Psychology 2 - Sex & Gender Flashcards
What would happen if boys were given girl toys and vice versa?
Boys treat the girl toys like boy toys and vice versa
What is the difference between gender and sex?
Gender (psychological) can be identified by attitudes and behaviour and decides if a person is masculine or feminine
Sex (biological) can be identified by hormones and chromosomes and decides if some is male and female
What are the chromosomes and hormones for males and females?
Female chromosome is XX and hormone is oestrogen
Male chromosome is XY and hormone is testosterone
What is the psychodynamic approach?
The theory that tells us that our behaviour is a reaction from our subconcious forces and emotions
What is the phallic stage?
Freud’s third stage of psychosexual development, in which gender development takes place
What happens in the phallic stage?
The child of 3 - 5 unconciously desires the opposite sex parent and is jealous of the same sex parent
In order to deal with these feelings, the child begins to behave like the same sex parent
This occurs differently in boys and girls
What is identification?
When a child adopts the attitudes and behaviours of the same sex parent
Describe the Oedipus complex
A boy is unconciously attracted to his mother and is jealous of his father and wants to take his place
He fears that the father will discover his feelings and will castrate him
In order to deal with this fear, he gives up his feelings for his mother and identifies with his father to resolve the Oedipus complex
Describe the Electra complex
A girl is unconciously attracted to her father and jealous of her mother but she doesn’t want to lose her mother’s love but she isn’t as fearful as the boy because she believes she has already been castrated
To resolve this, she identifies with her mother
What is the psychodynamic theory of gender development?
Freud’s theory of what happens in the phallic stage
Give a study into the psychodynamic theory of gender development
Freud (1909)
To investigate Little Hans’s phobia
At the age of 4, Hans developed a fear of horses. He was frightened that a horse might bite him or fall down. He was particularly afraid of large white horses with black around the mouth. Freud analysed this information
Freud claimed that Hans was experiencing the Oedipus complex. He unconciously desired his mother and saw his father as a rival and feared castration. He displaced the fear of his father onto horses. The white horse with the black around the mouth represented his father who had a dark beard. His fear of being bitten represented his fear of castration and his fear of horses falling down was his unconcious desire to see his father dead
This supports Freud’s ideas about the Oedipus complex
Evaluate the psychodynamic gender development study
There is no evidence to prove Freud’s claims because he talks about unconcious feelings which can’t measured or noticed
He only analysed one person so the results can’t be generalised
What is gender disturbance?
Not developing the gender identity usually associated with one’s sex
Give a study into gender disturbance
Rekers and Moray (1990)
To see if there is a relationship between gender disturbance and family background
Researchers rated 46 boys with gender disturbance for gender behaviour and identity. Their family background was also investigated
Of the group, 75% of the most severely gender-disturbed boys had neither their biological father nor a father substitute living with them
Boys who don’t have a father figure present during their childhood are more likely to develop a problem with their gender identity
Evaluate the gender disturbance study
Only 46 boys were rated so the results can’t be generalised
The study definitely shows that gender disturbance dramatically increases when there is no stable father figure
What is the social learning theory of gender development?
The theory that tells us that gender is learnt from watching and copying the behaviour of others
What is modelling?
When a role model provides an example for the child
What is imitation?
Copying the behaviour of a role model
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Learning from a model being rewarded or punished
Give a study on imitation
Perry and Bussey (1979)
To show that children imitate behaviour carried out by same-sex role models
Children were shown films of role models carrying out activities that were unfamiliar to the children. In one condition, all of the male role models played with one activity while all the female role models played with the other activity. In the second condition, some of the male role models and some of the female role models played with one activity while the other male and female role models played with the other activity
In the first condition, the children played with the activity that the role models of their sex played with. In the second condition, there was no difference in what the boys and girls chose
When children are in an unfamiliar situation they will observe the behaviour of the same-sex role models. This gives them information about whether the activity is appropriate for their sex. If it is, the child will imitate that behaviour
Evaluate the imitation study
The study shows definite evidence of children imitating role models of their own sex
Lacks ecological validity because it takes place in an experimental setting
Give a study on media and social learning
Williams (1986)
To investigate the effects of television on the gender development of children
Williams studied the effects of television on children living in Canada. At the beginning of the study, one of the towns was being provided with television for the first time while the other towns already had television. He measured the attitudes of children living in these towns at the beginning of the study and 2 years later
The children who now had television were more sex stereotyped in their attitudes and behaviour than they had been 2 years previously
Gender is learnt by imitating attitudes and behaviour seen on television
Evaluate the media social learning study
It doesn’t explain why children brought up in one-parent families have no problem developing their gender
This theory is well supported by other cases and studies
What is gender stereotyping?
Believing that all males are similar and all females are similar
What a gender schema?
A mental building block of knowledge that contains information about each gender
What is gender schema theory?
The theory that tells us that we develop our gender identity as we make more gender schemas
Give a study on gender stereotypes
Martin (1989)
To show that children’s understanding of gender becomes less stereotyped and more flexible as they get older
Children heard stories about the toys that male and female characters enjoyed playing with. Some of the characters were described as liking gender-stereotyped activities while some were described as the opposite. The children were then asked to predict what other toys each character would or would not like to play with
The younger children only used the sex of the characters to decide which toys they would like but the older children used the sex of the character but also the other toys that the character played with to make their judgement
Older children have a more flexible view of gender than younger children do
Evaluate the gender stereotype study
The theory seems to fit with our experiences of seeing people grow up
It could simply be that the older children are more perceptive and so they are the only ones that noticed the interest in toys not associated with the gender of the people
What are gender roles?
Behaviour seen as masculine or feminine by a particular culture
What does it mean when someone is highly gender schematised?
When gender is the most important factor when the person is making decisions
Give a study on individual differences of ideas about gender
Levy & Carter (1989)
To show that there are individual differences in the way children think about gender
Children were shown pictures of 2 toys and asked to choose the one they would like to play with. Sometimes, there were both stereotypically masculine, sometime both feminine and sometimes one of each. The pictures were shown high and low gender schematised children
The highly gender schematised children, when one of each gender-based toy was shown, chose the toy associated with their gender. If two masculine or 2 feminine toys were shown, they couldn’t decide. The low gender schematised gender just chose the toy they liked the look of quickly
Highly gender schematised children choose things primarily because of their gender where low gender schematised children choose the things that they actually like the look of
Evaluate the differences of gender ideas study
The theory is supported by a lot of evidence and it fits with our experience
It doesn’t explain why gender starts to develop at the age of 2 and why some children are more highly gender schematised than others
