Kohlberg's theory - cognitive explanation Flashcards
What type of approach is Kohlberg’s theory?
Cognitive
What does Kohlberg’s theory focus on?
How children’s thinking about gender develops, with thinking occurring in qualitatively different stages
What does Kohlberg believe gender identity is?
Something which children actively structure from their own experiences
When does gender role behaviour become apparent?
When the children have an understanding that gender is fixed and constant
Who influenced Kohlberg?
Piaget
What did Piaget say?
Children progress through stages of understanding as their biological maturity allowed them to do so
How are gender concepts seen to occur?
Through environmental interactions and restricted biologically controlled mental capabilities at a given time
What does a child’s discovery that they are either male or female cause them to do?
Identify with members of their own gender, not the other way around
How does a child pass through the stages which Kohlberg proposed?
When their thinking has matured to a certain point
What does Kohlberg believe that understand gender is not?
A passive learning process through imitation and observation as children actively structure their learning experiences
What are the three stages proposed?
1) gender labelling
2) gender stability
3) gender constancy
When does gender labelling occur?
Between 8 and 12 months
What does gender labelling involve?
They see gender as a realisation which helps them to categorise their world.
They dont realise boys become men and girls become women
What age does gender stability occur?
Ages 3 - 5
What does gender stability involve?
They recognise that people retain gender for life but rely on superficial, physical signs to determine gender. For example if a woman shaved her hair they may think she’s changed to a man
What age does gender constancy occur?
Ages 6-7
What does gender constancy involve?
Realise that gender is permanent, they know a woman who shaves her hair is still a woman
Gender understanding is only complete when children realise that gender remains constant over time and situations
What does the DISC acronym stand for?
Development
Identity
Stability
Constancy
What did Slaby and Frey find?
they gave questions to 2-5 year olds to assess their level of gender constancy and then several weeks later showed them videos of a man and women performing gender stereotypical activities.
They found that those with higher levels of gender constancy paid more attention to their own gender in order to acquire more information about how to act
What did Rabban find?
Rabban found that by asking questions about gender, that children’s thinking changes by age.
By 3, most children demonstrated gender identity but did not have an understanding of what gender they would grow into
By 5, 97% demonstrated gender stability which supports Kohlberg’s theory
What did Thompson find?
By age 2, when children were given pictures of boys and girls they could select the same sex ones, demonstrating the child could self label and identify the gender of others.
By 3, 90% showed gender identity, compared with 76% of 2 year olds.
What did Mcconaghy find?
If a doll was dressed in transparent clothing so its genitals were visible, children aged 3-5 judged its gender by it’s clothes, not its genitals showing that they rely on superficial signs
What does research evidence suggest about Kohlberg’s theory?
The concepts of gender identity, stability and constancy occur in that order across many cultures, lending support to Kohlberg’s theory and suggesting a biological mechanism
What is a strength of Kohlberg’s theory?
It is more holistic than reductionist as it combines social learning and biological developmental factors
What are weaknesses of Kohlberg’s theory?
It predicts little or no gender specific behaviour before children acquire gender constancy but in infancy boys and girls show preference for stereotypically boy and girl toys.
He underestimated the age at which gender cognition occurs - Bem believed that children have an awareness of gender and gender-specific behaviours from around age 2
The theory concentrates on cognitive factors and overlooks important cultural and social factors
His theory is mainly descriptive, outlining the process of gender development but does not really explain how developments occur and therefore lacks depth of explanation
