Gender: Gender Schema Theory Flashcards
Who came up with Gender Schema Theory?
Martin and Halverson
Introduce GST
GST is similar to Kohlberg’s Theory. The difference between the theories is that Martin and Halverson argued that the process of acquiring gender relevant information, occurs before gender constancy is achieved. In addition, GST suggests that the acquisition of stereotypes and schemas affects later behaviour especially in terms of memory and attention.
Name the 3 concepts GST is made up of
> Schemas
Ingroup and Outgroup Schemas
Resilience of Gender Beliefs
Describe the 1st concept of GST: Schemas
Children learn schemas related to their gender development from their peers, parents and media . They learn about what toys are appropriate for each gender, and what clothes to wear etc.
Describe the 2nd concept of GST: Ingroup and Outgroup Schemas
The term ingroup refers to the groups with which a person identifies. Once a child has identified with a group, this leads them to positively evaluate their own group and negatively evaluate the outgroup. This leads them to actively seek information about what their ingroup does, i.e. to acquire ingroup schemas. According to GST, from an early age, before achieving Gender Constancy, children focus on ingroup schemas and avoid behaviours that belong to outgroup schemas.
Describe the 3rd concept of GST: Resilience of Gender Beliefs
This is an important aspect of GST, as it explains the power of gender beliefs. Gender beliefs leads to children holding very fixed gender attitudes because they ignore any information they encounter that is not consistent with ingroup information. For example, if a boy watches an advert showing a man as a nurse, this information will be disregarded because it is not consistent with ingroup schemas’ the boy has learnt. Therefore the boy does not alter his existing schema. In this way gender schema have a profound effect on what is remembered.
Name the 2 studies which support GST
> Martin and Little
> Bradbard et al.
What did Martin and Little find which supports GST?
Martin and Little found that children under the age of four showed no signs of gender stability, let alone signs of constancy, but did display strong gender stereotypes about what boys and girls were permitted to do. This shows that they have acquired information about gender roles before Kohlberg suggested, which is in line with what GST claims.
What did Bradbard et al. find which supports GST?
Further support from Bradbard et al. shows how GST is related in particular to memory (organisation of memory). He told 4 to 9 year olds that certain gender neutral items were either boy or girl items. Ppts took a greater interest in toys labelled as ingroup (i.e. a boy was mostly interested in an item labelled as a boy’s toy). Also one week later they were able to remember more details about ingroup objects. this shows how gender schema are related in particular to memory.
AID: Individual Differences
A limitation of this theory is the issue of individual differences. GST cannot explain why different children with much of the same environmental influences respond differently to gender-appropriate behaviour. For example, this theory cannot explain why some girls may prefer action figures and some boys prefer Barbies. This may be due to biological differences such as genes and hormones, which GST largely ignores. This makes GST a reductionist theory.
AID: Gender Bias
Furthermore, there may be a gender bias in this research. Studies have shown that girls are more willing to do masculine activities than boys are to do feminine activities. Thus, the development of gender schemas may be different for each gender schemas may be different for each gender. This may be different for each gender. this may be due to social stigma, masculine traits an activities which are seen as more desirable, thus girls are more likely to have or perform them.
