Kohlberg: Gender Development Flashcards
What do cognitive development theories focus on?
How children’s thinking develops as they grow
What is maturation?
All children must develop in the same way through the same stages
Why is age not important here?
Children may process through the stages at different speeds but all children will move through thr same stages in the same order
What does Cognitive Development Theory believe?
It is children’s discovery that they’re male or female which causes them to identify with memebers of their own gender
What are the 3 stages of Kohlberg’s gender development?
1) Basic gender identity
2) Gender stability
3) Gender constancy
What age does basic gender identity occur?
Age 3
What age does gender stability occur?
Age 4-5
What age does gender constancy occur?
Age 6-7
What is basic gender identity?
Children recognise they are male kf female and can correctly label their own and other peoples gender but they lack the realisation that gender is fixed and believe it can change
What is gender stability?
Children recognise that gender is consistent overtime but they fail to understand gender is consistent across situations
What is gender constancy?
When a child starts to understand that gender remains the same across situations and they seek roles models and imitate and internalise their behaviours
What did Slaby and Frey do?
Asked children questions about gender. Children aged 2 were shown a picture of a boy and girl and asked which they were, they could answer correctly
What question could children not answer correctly until the age of 3 or 4?
Were you a little boy or little girl when you were a baby? Will you grow up to be a mummy or daddy?
What were the children shown?
Films of men and women, those with gender consistency watched the same sex model as themselves, suggesting that they realise that this is what they will grow into
What did Thompson find?
By 2 years, hildesheim given pictures of how boys and girls could select same sex ones, demonstrating that they could self label and identify the gender of others. By 3 90% showed gender identity compared to 76% of 2 year olds
