the influence of culture and media on gender roles Flashcards
cross cultural research can provide a useful insight into cultural differences in gender roles and therefore
the potential role that media has to play
mead layed the foundation for the research , found that within the same tribe in New Guinea there were significant differences , such as
Arapesh men and women were gentle
Mundugumor men and women were violent
Tchambuli women being dominant and men dependent
meads results suggested that
gender may not entirely be biologically determined , but we are simply biologically predisposed towards identifying with one gender rather than the other and this can be influenced by the culture and the media
however there are also similarities between cultures concerning gender roles for example Munroe and Munroe suggested that
the labor tasks given to women and men , in the traditional sense across various cultures is often determined by the traditional divide between men and women
meads research may have suffered from observer bias and investigator effects because
mead had already developed hypotheses and so may have been more inclined to detail all the behaviours which matched the hypothesis , as opposed to providing a true representation of the observed behaviours
- reducing the validity on conclusions that mead drew on cultural differences in gender roles
such cross cultural research may also be guilty of imposed etic , as suggested by bowlby. this is when
researchers study behaviour from outside a specific group and generalise this as being universal
just because theirs cultural differences in gender roles exist within one culture does not mean the same will occur in other cultures
the media is heavily involved with shaping gender roles and stereotypes through the mechanisms off
social learning theory by providing role models .
in the media gender appropriate behaviour displayed by role models is vicariously reinforced and so is
more likely to be copied by audience members of the same gender because they are motivated to achieve the same results
the idea that the media provokes gender appropriate stereotypes is supported by Bussey and Bandura who found that
men are typically portrayed as independent thinkers whilst women are stereotyped as advice seekers
McGhee and Frueh suggest the effects of gender stereotyping is increased when
the child is exposed to a larger variety of media and information giving sources
the media also gives the audience a sense of the success they can achieve if they conform to these gender stereotypes through the
idea of self efficacy and so improves their self confidence in their ability to achieve such behaviours
a weakness is that the conclusions based on studies investigating the influence of media and gender roles must take into account the lack of control groups because
the vast majority if children are exposed to media on a consistent basis from a very young age , therefore no statistical analysis to see if the influence of media is signficant or if theirs cv/ev
another weakness is that not all media is used to reinforce traditional gender stereotypes ie brave the mocha portrays a female character as relatively masculine and so challenges the intital gender stereotypes
Pingree demonstrated that
female infants are more appreciative and accepting of media which presents other females in non traditional roles
whilst male infants are more ‘ set in their ways ‘
suggesting that there are significant gender differences in their perception of their own and the opposite genders traditional stereotype and role.
