Gender Development - Lecture 3 Flashcards
What are the 3 influences on gender development?
gender development:
- Biological influences:
chromosomes,
hormones, etc. (males and females generally have different levels of hormones) - Social & cultural influences:
family, peers, teachers, media, etc. - Cognitive influences:
gender, understanding, self-socialization,
gender identity
(some of gender development may be shaped by our own thinking about gender. There is a mention of sel-socialization. We ourselves shape our ideas.)
What are the evolutionary theories on biological influences in gender?
- Evolutionary psychology
theories - Gender differences exist because
they would have been adaptive
for survival
(maternal care is useful for survival (breastfeeding etc.). The evolutionary pressure for maternal care may have led to a selection for more caregiving behaviour amongst females. A lot of evolutionary psyhc theories have been proposed but they are quite difficult to confirm or deny. )
Example:
Maternal care useful
for infant survival →
girls more likely to play
in collaborative/caring
fashion
What is the role of hormones in biological influences on gender?
- Role of hormones?
- Differences in androgen and
estrogen hormones lead to gender
differences - Congenital adrenal hyperplasia:
Genetic “female”-typed (XX) with
high levels of androgen, formation
of male/partially male genitalia →
more likely to show traditionally
“male” behaviour
there tend to be relatively different strengths of andogyn and estrogen hormones between males and females. Hormones may lead to gender or sex based differences. Congential adrenal hyperplasia is an intersex condition. In which you have XX chromosomes but have high levels of androgyn exposure, this leads to the formation of what outwardly appear to be male types genitalia. Some researhc looks at gender expression in these people. Research suggests that these females quite commonly identify as women but in terns of gender expression and traits etc., they commonly show more masculine traits and characteristics.
are there differences in brain structure based on gender?
- Differences in brain structure & function?
- Small differences in adults
- In children?
do boys and girls brains work differently? Do they have different brains? It is true that you see differences. The corpus callosum is generally larger in adult women. Is it that htey are born biologically different or does a lifetime of being treated socially in different ways lead to these developments?
What are the social influences on gender development?
- Social learning & social
cognitive theories - Observational learning
(modeling) - Reinforcement
the notion that we watch people do sorts of behaviour and we model it and we are likely to model people that we identify with. Maybe we learn the expression of our gender by watching other people and modelling that behaviour for ourselves.
also a little girl who models their mother and puts on makeup may be rewarded for that, but yoing boys who do that may be punished for it.
Thinking about bronfenbrenner’s theory, what are the social and cultural influences on gender development?
Bronfenbrenners theory argues that there are many different levels of social and cultural influence.
micro -
parents socialize their children in different ways. You may learn from how your parents express their genders, siblings. How peers treat each other. Kids will often react to peers or punish the behaviour of peers that don’t adhere to gender.
exosystem-
workplace sports teams etc. Like maybe your dads job has sports teams but womoms workplace doesn’t have sports teams
meso-
criticism between parents and teachers.
What are cognitive influences on gender development?
What ae the 3 stages and ages associated with them?
Kohlberg’s Cognitive Development theory
- Changes in thinking about gender → changes in adherence to gender-typed behaviour/expectations
- Gender stability → increased rigidity (kids show a lot of interest in wanting to adhere to these models or expectatiosn of their gender identity.)
- Gender consistency → increased flexibility?
when kids move though these different stages, this influences how they express their gender/
the idea that the way we think about gender or understand gender can change our gender expression.
Gender Identity: 2-2.5 years
Gender Stability: 3-4 years
Constancy 5-7 years
What is gender schema theory?
- Gender schema theory
- Mental representations of gender →
experiences, expectations, stereotypes - As soon as children can identify gender,
use this to guide their behaviour and understanding of the world.
as soon as you identify gneder this can shape how you understand the world.
- Mental representations of gender →
experiences, expectations, stereotypes - As soon as children can identify gender,
use this to guide their behaviour and
understanding of the world - Schemas as active constructions
when kids are told these stories about firefighters, their memory is much better when they fit the stereotypes.
your schemas about gender are always changing and growing in response to your experiences.
What is your gender identity? What is the terminology for this?
- Sense of self as gendered; internal/psychological
experience - Transgender: in which gender identity/expression
differs from assigned sex/gender (umbrella term)
(Help to understand development of all children
Help to understand different contributors to gender
development → biological influences, socialization
from others, self-socialization) - Cisgender: in which gender identity matches assigned
sex/gender - Non-binary/genderqueer: in which an individual
rejects the binary categorization of gender - Agender/gender-neutral: in which an individual does
not identify as man/woman/any gender
Explain the difference between a cisgender and a transgender girl in terms of the 3 components of gender identity.
Cisgender female
Biological influences:
female hormones
Social & cultural influences:
treated like a girl, given girl toys etc.
Cognitive influences:
feels like a girl
transgender female
Biological influences:
male hormones
Social & cultural influences:
treated like a boy, given boy toys etc.
Cognitive influences:
feels like a girl
