sex and gender

Question 1

what is sex?

Answer 1

being genetically male (XY) or female (XX) - biological fact

Question 2

what is gender?

Answer 2

a persons sense of maleness or femaleness - social construct

Question 3

what are sex role stereotypes?

Answer 3

• way we behave is related to sex-role stereotypes
• our behaviour is related to social norms associated with our gender role
• there are expectations according to society on how men and women should behave
• we conform to stereotypes created within society
• sex role stereotypes act as a shortcut to appropriate behaviours in a given context

Question 4

how are SR stereotypes learnt?

Answer 4

learnt through SLT or through development of cognitive awareness of gender

Question 5

who shares sex role stereotypes?

Answer 5

members of a society / culture

Question 6

support for parental influences creating sex role stereotypes

Answer 6

• smith and lloyd - gender stereotypes by adults when playing with babies, findings suggest that parental behaviour could impact on learning sex role stereotypes
• mothers videotaped for 10 mins with a baby
• baby either dressed as female or male
• 7 toys present either male female or neutral
• depending on the perceived sex the mother encouraged the baby to play with the toys in line with the stereotypical gender

Question 7

supporting evidence for sex role stereotypes

Answer 7

fagot - gender roles linked to parental behaviour
furnham and farragher - gender stereotypes in media advertisements
renzetti and curran - teachers reinforce stereotyped behaviours

Question 8

what are the positive effects of stereotypes?

Answer 8

act as a cognitive shortcut

Question 9

what is androgyny?

Answer 9

a person has a combination of male and female characteristics (bem 1970)

Question 10

what did bem propose?

Answer 10

SR stereotypes aren’t beneficial for mental health - following them can have various negative implications e.g psychological cost

Question 11

what did prakash et al find?

Answer 11

tested 100 married females on masculinity/femininity and a range pf outcomes on health

there was a correlation between high masculinity scores and lower depression scores

Question 12

issues with prakash et al

Answer 12

gender / cultural bias
self report
correlation doesn’t mean causation

Question 13

RL application - how could these results impact society? what are the issues with this?

Answer 13

if androgyny is good for mental health then parents should raise children as gender neutral (know your sex but not gender)

but there is a massive disdain towards gender neutral people in society which shows that people feel strongly about the need for SR stereotypes and the belief that these are needed for healthy development

Question 14

what would we need for society to change?

Answer 14

we need minority social influence and social change

Question 15

what was bem’s sex role inventory?

Answer 15

a self report questionnaire that measures your level of masculinity, femininity and androgyny

Question 16

what was bem’s method?

Answer 16

1. 100 american undergrads asked what personality traits are desirable for men and women
2. list showed 200 traits which were narrowed down to 20 for each gender, 20 neutral traits were also added
3. each person rates themselves against each trait alongside a 7 point scale
4. numerical scores added up for each gender and results are high or low masculine or feminine or androgynous

Question 17

who criticized bem’s sex role inventory?

Answer 17

spence et al. criticized and added another category of undifferentiated - low scores for masculine of feminine

Question 18

evaluation of bem’s sex role inventory

Answer 18

quantitative data
temporal validity
self reporting bias
age bias
cultural bias
small sample
low validity