The influence of culture and media on gender roles Flashcards
What are gender roles?
A set of behaviours and attitudes that are considered appropriate for one gender and inappropriate for the other.
What is culture?
The ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society.
Why is cross-cultural research useful to the nature-nurture debate in gender?
Because if a particular gender role behaviour appears to be consistent across cultures we may conclude it is an innate biological difference between males and females, if we find they are culturally specific we may find social norms etc. just as influential as biology
What was the main study into cultural differences?
Mead (1935) - tribal groups in New Guinea - Arapesh, gentle & responsive (femininity) - Mundugmor, aggressive & hostile (masculine) - Tchambuli women were dominant, men were passive (opposite to Western Sterotypes)
Suggested gender roles were culturally determined - Mead later conceded she underestimated the universal nature of gender-typical behaviour
What was a study into cultural similarities?
Buss (1995) consistent patterns in mate preference in 37 countries across all continents - women always seeked attractive, healthy men with resources
What are the evaluation points for the cultural influences on gender roles?
Criticisms of Mead’s research (-)
Imposed Etic (-)
Nature-nurture debate (+/-)
What were the criticisms of Mead’s research?
Mead was influenced by observer bias and made sweeping generalisations based on a short study. Freeman claimed she had been influenced by her preconceptions
What is imposed etic and how does it challenge Mead’s work?
Imposed etic occurs when researchers from one culture try to impose their culture-specific theories and understanding on another culture - to counterbalance this you need a local person on the research team - Mead didn’t do this
How do cultural influences relate to the nature-nurture debate?
(-) they don’t solve the nature nurture debate as it’s impossible to separate biological and social influences however (+) they do contribute to the debate
What is media?
Communication channels such as TV, film and books, through which news, entertainment, education and data are made available
What does the media provide to children?
Role models with whom they may try to identify and imitate - more likely if they are the same sex and take part in gender-appropriate behaviour
What did Bussey & Bandura (1999) find that media did?
Media provided rigid stereotypes - men are independent, ambitious ‘advice-givers’ whereas women are the opposite - this reinforced widespread social stereotypes
What did McGhee & Frueh find in there study in 1980?
That children that were exposed more to popular forms of media tend to display more gender-stereotypical views and behaviours.
What did Bandura mean by his term ‘self efficacy’?
He was referring to the way the media gave children an indication of whether certain behaviours would be successful or not. If a child saw someone a gender-appropriate behaviour this increases their belief they can do the same in the future.
What are the evaluation points for the influence of media on gender roles?
Correlation not causation (-)
Counter-stereoypes (+/-)
