Module 11 - Gender Development Flashcards
Sex
Sex refers to biological differences
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
Gender
Gender refers to 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.
Historically, masculine and feminine behaviours were differentiated by
Assertion
Affiliation
Cooperation
Assertion (gendered behaviours)
Tendency to exert influence over the environment via competitive, independent, or aggressive behaviours
For example, standing up for yourself, being assertive, getting your way in a situation.
Stereotypically masculine
Affiliation
Making connections with others via being emotionally open, empathic, or cooperative.
For example, putting effort into relationships, valuing relationships, intimacy, willing to compromise.
Stereotypically feminine
Cooperation
Associated with gender role flexibility, which involves a coordination of assertion and affiliation.
This is sometimes referred to as androgyny.
Gender Typing
The process of gender socialization and development.
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.
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.
Sex vs 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.
Key Biological Theories (gender development)
Evolutionary theory
Neuroscience approaches
What are the theoretical models of gender development?
Biological theories of gender development
Cognitive theories of gender development
Evolutionary Theory
Males and females have different evolutionary purposes. For example, males hunt and compete for mates, whereas females play a crucial role in child-rearing. Many societies today still promote these gender stereotypes.
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).
Biosocial Theory (related to evolutionary 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.
Neuroscience approaches
Neuroscience approaches to gender development 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).
Specifically, hormones impact development in two key ways:
-Organizing influences
-Activating influences
Activating influences (neuroscience approaches)
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.
Organizing influences (neuroscience approaches)
Affect brain organization prenatally and in puberty. That is, there are structural differences in the brain.
Neuroscience approaches have found that women….?
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).
Key Cognitive Theories (gender development)
1) Kolhberg’s Cognitive Developmental Theory
- Gender Schema Theory
- Social Identity Theory
- Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (gender dev)
argues that gender-typed behaviours are modeled and reinforced.
This theory argues that children learn about gender through:
- tuition
- Enactive experience
- Observation
Tuition
learning through direct teaching
This is direct teaching about what it means to be a boy or a girl (not what you pay to take this class…). 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.
Enactive Experience
learning to take into account the reactions one’s past behavior has evoked in others
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.
Observations
learning through watching other people and the consequences others experience as a result of their actions
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.