Gender Development

Question 1

What do cultures normally associate gender with?

Answer 1

Boys: aggressive, competitive, assertive, risky, independent, athletic
Girls: affectionate, gentle, loves children, compassionate, understanding

Question 2

What is definition of sex assigned at birth?

Answer 2

Based on objectively measurable biological, hormones, chromosomes (male, female, intersex, etc)

Question 3

How do you define gender identity?

Answer 3

A person’s sense of self as gendered (man, woman, genderqueer, non-binary, etc)

Question 4

What is gender expression?

Answer 4

How a person demonstrates their gender (feminine, masculine, etc)

Question 5

How do infants and toddlers think about gender?

Answer 5

~3-4 months, can discriminate between male and female, but focus on superficial cues
~1.5-2 yrs, some awareness of gender-stereotypes
- Look longer at own-gender stereotyped toys
2-year-olds also look longer at gender-inconsistent pictures, look longer at men who is putting on make up

Question 6

How do children think about gender?

Answer 6

Childhood
- Changes in cognitive development – shifts in thinking about gender

• shift from gender essentialism (gender makes people behave in a certain way) to thinking of gender as socially influenced, around age 9~10
  example: Chris living on an Island with all boys and men, her preferences will change due to social influence
• increase in knowledge of gender stereotypes
• peak of rigid application of stereotypes at ~5 -7 years, then decline

Question 7

What are the three stages in Lawrence Kohlberg’s Cognitive Developmental Theory of Gender? Based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Answer 7

1. Gender identity (2-2.5 years)
   - Kids start to identify their own and other people’s gender, based on superficial traits
   - Start developing stereotypes for gender such as appearance
   - Haven’t moved from egocentrism, don’t know gender consistency/stability yet
2. Gender stability (3-4 years)
   - Start to develop the idea that gender stays consistent throughout time
   E.g., boys grow up to become a man
   - But, if you ask them questions like, if mommy cuts all her hair, is she going to be a men or woman? They will answer: a man!
3. Gender constancy (5-7 years)
   - Similar age to pass conservation tasks
   - Gender is consistent, it doesn’t shift due to outward appearance
   E.g., giving a man a purse, the person will not become a woman

Question 8

What do people think about gender during adolescence?

Answer 8

1. Gender-role intensification: heightened concern about adhering to traditional gender roles
   - may be more in behaviour, more common in early/middle adolescence
2. Gender-role flexibility: allowing for traditional gender conventions to be transcended
   - may be more in beliefs, more common in later adolescence

Question 9

What gender-related differences in behavior and thought are seen in childhood and adolescence?

Answer 9

Caveats:
- More similarities than differences
- More variation WITHIN genders than between genders
- Differences are based in averages – do not apply to all individuals

Question 10

What are some physical differences based upon gender/sex?

Answer 10

• Not much difference during childhood
• During puberty:
• Physical growth, boys are much taller, more muscular
• Development of primary sex characteristics, which results in hormone changes that enable reproduction
• development of secondary sex characteristics (breasts, genitals, pubic/facial/body hair)
• Following puberty, increase in sex-linked differences, such as boys have greater physical strength and speed

Question 11

What are some cognitive differences based upon gender/sex?

Answer 11

In IQ tests, girls slightly better at verbal tasks, boys spatial tasks
- Academic performance: girls have slightly better grades and school performance
- Beliefs: boys think they are better at math whereas girls think they are better at language

Question 12

What are some differences in playing preferences based upon gender/sex?

Answer 12

All tend to play with same-sex mates.
Toys:
- Girls more likely to play with dolls, kitchen sets, dress-up
- Boys more likely to play with action figures, construction toys, video games

Style of play:
- Boys more physically active, competitive
- Girls more cooperative

Fantasy play:
- Boys more likely to involve heroes, combat
- Girls more likely involve household roles, romance

Size of play group:
- Girls more likely to play in pairs/threesomes
- Boys solitude (alone) or in larger groups.

Question 13

What are some differences in emotions based upon gender/sex?

Answer 13

Girls appear better at expressing, decoding, and managing emotions

Girls – express more happiness, fear, and sadness
Boys – express more anger

Mental health:
girls more likely to experience depression, low self-esteem

Question 14

What are some differences in interpersonal relationships based upon gender/sex?

Answer 14

Goals:
Boys more likely to emphasize power and dominance
Girls more likely to emphasize intimacy and support

Aggression:
Boys more likely to engage in physical/direct aggression
Girls slightly more likely to engage in indirect aggression
E.g., telling rumors, get other people in trouble
Less consistent across studies

Question 15

What are three broad influences on gender development?

Answer 15

1. Biological influences: chromosomes. hormones, etc.
2. Social & Cultural influences: family, peers, teachers, media, etc.
3. Cognitive influences: gender understanding, self-socialization, gender identity

Question 16

What are some biological influences on gender development?

Answer 16

1. Evolutionary psychology theories:
   - Gender differences exist because they would have been adaptive for survival
   E.g., maternal care such as feeding
2. Role of hormones?
   Differences in androgen and estrogen hormones lead to gender differences
   E.g., congenital adrenal hyperplasia
   Genetic “female”-typed (XX) with high levels of androgen, formation of male/partially male genitalia – more likely to show traditionally “male” behavior
   ​​ 先天性肾上腺增生症：一系列疾病，其特点是皮质醇合成不足，通常伴有醛固酮合成不足，常表现为雄激素过度产生、女性外生殖器阳具化和高血压，其中一种严重形式在出生后不久会导致血液中钠水平危险地降低，钾水平升高。
3. Differences in brain structure and function?
   Small difference in adults
   Corpus callosum are generally slightly larger in women
   In children?
   Not much big differences

Question 17

What are some social influences on gender development?

Answer 17

• Social learning and social cognitive theories
• Obeservational learning (modeling)
• Reinforcement
  Example: Girls get complimented for doing makeup whereas boys do not get the same compliment; boys don’t cry
• Children observe the consequences in the world

Question 18

Within each of Bronfenbrenner’s systems, what are some examples of how social/cultural factors influence gender development?

Answer 18

1. microsystem: parental expectations and behaviors, influence of peers, teacher expectations and behaviors
2. mesosystem: connections between parents and teachers in calling certain behavior gender-inappropriate
3. exosystem: media representations
4. macrosystem: cultural laws and values
5. chronosystem: changes in time perios

Question 19

What are some cognitive influences on gender development?

Answer 19

1. Kolberg’s Cognitive Development theory
   - Changes in thinking about gender – changes in adherence to gender-typed behavior/expectations
   - Gender stability – increased rigidity
   When kids believe firmly in their gender, they act in gender-stereotyped ways
   - Gender constancy – increased rigidity or increased flexibility?
   More flexibility if a child knows that their gender doesn’t change no matter how they change their appearance
2. Gender schema theory
   - Mental representations of gender – experiences, expectations, stereotypes
   - As soon as children can identify gender, use this to guide their behavior and understanding of the world
   - Kids are better at remembering details about a boy firefighter than a girl firefighter
   - Kids are less accurate at remembering the boy ballet dancers
   - They are all better at remembering information that fits with their schemas
   - Schemas as active constructions
   As kids are encountering different experiences, they are changing their understandings of the world.

Question 20

How do our conceptions about feelings about our own gender develop? Gender identity?

Answer 20

• Sense of self as gendered
• Internal/psychological experience

Cisgender: in which gender identity matches assigned sex/gender
Genderqueer: in which an individual rejects the binary categorization of gender, may be in between or fluid
Agender/gender-neutral: in which an individual does not identify as man/woman/any gender, rejecting the idea of gender

Question 21

What are some benefits of studying trans youths?

Answer 21

• Transgender: in which gender identity/expression differs from assigned sex/gender (umbrella term)
  In teenagers, 1-2% identify as transgender
  2-3% in kids express wanting to be a transgender
• Help to understand development of all children
• Help to understand different contributors to gender development – biological influences, socialization from others, self-socialization

Question 22

What is one famous project done on transgender youth?

Answer 22

• TransYouth project: examining socially-transitioned trans children
• Measure their explicit and implicit gender identity, gender-typed preferences, gender understanding

Study results:
1. In implicit measures, trans youth have stable, deeply-held gender identity.
2. Gender-typed preferences for toys and clothes fit with our gender identity, not sex assigned at birth.
3. Transgender children are experiencing social transitions at around 3~5 years. Both trans children and their siblings are more likely to think that gender can change over time.
4. ~3-5 years, trans children and their siblings are slightly more likely to view gender as stable across situations (marginal)

Question 23

What are some final conclusions about transgender children?

Answer 23

In many (most!) measures, gender development appears similar in trans and cisgender youth of the same gender identity
* Implicit gender identity, gender
preference, gender-typed
behaviour, gender stereotyping…

Trans youth (and their siblings!)
may be more willing to view
(others’) gender as flexible over
time but stable across situations

For socially-transitioned youths, may have better mental health outcomes than trans youth generally (who may not have socially transitioned)…
But, important caveats:
Ø Socially transitioned sample is
younger and higher income
Ø Socially transitioned sample may be better supported by family/ environment