SLT Explanations - Culture Flashcards
What does studying cultural influences on gender roles allow psychologists to do and how?
Assess the extent to which gender is a biological or a social construct
If gender was biological in nature then the different cultural influences that people are subjected to around the world would have no influence on gender development - it would be the same in all cultures
Whereas if different cultural influences result in differences in gender roles between cultures this would imply gender to be socially constructed.
What was Mead’s research into the role of culture?
Conducted research into gender differences between tribes in Papua New Guinea. In the Arapesh, both males and females exhibited feminine caring behaviours. In the Tchambuli, the men exhibited what would be seen in western cultures as female behaviours whereas women exhibited traditional western male behaviour. In the Mundugumor , both men and women exhibited masculine, aggressive personalities, this indicates gender roles to be socially constructed rather than biological in nature
What was Barry et al’s research into the role of culture?
Found that in non-western cultures, nurturing was seen as a dominantly female characteristic, while self-reliance was seen as a male characteristic. As these match what happens in western-cultures it therefore suggests a biological basis for gender roles
What did Whiting and Edwards find in support for Barry?
That it was fairly universal for girls to do domestic and caring tasks whilst boys are socialised into tasks involving responsibility
What was La Fromboise et al’s research into the role of culture?
Conducted interviews and observations to find that gender-roles among various North American tribes were different from those in western culture e.g. women were often warriors which illustrates that aggressive roles are not universally male, indicating gender to be more a social construction
What was William and Best’s research into the role of culture?
Found that there was universal agreement cultures about which characteristics were masculine and feminine, with men perceived as dominant and independent and women perceived as caring and sociable. This implies that gender roles are universal and therefore biological in nature
What is a problem with conducting cross-cultural research?
The issue of imposed etic - where researchers use research methods suited to their own culture rather than the cultures they are investigating - can lead to flawed conclusions
As gender-stereotyping and gender roles are fairly consistent across human populations what does this suggest?
Initially it seems that gender is more biological, however there is also evidence of gender roles varying considerably across cultures, indicating some influence of social learning
What is the role of globalisation?
It may contribute to the lessening of cultural differences as there has been a global reduction in the differences between masculine and feminine gender roles, implying that social influences may be stronger than biological ones
What were Margaret Mead’s ideas and what did it suggest?
Her initial ideas were that gender was a social construct but she later came to believe that it was biological in nature. This is thought to have been the result of Mead marrying a man with very traditional ideas regarding gender. This suggests that the personal viewpoints investigators bring to their research have an effect on their conclusions
Errington and Gewert (studied the Tchambuli like Mead did and found the gender roles held by the men and women were in line with western expectations
What is an interactionist view of gender?
The ides that initial gender roles are biologically constructed with them being modified later by social influences
