Gender Development Flashcards
Midterm 2
gender role
societal expectations of gendered behavior/thought/traits
boys vs girls: stereotypes
Boys: aggressive, competitive, assertive, risky, independent, athletic…
Girls: affectionate, gentle, loves children, compassionate, understanding…
sex assigned at birth
based on objectively measurable biological organs, hormones, chromosomes
- male, female, intersex
gender/gender identity
a person’s sense of self as gendered
- man, woman, gender-queer, non-binary
- a range
- sometimes aligns w sex assigned at birth
gender expression
how a person demonstrates their gender
- feminine, masculine, etc.
○ Sometimes aligns with sex assigned at birth, other times gender/gender identity, etc.
○ They’re separate and don’t need to align
sexual orientation
who a person is physically/emotionally attracted to
gender binary in research
While society and research often talk about gender in distinct, dichotomous categories, this doesn’t align with many people’s experience with gender
3 elements of gender development
- how does thinking about gender development and change with age?
- what gender-related differences in behavior and thought are seen in childhood and adolescence? Where do these differences come from?
- how do our conceptions and feelings about our own develop?
infancy/toddlerhood (thinking about gender)
- can discriminate between male and female, but focus on superficial cues
- some awareness of gender-stereotypes
○ longer looked at own-gendered stereotyped toys
○ look longer at gender-inconsistent pictures
showing toddler gender inconsistent photos
○ Measure how long infants look at pictures
○ They look longer at men doing typically feminine activities
§ They look longer at things that are surprising to them
○ By age 2: babies have sensitivity to it; they have some sense of gender and roles and norms
childhood (thinking about gender)
- changes in cognitive development –> shifts in thinking about gender
- shift from gender essentialism to thinking of gender roles as socially influenced
- increase in knowledge of gender stereotypes
childhood - stages (thinking about gender in childhood)
gender identity: 2-2.5 years
gender stability: 3-4 years
gender consistency: 5-7 years
gender identity stage (childhood thinking about gender)
first able to identify their own gender
○ 2-3 y/o
Label gender in other people
gender stability stage (childhood thinking about gender)
idea/understanding that you will always stay the gender across time
○ 3-4 y/o
- As you grow up, you’ll continue to have the same gender identity
- Until 3-4: kids don’t seem to have this sense
gender consistency stage (childhood thinking about gender)
consistent across situations and appearance
○ 5-7 y/o
- Ex: if Sarah is a woman with long hair, what happens when we cut her hair? Answer: Sarah is then a boy
- Similar age to pass conservation tasks
- Similar to understanding that the volume of water doesn’t change even if it visually does
gender essentialism
innate and deterministic
- If you’re a boy or girl, it determines how you act, what you like, and what you wear
- Genders are distinct categories of things that make people into different essences
testing gender essentialism
island at birth studies
- Kids are told a story where there’s a baby girl named Chris
- She was brought to an island where there’s only boys and men
- Kids are asked about Chris
○ Asked about gender role properties
§ When Chris is 10, what kind of body will she have? Will she get into lots of fights or be very caring? Etc.
island at birth studies (testing gender essentialism)
Before 9: believe that Chris will grow up and maintain feminine properties since she’s a girl
@ age 9: kids thinking seems to shift: think of gender roles as more socially influenced
If Chris is raised/surrounded by men, she’ll be socialized to act like them
increase in knowledge of gender stereotypes (childhood)
- Rigid applications of stereotypes: 5-7 years
○ I.e. girls can’t like superheroes, boys can’t like dolls- Later: start to show flexibility in what is or isn’t allowed
increase in knowledge of gender stereotypes (childhood) - curve
x axis: age
y axis: rigidity
learning: starts low, increases
consolidation: peaks in middle childhood
flexibility: decreases over time, during late childhood/early adolescence
gender role intensification
heightened concern about adhering to traditional gender roles
- “I need to act in line w/ my identified gender”
- Feel very strict about this
- Seems to be about your own behavior
- May be more in behavior, more common in early/middle adolescence
gender-role flexibility
allowing for traditional gender conventions to be transcended
- we don’t have to follow gender conventions
- It’s possible to act differently than gender conventions
- Seems to be about other people’s behavior; acknowledging that people can diverge
- May be more common in beliefs, more common in later adolescence
how gender-role intensification and gender-role flexibility can both be true in adolescence
- One’s about your own behavior vs one being about your beliefs
- When in development they occur
gender & sex differences
- more variation WITHIN than BETWEEN
- differences are in average: they don’t apply to all individuals
- most research assumes participants are cisgender
-Many studies conflate sex and gender
physical gender & sex differences: infancy
few physical differences based on sex assigned at birth
- Boys: tend to be a little bigger, a little more muscle tone, a little more active-ness
physical gender & sex differences: puberty
- big increase in physical growth
- development of primary sex characteristics, which results in hormone changes that enable reproduction
- development of secondary sex characteristics (facial hair, public hair, breast development, genital development)
physical differences developed during puberty (gender & sex differences)
stature: boys increase, girls level out
lean arm circumference: boys increase, girls level out
sum of 3 skinfolds: girls consistently higher & increase during puberty, boys level out (no major changes)
physical gender & sex differences: after puberty
increase sex-linked differences
- boys have greater physical strength & speed
cognitive gender & sex differences
IQ: girls are slightly better at verbal tasks; boys are slightly better at spatial tasks
academic achievement: girls generally do better in school
- Consistent across most subjects
○ Most pronounced in language
○ Even seen in math scores
- Linked to finding that girls tend to feel more positively about school; tend to put in more effort in school
cognitive gender & sex differences: believing their gender is smart
By age 6-7, girls are less likely than boys to believe members of their own gender to be “really, really smart)
○ Told kids a story about a person who was really smart; have them pick if the person is a girl or boy
○ @ age 5: both genders tend to pick their own gender
○ girls @ 6-7: less likely to think of their own gender as smart; more likely to pick boys
§ Boys remain consistent in picking boys
gender & sex differences in play
- Toys
- Style of play
- Fantasy
- Size of play groups
toys (gender & sex differences in play)
girls: dolls, kitchen sets, dress up
boys: action figures, construction toys, video games
style of play (gender & sex differences in play)
girls: more cooperative
boys: more physically active & competative
fantasy play (gender & sex differences in play)
girls: household roles, romance
boys: heroes, combat
size of play group (gender & sex differences in play)
girls: smaller groups, 2-3 people
boys: larger groups
emotional gender & sex differences
girls:
- Report expressing more emotions
○ EXCEPT: anger (more commonly reported to be expressed by boys)
- Emotion regulation
Being able to manage or control their emotions
mental health (emotional gender & sex differences)
beginning in early adolescence, girls are more likely to experience depression & low self esteem
- higher rate of conditions that have to do with emotions
interpersonal gender/sex differences
aggression:
- boys: engage more in direct aggression
- mixed findings: indirect/relational aggression
altruism: girls more likely to show kindness to others & share
interpersonal gender & sex differences: believing their gender is nice
Same study as believing their gender is “really, really smart”:
- EXCEPT: instead of someone smart, it’s someone really nice
- @ age 5: still more likely to see boys picking their own gender
- @ age 6: boys are less likely to think about their own gender as really nice
influences on gender development
biological: chromosomes, hormones, etc.
social & cultural: family, peers, teachers, media
cognitive influences: gender understanding, self-socialization, gender identity
- may be shaped by our own thinking about gender
biological influences on gender development
evolutionary psych theories: gender exists b/c they would have been adaptive for survival
- Different traits/characteristics would be adaptive for survival in men and women
- Diff pressures for men and women across evolution
○ Ex: maternal care - need to be close to the mother for breast feeding –> more caregiving behavior & collaborative playing
hormones (biological influences on gender development)
- differences in androgen and estrogen hormones lead to gender differences
- Almost everybody has all hormones, but there are relative differences dependent on sex
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia
- XX chromosomes, but there’s a condition where you have high levels of androgen (testosterone-type) hormones
- Prenatally: leads to the formation of outwardly male-typed genitalia
- gender expression and behavior: how does gender development occur here?
- Research: quite commonly identify as girls/women, but in terms of gender expression/traits/characteristics, commonly show ones that we associate w/ boys
○ Playing w boys
○ Higher levels of energy
○ Fighting
differences in brain structure
Corpus callosum: generally larger in women
- small difference in adults
social learning & social cognitive theories
- observational learning (modeling)
- reinforcement
observational learning (social learning & social cognitive theories)
- We watch people do certain types of behavior and then model it
- We’re likely to model people that we identify with
○ We learn the expression of our gender by watching people we associate with
- We’re likely to model people that we identify with
reinforcement (social learning & social cognitive theories)
- a girl that models/mimics wearing make-up is rewarded
- BUT: a boy that models/mimics wearing make-up is punished
kohlberg’s cognitive development theory
- changes in thinking about gender leads to changes in adherence to gender-typed behavior/expectations
gender stability (kohlberg’s cognitive development theory)
When kids move to the stage of gender stability, there seems to be increased rigidity in how they express gender
○ More interest in wanting to adhere to models/expectations of their gender identity
gender consistency (kohlberg’s cognitive development theory)
internally stable; regardless of appearance/outward dress –> more flexibility in their expressions of gender
○ Don’t feel as rigid in their expression of gender
gender schema theory
- mental representations of gender influence experiences, expectations, & stereotypes
- when children identify gender: use this to guide their behavior and understanding of the world
- Help us organize our thoughts/experiences
- Use schemas to help me organize the world/anticipate how to act
- Mental representations of gender
challenging gender stereotypes study (gender schema theory)
tell children a story with a firefighter that’s a man vs. a woman firefighter (i.e. challenging gender stereotypes)
- Generally, their memory is less accurate when it doesn’t adhere to your schema/assumptions of the world
- Guides what we remember about the world
gender schema theory: active constructions
- Always changing and growing in response to socialization, media, your experiences
- Can shift and grow with time
- Often use our own preferences/schemas to guide ourselves
gender identity
sense of self as gendered; internal/psychological experience
- gender is self-expressed; we can’t tell other people what their gender identity is
- transgender
- cisgender
- non-binary/genderqueer
- agender/gender-neutral
transgender (gender identity)
gender identity/expression differs from assigned sex/gender (umbrella term)
cisgender (gender identity)
gender identity matches assigned sex/gender
non-binary/genderqueer (gender identity)
an individual rejects the binary categorization of gender
- can be a broad gender term
agender/gender-neutral (gender identity)
an individual does not identify as a man/woman/any gender
transgender gender identity
- 1-3% of youth in North America
- help to understand development of all children + contributors to gender development
–> the role of biological influences, socialization from others, and self-socialization
cisgender: gender development experiences + alignment
Cisgender girl: assigned gender at birth, goes on to continue to identify as a girl
- Biological influences are in line with female typed influences
- Social & cultural influences: align with feminine-typed influences
- Cognitive influences: her own gender identity/self socialization of how she understands herself aligns w/ “girl identity”
transgender: gender development experiences + alignment
- Assigned male at birth; male-typed chromosomes; male-typed hormones
- Social & cultural influences: in line w/ a masculine-typed identity
Self socialization: their own gender understanding/thoughts about their own gender
- Social & cultural influences: in line w/ a masculine-typed identity
socially transitioned trans children
- Socially transition to live as your current felt gender
- No medical intervention yet (i.e. no surgery)
○ Affirms their current gender status
- No medical intervention yet (i.e. no surgery)
cisgender vs transgender youth: explicit gender identity
identity: do you feel like a boy, girl, or something else?
- Ask about the future: will you be a boy, girl, or something else?
no notable difference between cis and trans youth
cisgender vs transgender youth: implicit gender identity
When their identified gender is paired with images/pictures of a gender (i.e. pictures of girls, etc.)
- In both cis and transgender youth: often identifying with their current gender
- Transyouth: implicit gender identity is somewhat variable
○ Not always as fast at associating current gender
cisgender vs transgender youth: similarity in gender identity
- Lots of similarity between cisgender and transgender youth
- Transgender girls prefer girl gender-stereotyped toys
○ More likely to choose toys in line with their identified gender
- Transgender girls prefer girl gender-stereotyped toys
cisgender vs transgender youth: gender stereotypes
how much you think that other people should adhere to gender stereotypes
- Both cisgender and transgender youth are equally likely to have strong, prescriptive gender stereotypes
cisgender vs transgender youth: gender stability
Trans youth: more likely to view gender as fluid
cisgender vs transgender youth: remembering gender stereotyped stories better
- Equally true for cis-gender and transgender youth
- Measures seem to be quite similar
arguments for self-socialization: transgender youth
Have sex-assigned-at-birth hormones + socialization to be the sex assigned at birth
○ External socialization factors typically align with birth sex
- Despite all the biological and socialization influences, transgender youth show as consistent of a gender identity as their cisgender counterparts
§ Internal motivation
cisgender vs transgender youth: mental health
Historically: trans & non-binary youth experience higher levels of mental health challenges and struggles
- higher: bullying @ school, significant depressive symptoms, and attempted suicide
- Along the idea of minority/oppression stress
cisgender vs SOCIALLY TRANSITIONED transgender youth: mental health
no particular heightened mental health challenges
- same depression and anxiety rates as control groups and their siblings
socially transitioned youth + good mental health outcomes
suggestion: socially transitioned youth seem to have better mental health outcomes than those who haven’t/aren’t able to
socially transitioned youth + good mental health outcomes: important caveats
- Socially transitioned sample may be better supported by family/environment
- Socially transitioned sample tends to be younger, higher income
- Cultural context (all North America)
- Family pressures/not being out yet
beyond the binary: lack of research asking regarding gender diverse/gender nonbinary youth
- Older teens and adults: comprises of a large number of experiences
- Many belief they’re fluid; don’t believe gender is a concept they identify to
beyond the binary: increasing visiblity
○ Non-binary experiences have always existed, but there’s a rise of children who are identifying with a non-binary identity
○ Brings self-socialization into question
beyond the binary: current research
- determining how to best measure non-binary identity in children
§ Measuring a non-binary identity is not simple in children who don’t have the words to express what they feel - proposed measurement: scale approach
- give a scale to rank how they feel (boy to girl)
§ Critique of being put on a dichotomous continuum; no room for fluidity
- give a scale to rank how they feel (boy to girl)
- examining mental health
beyond the binary: mental health reserach
○ Looking @ mental health outcomes
§ What mental health outcomes are for non-binary youth (compared to cis and trans youth)
□ Some see increased mental health issues
□ Other studies have found the opposite
§ Recent critique: it’s a diverse range of identities and that matters
