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.
The learning influence of gender development, which I will be focusing upon, is based on how a child’s environment can guide their views and perspectives on the classification of male and female. Gender is one of the fundamental ways which social life of humans is organized. One of the first questions people ask when a child is born is whether it is a boy or girl. Starting at birth people often think that boys and girls are very different. Gender matters from the trivial to the most important aspects of a human’s life.
The child’s nature refers to the influence that genes play on development, while nurture refers to the influence of the environment. Which one has a more substantial impact on the child’s development? We now know that both combine to create the child; that nature affects nurture, and nurture affects nature. However, in what ways are the parents more influential than the peers and how are the peers more influential than the parents? From the moment of conception a child gets its genetic makeup from the parents, thus already beginning their impact on the child.
Male brains differ from female brains in many ways – females tend to be better at empathising and are more talkative, for example (Hoag, 2008). Geschwind and Galaburda suggested that differences in gender are due to hormone levels in the brain. Baby boys are exposed to more testosterone prenatally than females, causing them to have a masculinised brain. If a female baby is exposed to more than average amounts of testosterone, this could cause androgynous behaviour. Reiner and Gearhart found support that biological factors do influence gender development.
Sex refers to the physical characteristics, as I mentioned, the biological, that characteristic that make us male or female, this could be the genitals and body shape. This could help us to have the first understanding of the masculinity and femininity, in our first years of life. The gender could help us to have the recognizable trait of the sex, and the sense of being a female or male. Helps to define the masculinity and femininity in our interior, Do our concepts of gender and sex contribute to the ways we embrace gender and sex in diversity? Yes, I think that our concept of sex and gender can contribute to the way we embrace sex and
If these androgens are released the Wolffian system will develop which leads to a male foetus. However if this hormone is not released the Mullerian system develops forming a female. The presence of the Y chromosome is responsible for the release of the androgens testosterone or dihydrotestosterone which interrupt the female developments. It is thought that humans are born with instinctive behaviours defining them either female or male. Milton Diamond provided evidence for this idea in his experiments with rats.
Are transgender operations ethical? A transgender operation involves changing the physical sex of a person. It may involve removing a male’s penis and then feminising the male, or vice versa. These operations are often done in adults when an individual feels that they have been born into the wrong body; while they appear to be one sex they feel strongly that they are the other. However, the operation may also be conducted on children.
Although it isn't clear in the paragraph whether Harry has a twin or not, if he did this could have a massive influence on his behaviour. Let's say Harry had an mono-zygotic twin, who shared a 100% concordance rate with him. Early twin studies generally found higher concordance for criminality amongst MZ than DZ twins, which would support the suggestion of a genetic influence. However, this research has said to be flawed due to a combination of small samples and poor methods of determining whether a particular twin pair was MZ or DZ. The rationale underlying the use of twins in explaining criminal behaviour is that if 1 MZ twin shows signs of aggressive behaviour, and the other one does too, then it is down to genetic influence.
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.
Nature versus nurture is one of the many questions scientists and theorists try to understand. Basically, is it genetics, the environment or a culmination of one or more contributing factors? According to some studies, not only genetics can contribute but many other variables like classic conditioning, family dynamics, environment and a whole plethora of things. For example, “Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity inappropriate for the child’s age. Research has shown that ADHD is more prevalent in boys and runs in families, apparently for both genetic and environmental reasons” (R. Kolwalski, D. Westen, 2011).