COMPARE AND CONTRAST GENDER CONSISTENCY THEORY AND GENDER SCHEMA THEORY Any cognitive developmental theory is based on the idea that children have to have reached a certain level of cognitive development before they can appreciate certain concepts, such as what it means to be a boy or girl, and the full implications of this. The gender consistency theory proposed by Kohlberg in 1966 and the gender schema theory proposed by Martin and Halverson in 1983 are the two major gender development theories considered by psychologists. Kohlberg’s theory was considered the dominant theory up until the 1970s and it was believed that biology heavily affected gender development. However there were many disputes over some elements of the theory, which lead to further theories such as the gender schema theory being developed. The major difference between the two is that the gender consistency theory proposes that children’s understanding of gender develops with age, whilst the gender schema theory suggests that early childhood gender development is influenced heavily by the ideas and concepts about what ‘maleness’ or ‘femaleness’ means in a particular society.
Sex-Role Identity Concepts, Facts, Reactions, Thoughts: When infants are first in diapers, people tend to have a difficult time determining the baby’s gender. After a few shorts year, however, toddlers begin to behave and dress in ways that give distinct signs about whether they are a boy or girl. The way they interact with each other and objects around them also show the nature of their gender. For example, by age three, gender segregation begins to develop in that boys prefer to play with boys and girls prefer to play with girls. The path to one’s sex-role identity begins with the psychodynamic view: boys typically become fascinated with their fathers and girls typically become fascinated with their mothers.
This is primary socialisation which is taught mainly by families which teaches the young generation the norms and values. There are many different parts to the society, all of which rely on each other to make up the behaviour of society of which we expect; these include the family, economy and education. Most sociologists believe that family as a very important system, the foundations of which society is built on. Murdock strongly believes this and argues that the family “performs four essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members.” These four essential functions include stable satisfaction of the sex drive, reproduction of the next generation, socialisation of the young and meeting its member’s economic needs. The stable satisfaction of the sex drive means being faithful to one partner and thus stopping social destruction caused by being
There are many differences between the education standards that the classes receive and also along with this, the deprivation that some kids may experience whether they are at home, or at school. The first key reason is cultural factors; Douglas showed that parental interest was the most important factor of the success of the children within education. His research showed that middle class families were most likely to take more of an interest in their children’s education compared to that of a working class parent. This meant that middle class were most likely to visit the school, and encourage their child which meant they would promote their child to stay on past the minimum leaving school age. Douglas measured his experiment by the number of visits a parent would visit the school, however, this may not be a valid assessment as working class parents found it difficult to obtain time off from working long hours to visit the school, not only this but the unease of being in a classroom may explain the lack of visits, not the disinterest.
John Money of John Hopkins University suggests that gender identity is easy to persuade during the first years of life, after that gender is permanent. However, this suggestion has its challenges. It is during infancy that parents create and determine the gender role by the decisions the parents make for the child. Social learning theories describe types of reinforcement in families, which places value on environmental factors and gender role. It is often that we see female babies cuddling with their mothers while the males are often seen playing with toys and balls with more aggression and with the fathers (Ghosh, 2013).
Once a person has established what category they fall under, they must look at the many factors behind birth order. Key factors that affect the formation of the personality and behaviors of a child include gender, physical attributes and the spacing of children within a family. These factors influence how parents treat children and how each child is looked upon by their siblings. Gender is significant because it establishes how a child is treated within the birth order arrangement. If there is only one daughter in a family of three boys, for example, the daughter will often be treated as a first born no matter where she falls in the birth order.
All of my life, I have had several different examples effecting my gender socialization. In retrospect, my family actually played a huge role in socializing me. Wharton (2012) suggests that parents are actually the most important agent of socialization. Whether it’s intentional or not, parents’ actions do have repercussions on a child’s social learning. I grew up with a little sister and I quickly adapted to the idea that boys and girls are treated differently.
The importance of diagnosing the child is stressed at birth because physicians want the baby to grow up with their gender identity and gender roles in society match. Because our society values gender roles so much, informing people of intersexed child is difficult. One of the first things that happen after birth is naming the child based off of his/her identity, so therefore parents are taught how to cope with their childs ambigious gentials and are taught how “lie” or normalize the situation to their friends and family. “Money would agree that is a misrepresentation of epistemology to consider any cell in the body authentically male or female” Physicians still make their discission about ambigious gentitals based off social standards. When deciding the gender of a intersexed baby, testing is crucial but the tests are sometimes predetermined based off factors such as the parents prematurely naming the child or the fact that a penis is more valued than a vagina in our society.
Moreover, the negative effects of hours spent in non-maternal care remain throughout childhood and adolescence. Maternal sensitivity is the strongest and most consistent predictor of children’s social–behavioral adjustment throughout development. When a low level of maternal sensitivity is coupled with more time spent in day care and/or a lower quality of day care, children tend to experience insecurity in their attachment to their mothers. A secure mother–child attachment is associated with positive peer interactions, social behaviors, emotions, and exploratory behaviors. Children are most
Gender schema theory in simple terms is concerned with children and how they learn what it is to be female and male. This is achieved through observation, processing of new information and the retrieval of information stored in cognitive structures. This process begins in early childhood and the culture in which the child inhabits will determine the behavioural and emotional roles that are considered appropriate for women and men. Gender polarisation is a concept by Sandra Bem that postulates, characteristics of femininity and masculinity are mutually exclusive for example the behaviours and attitudes of men are seen as inappropriate for women. Conversely the behaviours and attitudes of women are seen as inappropriate to men.