Gender - psychology A2

Describe the Gender Schema Theory
1. Martin and Halverson 1981
  1. The key to gender development is seeking to acquire information about your own gender. This process happens BEFORE gender constancy is achieved. Gender identity is sufficient to identify their own gender and take deep interest in what is appropriate for their gender. They further suggest the acquisition of stereotypes/ schema affects later behaviour
2. Schemas
  1. Organised clusters of information about gender appropriate behaviour. Children learn them from their interactions with others. Learning what toys and clothes are appropriate for their gender.
3. Martin and Little 1990
  1. Children under the age of 4 had no signs of gender stability or constancy but did display strong gender stereotypes
4. In group and out group processes
  1. In-group is the group you identify with. Female= feminine schemas. Male = masculine schemas. Children focus on in group schemas and avoid behaviours that belong to the opposite sex (out-group schemas)
    1. Resilience of gender beliefs
      1. ignore any information they encounter that is inconsistent with in-group information
      2. Martin and Halverson 1983
        Shown pictures of people children under 6 recalled more of the gender-consistent ones than gender inconsistent ones
5. Evaluation
  1. A compromise - (Stangor and Ruble 1989) Gender schema and Gender constancy theory together. Gender schema- the organisation of information and affects memory. Gender constancy - motivation - associated with things like activity choice. Tested 4-10 year olds - memory for gender consistent pictures increased with age (gender schema). Preferences for same sex toys increase with gender constancy (gender constancy theory)
  2. The biological approach - genes and hormones influence your sense of gender. Social learning theory - direct and indirect reinforcement from parents, peers and the media influence gender
  3. Cultural bias - western cultures have fixed gender roles, other cultures may not, generalisation can't be made
  4. Deterministic - roles are often broken down
Describe the gender constancy theory
1. Kholberg 1966
  1. Comes from Piagets suggestion that young children cant distinguish between appearance and reality
  2. Stage 1- gender labelling/ gender identity (approx 2-3 years) - Piaget's pre-operational stage, lack of internal logic.
    1. Thompson 1975 - 2 year olds - 76% correct at identifying their sex. 3 year olds - 90% correct at identifying their sex
  3. Stage 2 - gender stability - understand gender is consistent over time. Don't understand it's consistent across situations.
  4. Stage 3 - gender constancy/ gender consistency (approx 6 years) - gender is stable across time and situations.
    1. Slaby and Frey 1975 - asked children "if you played football would you be a boy or a girl?" and "could you be a boy/girl if you wanted?" Children who scored high on both stability and consistency showed greater interest in same sex models and they pay more attention to gender appropriate models
  5. Evaluation
    1. Slaby and Frey 1975 - gender consistency occurred at a younger age than Kholberg predicted- ages need adjusting
    2. Gender bias - boys showed gender consistency before girls, gender differences have been overlooked
    3. Alternative approach - gender schema theory - children gain info about gender appropriate models before gender constancy is achieved.
    4. Theory is descriptive rather than explanitive
    5. Deterministic - individual differences, individual may skip a stage or take more time to get there. Not all children have the same understanding of gender.
    6. Broad approach - gender views change all the time with society. Gender appropriate job roles and even clothing has changed
    7. Culture- idea of gender is a social construct. Other cultures ideas could be different.
    8. Not scientific, can't establish cause and effect
Role of genes and hormones in gender development
1. Usually a direct link between an individuals chromosomal sex (xx and xy) and external genitalia (vagina or penis) and internal genitalia (ovaries or testes)
  1. During prenatal development all individuals start out the same. Both male and female embryos have external genitalia that looks essentially feminine. At 3 months if the embryo is to be a boy testosterone is produced which causes male genitalia to develop. This explains how individuals acquire their sex. It may also explain some aspects of gender eg a persons sense of whether they are male or female
    1. John Money (Money and Ehrardt 1972) claimed biological sex was not the main factor in gender development. - Sex of rearing (the gender you were given as a child and brought up with) was much more important. He said that intersex individuals can be successfully raised as a boy or girl
2. Role of hormones - study individuals that have been exposed prenatally to abnormal hormone levels. Androgen sensitivity syndrome can occur when the male embryo is exposed to too little male hormones and their external genitalia appears female
  1. Four children in the Batista family from the Dominican Republic were born with external genitalia and raised as females. The large amounts of testosterone produced during puberty caused male genitalia to appear. These children were genetically XY but had not developed male genitalia because of an inherited gene that caused androgen insensitivity.
3. Brain development - male and female brains are different. Girls better at social skills, more talkative, worse at spacial navigation than boys (Hogg 2008)
  1. Geschwind and Galaburda 1987 - sex differences due to effects of testosterone levels on developing brain. Male brains are exposed to testosterone so creates a masculinised brain. If a genetic female is exposed to testosterone prenatally the effect may be a masculinised brain.
    1. This may explain why David Reimer felt he was a boy even though he was raised as a girl. His brain was masculine so he was masculine despite his upbringing. Can also explain "tomboy" behaviour
      1. Quadango et al 1977 - female monkeys deliberately exposed to testosterone prenatally later engaged in more rough and tumble play and were more aggressive. They have developed a masculinised brain suggesting that hormones (testosterone) have a large role to play in gender development
4. Evaluation
  1. Determinism- genetic sex does not match external genitalia in cases of abnormal hormone exposure & hormones do not establish a simple formula for establishing gender. Eventual outcome appears to be an unpredictable combination of genes, hormones, sex of rearing and socialisation. Gender at birth is accepted by some but not by others. Gender development in part biology but experience, personal qualities and socialisation have a key role
  2. Case studies and small samples for evidence. Lack of generalisability from abnormal individuals to wider population. Gender development may not be the same for everyone, conclusions of how it works have been made through these studies which we can't generalise to a wider population. These theories may not count for everone
  3. Intersexes more vulnerable to social influences than "normal" individuals their biological ambiguities mean they have to search harder for clues to their identity, may lack generalisability.
  4. Reductionist- focus on nature, what about the influence of nurture?
Gender dysphoria
1. Definition- an individuals experience of feeling uncomfortable in the gender assigned to them at birth. Was once thought to be psychological but biological causes have been found relating to gender identity before birth.
2. Psychological explanations
  1. Mental illness- childhood trauma or maladaptive upbringing.
    1. Coates et al 1991- case study of a boy who developed GID. Suggested it was a defensive reaction to mothers depression following an abortion. Occurred when boy was 3, critical time of gender identity development. Trauma led to cross-gender fantasy to resolve ensuing anxiety
      1. However - Cole et al 1997 studied 435 individuals and found that the rate of psychiatric conditions was no greater in those with gender dysphoria than normal population. Dysphoria is unrelated to trauma or pathological families
  2. Mother- son relationships
    1. Stoller 1975 - clinical interviews with individuals diagnosed with GID, many of them displayed overly close mother son relationships. Most likely lead to greater female identifacation and confused gender identity.
      1. Zucker et al 1996 - 64% indviduals with GID also had separation anxiety disorder. Disordered attachment to a mother is a key factor in GID. Only explains male > female transsexuals. Impacts on validity as it doesn't work for everyone so how true can the findings be? Not 100% concordance rate, must be other explanations for gender dysphoria. Reductionism, biological explanations could make up the difference. Focus on nurture, nature could be an influence
3. Biological explanations
  1. Transsexual gene
    1. Hare et al 2009 - male > female transsexuals were more likely to have a longer version of the androgen receptor gene. This means reduced action of testosterone and may have an effect on gender development in the womb. Genes effect gender development.
  2. The brain-sex theory
    1. Perhaps transsexuals brains do not match their genetic sex. One region of the brain, BSTc, in the brains of heterosexuals women twice as many neurons exist in this region compared to heterosexual males. Explanation may be that the size of the BSTc correlates with the preferred sex than the biological sex.
      1. Zhou et al 1995 & Krujiver et al 2000 - the number of neurons in the BSTc of male > female transsexuals was similar to that of females and the number of neurons in a female > male transsexual was found to be in the male range. Gender dysphoria is caused by different amount of neurons in the BSTc.
        Chung et al 2002 - neuron changes do not develop until adulthood. Transsexuals report that they have felt this way since childhood. This suggests that BSTc is not the cause of transsexualism but the effect.
4. Evaluation
  1. Both explanations can only explain gender dysphoria in parts. Neither one has 100% concordance rate meaning that they are not the only explanations for it. The psychological explanation is deterministic as biological evidence has been found. Biological explanations are deterministic as psychological explanations have been found. By reducing the explanations to one strand of psychology we cannot fully understand gender dysphoria. An interaction between the two explanations could better explain the behaviour.
The bio-social approach
1. Gangestead et al 2006 suggested that there are universals of gender and also cultural variations
2. Money and Ehrhardt 1972 suggested a biosocial approach: Firstly the sex is defined at birth due to biology. Later social labeling and differential treatment will occur which will affect gender development. Their biological development such as puberty etc will steer development.
  1. (+) integrates nature and nurture. Suggests that biology determines sex, everything else follows from that. Suggests that intersexes mistyped at birth, if raised as a different gender before 3 they would acquire that gender identity.
3. Money and Erhardt 1972
  1. Girls with CAH raised as boys due to male looking genitalia. If label was discovered and changed before 3 adjustment to new gender proceeded without problems. Supports critical time period.
    1. CAH study - can't generalise to "normal" gender development, not representitive of gender development and can't generalise beyond this unique sample.
4. Money and Ehrardt theory criticised on the outcome of the Bruce/Brenda experiment as the social side played no part in David's change and his biology determined his sex
  1. However the study was a case study and other research supports Moneys theory
5. Evaluation
  1. Holistic- shows the interaction between nature and nurture. Yet it ignores other theories such as the gender schema theory that suggests gender is based on the schemas or stereotypes that you learn about gender.
  2. Determinism- ignores free will. Social factors didn't make a different with David Reimer. Yet genetics do not influence behaviour when girls can do "boy" things.
Social influences on gender roles
1. Social Cognitive Theory - Bandura. There are different types of information we receive about gender roles. Our sources of information are social. Our learned information is due to cognition and are stored in the mind.
  1. Gender role development is the result of learning from social agents and model and reinforce gender role behaviours
    1. Learn through indirect reinforcement - observe behaviour of others and learn the consequences of it.
    2. Learn through direct reinforcement - Bussey and Bandura 1999- we don't copy everything we learn, boys will see mothers cooking but wont copy
    3. Direct tuition- children learn through vicarious reinforcement and explicit instructions about appropriate gender behaviour
2. Parents- strong ideas about gender roles
  1. Smith and Lloyd 1978 - mothers selected gender appropriate toys and responded more actively when a boy showed increased motor activity. Parents treat children differently based on their gender
    1. Fagot et al 1992 - parents who gave differential reinforcement have children with strong gender preferences.
    2. 1978- society has changed. More acceptable to have gender neutral toys and gender isn't as restricted.
3. The media - communicates cultural stereotypes. Men = independent, directive, engaging occupations and recreational activities. Women = dependent, unambitious, emotional.
  1. Hodges et al 1981 - men = control over events. Women = at the mercy of others
  2. Williams 1985 - NOTEL - no media = weaker sex type views than MULTITEL with american TV shows - after TV for 2 years NOTEL became more sex typed.
4. Evaluation
  1. Reductionist - focus on social and cognitive - great for bringing the two together but they are very similar. Biological approach?
  2. Deterministic- the influence of parents. Some girls are tomboys, some boys play with girls toys; genes and hormones? Parents influence doesn't last forever, gender roles can be abolished as they grow older. Media can go against gender roles.
Evolutionary explanations of gender roles
1. Division of labour
  1. The traditional picture: Man = hunter. Woman = gatherer come domestic goddess due to woman either being pregnant or producing milk. Women could, grow veg, mill grain, make clothes and shelter etc. Division of labour enhanced reproductive success and helped avoid starvation
  2. Kuhn and Stiner 2006 - explains why humans survived and neanderthals didn't. Their diet was meat and both men and women hunted. They were large and needed high calorie food. When hunting was unsuccessful they starved.
  3. Evaluation
    1. Ignore social explanations and are therefore determinist
    2. Speculative- do not have any firm factual basis that division of labour is why neanderthals became extinct. Tzedakis et al 2007 - other explanations are plausible such as climate change.
2. Mate choice
  1. The key to adaptive behaviour is reproductive success - many gender role behaviours are related to reproductive strategies. Men look for: physical attractiveness. Women look for: resources and the ability to provide (Buss 1989)
  2. Waynforth and Dunbar - differences in how makes and females advertise themselves to the opposite sex. Personal ads to assess what people were seeking for and what they were advertising. They represent the writer's ideal bid in the process of mate selection. 44% of males sought a physically attractive partner, only 22% of women looked for this. 50% of women offered physical attractiveness where only 34% of males did.
3. Evaluation
  1. Evolutionary approach is a biological one suggesting that aspects of human behaviour have been coded into our genes because they are or were adaptive. Alternative views suggest that behaviour is affected by nurture (experience and environment) a view proposed by the social approach.
  2. Alpha bias, exaggeration of gender differences in gender roles. Ignores individual differences.
Cultural influences on gender roles
1. Gender = universal (nature) Gender= differences (nurture)
2. Margaret Mead 1935 - Arapesh men and women were non aggressive. Mundugumor men and women were aggressive. Tchambuli people = women dominant interpersonal and managerial men were emotionally dependent. Some behaviours innate and universal but they degree to which they are expressed are relative to the culture
3. Williams and Best 1990 - gender stereotypes in words - men = dominant, aggressive, autonomous. Women = nurturing.
4. Spacial navigation - Van Leewen 1978 - cultures with strong division of labour - men given more opportunities to learn spacial navigation. Different in different cultures

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Gender - psychology A2

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	Created by Grace Knowles almost 9 years ago