Gender development Flashcards
Biological sex
typically assigned at birth and is determined by our chromosomes, genitalia, and hormones. Based on these characteristics, a child may be categorised as a woman, man, or intersex.
Gender
However, gender tends to refer to a broad social construct that takes into account psychological, behavioural, social and cultural aspects that may change over time.
Gender typing and gender processing
processes by which adopt observable behaviours in line with our construction of gender
What is gender typing associated with
Societal norms of gender and gender stereotypes
What do gender typed preferences and behaviours result from
from the combined influence of biological, psychological, and sociocultural processes.
What are developmental psychologists concerned with
1) When and why do different gendered preferences and/or behaviours emerge
2) What factors may account for the development of gender differences
What do many researchers reject
The dichotomous view of gender
What did West and Zimmerman find
Similarities between men and women far exceed the differences
What will investigating gender development give us insight too
- The roles of nature and nurture in development
- How parenting and socialisation can influence behaviour
- How children internalise what they see around them into ideas about what roles they should take
How children develop concepts and the effect this has on their behaviour
What did Kohlberg suggest
as children develop cognitively, their gender develops in three stages driven by natural maturation as they age
Stage 1Kohlberg
Gender identity 2-3
-Children begin to label themselves and others as a boy or girl based on external appearance
- For example, a little girl may say she is a girl because she has long hair
Children do not understand the difference between biological sex and gender or that both tend to remain stable over time.
Stage 2 Kohlberg
Gender stability 4-5
- Children now recognise that gender typically remains constant over time
- However, this understanding is still based on appearance
- Kohlberg 1966 theory assumed gender to be binary and therefore assumes that children will understand that boys will become men and girls will become women with age
Stage 3 Kohlberg
Gender constancy 6-7
- Children at this stage now understand that gender identity is invariant despite changes in appearance, dress, or activity
E.g if a woman has short hair and is a builder, she will still be female
- Children are not expected to adopt gender-typed behaviours consistently until they reach this stage at about 6-7 years of age
What happens when children reach the gender constancy stage
begin to seek out same-sex playmates and engage in gender typed behaviours and activities associated with their gender identity
What did Munroe find
Cross cultural evidence, samples from USA, Belize, Kenya, Nepal
Ruble et al Evidence for
Ruble et al. asked children who had high or low gender constancy to watch two adverts:
* One with a same-sex child playing with a gender neutral toy.
One with an opposite-sex child playing with a gender neutral toy.
* Low gender constancy children played with the toy from both advertisements. High gender constancy children were much less likely to play with the toy from the advert with the opposite-sex child.
What did Thompson’s evidence suggest
- Even 2-year-olds can sort pictures of stereotypical girls’ and boys’ toys, clothing, and appliances based on their typical gender relatedness.
Therefore, children’s ability to classify their own and others’ gender may be all that is necessary for early gender-typing to occur.
It suggests that gender constancy is not a prerequisite for gender typing and development
Martin and Little found
Children prefer to play with toys traditionally associated with their gender
What are biological accounts of development
Focus on the role of androgens
What are androgens
Androgens are a group of hormones that affect physical development and are present at higher levels in men than women
What are androgens responsible for
responsible for the forming of external genitalia during prenatal development and are linked to aggression
What happens when there are fluctuations of androgens
Can influence behaviour. Leads to increased aggresion
What did Burri et al find
Twins are more likely to have concordant gender identity including whether they are cis- or transgender (Burri et al, 2011)
Arguments for biological account - Zucker and BRadley
Transgender children prefer to engage in gender typed behaviouir that match their gender identity from very early on (Zucker and Bradley, 1995)
Arguments against biological account
Causal link between hormones and genes and behaviour has not been estbalish
Social cognitive theory - Bussey and Bandura
Proposed three interacting causal factors that affect gender development
Personal, behaviour, environment
What were the three ways that Bussey and Bandura proposed that gender typed behaviours develop
1) Tuition - when children are directly taught gendered behaviours
2) Enactive experience - when children learn to guide their own behaviour by considering reactions from others
Observational learning - seeing others behave and watching the consequences of their behaviour on others’ reactions
Evidence for tuition
Grusec et al 1996
Grusec observed that
- Boys are more likely than girls to take out the bins, mow the lawn, and help wash the car
- Girls are more likely to care for younger siblings
This gender assignment of chores implies natural division of labour and may influence children’s interests and understanding of gender roles
Evidence for enactive experience (vic reinforcemetn)
- Gender schemas may be developed through conditioning - gender appropriate behaviours’ are rewarded by others through praise and attention
- Father’s responses to their 3 to 5 year olds as positive (attending, giving praise) or negative (ignoring, interfering) were recorded
Fathers gave more positive responses to children when they played with a gender appropriate toy and were more negative when they played with a gender appropriate toy
Why is gender typing more rigid for boys
- Generally, parents and peers respond more negatively to boys who do girl things than girls who do boy things
- Fathers often play a big role in instilling stereotypical male behaviours in their sons
- Some have suggested this is because males traditionally have a higher status in society and so when they engage in feminine behaviours they lose status
Observational learning
Gender related behaviour may be learnt simply through observing others
Marketing influences
In controlled lab studies, the labelling of toys (ie for boys or girls) and the colour (pink or blue) affects what toys girls and boys play with (Weisgram et al 2014)
Gender similarity hypothesis Hyde 2005
Hyde 2005 conducted a review of hundreds of studies looking at female-male gender differences across 128 domains, including; strength, moral reasoning, cheating behaviour. Problem solving, self-esteem, leadership and more
Almost half reports small effects and 30% reports effects close to 0
Examples of gender differences in development
Mathematical skills - Women make up a relatively small percentage of the workforce in STEM, as stereotypes about maths ability is prominent among children, parents, and teachers
Steele - gender differences
Children tend to view boys and girls as being equal in mathematical ability, but view adult men as being better at mathematics than adult women
What are the two types of aggression
1) Direct aggression - this refers to verbal and physical acts of aggression
Indirect aggression - this refers relational aggressive acts by manipulating peer relationships and damaging the target’s social position (e.g spreading gossip, threatening to terminate friendship, excluding peers from friendship groups)
Crick - aggression - 1997
Some researchers argue that although boys enact more direct aggression than girls, girls use more indirect forms of aggression
Why might there be variations in the type of aggression used across the genders
- Biological explanation - females generally have lower physical strength which necessitates reliance on indirect means of aggression.
- Sociocognitive explanations - Girls’ peer groups are often characterised by being smaller but closer than boys’ peer groups suggesting that indirect aggression is particularly hurtful among girls because it targets these relationships.
- Tuition - there are differences in the degree to which parents and other adults discourage directly aggressive behaviour in girls which leads them to use more covert forms of aggression.
What are spatial skills
Spatial skills involve comparing, manipulating, and transforming mental pictures. They involve three primary components.
What is mental rotation
identifying a model in a different orientation
What is spatial perception
determining the spatial relations of objects with respect to one’s own body
What is spatial visualisation
being able to visualise spatially presented information
What are the reliable differences in some spatial skills favouring males
Gender difference in favour of boys are largest for mental rotation, medium for spatial perception, and smallest for spatial visualisation tasks (Linn & Petersen, 1985).
