Gender development. The development of gender stereotypes and gender roles Theories of gender development Gender differences: Facts and Fiction

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1 Gender development Psych 306 Prof. Jessica Sommerville The development of gender stereotypes and gender roles Theories of gender development Gender differences: Facts and Fiction 1

2 Key terms Gender stereotypes Widely held beliefs about characteristics deemed appropriate for males and females Gender roles The reflection of these stereotypes in everyday behavior Gender identity Perception of the self as relatively masculine or feminine in characteristics Gender typing Any association of objects, activities, roles or traits with biological sex in ways that conform to cultural stereotypes of gender Gender stereotypes Woman is more compassionate than man and has a greater propensity to tears But the male is more disposed to give assistance in danger, and is more courageous than the female. Aristotle Women ask: How do you get a man to open up? Men ask: Why does she always want to talk about the relationship? Gray, Mars and Venus on a Date, 1997 Gender stereotypes Widespread agreement in personality traits regarded as stereotypically masculine and feminine Males: Instrumental traits: competence, rationality and assertiveness Females: Expressive traits: warmth, caring and sensitivity Unchanged over the last 4 decades 2

3 Gender stereotyping in early childhood Between 18 months and 3 years: Associate masculine objects and actions with boys, and feminine objects and actions with girls Label their own and others sex Between 3 and 4: Sex-typed play emerges Children apply gender stereotypes/roles as blanket rules Rely on gender, rather than other characteristics, to make judgments about others behavior Avoid peers who violate gender-role norms Gender stereotyping in early childhood Between 3 and 4: Don t realize that characteristics associated with sex (e.g., activities, toys, occupations, hairstyles and clothing) don t determine sex Everybody has a penis; only girls wear barrettes (Bem, 1989) Gender stereotyping in middle childhood and adolescence Gender stereotyping of activities and occupations is well-established by age 5 Knowledge of stereotypes increases in areas of personality traits and achievement during middle childhood During middle childhood and adolescence gender-stereotype flexibility emerges Accompanied by an awareness of the biological basis of gender 3

4 Theories of gender development Biological approaches Social learning theory Kohlberg s cognitive developmental theory Gender-schema theory Biological approaches Evolutionary perspective: Male ancestors largely oriented toward competing for mates, female ancestors toward children Males became genetically primed for dominance, females for intimacy, responsiveness and cooperativeness These traits selected for in the course of evolution Biological approaches Cross-cultural similarity in gender stereotypes and gender-role adoption Reversals of traditional gender roles are rare But, cultural variability in gender stereotyping E.g., Sweden s equal roles family model 4

5 Biological approaches Hormonal differences Prenatally administered androgen increases rough-and-tumble play in male and female mammals Girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) shower higher levels of rough-andtumble play than do other girls Associated with other masculine preferences: cars > dolls, prefer boys as playmates, more interested in masculine careers Biological approaches Differences in male and female brains Females > cortical gray matter males Males > white matter than females Corpus callosum denser in females than males Less lateralization in females Females have more dense nerve connections in areas of the brain associated with linguistic processing Males have a larger area of the brain devoted to spatial processing than females Social learning theory Children form gender identity through: Direct reinforcement Praise for producing gender appropriate behavior Indirect/differential reinforcement Differential opportunities to engage in certain activities or to interact with certain kinds of objects Observational learning Children have greater exposure to same sex models and therefore have more opportunity to observe and imitate same-sex behaviors and attitudes 5

6 Social learning theory Parents: Infancy and early childhood: Stereotypic toys Active reinforcement of independence in boys and closeness and dependency in girls More frequent labeling of emotions in talk to girls Social learning theory Parents: Middle childhood and adolescence Parents continue to demand greater independence in teaching situations Boys hear more scientific explanations and more cognitively demanding speech Boys rated as more competent at math than girls, regardless of their actual ability Social learning theory Teachers: Feminine bias : value obedience and discourage assertiveness More likely to call on boys than girls Emphasize gender distinctions E.g., Girls line up on this side, boys on that side Interrupt girls more At older ages, praise boys for knowledge, girls for obedience 6

7 Kohlberg s cognitive-developmental theory Self perceptions come before behavior Over the preschool years children acquire a cognitive appreciation of the permanence of their sex (gender constancy) Gender constancy develops through 3 stages By 6 or 7 children maintain constancy of their gender Kohlberg s cognitive-developmental theory Gender labeling: Label own sex correctly Can t appreciate that sex can t change over time or with a change in appearances Gender stability: Children grasp the stability of gender over time However, they still think that gender is linked to superficial appearance Gender consistency/constancy: Gender is consistent across situations Gender schema theory Combines social learning and cognitivedevelopmental features Children s understanding of gender develops through their construction of gender schemas Mental representations of everything they know about gender Change as children acquire genderrelevant information 7

8 Gender schema theory In-group/out-group gender schema Same as me or not Natural motivation to prefer, attend to and remember in-group characteristics Own-sex schema Detailed knowledge about how to do things that are consistent with one s own gender Gender self-socialization Pay greater attention to information that is relevant to child s own gender Distort information in gender-consistent ways Influences children s self-regulatory behavior 8

9 Gender schema theory vs. Kohlberg Both theories: children motivated to behave in ways consistent with what they know or believe about gender Differ in terms of the level of understanding required for kids to act in accord with gender norms K: need gender constancy (6 or 7) GST: once children identify gender (2 or 3) Gender differences: Facts and Fiction Do gender differences exist? Are they due to nature or nurture? Verbal abilities Spatial abilities Verbal ability Faster rates of language acquisition for girls Fluency and clarity of articulation Vocabulary development No consistent gender differences by age 6 Girls score better than boys at verbal achievement tasks (school years) Small effect sizes 9

10 Verbal ability Nature: Language scores at 18 to 24 months linked to levels of fetal testosterone Left hemisphere develops more quickly in girls than boys Nurture: Differences linked to language exposure Mothers talk more and more directly to girls Mothers use more supportive speech to girls Mothers produce more elaborate narratives with girls than boys Spatial abilities Boys stronger than females on some aspects of visual-spatial processing Differences emerge by 3 to 4, become more substantial in adolescence Replication of spatio-temporal patterns Copying of 3D lego models Mental rotation Small effect size Spatial abilities Nature: Selection pressures lead to males evolving greater spatial skills Male foraging (e.g., hunting) Male warfare Sexual selection Maturation of right hemisphere occurs earlier for boys than girls 10

11 Spatial abilities Nature: Androgen Spatial performance differs daily and annually with androgen levels in males and females Girls with high prenatal androgen levels show significantly higher spatial performance than those with typical levels Testosterone U-shaped curve Estrogen Higher levels during pregnancy correlated with lower spatial ability (rats and humans) 11