Module 11 Flashcards
Define sex.
Biological differences – (e.g., “it’s a boy!” or “it’s a girl!” is usually just referring to sexual anatomy).
Sex is typically associated with physical sex characteristics, chromosomes, and hormones.
While sex is often categorized as male or female, there is variation in the biological aspects of sex.
For example, intersex is a general term used for people who are born with sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit traditional male or female anatomy. In Western society, newborns are usually assigned male or female at birth based on the appearance of their genitalia.
Define gender.
Socially constructed roles, behaviours, and attitudes.
While gender is often categorized as feminine or masculine, gender exists on a continuum and is not binary, and it can change over time.
Gender identity influences how people understand themselves, their relationships with others, and their interactions with society. For example, the term transgender refers to an individual whose gender is different than the sex that was assigned to them at birth.
Historically, what were masculine and feminine behaviours differentiated by?
1) Assertion - Tendency to exert influence over the environment via competitive, independent, or aggressive behaviours. (Standing up for yourself, being assertive, getting your way in a situation.)
Stereotypically masculine.
2) Affiliation - Making connections with others via being emotionally open, empathic, or cooperative.
(Putting effort into relationships, valuing relationships, intimacy, willing to compromise.)
Stereotypically feminine.
3) Cooperation - Associated with gender role flexibility, which involves a coordination of assertion and affiliation.
This is sometimes referred to as androgyny.
Define gender typing.
The process of gender socialization and development.
What is gender-typed behaviour?
Those traditionally associated with a given person’s gender (gender stereotyped).
For example, in our current society, a little girl playing with dolls would be a gender-typed behaviour.
What is cross-gender-typed behaviour?
Those traditionally associated with the gender other than that of a given person
For example, in our current society, a little girl who enjoys racing toy trucks would be an example of cross-gender-typed behaviour.
What is the difference between sex and gender?
Sex refers to the biological basis of being male, female, or somewhere in between. In contrast, gender is socially constructed by society. Gender exists on a continuum of masculinity and femininity.
Some researcher study sex and gender together, as a view of the whole person.
Generally, ________ refers to biological differences, whereas ________ refers to how individuals categorize themselves (or not).
Gender, sex
Sex, Gender
Sex, Gender
How does gender development have both nature and nurture influences?
While individuals are born with certain chromosomes and reproductive anatomy, children also learn about gender from the world around them.
What are the key biological theories of gender development?
1) Evolutionary theory (and biosocial theory)
2) Neuroscience Approaches
Describe the evolutionary theory of gender development.
-males and females have different evolutionary purposes. For example, males hunt and compete for mates, whereas females play a crucial role in child-rearing.
-argues that the gender-typed behaviours we see in children’s play reflect skill-acquisition for adult behaviours. For example, boys are more likely to engage in rough-and-tumble play than girls because this will help them to be able to compete for mates in adulthood. In contrast, girls are more likely to play house or play with dolls because it helps them practice for child-rearing in adulthood.
-looks to explain the evolutionary basis of the differences between men and women (more on this soon). For example, men tend to perform better on spatial rotation tasks than women, whereas women tend to be better able to find objects in space than men AND argues this is related to evolved differences in hunting (e.g., need to visualize where the animal is in space) and gathering (e.g., needing to remember and find where the berries are).
What is the main issue with evolutionary theory?
Its reliance on circular reasoning. We say things evolved this way because that’s what was needed to survive. How do we know that? Well, that’s because that’s what things are like now (see the circularity).
Describe the biosocial theory of gender development.
Relatedly (to evolutionary theory), Biosocial Theory argues that while men and women evolved to have such gender differences, these differences are no longer relevant in today’s society. For example, men evolved to have greater physical strength than women because this was evolutionarily advantageous. However, having greater physical strength does not promote survival today.
Describe the neuroscience approaches to gender development.
-they consider how hormones impact neurodevelopmental differences. In particular, androgens impact brain development. Most of these impacts occur either prenatally (i.e., when the brain is being built) or during puberty (i.e., when the brain is being re-organized).
-they found that women do tend to be less lateralized in the brain than men. For example, men tend to process language mainly in the left hemisphere and spatial stimuli in the right hemisphere. But for women, there would be more activation on both sides when processing this information. Additionally, women also tend to have larger corpus callosum than men (the bundle of fibres that connects the two hemispheres).
-A major limitation of this research is that most of this research has been conducted on adults. More research is needed to understand gender differences in brain development among children.
According to neuroscience approaches, hormones Hormones impact development in what key ways?
Organizing Influences: Affect brain organization prenatally and in puberty. That is, there are structural differences in the brain.
Activating Influences: Differences in hormones leading to differences in behaviour. While there are no structural changes, different hormone levels lead to differences in brain function and behaviour.
What are the 4 key cognitive theories of gender development?
1) Kolhberg’s Cognitive Developmental Theory
2) Gender Schema Theory
3) Social Identity Theory
4) Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
While they differ in their specifics, cognitive theories of gender development share what same underlying idea?
Children form beliefs about gender, which then influences their self-expectations.
Describe Kolhberg’s Cognitive Developmental Theory
-influenced by Piagetian Theory and the idea that children construct their own knowledge about gender. That is, children form gender schemas by observing the world around them.
3 Stages:
1) Gender identity: by ~30 months old, children can reliably label their own gender.
2) Gender stability: by ages 3-4 years old, child understand that gender tends to be stable across time. For example, a girl realizes that she will grow up to be a “mommy”. However, this gender stability does not necessarily apply to other people. For example, if you put a dress on a male doll and ask a 3-year-old if it’s a boy or a girl, they’ll tell you it’s a girl.
3) Gender consistency: by ages 5-6, children understand that gender tends to be stable across situations. For example, they now understand that a male doll wearing a dress is still a boy. In other words, children by this age generally understand that gender does not change (as adults we realize gender is a bit more complicated than this, but this is how a 5-year-old generally would understand things).
Once children understand these components, they are said to have gender constancy and are able to then understand gender stereotypes. We know now that this is not true, however, as children hold gender stereotypes long before they achieve gender constancy.
Describe Gender Schema Theory.
- combines social learning, information-processing, and cognitive approaches.
-argues that gender-typed behaviours occur as soon as children can label their own gender.
- key idea: children attend to information relevant to our own gender, and ignore, misinterpret, or actively reject any inconsistencies. This is known as a gender schema filter.
-For ambiguous stimuli, however, information is processed using an interest filter. So if you don’t know whether something is “for” your gender or not, you approach it based on your interest.
Describe Social Identity Theory.
-based on in-group/out-group ideas from social psychology.
-according to in-group bias, we prefer our own group and conform to group norms (in-group assimilation).
- once children identify with a gender, they tend to prefer that gender group. This means that gender-typed behaviours become stronger over time.
-the high-status group is more valued. Thus, in male-dominated societies, masculine-associated behaviours like assertiveness tend to be more valued.
-cross-gender-typed behaviours are more common among girls than boys. This is because masculine behaviours are often more valued by society.
-this also means that gender-typing pressures are more strict for boys. This is because feminine behaviours are devalued by society. This makes sense from social identity theory – why would you want to act like a low status group in society?
-With children, this means that being a “tom-boy” would be much more acceptable for girls than feminine behaviours would be for a boy. For example, boys would be subject to more gender-policing (e.g., being teased for not being “manly”) than girls.
Describe Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory.
-a complex model of person and environment factors, which essentially argues that gender-typed behaviours are modeled and reinforced.
Argues children learn gender through:
1) Tuition - direct teaching about what it means to be a boy or a girl. For example, girls may receive explicit instructions from adults about gender-typed behaviours like “girls don’t play contact sports”. Parents might also be the ones to buy gender-typed toys and dress their children in gender-typed clothes.
2) Enactive Experience - Children evoke reactions from others and tend to be positively reinforced for gender-typed behaviours. For example, boys are more likely to be punished by adults for cross-gender-typed behaviours like wearing makeup or engaging in cross-gender-typed play.
3) Observations: Children learn indirectly from watching others and the media. Indeed, children are more likely to spend time with adults and peers of the same sex, so there are lots of opportunities for vicarious reinforcement. This also means that there are fewer opportunities for children to observe cross-gendered behaviours (e.g., a Dad who cooks and cleans the house). Interestingly, we find that girls are more willing to imitate men than boys are willing to imitate women.
Overall, there are both nature and nurture influences on gender development. _________ theories tend to focus on the nature side of things (e.g., role of hormones). _________ theories tend to focus on how children nurture side of things (e.g., how children learn about gender).
Biological , Cognitive
According to Kolhberg, children categorize themselves as either a boy or a girl around _________ .
30m
12m
24m
6m
30m
Which statement provides the BEST support for Bandura’s social cognitive theory of gender?
a) Boys are more likely than girls to engage in rough-and-tumble play
b) Children remember gender-consistent information better than they remember gender-inconsistent information
c) Boys are more likely to be praised by adults when they engage in masculine-typed activities than when they engage in feminine-typed activities
d) Girls and boys have different play styles from a very early age, and gender segregation is initiated by children starting at least by preschool age
c) Boys are more likely to be praised by adults when they engage in masculine-typed activities than when they engage in feminine-typed activities
Milestones in gender development happen across what 3 developmental periods?
Infancy and toddlerhood
Childhood
Adolescence
Children can distinguish between male and female genders as early as _______ months of age.
6-9
For example, in habituation experiments, children can notice the difference between male and female pictures. Infants seem to focus mostly on hairstyles, however, so they tend to be less able to discriminate women with short hair and men with long hair.
