Gender development 1

Question 1

model gender development

Answer 1

• “Developmental science has long characterized gender in childhood, but this characterization has not applied to all children. Since the 1950s, researchers in mainstream developmental science have painted a detailed portrait of the experiences of one particular variety of child: one who shows the modal—that is, statistically most common— pattern of gender development. For this kind of child, research has shown that their gender largely aligns with their assigned sex. “

Question 2

overview

Answer 2

• Significant differences don’t tell you about the size of the difference
  
  • Janet Hyde (2005) proposed “the gender similarities hypothesis.”
  • Boys and girls are more similar than different.
  • Large physical/biological differences such as height, muscle mass, fat %, testosterone.
  • What about psychological traits?

Question 3

gender differences - temperament

Answer 3

• Activity level: small -> medium

Question 4

gender differences - cognitive

Answer 4

• IQ scores – practically identical
  
  • Verbal skills – start out large, later in childhood and adolescence
  • Reading advantage is small
  • Writing advantage is medium (Hedges & Nowell, 1995, Nowell & Hedges, 1998)
  • Spatial skills – boys outperform girls, the difference increasing through childhood (Halpern, 2004)
  • Largest effect for mental rotation

Question 5

gender differences - academic

Answer 5

· GCSEs (2016 results):
- 71.3% girls at least one “C” vs 62.4% boys
- 24.1% girls at least one A* or A vs 16.8% boys

Question 6

gender differences - social

Answer 6

· Self-regulation: moderate to large effects
- Girls are more compliant (Smith et al., 2004)
- Better able to resist temptation (Silverman, 2003)
- Show more empathy and sympathy (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998)

Question 7

gender differences - aggression

Answer 7

· Direct - physical or verbal acts designed to harm
· Indirect - social exclusion and gossip designed to damage social groups

Question 8

biological influences - evolutionary approaches

Answer 8

· Behavioural tendencies have evolved that offer reproductive advantage.
· Girls concentrate on fostering close relationships, avoiding conflict, and controlling their impulses.
· Boys are more physically active and aggressive.

Question 9

biological hormones

Answer 9

· Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH): prenatal exposure to excess androgens lead XX children to play in more “masculine” ways (Nordenstrom, Servin, Bohlin, Larsson, & Wedell, 2002).

Question 10

biological influences - behavioural genetic approach (Irevolino et al, 2005)

Answer 10

· Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), sampled all twins born in England and Wales in 1994-1996.
· Parents asked about their children’s sex-types behaviour at ages 3 & 4
- Toys (e.g., guns, jewelry, dolls)
- Activities (e.g., playing house, soldier, dressing up)
- Characteristics (e.g., enjoys rough-and-tumble play, likes pretty things)

Question 11

socialisation theories - social learning theory

Answer 11

· Children learn gender roles because social agents teach them (e.g., parents, teachers, peers)
· Child is passive
· Key processes are:
- (a) Reinforcement: e.g., Langlois & Downs (1980) – fathers more positive to same-sex behaviour, and critical of other-sex behaviour in pre-school children
- (b) Modelling: BUT children’s gender-role behaviour is not strongly correlated with their parents’ behaviour (Huston, 1983)

Question 12

socialisation theories - social cognitive theory

Answer 12

· More recently, both social AND cognitive factors incorporated
· Three key influences:
1. Modelling in immediate environment
2. Enactive experience
3. Direct tuition
· Importance of children’s outcome expectancies as a socio-cognitive regulator

Question 13

socialisation theories - problems

Answer 13

· Adevelopmental: doesn’t account for developmental changes in children’s gender-stereotyped beliefs
· Major mechanisms of the theory (parental reinforcement and modelling) haven’t been supported consistently by research
· BUT, it does acknowledge the role of the social environment

Question 14

cognitive theories - cognitive developmental theory

Answer 14

· Understanding of gender develops within a framework of general cognitive development and initiates gender development
· BUT, children prefer same-sex toys before they have a full understand of gender (Weinraub et al, 1984)

Question 15

stages of gender understanding

Answer 15

1. Gender identity: ability to label each by 2½ years
   
   2. Gender stability: understand sex is stable over time by 3½ years
   3. Gender constancy: understand permanence of sex by 6 years.

Question 16

cognitive theories - gender schema theory

Answer 16

• Gender identity has central role rather than gender constancy
  
  • Networks of gender-related information guide gender-stereotyped processing and behaviour

Question 17

gender schema

Answer 17

• Develop own-sex schema before other-sex schema
  
  • But, there are no differences in boys’ and girls’ knowledge of gender-stereotypes so this theory does not explain the asymmetry in boys’ and girls’ gender-typed preferences

Question 18

cognitive theories - problems

Answer 18

• Cognitive theories don’t address why males and females are valued differentially
  
  • These theories largely ignore the social context within which gender development occurs
  • The predicted relationship between gender-stereotypes and gender-typed behaviour is typically not found e.g., Perry, White, & Perry (1984): gender-stereotyped toy preferences were found 6 months before children showed much knowledge of gender-stereotypes

Question 19

summary

Answer 19

• Girls and boys are more similar than different.
  
  • Most gender differences are small. Notable exceptions are gendered preferences for toys, activities, academic subjects (and later, careers).
  • Different theories explain different aspects of gender development (gender is multi-dimensional so unlikely that one theory can explain all).
  • Theories and relevant research aim to answer questions about gender development at different levels:
  • In general, how to boys and girls come to understand gender?
  • Why do boys and girls behave differently?
  • Why are some girls more masculine (or more feminine) than other girls?