Gender Development

Question 1

3 way to approach thinking about gender?

Answer 1

1. Behaviour (preferences, normative behaviour, etc.)
2. Conceptual understanding (gender identity)
3. Biological level of analysis

Question 2

Gender Differences Across Development, 1 year?

Answer 2

Toy preferences as early as 1 year
- Not only preference for gender typical boys but neutral toys if believed gender appropriate
Latter half of their second year (1-2 years)
- Form gender-related expectations about the kinds of objects and activities that are typically associated with males and females.

Question 3

Gender Differences Across Development, Toddlerhood (2-3)?

Answer 3

Age 2-3:
Learn which gender group they belong to and by age 3, to use gender terms (e.g., “boy”, “this is a boy toy”) in their speech
- Their behaviour also becomes gender-differentiated, particularly in play:
Rough and tumble play
Competition (I can jump higher than you!”)
Pretend play (heroes vs. families)
Aggression

Question 4

• Gender Differences Across Development, preschool years?

Answer 4

Preschool period:
Increase in gender differentiation in play and among same-sex peers.
- Avoid peers who violate gender-typical behaviour
- Gender segregation appears to be culturally universal

Gender segregation in play
- Percent of social playtime that preschool and fist-grade children spent with children of their own or the other gender

Question 5

Gender Differences Across Development, middle childhood? (Communication/Social Interactions Styles) + 9-10 years

Answer 5

Peer groups tend to establish somewhat different gender-role norms for behaviour
- Boys (Agency), value self assertion and peer groups are more likely to reflect norms of dominance, self reliance and hiding vulnerability.
- Girls (Communion), value affiliation or a balance of self assertion and affiliation; peer groups are more likely to reflect norms of intimacy, collaboration and emotional sharing.

Communication/Social Interactions Styles
- Shared emotion (girls) vs. shared activities/interests (boys)
- Social problem solving: Compromises vs. physical force

9-10 years:
Start to show understanding that gender is a social category and that gender roles are social conventions not biological outcomes.
- Realise that gender discrimination is unfair and noticing when it occurs.

Question 6

Gender Differences Across Development, Adolescence?

Answer 6

Adolescence can be a period of either increased gender-role intensification or increased gender-role flexibility
- Gender-role intensification:
Heightened concerns with adhering to traditional gender roles
- Gender-role flexibility:
Allows adolescents (girls more than boys) to transcend traditional conventions and pursue a more flexible range of interests

Question 7

Key question when observing gender differences?

Answer 7

what sources accounts for gender differences??

Question 8

“If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.” – Plato, The Republic

What source for gender difference is Plato stating?

Answer 8

Gender is something we socialise

Question 9

“It does appear that on many, many different human attributes – height, weight, propensity for criminality, overall IQ, mathematical ability, scientific ability – there is relatively clear evidence that whatever the difference in means – which can be debated – there is a difference in the standard deviation, and variability of a male and a female population. And that is true with respect to attributes that are and are not plausibly, culturally determined…there is reasonably strong evidence of taste differences between little girls and little boys that are not easy to attribute to socialization.” – Summers, President of Harvard University, 2005

What source for gender difference is Summer stating?

Answer 9

Biological differences

Question 10

Gender (and gender differences) has been explained in terms of….??

Answer 10

socialisation and biology -> Learn this well!

Question 11

What is Gender socialization?

Answer 11

Focus on how children learn gender-typed attitudes and behaviours though observation, inference, and practice

Question 12

Observational Learning? (gender segregation & gender-typed activities)

Answer 12

• Because of gender segregation they witness same gender activities more
• Children see and experience the roles of men and women in society, resulting in gender-typed activities
• Attend mote to, and remember better, info about same gender activities/toys

Question 13

4 key processes for social leaning theories?

Answer 13

1. Attention (to gender info)
2. Memory (for that info)
3. Motivation (to repeat gender typed behaviour)
4. Production (of gender behaviour)

Question 14

Gender Schema Theory?

Answer 14

Gender schemas:
Organised mental representations (concepts, beliefs, memories) about gender, including gender stereotypes. Ex, ways to talk, look, play, etc. in-group/out-group distinction

Question 15

Gender self-socialisation? Part of which theory?

Answer 15

Part of Gender Schema Theory

• Child detainees what other info they learn about gender
• E.g. initial prefs for trucks leads them to learn more about trucks and little about dolls.

Question 16

Confirmation bias in gender schema theory?

Answer 16

Tendency to retain schema-consistent and ignore or distort schema-inconsistent information.

Question 17

Gender schema theory holds that the motivation to enact
gender-typed behavior begins …..??

Answer 17

soon after children can
label other people’s and their own gender during
toddlerhood. AKA around 3

Question 18

Social Cognitive Theory
Learning about gender occurs via 3 processes?

Answer 18

Tuition:
Learning though direct teaching.

Enactive experience:
Learning to take account the reactions one’s past behaviour has evoked in others. “Oh.. you are going to wear that..” “Is she pretty?”

Modeling / Observational learning:
Learning though watching other people and the consequences other experience as a results of their actions.

Question 19

Parents DO to reinforce gender (4)

Answer 19

• Reward gender stereotypical behaviour
• Buy gender stereotypical toys
• Are supportive of gender stereotypical play
• Talk differently to children (e.g. emotions)

Question 20

Parents DO NOT to reinforce gender (3)

Answer 20

• Display a difference in warmth
• Differ in interactions or responsiveness
• Restrict activities

Question 21

Conversational differences parents do to reinforce gender? (3)

Answer 21

• Parents often convey messages about gender though gender-essentialist statements
• Fathers tend to use more instructional talk with sons than with daughter
• Parents and other adults are more likely to comment on girl’s physical appearance and attire than on boys’

Question 22

Father play a particularly active role in instilling male behaviours in their sons and in enforcing the avoidance of feminine behaviours. How?

Answer 22

What matter the most is if the father does any non stereotypical chores around the house, e.g. domestic duties

Question 23

Social Role Theory?

Answer 23

• Emphasise how cultural practices both reflect and perpetuate gender divisions.
• According to social role theory, different expectations for each gender stem from the division of labor between men and women in a given society.

Question 24

Social Role Theory: Parents frequently assign different chores to boys and girls?

Answer 24

• Boys, tasks performed outside the home that involve tolls and machines
• Girls, tasks inside the home, particularly helping to care for younger siblings

Question 25

Kohlberg’s Theory of Gender Role Development?

Answer 25

• Informed by Piaget
• Children’s understanding of gender involves 3 processes:
  
  • Gender identity by 30 months (not fixed, gender can change)
  • Gender stability by 3-4 years (quasi-fixed; appearance still matters, appearance reality distinction)
  • Gender constancy by 6 years (fixed) -> Begin self-socialising

Question 26

• More on the socialisation of gender: - Parents make the decision to bring there son’s to Science World than their daughters

Answer 26

• nfants and toddlers 1040 3-24 months old
• 26% more males than females in the participant pool at Science World
• Same patterns with older ages, except a slightly smaller gap
• Seeing more boys at Science World make make girls believe it is a “boy space”

Question 27

Media and Stereotypes?

Answer 27

• More major characters in televisions shows are male than female
• Portrayals tend to be highly stereotypical
• These differences are likely to affect development of gender-typical behaviour

Question 28

How much TV does the average child between age 3 and 11 watches?

Answer 28

2-4 hours of screen time each day (probably even more)
- Other media, including children’s books and video games, also include more male characters and depict female characters in stereotypical ways.

Question 29

Sources of gender socialisation? (4, just the normal ones, think simple)

Answer 29

• Parents, social role theory, cognitive theory
• Peers, tuition, enactive experience
• Media
• Culture, etc

Question 30

A common theme across theories presented thus far is that gender development is largely a process of…?

Answer 30

self-socialization.

Question 31

What suggests a biological component for gender identification?

Answer 31

Although gender reassignment was initially described as very
successful (among medical doctors), it was later discovered
that in many cases the child maintained a gender identity
other than the one that was attempted to be socialized.

• The child initial gender identification outweighs the impacts of parental attempts to socialise the child as a member of another gender

Question 32

Biological Influences (2)?

Answer 32

1. Neuroscience Approaches
2. Evolutionary Approaches

Question 33

Neuroscience Approaches?

Answer 33

Focus on how hormones and brain functioning are
related to variations in gender development

Question 34

Hormones and Brain Functioning? + Androgens

Answer 34

Gender differences in behavior reflect different
ratios of male and female sex hormones

Androgens: hormones that normally occur at higher levels
in males than females. They affect physical development
and functioning from the prenatal period onward

Question 35

Biological Explanations?

Answer 35

• Female rats and rhesus macaques treated with testosterone = increased male-typical sexual behaviour, rough and tumble play, activity level, aggression
• In humans when androgen reduced during pregnancy females = more feminine clothing, less ‘Tomboyish’
• Sex/gender is a continuous variable (biologically)

Question 36

CAH Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia?

Answer 36

• A group of inherited disorders
• Surplus in steroid hormones (cortisol and aldosterone) which leads to overproduction of androgen (male sex hormone)
• 1 in 10-20,000 births
• Females: ambiguous genitalia, “masculine” physical traits
• Males: enter puberty much earlier

Question 37

CAH girls?

Answer 37

• More time with “male” toys
• Greater preference for male playmates
• Reduced gender identity
• Less satisfaction with gender

Question 38

Examples of how biology, cognition and motivation interact example Gender difference in aggression.
Cross culturally we tend to see that boys are higher on direct aggression.

Answer 38

• Cognitive and Motivational influences:
  Boys may be more likely to appraise conflicts as competitions that require use of direct aggression.
• Biology:
  The body increases its production of testosterone in response to perceived threats and challenges, and this increase can lead to more aggressive behaviour (males)
  -> We can look at the same event and react differently to it, just by seeing a conflict there will be a biological reaction
• Parental and Other Adult Influences
  Parents tend to be more tolerant of aggression in boys than in girls

Question 39

Other influences to differences in gender aggression?

Answer 39

• Peers
  Aggressive children are typically rejected in both male and female peer groups
• Media
  Boys exposed to more violence than girls
• Culture
  Levels of aggression that are considered normal vary from one area to another, but boys show more aggression than girls