Kolberg’s Cognitive Explanation Flashcards
Cognitive Explanations
Interactionist e.g Nature vs Nurture
Nature: We are all born with the ability to create schemas
Nurture: Schemas develop due to experiences
Kohlberg’s Theory
Stage Theory
Gender understanding runs parallel to intellectual development (gets better with age)
A gradual process
Egocentric: An inability to see the world from someone else’s perspective (children are egocentric during the gender identity and stability stages)
Conservation
Something can stay the same (quantity) even though it’s appearance has changed
e.g (2 glasses and volume task, if one glass is full and the other is half full but have the same amount of water in it, children will still say glass A has more water in it because it is full)
Example sentence: 2 glasses and volume task
Gender identity
2-3 years old
Can label themselves as boy or girl (by 3 years old)
Relies on physical appearance e.g girls having long hair and boys having short hair
- Do not understand gender is permanent e.g a girl may say she’ll become a daddy when she’s older.
Example sentence: Can label themselves as boy or girl
Gender stability
3-4 years old
Child knows their gender stays the same (but struggle to apply this to others: situations and people because they are egocentric)
Example sentence: Child knows their gender stays the same
Gender consistency
Around 6 years old
They have a complete knowledge/understanding of gender for self and others across time, situations and despite superficial changes
They now look for role models to confirm their knowledge
Not egocentric and can understand conservation
Example sentence: They have a complete knowledge/understanding of gender
What did Slaby and Fray show to children?
Pictures of males and females doing the same tasks
Gender Consistency children spent longer time looking, demonstrating some understanding of gender as it shows signs of identification.
What does Munroe highlight about Kohlberg’s theory?
There is cross cultural support as his theory is evident for all children across different cultures. For example, it could be applied to children in African countries, exemplifying how it is not culturally relative and is generalizable to all cultures.
This presents his theory with a high amount of representativeness.
What did Bussey and Bandura find about 4-year-olds?
They reported feeling good about playing with gender-appropriate toys and bad about the opposite. According to Kohlberg, this happens in the Gender Consistency stage at 6.
The stage theory is weak as it cannot explain why children are feeling this before the age of 6 and before even entering the Gender Consistency stage. Instead, the Social Learning Theory (ST) offers a way to explain this.
What is the research method used to obtain knowledge for this theory?
Interviews with children (2-6 year olds). Questions are adapted but child language is still limited, therefore the information obtained is suggestive.
This reduces the validity of the theory of explaining gender development.
