Gender Development

Question 1

What is sex?

Answer 1

The biological and physical status of a person as male or female. It encompasses genetic differences (XX vs XY) physiological and hormonal differences

Question 2

What is gender?

Answer 2

The psychological, social and cultural status as males and females.

Question 3

Evolutionary psychology theory of gender

Answer 3

Certain behavioural tendencies occur because they helped humans survival in the course of evolution.

Gender differences increase chances of mating and protecting offspring.

Play at young ages reflect these differences e.g boys engage in more active and competitive play which results from the need to hunt and compete for females.

Girls are more likely to devote effort into establishing and maintaining positive social relations, engage in more play-parenting to practice nurturing characteristics.

These claims are untestable and can be construed as a rationalisation for maintaining the status quo in traditional gender roles.

Question 4

Biosocial theory of gender

Answer 4

The physical differences between the genders have behavioural and social consequences.

Men are stronger, faster and bigger than women on average and children have better child bearing and nursing capacities which can also limit mobility.

Top paid jobs are no longer reliant on these physical advantages that males have and gender equality has increased.

Therefore social ecology as well as socialisation of boys and girls causes the gender differences.

Question 5

Neuroscience approaches towards gender

Answer 5

Chromosomes determine biological sex

Androgens (class of hormones) e.g testosterone occur at higher levels in males - they have organising influences (affects brain differentiation) and activating influences (contemporaneous activation of the nervous system and corresponding behavioural responses)

Brain structure and functioning - slightly different

Question 6

Self socialisation

Answer 6

The active process during development whereby children’s cognitions lead them to perceive the world and to act in accord with their expectations and beliefs.

Question 7

Kolberg’s (1966) theory of gender role development

Answer 7

Reflects Piaget’s framework

Children actively construct knowledge about gender and seek to understand gender through observation and that cognitive changes occur early in childhood

Question 8

What are the stages of the theory of gender role development?

Answer 8

Gender identity – self identifying as a boy or girl

Gender stability – awareness that gender remains the same over time

Gender constancy – realisation that gender is invariant despite superficial changes in a person’s appearance or behaviour (occurs around 6 when they also succeed at conversion)

Question 9

Gender schema theory

Answer 9

Gender typed interest emerge after gender constancy or when they can label others and own (about 3)

Construct schema to represent gender based on observations

Motivation for cognitive consistency leads them to prefer, remember and pay more attention to others of their own gender, in doing so they form an own-gender schema

Responsible for biased processing of information

Proposed that there are two schemas filters; gender schema filter (is it relevant for my gender?) and an interest filter (is it interesting?).

Question 10

Bradbard et al (1986)

Answer 10

4-9 year olds played more with toys in gender neutral or same gender labelled box than other and remembered more details about those toys one week later.

Question 11

Shell and Eisenberg (1990)

Answer 11

Observed that boys were influenced by the number and proportion of same gendered children playing with certain toys, approaching the ones other boys played with and ignoring ones girls played with

Question 12

C.L Martin and Halverson (1983)

Answer 12

When showed gender typed images and cross-gender typed images (e.g girl sawing wood) the children tended to falsely remember them as all gender typed.

Question 13

Social identity theory

Answer 13

Tajfel and Turner’s (1979) theory addresses the influence of group membership on people’s self- concepts and behaviour with others.

May be most central social identity in children’s lives which develops early as seen with preference for affiliation with same gender peers.

In-group bias (evaluating in- group peers as superior) and in-group assimilation (conforming to group norms) also occur within gender groups.

They also tend to value characteristics they are superior in more e.g for men assertiveness.

Masculine stereotyped behaviour in a girl can enhance her status but the opposite effect is seen for boys with feminine stereotyped behaviour. This explains why there is more pressure on boys to conform to gender stereotypes.

Question 14

Intersectionality

Answer 14

The interconnection of social identities and how these expectations overlap.

Question 15

Social cognitive theory

Answer 15

Depicts a triad in model of reciprocal causation among personal factors (cognitive, motivational and biological), environmental factors and behavioural patterns.

Argues learning occurs through tuition (direct teaching) initially from same gendered parents.

Enactive experience occurs when children learn to guide their behaviour by taking into account the reactions their past behaviour has evoked in others (which is usually positive for gender-typed behaviours).

Observational learning happens by watching other people and the consequences others experience as a result of their actions (includes media). This requires four key processes; attention, memory, production and motivation.

Overtime external sanctions become internalised. Suggests children monitor their behaviour and evaluate whether it meets personal standards resulting in shame or pride (self-efficacy).

Question 16

Cultural influences

Answer 16

Macrosystem - opportunity structure: the economic and social resources it offers and people’s understanding of those resource - opportunities can vary depending on gender

Increased academic and professional opportunities for women in US led to a dramatic narrowing in gender gap with mathematic and science abilities.

In an experiment they swapped children’s clothing with that of the opposite sex and had volunteers play with them using a selection of boy and girl stereotyped toys. They picked the toys to play with that were stereotyped to the gender they thought the child was and the child enjoyed playing with them.

Question 17

Nelson (2005)

Answer 17

Studied the toys of 152 children aged 5 and found that most were gender stereotyped.

Question 18

Nash and Krawczyk (1994)

Answer 18

Analysed 200 infant bedrooms (they are too young to make choices themselves at 6-12 months) and found that colours and toys are highly gender stereotyped.

Question 19

Milestones in gender development

Answer 19

1yo - perceive differences 
2yo - form expectations about objects and activities for males and females 
3yo - understand own gender 
3-5 - gender stereotypes 
6 - gender constancy

Question 20

Damon (1977)

Answer 20

Found that children accepted boys should be able to play with dolls if they want to but recognised he would probably be teased

Question 21

Effect size

Answer 21

Magnitude of difference between two groups averages and the amount of overlap in their distributions

Effect sizes can be 
>trivial (overlap >85%)
>small (67%-85%)
>medium (53%-66%) 
>large (<53%)

Question 22

Meta-analysis

Answer 22

A statistical method used to summarise average effect size and statistical significance across several research studies, is used to infer overall pattern

Question 23

The gender similarities hypothesis

Answer 23

Hyde (2000) argues that when comparisons girls and boys it is important to appreciate the similarities far outweigh the differences on most attributes.

Question 24

Gender differences

Answer 24

Cognitive and academic:
>equivalent but boys tend to score more on extremes of IQ
>girls show better adjustment, academic achievement and language acquisition (verbal skills later)
> boys better at aspects of visuospatial skills e.g mental rotation

Interpersonal goals and communication:
>boys emphasise power and dominance more than girls
>girls emphasise intimacy and support

Aggression:
> both physical and verbal forms of direct aggression occur more often in boys but no gender difference in indirect or relational aggression
> girls are more likely to report feelings of empathy and sympathy which is correlated with reduced aggression

Question 25

Influences on gender differences in academics

Answer 25

mothers tend to interact and talk with daughters more than sons early on which may account for the verbal skill difference, this may also be the other way around as girls advanced verbal skills encourage mothers to talk to them more – bidirectional influence.

Gender typed expectations of parents may also affect the child’s achievement motivation.

Some teachers can also hold stereotyped beliefs about girls and boys abilities and therefore expect higher from girls and pay them more attention or give them more challenging work. Teachers can lay the ground work for self-fulfilling prophecies.

Peers can also shape children’s academic achievement depending on their own motivation and interests etc. Boys tend to be more interested in construction play, sports and video games which give them the opportunity to develop better spatial skills.

Masculinity norms can also hinder boys academic achievement as reading may be viewed as feminine which reduces their motivations to excel.

Question 26

Condry and Ross (1985)

Answer 26

Participants watched two children play in costumes hiding gender and when they thought it was two boys they judged play as less aggressive.