Gender development

Question 1

Biological sex

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

Gender

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Gender typing and gender processing

Answer 3

processes by which adopt observable behaviours in line with our construction of gender

Question 4

What is gender typing associated with

Answer 4

Societal norms of gender and gender stereotypes

Question 5

What do gender typed preferences and behaviours result from

Answer 5

from the combined influence of biological, psychological, and sociocultural processes.

Question 6

What are developmental psychologists concerned with

Answer 6

1) When and why do different gendered preferences and/or behaviours emerge
2) What factors may account for the development of gender differences

Question 7

What do many researchers reject

Answer 7

The dichotomous view of gender

Question 8

What did West and Zimmerman find

Answer 8

Similarities between men and women far exceed the differences

Question 9

What will investigating gender development give us insight too

Answer 9

• 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

Question 10

What did Kohlberg suggest

Answer 10

as children develop cognitively, their gender develops in three stages driven by natural maturation as they age

Question 11

Stage 1Kohlberg

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Stage 2 Kohlberg

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Stage 3 Kohlberg

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What happens when children reach the gender constancy stage

Answer 14

begin to seek out same-sex playmates and engage in gender typed behaviours and activities associated with their gender identity

Question 15

What did Munroe find

Answer 15

Cross cultural evidence, samples from USA, Belize, Kenya, Nepal

Question 16

Ruble et al Evidence for

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

What did Thompson’s evidence suggest

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

Martin and Little found

Answer 18

Children prefer to play with toys traditionally associated with their gender

Question 19

What are biological accounts of development

Answer 19

Focus on the role of androgens

Question 20

What are androgens

Answer 20

Androgens are a group of hormones that affect physical development and are present at higher levels in men than women

Question 21

What are androgens responsible for

Answer 21

responsible for the forming of external genitalia during prenatal development and are linked to aggression

Question 22

What happens when there are fluctuations of androgens

Answer 22

Can influence behaviour. Leads to increased aggresion

Question 23

What did Burri et al find

Answer 23

Twins are more likely to have concordant gender identity including whether they are cis- or transgender (Burri et al, 2011)

Question 24

Arguments for biological account - Zucker and BRadley

Answer 24

Transgender children prefer to engage in gender typed behaviouir that match their gender identity from very early on (Zucker and Bradley, 1995)

Question 25

Arguments against biological account

Answer 25

Causal link between hormones and genes and behaviour has not been estbalish

Question 26

Social cognitive theory - Bussey and Bandura

Answer 26

Proposed three interacting causal factors that affect gender development

Personal, behaviour, environment

Question 27

What were the three ways that Bussey and Bandura proposed that gender typed behaviours develop

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Evidence for tuition

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Evidence for enactive experience (vic reinforcemetn)

Answer 29

• 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

Question 30

Why is gender typing more rigid for boys

Answer 30

• 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

Question 31

Observational learning

Answer 31

Gender related behaviour may be learnt simply through observing others

Question 32

Marketing influences

Answer 32

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)

Question 33

Gender similarity hypothesis Hyde 2005

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Examples of gender differences in development

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Steele - gender differences

Answer 35

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

Question 36

What are the two types of aggression

Answer 36

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)

Question 37

Crick - aggression - 1997

Answer 37

Some researchers argue that although boys enact more direct aggression than girls, girls use more indirect forms of aggression

Question 38

Why might there be variations in the type of aggression used across the genders

Answer 38

• 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.

Question 39

What are spatial skills

Answer 39

Spatial skills involve comparing, manipulating, and transforming mental pictures. They involve three primary components.

Question 40

What is mental rotation

Answer 40

identifying a model in a different orientation

Question 41

What is spatial perception

Answer 41

determining the spatial relations of objects with respect to one’s own body

Question 42

What is spatial visualisation

Answer 42

being able to visualise spatially presented information

Question 43

What are the reliable differences in some spatial skills favouring males

Answer 43

Gender difference in favour of boys are largest for mental rotation, medium for spatial perception, and smallest for spatial visualisation tasks (Linn & Petersen, 1985).