Gender Identity

Question 1

• Is gender a biological term?
• Is gender binary?
• Is sex binary?

Answer 1

Is gender a biological term? No
Is gender binary? No
Is sex binary? Sort of

Question 2

Name some of the different theories of the origins of psychological gender differences and similarities

Answer 2

Evolutionary theory
social cognitive theory
sociocultural theory
expectancy value theory
Gender similarity theory.

Question 3

Can gender attributes be learned? Give example

Answer 3

Yes
• Ages 12, 18, or 24 months
shown blue car, blue doll, pink car, pink doll, red car….
• Preference for doll at 12 months for both genders
when older, boys preferred cars, girls dolls
shows gender attributes learned

Question 4

What do children know about gender roles?

Gender Schema Theory

Answer 4

Gender Schema theory:
Schemas - beliefs and expectations about males/females
Schemas influence what we attend to, elaborate on, remember

Question 5

What do children know about gender roles?

What is a 1st experiment about gender roles/ stereotypes?

Answer 5

Experiment 1: 5-6 year olds shown picture stories: 50% gender consistent/inconsistent
Memory vs. schema
After one week: children remembered gender consistent stories, but misremembered gender inconsistent stories.
Therefore, gender schemas/stereotypes are developed eeeearrrrly.

Question 6

What do children know about gender roles?

What is a 2nd experiment about gender roles/ stereotypes?

Answer 6

Experiment 2: 18/24 mos shown actors doing things
IV:
Masculine activities: having and tying a necktie
Feminine activities: putting on lipstick/nail polish
Gender neutral activities: drinking water and eating a bagel
DV:
Looking time
Results: Longer looking time at gender inconsistent events at 24 months, but not at 18 months.
Conclusion: gender stereotypes are learned

Question 7

Do children have stereotypes about themselves?

What is the 1st experiment talked about?

Answer 7

Experiment:
6-10 yrs old
Children given list of words to sort into categories that are either stereotype congruent (boys/math and girls reading) or stereotype incongruent (Boys/reading and girls math).
Children are much better at sorting into stereotype congruent categories.

Question 8

Do children have stereotypes about themselves?

What is the 2nd experiment talked about?

Answer 8

Chilean 5yos
Asked questions about male and female cartoon characters. Questions were like: “Does the male like math or language better? Which is he better at?…”
Uncovered that they thought the male character could be good at anything, but that the female characters would be worse at math, find it harder, and like it less than language assignments.
Whats really interesting is that boys and girls gave the same answers–proving self stereotype in five year olds. As in the responses did not differ depending on the gender of the child.

Question 9

What are the impacts of your sexual orientation on your children? Does your sexual orientation change your child’s sexual orientation?

Answer 9

No, no impacts.

Question 10

Which ethnic groups are more likely to score above 95% percentile in testing?

Answer 10

Asian/ pacific islander

white

Question 11

LOOK UP in class exercise

Answer 11

Reuben E., Sapienza P., & Zingales, L (2014)

Question 12

Any theories about gender identity?

Answer 12

Kohlberg. Gender Identity in 3 stages.

1. Awareness that two sexes exist (gender labeling)
	a. Obsession with genitalia
2. Awareness that gender doesn't change with time (gender stability)
3. Awareness that gender remains unchanged across situations and behaviors (gender constancy) 

Any problems?
Assumes that gender is binary, and unchanging. Really this seems like an anachronistic critique (from an earlier time when things were different) … at the time of writing, gender hadn’t assumed its current social implications, was really just the psychological component of sex.