Gender evaluation Flashcards
Androgyny and measuring androgyny evaluation
strength- Burchardt and Serbin provided supporting research for a positive correlation between androgyny and good mental health which supports the idea that androgyny is an indicator of positive mental health
strength- Peters and Cantrell used the BSRI to provide evidence that androgynous females had the best quality of relationships showing that androgyny is associated with higher interpersonal functioning than those who are predominantly masculine or feminine which increases validity
limitation- critic argue that androgyny is not always associated with positive mental health e.g. androgynous individuals may demonstrate negative masculine characteristics such as aggressiveness or negative feminine characteristics like being too timid
The role of chromosomes and hormones evaluation
strength- evidence to support the role of hormones in gender-related behaviour like aggression from Dabbs who found offenders with the highest levels of testosterone were more likely to have committed violent or sexually motivated crimes + Van Goozen found that male to female pts showed a decrease in aggression and female to male pts showed the opposite due to hormone treatment
limitation- Mead found that the environment had a bigger influence than hormones as when she researched three Papua New Guinea tribes she found: arapesh- both males and females showed gentle and feminine behaviour, mundugumor both genders behaved in a masculine way and in the tchambuli tribe the sex role behaviour was completely reversed
limitation- it is reductionist as it ignores other explanations to gender development e.g. the psychodynamic approach would argue that interactions with the family are also important so the reductionism could lead to negative consequences like stigmas and stereotypes
Atypical sex chromosome patterns (the syndromes) evaluation
strength- research into atypical chromosomes has practical applications e.g. Herlihy found that individuals treated from a very young age had significant benefits compared to those who had been diagnosed in adulthood + research will lead to more understanding of the issues
limitation- the pts used in the studies are unique with unusual conditions and unlikely to be treated the same as their peers so it is difficult to establish if some of their characteristics are due to nature or nurture
limitation- the assumptions about typical gender are often based around stereotypes than fact e.g. there are more differences within the same sexes than between them so how can we know that those with turners syndrome are actually more socially immature compared to other women due to the syndrome and not because of natural variation
Cognitive explanations- Kohlberg’s theory evaluation
strength- there is supporting evidence e.g. McConaghy found that when a doll was dressed in transparent clothes and there was a discrepancy between the clothing and its genitals, 3 to 4 year olds decided the dolls gender based on clothing despite being able to see the dolls anatomy which shows that gender constancy has not yet been achieved + Munroe found that the stages of gender identity development were similar in six other cultures so the stages could be universal
limitation- contradictory research from Martin and Little who found children under the age of four who showed no signs of gender stability or constancy still showed strong sex typed behaviour and attitudes + Bussey and Bandura found that children as young as 4 said they felt bad about playing with gender inappropriate toys and vice versa which is more in line with the gender-scheme theory in terms of age
limitation- methodological issues as the theory was developed using interviews of children as young as 2 who may have lacked the vocabulary to understand the question and express what they truly felt
Cognitive explanations- Gender schema theory evaluation
strength- Martin and Halverson found that children under 6 were more likely to remember photos of gender consistent behaviour than gender inconsistent behaviour when tested a week later and even tended to change the sex of the person carrying out the gender inconsistent activities to fit in with their existing gender schemas
limitation- it exaggerates the importance of schemas and does not pay attention to social factors like parental influence and the role of reward and punishment for behaviour
limitation- the key assumptions are unsupported e.g. changing a childs schemas as some people have strong views at home but fail to display these in their day to day behaviour therefore attitudes do not always affect behaviour
Psychodynamic explanation evaluation
strength- supporting evidence from Wiszewska who found that if the 49 women had a good relationship with their father they were significantly more likely to pick out a picture of a man which resembled his facial dimensions which supports the electra complex
limitation- Freud supported his theory with case studies like Little Hans which lacked validity and findings that cannot be generalised + according to his theory strict and harsh fathers would go on to have sons with a stronger gender identity due to castration anxiety but the opposite has been found true and boys with easy going fathers are more secure in their masculine identity
limitation- lack of application to non-nuclear families as the theory relies on having two parents of different genders but Golombok found that that children from single-parent families also went on to develop normal gender identities
SLT for gender development evaluation
strength- Smith and Lloyd dressed 4-6 month old babies in either girls or boys clothing and when adults assumed the baby was a boy they gave it a hammer shaped rattle and were more adventurous and active with it but when they thought it was a girl they gave her a cuddly doll and reinforced passive behaviour which supports the idea that gender behaviour is reinforced at an early age
strength- explains the changing gender roles as the shift in cultural norms forms what acceptable behaviour should be reinforced + biology cannot explain this as peoples basic biology has not changed in the same period of time
limitation- contradictory evidence from David Reimer’s case study who grew up and was socialised to behave like a girl but still had male sex chromosomes so in adulthood transitioned into a man
Influence of media and culture evaluation
strength- supports the SLT as Furnham and Farragher found that men were more likely to be shown as the company boss whereas women were shown to be in domestic settings + this shows that media may play a role in reinforcing social stereotypes and this idea could be used to spin the narrative the other way round
limitation- McGhee and Frueh found that children 6-12 who watched more than 25 hours of tv a week held more sex-stereotyped perceptions than those who watched 10 hours or less which shows that the media has a negative influence
strength- since media influences gender roles there have been many examples of counter-stereotypes such as the movie Brave which challenges traditional gender roles and may help in reducing gender discrimination and stereotyping by influencing the younger generations
Influence of culture on gender roles evaluation
strength- Mead’s study again shows that gender is culturally determined through socialisation and adherence to social norms
limitation- imposed etics in research and theories which have been developed in the west according to their own social norms then used to understand people of other cultures + Berry suggested that to counteract this at least one member of the local population should be included within the research team
limitation- cross-cultural research does not solve the nature vs. nurture debate as it is impossible to separate the two influences on the development of gender roles so we cannot tell if biology or social influence has a bigger impact
Atypical development biological explanation evaluation
limitation- contradictory evidence for the BSTc by Chung who showed that hormonal influences which affect the size of the BSTc are not triggered until adulthood which casts doubt on the idea that brain differences are present in early childhood and therefore that GID is caused by BSTc size
limitation- twin studies are inconclusive as the concordance rates of 39% are not very high which makes it difficult to separate the influence of nature and nurture especially with the fact that MZ twins may influence each other and their environmental conditions are very similar
Atypical development social-psychological explanation evaluation
strength- supporting evidence from Zucker who found that of the boys who were diagnosed with GID 64% of them were also diagnosed with separation anxiety as well as high levels of emotional involvement in mothers of the boys which suggests that GID in males is linked to their relationship with their mothers therefore supporting the psychological explanation
limitation- the cognitive theory lacks sufficient explanation as there is little explanation as to why a child may become interested in activities that are not associated with their own sex or the cause of the development of non sex-typed schemas which weakens the validity of the cognitive theory
