Gender - Cognitive Explanations of Gender Flashcards
What are the key features of Kohlberg’s theory?
- a cognitive developmental approach
- gender development parallels intellectual development
- Stage 1: gender identity, from about 2-3 years old
- Stage 2: gender stability, from about 4-5 years old
- Stage 3: gender constancy, from about 6 years old
- gender constancy = the start of a search for gender-appropriate role models
Why is it called the cognitive developmental approach?
Cognitive because a child’s thinking about their gender is emphasised.
Developmental because it is concerned with changes in thinking over time.
How does gender development parallel with intellectual development?
Piaget proposed that the way a child thinks changes with age - they become capable of more logical and abstract thinking.
This can be applied to gender development.
Kohlberg identified three stages in gender development, related to Piaget’s ideas.
There are gradual rather than sudden transitions between stages and consequently the ages are approximate.
What is stage 1 of Kohlberg’s theory?
Stage 1: Gender Identity
Children are able to correctly identify themselves as a boy or a girl and are assumed to have developed gender identity.
By 3 years, most children are able to identify other people as male or female, and can select the correct pictures when asked, ‘Which one of these is like you?’
Their understanding of gender appears limited to labelling and they have no sense of the permanence of gender.
For instance, a boy at this stage may say ‘when I grow up I will be a mummy’.
What is stage 2 of Kohlberg’s theory?
Stage 2: Gender Stability
Children realise that they will stay the same gender.
However, they still find it challenging to apply this logic to:
- Other people (e.g. the idea that a man remains a man even if he grows his hair long)
- Other situations (e.g. believing that people change sex if they engage in activities which are more often associated with the opposite gender - such as a female builder or a male nurse).
What is stage 3 of Kohlberg’s theory?
Stage 3: Gender Constancy
Children now recognise that gender remains constant and consistent across time and situations.
And can apply this to other people as well as to themselves.
They may be amused by someone with external appearance of the other sex (e.g. a man in a dress), but they understand he is still a man.
What does gender constancy lead to?
Gender constancy also marks the point when children begin to seek out gender-appropriate role models to identify with and imitate.
Kohlberg suggests that once the child has a fully developed and internalised concept of gender at the constancy stage, they look for evidence which confirms it.
What are the strengths of Kohlberg’s theory as a cognitive explanation for gender?
- there is supporting research evidence
- support from the biological approach
What are the weaknesses of Kohlberg’s theory as a cognitive explanation for gender?
- gender-appropriate behaviour might begin earlier
- the validity of the original interviews is questionable
- social learning theory challenges a focus on maturation
What supporting research evidence is there for Kohlberg’s theory?
Slaby and Frey (1975) showed children images of males and females doing the same tasks. Young children spent equal time watching males and females.
Children in the gender constancy stage spent longer looking at the same sex because they identified with them.
This supports the idea that children change the way they process information about same- and opposite-sex people as they get older (i.e. they are thinking differently).
What support is there for Kohlberg’s theory from the biological approach?
Kohlberg’s stages are heavily influenced by changes in the developing child’s brain and subsequent cognitive and intellectual maturation.
The biological basis of the theory is supported by Munroe et al.’s (1984) cross-cultural evidence of Kohlberg’s stages in countries as far afield as Kenya, Somoa and Nepal.
This suggests that gender development has a considerable maturational element and universality, supporting a biological approach.
Why might gender-appropriate behaviour begin earlier?
Bussey and Bandura (1992) found that children as young as 4 years old reported ‘feeling good’ about playing with gender-appropriate toys and ‘bad’ about doing the opposite.
This contradicts what Kohlberg would predict since he proposed that the final stage of gender constancy (when gender-appropriate models are sought) does not occur until around 6 years old.
This suggests that Kohlberg’s theory is wrong because children have acquired gender-appropriate concepts earlier.
Why is the validity of the original interviews questionable?
Kohlberg’s original interviews were conducted with children as young as 2 or 3 years old. Questions were tailored to their age.
However, it is argued that Kohlberg may not have acknowledged that their ideas about gender may have been more complex than they could articulate.
This means that the support offered for the theory is limited and may not be valid.
How does social learning theory challenge a focus on maturation?
Evidence suggests that boys have a less flexible concept of gender role and show greater resistance to opposite-sex activities than girls.
This cannot be explained by a maturational theory. The evidence suggests that social influences (social learning theory) may play a more significant role in gender development than Kohlberg suggested.
Therefore understanding gender development in terms of ‘thinking’ may be too simple and social learning theory’s focus on the role of socialisation may be a more appropriate explanation of what occurs.
What are the key features of the Gender Schema theory?
- GST suggests understanding changes with age
- Gender schema contain and organise our knowledge of gender
- Gender schema develop after gender identity
- GST places search for gender-appropriate information earlier
- Gender schema develop and determine behaviour
- Ingroup information is remembered better than outgroup
