GENDER supportive research

Question 1

McConaghy

Answer 1

SUPPORT FOR KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF GENDER STABILITY (stage 2)

• Found that if a doll was dressed in transparent clothing so its genitals were visible, children of 3-5 years judged its gender by its clothes, not its genitals.
• Supporting Kohlberg’s belief that children of this age use superficial characteristics to determine gender

Question 2

Bussey and Bandura

Answer 2

LIMITATION FOR KOHLBERG’S RELIABILITY

• children as young as 4 reported ‘feeling good’ about playing with gender appropriate toys and ‘feeling bad’ about doing the opposite.
• Widely believed that the ages at which children are supposed to reach the stages are too old.
• Kohlberg’s theory is undermined by the observation that many children begin to demonstrate gender-appropriate behaviour before reaching the stage of gender constancy.

Question 3

Martin and Little

Answer 3

COMPARISON WITH KOHLBERG AND GENDER SCHEMA THEORY

• Children <4, showed no signs of gender stability or constancy, but nevertheless demonstrated strongly sex-typed behaviours and attitudes.
• CONTRADICTS Kohlberg’s notion that gender constancy has to be achieved before stereotypical behaviours emerge.
• SUPPORTS gender schema theory, showing that only a basic understanding of gender is required for sex-role stereotyping to occur.

Question 4

Martin & Halverson

Answer 4

SUPPORT FOR DISTORTION OF INFORMATION TO FIT GENDER SCHEMA’s

• Tested children on their memory of gender focused photos (consistent or inconsistent)
• Then tested their memory one week later

Children under 6 more likely to remember photographs of gender-consistent behaviour than photographs of gender-inconsistent behaviour when tested a week later.

Question 5

Eisenberg et al

Answer 5

LIMITING RESEARCH FOR GENDER SCHEMA THEORY

• Asked children to describe toys that other children would like
• 3 & 4 year old children = used sex-role-oriented thinking to justify their answers
• BUT they used significantly less of this type of reasoning to justify decisions regarding their own toy preferences:
• After a session of free play they didn’t justify their toy choices by referring to gender, but by referring to the toys themselves and what they were like.
• SUGGESTS children’s behaviour is not being shaped by their schemas, but that they may fall back on schemas when seeking to make sense of behaviour they may not know the motives of

Question 6

Maccoby and Jacklin

Answer 6

LIMITATION OF ROLE OF CHROMOSOME + HORMONES = OVERESTIMATES ROLE OF NATURE

found significantly more differences within the sexes than between them, suggesting hormones are not the major contributor to sex role behaviour.