Download Gender

Gender Role Development
I.
Introduction
A. Categorizing males and females
1. Sex-role standards or stereotypes
2. Cross-cultural trends
B. Facts and fictions about sex differences
1. Sex differences that appear to be real
2. Cultural myths
II. Developmental trends in sex typing
A. Development of Gender Identity
1. Discrimination of male versus female
2. Development of gender constancy
B. Acquiring Gender-role Stereotypes
C. Development of Gender-typed Behavior
III. Theories of sex-typing and gender role development
A. The biological approach
B. The psychoanalytic approach
C. Social learning theory
1. Direct tuition
2. Observational learning
D. Kohlberg’s cognitive-developmental theory
E. Martin & Halverson’s gender schema theory
Categorizing Males and Females
Sex-role or gender-role standards:
• A value, motive, or class of behavior that is
considered more appropriate for members of
one gender than the other
• Girls and the expressive role
• Boys and the instrumental role
Gender Typing in
Non-Industrialized Societies
Sex differences in the socialization of five attributes
in 110 non-industrialized societies
Percent of societies in
which socialization
pressures were greater for:
Attribute
Boys
Girls
Nuturance
0
82
Obediance
3
35
Responsibility
11
61
Achievement
87
3
Self-Reliance
85
0
Source: Barry, Bacon, & Child (1957)
Facts and Fictions About
Gender Differences
Actual differences between the genders
• Verbal ability: Girls have greater verbal
abilities than boys
• Visual/Spatial ability: Boys outperform girls
in visual/spatial tasks
Gender Differences in
Visual-Spatial Ability
Mental rotation and Water Level tasks:
Facts and Fictions About
Gender Differences, con’t
Actual differences between the genders
• Verbal ability: Girls have greater verbal
abilities than boys
• Visual/Spatial ability: Boys outperform girls
in visual/spatial tasks
• Mathematical ability
• Beginning in adolescence, boys show
small but consistent advantage in
arithmetic reasoning
• The role of social factors?
• Aggression: Boys are more physically and
verbally aggressive than girls
Facts and Fictions About
Gender Differences, con’t
Differences that may be real:
• Activity level: Boys are more physically
active than girls
• Fear, timidity, and risk taking: Girls or more
timid than boys
• Developmental vulnerabilities
• Boys are more physically vulnerable than
girls
• Boys are more likely to display
developmental problems
• Emotional expressivity:
• Girls are more emotionally expressive
than boys
• Empathetic sensitivity?
• Compliance: Girls are more compliant than
boys
Developmental Trends in
Gender Typing
Development of the gender concept:
• Discrimination of males versus females
• Children’s knowledge of boys versus girls
• Gender constancy
Development of gender-role stereotypes:
• Timing of gender stereotypes
• Growth of gender stereotypes during
preschool and elementary school
• How serious are gender-role prescriptions?
• Flexibility in gender stereotypes
Development of gender-typed behavior:
• Sex appropriateness of play
• Gender segregation
• Preference for same sex playmates
• Why does segregation occur?
Social Play and Gender
Sex of Player
Girls
Boys
36
Social Behavior Directed
Towards Playmate
32
28
24
20
16
12
8
4
0
Male
Sex of Playmate
Female
Theories of Gender Typing
Biological and Psychoanalytic
Biological approach:
• The role of genetic and hormonal differences
• Sex-linked constitutional factors and the
environment
Freud’s Psychoanalytic approach:
• The process of identification
• Evidence for and against Freudian theory
Theories of Gender Typing
Social Learning and CognitiveDevelopment
Social learning theory:
• Direct tuition
• Parents, teachers, etc., reinforce sexappropriate responses
• Do parents shape behavior?
• Observational learning
• Learning of sex-typed attitudes by
observing same-sex models
• Why might children preferentially attend
to same-sex models
• Reinforcement
• Perception of similarity
Kohlberg’s Cognitive-Developmental theory:
• Cognitive judgments about self precede
selective attention or identification
• Stages of understanding gender
• Basic gender identity
• Gender stability
• Gender consistency
• Problems with theory
Theories of Gender Typing
Gender Schema Theory
Martin & Halverson’s Gender Schema theory:
• Information processing theory of sex-typing
• Children motivated to acquire values
consistent with judgments about self
• Self-socialization begins when children
get basic gender identity
• Development of gender schemas
• In group / Out group schema
• Own sex schema
• Gender schemas as organizers of social
information