strong gender beliefs and fixed gender attitudes, they will ignore any information that is not consistent with their ingroup schema
Evaluate Gender Schema Theory
Martin and Little (1990) found gender sterotypes were very string even in under 4’s. but not gender stability as Kohlbergs theory suggests
Martin and Halverson (1983) found that when asked to recall pictures. under 4’s rmembered gender consistent ones.
-distort info as M+H showed?
Hoffman (1998) states that children whos mothers work have less sexist views than those who don’t.
Kohlberg
STAGE 1- Gender labelling -[2/3] children label themselves as boy or girl on outward appearance only. they will change their label as appearance changes
STAGE 2- Gender Stability-[4] children recognise gender as something consistent over time but not situations.
STAGE 3- Gender Consistency- [6]- children recognise gender as consistent across situations. they now begin gender appropriate behaviour
evaluate Kohlberg
Thompson (1975) 75% of 2 year olds `and 90% 3/4 years olds could identify their gender
Slaby and Fray (1975) ‘where you a girl/boy when you were born?’ “when you grow up will you be a mummy or daddy? only over 4 could understand stability
Slaby and Fray (1975) ‘if you like football are you a boy or girl’ only older children understood consistency
Gender Dysphoria
Psychological
- mental illness - which is related to childhood trauma and maladaptive upbringings.Coates (1991) said this trauma leads to cross-gender fantasies.
- mother-son relationships- distorted parental attitudes lead to over-female identification and confused identity.
Biological
–prenatal hormone levels may be effected by genetic conditions. this leads to a mismatch of hormones and genetic sex. they are assigned the wrong sex due to external genitalia.
Hare (2009) found MtF trans had longer androgen receptors . this could effect testosterone in the womb
Brain Sex Theory- m and f brains are different. the BSTC is twice as large in men than women so there are more neurons. it may be that BSTC correlates with preferred sex not assigned sex
evaluate Gender Dysphoria
Cole (1997) found it is not related to traume (studied 435 people)
Mother-son only explains MtF
Zucker studied 115 MtF and found 64 had seperation anxiety
Rametti (2004) studied FtM before transgender hormone therapy and found they had brains similar to males
ETHICS: 1) may help acceptance if a cause is found or 2) ‘cure’ and ‘ilness’
Biosocial
Eagly and Wood (1999)
Social Role Theory
Evolutionary- evolutionary pressures cause physical differences, not psychological differences.
Psychological Traits between men and women are not biological- only the physical difference between men and women are biological.
Roles- the physical differences lead to sex role allocations which causes psychological sex differences.
Psychological differences- are a consequence of the different roles to which men and women are assigned, not biologically determined psychological differences.
DIVISIONS IN LABOUR- SRT states that the physical differences allow certain roles to be performed more efficiently by one role e.g. childrearing for women and upper body strength for men.
MATE CHOICE- SRT states that we seek partners is related to their social role not the value of certain traits. e.g. good earner
HORMONES- SRT suggests that hormone differences are a consequence not a cause of social roles and psychological diferences.
Evaluate Biosocial
RLA- feminist movement SRT supports this as changes in social roles will change psychological differences. they are flexible
Social Constructionist- human behaviour is an invention or outcome of a particular society. there is no objective reality. behaviours are understood in the context in which they occur.
allows adaption for simple evlutionary theory
accepts nature and nurture
Luxen argues that chidren show sex preferences in toys so must be biological
Genes and Hormones
Genes- determine sex
Chromosones- each person has 23 pairs of chromosones which determines the sex. for women XX and men XY. There is usually a direct link between chromosones and external genitalia.
Testosterone- at 3 months testosterone helps the development of external genitalia (if its to be a boy). Genetic tranmissison explains how individuals aquire their sex.
Hormones- effect gender development. produce prenatally and through puberty.
Genitalia- men exposed to low levels of androgens and can be born with female genitalia. girls can be exposed to too much androgens and be born with ambigious gentialia.
in extreme cases (Barista) the childrens genitalia develops at puberty.
Brain Development- High prenatal levels of male hormones may lead to difference in male and female brains
Hoag (2008)- men appear to be better at spatial skills and women social skills.
Evaluate Genes and Hormones
Money (1972) said environment was more important than biological sex in determining gender development.
Reiner and Gearhart (2004) studied 16 genetic males with female genitalia. 2 raised as males, 14 as females but 8 reassigned to males. biology in important.
nature/nurture
International olympics committee in 1991 ruled that genetic sex would no longer determine gender. instead only outward physical appearance.
case studies are rare and often different.
Evolutionary
- The evolutionary theory by Kuhn of gender development suggest that gender appropriate behaviours are innate and are as a result of pre-programmed genes through natural selection.
- Kuhn suggest that the most successful groups during the pre-historic era were those who carried a division of job roles, where the men were bread-winners and the women were the house wives looking after children and spending a lot of their adult life pregnant.
Kuhn suggests that those who divided the labour among them enjoyed reproductive success in leading to the largest amount of surviving offspring. Kuhn also suggests that with gender appropriate behaviours being innate through the process of natural selection, this division of labour still exists today as it has been pre-programmed into our genes. For example today women are more likely to cook and care whereas men are more likely to adopt the role of the bread winner.
-E-S theory explains that research has shown that women are better at empathising and men at systematising. It proposes that gender difference may be a result of selection pressures for males, who develop better humnting strategies, and females, who are more focused on childrearing. It suggests that males who were better at precision had the better evolutionary advantage.
Evaluate Evolutionary
- NATURE/Nurture
- Baron-Cohen (2004): Autism may be an extrme male brain which excels at systematising and lacks the ability to empathise.
- Tzedakis: speculative.
- Barry (1986): women are more dominant in societies where they contribute to food accumalation. This means they are not viewed as objects for mens sexual and reproductive needs.
- sexist/ time dependent.
Cultural Influences
Similarities
- divisions in labour and behavioural characteristics by gender. e.g. childcare by women.( in no society men take the lead). girls are socialised more towards compliance and nurturance and males towards assertivness and independance.
Mead found men in different societies were different ( in roles and personality) for example the Tchambuli tribes exhibited female dominance and males were emotionally dependent on women. This shows though that in most societies men and women have similar roles, althought the roles may differ from societies.
Variations
Cultural Relativism- there are differences
Conformity- spatial superiority was only found in males from sedentary societies and not in nomadic. female conformity highest in sedentary societies. with a correlation between this and an ecocultural index of +0.78
History- gender gap is closing.
Evaluate Cultural influences
- Sugihara and Katsurada (2002): Japanese men do not seek to be macho like Am, they value being well rounded in the arts.
- Berry (2002): cultural bias as most cross-cultural studies are driven by Western ideologies. They are conducted by western tests.imposed etics
- Kimura (1999): those with poor spatial skills in nomadic cultures were more likely to die, thus eliminating the gene from the gene pool.
- Mead: cultural relitivism; the position of men and women are innate and universal but the degree to which these behaviours are expressed are relative to each culture i.e. women must have the babies but some culture will not expect them to raise the child.
- Barry (1986): women are more dominant in societies where they contribute to food accumalation. This means they are not viewed as objects for mens sexual and reproductive needs.
Social Influences
Social Cognitive Theory
Bandura- emphasises the role of cognitive factors in learning. gender role development is the result of learning from social agents who model and rienforce.
Indirect- children observe behaviours of others snd learn from their consequences. (Vicarious)
Direct- they learn charcteristic behaviours of both sexes
Direct tuition- children are linguistically taught skills and informed on appropriate and inappropriate styles of conduct
Parents- reinforce gender appropriate behaviour but not gender inappropriate. e.g toys
Peers- offer a model and provide feedback on gender inappropriate play.
