Gender studies Flashcards
Saevey et al (1975)
They told 1 in 3 adult participants that a three-month-old baby in a yellow jumpsuit was a boy, a girl or did not state. They were left to play with the baby in a room containing a stereotypical male toy, a stereotypical female toy and a neutral toy. Both male and female adults gave the child a doll to play with if they believed it to be female, but they were more likely to give a non-stereotypical toy if they believed it to be a boy. When the baby’s gender was not known females handled the baby more and both males and females tried to assess the baby’s gender on the basis of it’s perceived strength. The results suggest that males and females act differently according to what gender they believe the baby to be, which supports the belief that sex-role expectations are taught from an early age, by the way they are handled.
Langlois and Downs (1980)
They compared the reactions of peers and mothers when preschoolers played with the opposite-gender toys. When boys played with girls toys mothers were accepting however peers were not, they ridiculed them and even hit them supporting the idea that peers police sex-role stereotyping.
Renzetti and Curran (1992)
They found that teachers gave reinforcements such as praise to boys for ‘cleverness’, while girls received praise for ‘neatness’, linking to the idea of restrictive barriers
Burchardt and Serbin (1982) AMRC
Aim: to see whether androgyny is associated with positive mental health in both normal and psychiatric populations.
Method: All participants were administered the BSRI and FAMM personality inventory, in order to be classified as masculine, feminine, androgynous or undifferentiated personalities.
Findings: Androgynous females scored slightly lower for depression and social introversion than feminine females, and in the college sample there were also lower on the schizophrenia and mania scales than masculine females. In the hospitalised male sample, this pattern was partially sustained, with androgynous and masculine participants significantly less deviant than feminine males, and lower on depression.
Conclusions: being androgynous is positively correlated with good mental health, especially concerning levels of depression.
Evaluation: masculine types scored equally well, suggesting masculinity assists with good mental health.
