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. According to the gender consistency theory, children go through three stages in the development of full gender identity starting from the age of 2 years old. Between 2 and 3.5 years children enter the gender identity stage, where they label themselves at present as a boy or girl Recognition of this then allows a better understanding and categorisation of the world. Through this stage children sometimes use incorrect labels for people, they also fail to recognise gender staying the same in the past or future e.g. they may believe that a person can change gender.
The child responds to the influence of other people but is actively engaged in developing its own concept of its and others genders. Kohlberg argues that there are 3 stages through which children naturally progress as they get older and their cognitive abilities develop. Stages in the construction of gender are thought to be associated with wider stages in cognitive development. Between the ages of 2 and 3 occurs stage one, which Kohlberg named ‘gender labelling’ this is where a child recognises that he or she is a girl or boy. This is purely based on appearances; if the appearance was to change then the child would happily change the label too.
In the majority of cases, the child’s biological sex matches their gender and there are no problems. However, some children are born “inter-sex”; they have ambiguous genitals and are not obviously one sex or the other. Money believed that, providing that a a child’s sex is decided before their 3rd birthday, social factors are so influential that children will accept their assigned gender identity. The third year is another critical period, and because a child’s gender identity is established by then, it cannot thereafter be changed without causing the child significant psychological problems. Early research did support this hypothesis.
Therefore there is reason to believe that genes may not affect gender development that much as there are a lot of people nowadays who are transgender. However, hormones can also have an effect on gender development. Case studies such as the Batista family show that hormones can have a huge effect on gender development as Imperato-Mcginley et al, found that four children in Dominica were born with female genitalia and were raised as girls, but they produced large amounts of testosterone at puberty and
Bussey came to this conclusion when he found that children imitate same sex models but do not imitate same sex models that are gender inappropriate. Gender roles are also affected by social influences like parents. Parents sometimes have strong opinions on the divides between genders which results in different reinforcements for different behaviours. For example, a mother may react negatively to their daughter playing with masculine toys but positively to their son playing with the same toys. Parental influence has strengths, for example there is a wealth of scientific evidence supporting it.
Outline and evaluate the cognitive explanations of gender. Martin and Halverson proposed in their gender schema theory that the development of a child’s gender is induced by their readiness to categorise gender information. This gender information is organised into schemas which are effective in organising the information as a means of using it to interpret new gender related experiences. Such interpretation will be of knowledge pertaining to gender type activities and behaviour. Where schemas are an essential aspect of Martin and Halverson’s theory, a major concern involves the lack of explanation regarding how such schemas are originally acquired.
Discuss explanations of psychological androgyny and gender dysphoria Most boys develop a male gender identity and most girls develop a feminine gender identity. However this is not the case for all children. Androgyny refers to the coexistence of feminine and masculine characteristics in an individual. Bem argued against the traditional view that masculinity and femininity are two opposite ends of a single scale. She believed instead that an individual can show a mixture of feminine and masculine traits and that a balance of these characteristics is desirable and healthy within a personality.
1b. Suggest three reasons for gender difference in subject choice. (6 marks) • Primary socialisation – Oakley suggests gender role socialisation, i.e. boys play with masculine toys and girls play with feminine toys at an early age influences their decision to opt for certain subjects. For example, boys are more likely to choose design technology and girls are more likely to choose food technology.
Keith Ollivierre Prof. J Adler Psychology 100 Date: Friday, December 14 2014 Literature review project Topic : In beauty we trust: Children prefer information from more attractive informants. From : British journal of developmental psychology. This article is about whether or not information is perceived as correct to a child either coming from a attractive informant or a lesser attractive one. what i learned from the experiment is that children are vulnerable when obtaining information because they do not base there decisions about who to trust based on the the concept of information being right or wrong but rather on purely non-epistemic grounds. 1.
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.