Kohlberg's theory Flashcards
Egocentricism
Child assumes the whole world sees the way they do
Conservation
Properties of object remain the same even when the appearance changes, an essence or sameness
(Achieved by the end of the Pre-operational stage 2-7 yrs)
Kolhberg (1966)
Gender identity (Labelling)
Stage 1
AO1
- 2rs old approx - can correctly indeitfy themselves as boy/girl
- 3yrs old approx - can correctly identify others as the same as them
- Cannot do much more than label
- Label based on appearance
- Do not view sex as permanent
Gender stability
Stage 2
AO1
- 4 yrs old
- Realise own gender is stable over time (girls grow into women)
- Cannot apply constancy to self or other across difference situation
- Fooled by role appearance changes
- McConaghy (1979) found that young children thought a doll in a dress was a women even when male genitalia was visible.
Gender Constancy
Stage 3
AO1
- 6 year old
- Recognise stability (over time) and constancy (across situations) of own and gender other gender
- Not fooled by superficial appearance changes
- Seek out and imitate gender appropriate role models.
AO3 Slaby and Frey (1975) - Split screen viewing - children watching men and women performing same task.
- Younger children watched the screens roughly equally.
- Children in Gender Constancy (3rd) stage spent longer looking at the same-sex model.
Slaby and Frey Concluded
concluded this demonstrated Kohlberg’s assertion that gender constant children will seek out appropriate gender role models.
Bussey and Bandura (1992)
Crique to Kohlberg and support to Gender schema theory
(AO3)
As young as 4, children express feeling ‘good’ about playing with gender-appropriate toys and ‘bad’ about doing the opposite.
Gender differences
Criticism
Martin and Halverson (1983)
-Martin and Halverson (1983) re-examined the responses, concluding that the children were in ‘pretend mode’
Ben (1989) argued that children use the cues that are more relevant in our society, such as clothes and that many children who couldn’t conserve didn’t acc know what opposite genitals were.
Link sentence
Martin and Halverson (1983)
AO3
This weakens that validity of finding, and that their support for the theory.
Gender stereotype without constancy
Criticism
Martin and Little (1990)
Shows that children under four display strong stereotypes about male and female behaviour.
For example that had strong beliefs about what boys and girls were permitted to do. This was before they had developed gender stability, let alone gender constancy
Gender stereotype without constancy
Criticism
Martin and Little (1990)
LINK
Therefore this supports the gender scheme theory rather than Kohlberg’s theory.
Slaby and Frey
Criticism
Boys exhibit gender constancy before girls
(AO3)
Found that boys tend to exhibit gender constancy before girls.
May be because boys are more likely to identify the same gender role models as men are more powerful in society. In addition, boys are more likely to be punished for gender-inappropriate behaviour than girls.
Slaby and Frey
Boys exhibit gender constancy before girls
(AO3)
LINK
Therefore, Kohlberg’s theory is incomplete because principles of social learning theory are also involved.
Gender bias
(Issue and debates)
Slaby and Frey (1975)
Research to support three stages
AO3
Asked young children questions like ‘we’re you a little girl or a little boy when you were born?’
They found that children didn’t recognise gender stability until three or four years old. Also children who score highly on stability and constancy showed greater interest in same sex models.
