Explanations for Gender - COGNITIVE

Explanations for Gender - COGNITIVE

1. Kohlbergs Cognitive Developmental theory

   • Kohlberg suggested that a childs understanding of gender develops and changes with age, gradually beccomming more sophisticates. He proposed three stages of gender identity
     • 1. GENDER IDENTITY/LABELLING: age 2-3, When a child has a BASIC understanding that they are a boy or girl and can label their own sex correctly. This is based on the things they can see, people's physical attributes e.g. hair length
     • 2. GENDER STABILITY age 3-4: A child now understands that gender remains the stable for themselves but think that other people's gender can change, for exaple if someone changes their appearance they may think that their gender has changed.
     • 3. GENDER CONSTANCY age 4-7: The child now has a complete understanding of gender and knows that gender remains the same even though external appearance may change.
   • Slaby & Fry: This study involved young children of various ages who were asked questions to test their understanding of gender at different stages. To test G. IDENTITY children were shown a fem doll and asked its sex. To test G. STABILITY they were asked 'when you were a little baby were you a boy or a girl'. And to test 'GENDER CONSTANCY a boy would be asked if you wore girls clothes would that make you a girl?
     • These tests showed that the children's answers were in line with Kohlberg's proposed stages of development.
     • However it can be difficult to reliably categorise a childs' answer into on stage as there may be overlap
   • Evaluation: Children aged 4-9 were read a story about a boy called george who liked playing with dolls even though his parents wanted him to stop. Children were asked if he should be allowed to play with dolls. Their answers showed age related differences which supports Kohlberg's theory. 4 year olds said it was ok, 6 year olds said no, 9 year olds said yeah.
   • Kuhn et al: Children were shown paper dolls called Micheal and Lisa and were asked to associate them with certain phrases (such as "I like to fight/help mummy","I need some help" The children associated the girl with helping and the boy with fighting. This CHALLENGES Kohlberg as he suggests that young children are unaware of gender roles.
   • EVALUATION
     • Munroe established that this sequence applies cross cultural and is universal which SUPPORTS this theory.
     • Kuhn's research CHALLENGES Kohlbergs theory
     • Doesn't explain why boys have a more fixed understanding that girls
     • The phsychodynamic theory says that gender develops at one specific stage - the phallic - rather than gradually.

2. Gender Schema Theory

   • This is an ORGANISED UNIT OF INFO about the types of behaviour and attitudes associated with a specific gender. As soon as children can label their own sex, they actively search the environment for information to increase their understanding of what it means to be male or female which guides thheir behaviour. Children disregard info which doesn't fit their gender schema which is why children have very fixed view on gender behaviour.
   • Boston and Levy 1991
     • Researchers were interested in examining whether boys & girls had a better understanding of activities associated with their own sex than the opposite. Boys & girls aged 3 and 6 were asked to put 4 pictures in the correct order. Each set of pictures described an activity e.g. cooking.
       • Both boys & girls were able to put their own gender specific activities in order more accurately than for the opposite gender activity - this was more evident in boys. This supports gender schema theory.
   • Gender schema theory does not explain individual differences e.g. some girls are assertive. There are different schemas about what it is to be masculine/feminine which vary over time - SLT explains this better as it takes into account.