Gender: Cognitive explanations of gender development - Kohlberg's theory Flashcards
What’s Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
Drawn from Piaget’s concept of ‘conservation’.
Kohlberg argues that a child’s understanding of gender becomes more advanced and accurate
with time.
What’s conservation?
refers to the ability that develops around the age of 6 to understand that despite superficial appearances the basic properties of the object remain the same.
What are the 3 stages of Kohlberg’s moral development?
-Gender labelling
-Gender stability
-Gender constancy
What’s gender labelling?
2-3 years
At age 2-3 infants label themselves and others as a boy or girl based on outward appearances such as hairstyle or dress.
Children will tend to change gender labels as appearances change: i.e. a boy with long hair might be labelled a girl.
What’s gender stability?
≈ 4 years
Around 4 years children recognise that gender is stable over time – boys grow into men, etc. but they do not recognise that gender is consistent across situations – believing, for example, that males might change into females if they engage in female activities.
What’s gender constancy?
≈6
Around the age of 6 children come to realise that gender is consistent across situations: e.g. that just because a boy may dress or play like a girl they remain a boy. Gender is now a fixed rather than a fluid category in the child’s mind.
AO3 gender development
+Age differences
+Research evidence
-Constancy not supported
-Methodological criticisms
(+AO3) Age differences
Slaby and Frey did find that gender constancy appeared at a younger age than Kohlberg had suggested as young as 5.
This is not a direct challenge to the theory because it still supports the idea that thinking does change over time, but it does suggest that adjustments are necessary to the actual age at which this happens.
For example, if they’re exposed to social media, they may develop gender constancy at an earlier age.
(+AO3) Research evidence
Slaby and Frey presented children with split-screen images of males and females performing the same task.
Younger children spent roughly the same amount of time watching both sexes. Children in the gender constancy stage spent longer looking at the model who was the same sex as them.
This would suggest that Kohlberg was correct in his assumption that children will actively seek gender-appropriate models.
(-AO3) Constancy not supported
Bussey and Bandura (1992) found that children may demonstrate gender-appropriate behaviour before constancy is achieved.
They reported children as young as 4 reported feeling good when playing with gender-appropriate toys and feeling bad about the opposite.
This suggests that children absorb gender-appropriate information as soon as they identify as being male or female.
(-AO3) Methodological criticisms
Developed using interviews with children who were in some cases as young as 2 or 3.
Although the questions were tailored towards the age group, he may not have acknowledged that young children lack the vocabulary required to express understanding.
May have relatively complex ideas about gender but do not possess the verbal ability to articulate them. This means that what they express doesn’t truly represent their full understanding of gender.