Gender Schema Theory Flashcards
Describe gender schemas
A generalised mental representation of everything we know about gender and gender-appropriate behaviour derived from experience. These schemas help a child make sense of the world as they form stereotypes about the ways that they think males and females behave (i.e. what toys to play with, what to wear, how to act etc.).
State who developed the gender schema theory
Martin and Halverson (1981).
Outline the gender schema theory
Once a child has established gender identity around the ages of 2-3 years, he or she will begin to search the environment for information that encourages the development of their gender schema.
Outline the similarities between the gender schema theory and Kohlberg’s theory
Both theories believe a child’s thinking is at the basis of their development of gender role behaviours and that children’s understanding of gender increases with age. Children develop their gender understanding by actively structuring their own learning, rather than passively observing and imitating role models.
Outline one factor which differentiate gender schema theory from Kohlberg’s theory
GST argues that the process of acquiring gender-relevant information happens before gender constancy, at around 2-3 years old.
Explain how gender identity leads to in-group and out-group schemas
Through identifying as a boy or girl, children have a much better understanding of the schemas that relate to their own gender – they view their own group as the ‘in-group’ and the opposite as ‘out-group’.
Describe the difference between in-group and out-group gender schemas
In-group gender schemas are attitudes and expectations about one’s own gender, whilst out-group gender schemas are attitudes and expectations about the other gender.
Describe the role in-group and out-group schemas play in gender development
In-group identity serves to increase the child’s level of self-esteem as they positively evaluate their own group and negatively evaluate outgroups (the other sex). This motivates the child to avoid the behaviour of the opposite sex and actively seek information about their in-group’s behaviour acquiring an in-group schema. It is not until children are a little older (around 8) that they build more elaborate schemas for both genders.
Explain why children’s gender beliefs are resilient
A child holds rigid and firm gender schemas that are resistant to change, and this drives them to ignore or misremember information that conflicts with their schemas (schematic anomalies) and selectively attend to gender-consistent information.
2 Strengths of gender schema theory (1 COUNTER)
Research support for the resilience of gender schemas:
Martin and Halverson (1983) developed research to test their theory. They asked five and six-year-olds to look at pictures of children playing. Some were schema-consistent (e.g. girl playing with a doll) and some were schema-inconsistent (e.g. girl playing with a toy gun). After a week, it was found that the children had switched the schema inconsistent images around and remembered, for example, a boy playing with a toy gun rather than a girl.
They also asked children to recall pictures of people depicting a variety of professions. They found that children under the age of six recalled more gender consistent pictures (e.g. male firefighter) than gender-inconsistent ones (e.g. male nurse) when tested a week later. Children tended to change the sex of the person carrying out the gender-inconsistent activity when asked to recall.
COUNTER - however, a criticism of this study is that simple conditioning can explain this preference in recall with children as they perhaps have greater exposure to gender stereotypes in the real world (more male fire fighters than females). Therefore, this finding may have nothing to do with schemas at all.
Cultural differences:
Cherry (2019) argues that gender schemas not only influence how people process information but what counts as culturally appropriate gender behaviour. Traditional cultures, that believe women should take a nurturing role and that men should pursue a career, will raise children who form schema which are consistent with this view. In societies where perceptions of gender have less rigid boundaries, children are more likely to acquire more fluid gender schema.
Therefore, Martin and Halverson’s theory can explain how gender schemas are transmitted between members of a society and how cultural differences in gender stereotypes come about. This notion enhances the universality of the gender schema theory
2 Limitations of gender schema theory
Counter stereotypes in the media suggest gender resilience may not be accurate:
Disney’s recent heroines such as Mulan and Brave have challenged traditional notions of gender and subvert widely held gender schemas but feminists have praised the use of these characters for inspiring young girls. Moreover, Pingree (1978) found that gender stereotyping was reduced amongst school age grils when shown TV advrts featuring women in non-stereotypical roles. This goes against gender-schema theory as the girls do not misremember the stories because they go against their gender schemas, instead they are inspired by them (Disney) or they reduce their gender stereotyping of others (Pingree et al. 1978).
Uncertainty regarding gender identity development:
Evidence has shown that gender identity may develop earlier than Martin and Halverson proposed. Zosuls et al. (2009) longitudinally examined a sample of 82 children focusing on two key aspects of children’s early gender development – the production of gender labels and sex-typed play. They examined the onset of children’s gender labelling as based on mothers’ biweekly reports on their children’s language development from 9 to 21 months, alongside videotaped analyses of children’s play with gender stereotyped and neutral toys, both alone and with mother at 17 and 21 months. They found that children started using gender labels at 19 months on average. Gender labelling predicted increases in sex-typed play, suggesting that knowledge of gender categories might influence sex-typing before the age of two.
