Gender & Gender Differences

Question 1

Define Gender Stereotypes.

Answer 1

Widely held statistics deemed appropriate for males and females. Overgeneralization.

Question 2

The following is associated with which gender and trait: competence, rational, assertive…

Answer 2

Masculine Instrumental traits. (opposite Feminine Expressive traits).

Question 3

What is Gender identity?

Answer 3

Perception of self related to gender in relation to masculine and feminine characteristics.

Am I more masculine or feminine?

Question 4

What are the gender stereotypes that children in early childhood - 18 -3 years express?

General
2 years old (common belief and metaphor)
Pre-school

Answer 4

Label their own sex with boy, girl, man, woman; etc

2 years olds acquire common beliefs with gender like boys being rough, girls more gentle- They also understand stereotyped metaphors. “bears are for boys, girls are for butterflies”

> pre-schoolers: activities and job stereotypes

Question 5

Children in middle childhood to adolescence extend gender stereotypes to what?

What do they realize at this age? Gender is stable but…

Answer 5

Extend stereotypes to personalities and school subjects

Gender is stable but we realize that girls can also play with “boy” toys… but it’s society’s approval that affects the stereotype.

Question 6

How do parents affect gender stereotyping in boys and girls in Early Childhood?

Answer 6

Parents encourage gender-specific play and behavior

Reinforce dependence in girls, independence in boys

Question 7

Achievement and independence is more important for girls or boys?

Answer 7

Boys. Gender affects perceived competence and parents demand more independence from boys.

Question 8

Explain why and how androgyny is a predictor of psychological adjustment.

Answer 8

People who are more androgynous or masculine have higher self-esteem and are more capable as adults than those who consider themselves feminine.

Question 9

What are the Actual Sex differences in Mental Abilities?

Brain dev and laterization

Answer 9

Brain dev. faster for girls

• verbal - girls do better from early age and on
• girls- advantage in left hem of brain

boys-math
boys better at abstract reasoning
better numerical memory, spatial reasoning

Question 10

What are the environmental influences of gender stereotyping?

language arts and math…

Answer 10

-environmental like parents talking to girls and language arts is considered girly.

“math” considered masculine.

Question 11

T or F. Boys express themselves more freely!

Answer 11

F. Females are able to detect inferences from others and have better self-conscious emotions like guilt and shame.

Question 12

Who is more likely to experience depression? Agression? Why?

Answer 12

-Depression- most common problems in adolescent girls… twice as likely than boys to feeling depressed.
>under-reported and under-treated in boys?

-Aggression - girls let everything else out but let anger out (boys are supposed to be tough and girls are not to be physically tough)… and boys opposite= social expectation… girls are more likely to hurt someone w words.

Question 13

How would someone raise a non-gender stereotype child?

Answer 13

• permit choice of diverse toys and activities
• avoid transmitting gender stereotypes - prevent
• teach appreciation of differences
• avoid unnecessary references to gender
• encourage mixed-sex interaction
• discuss gender biases

Question 14

What is gender typing? Sounds like stereotyping…

Answer 14

Any associations of activities, roles, objects, and biological sex in ways that conform to cultural stereotypes of gender.

Question 15

How old is the following: “bears are for boys, girls are for butterflies”

Answer 15

a 2 year old.

Question 16

Define gender schema theory

Answer 16

Information-processing approach that explains how environmental pressures and children’s cognition work together to shape gender typing.

Question 17

How would a gender-aschematic boy respond to playing a pink doll on the floor?

Answer 17

He would ask himself… do I like this toy? And respond depending on his own interest, NOT by gender as a gender-schematic boy would.

Question 18

A gender-aschematic child sees himself as “I’m Vienna” while a gender-schematic child sees herself as…

Answer 18

I’m a girl.

Question 19

Math:

Girls tend to be advantaged in what?

Boys tend to be advantaged in what?

Answer 19

Girls: counting, artithmetic computation, basic concepts…. by late childhood and adolescent math concepts become more abstract and spatial, and boys outperform girls.