GCSE PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 2 SEX AND GENDER REVISION

GCSE PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 2 SEX AND GENDER REVISION

GCSE PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 2 SEX AND GENDER IDENTITY

SEX IDENTITY AND GENDER IDENTITY SEX IDENTITY = a biological term. A child s sex can be identified by their hormones (testosterone for males and oestrogen for females) and chromosomes (XY for males and XX for females). This determines whether the child s sex identity is male or female GENDER IDENTITY = a psychological term. A child s gender can be identified by their attitudes and behaviour (the way they act, dress and speak). This determines whether the child s gender identity is masculine or feminine

SEX IDENTITY AND GENDER IDENTITY Most people have a match between their sex and gender identities (i.e. a boy thinks and behaves in a masculine way) However, some boys think and behave in a feminine way Sex identity can be is defined in the same way in all cultures However, gender identity can be different in different cultures

SEX IDENTITY AND GENDER IDENTITY How do different cultures distinguish between the two gender identities? British culture MASCULINE AND FEMANINE Mohave Indians (Native Americans) FOUR DIFFERENT GENDER IDENTITIES: TRADITIONAL MALES, TRADITIONAL FEMALES, MALES WHO CHOOSE TO LIVE AS WOMEN AND WOMEN WHO CHOOSE TO LIVE AS MEN How do children express feminine gender behaviour? E.g. wearing pink clothes and playing with dolls How do children express masculine gender behaviour? E.g. playing Football and being aggressive

GCSE PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 2 PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY OF GENDER DEVELOPMENT

PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY This was first described by Sigmund Freud He believed we have thoughts and feelings that we are not aware of as they are unconscious He believed that development happened in 5 stages and the third stage is known as the PHALLIC STAGE which happens between 3 and 5 years old

PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY In the phallic stage the child unconsciously sexually desires the opposite-sex parent and become jealous of the same-sex parent To deal with this anxiety the child behaves like the same-sex parent (this is identification)

OEDIPUS COMPLEX This is the conflict experienced by a boy in the phallic stage because he is unconsciously attracted to his mother and is jealous of his father and wants to take his place He becomes anxious that his father will discover this and castrate him In order to resolve this anxiety he gives up the feelings for his mother and identifies with his father and adopts a masculine gender role

ELECTRA COMPLEX This is the conflict experienced by a girl in the phallic stage because she is unconsciously attracted to her father and is jealous and resentful of her mother Freud suggests that the girl believes she has already been castrated so is not as fearful as a boy She feels conflict between the feelings she has for her father and the fear of losing her mother s love In order to resolve this she identifies with her mother and behaves in a similar way to her

LITTLE HANS EXPERIMENR BY FREUD (1909) Freud carried out a case study to investigate the gender development of a boy known as Little Hans AIM: To investigate Little Hans phobia METHOD: Han s father wrote to Freud to tell him about Hans development. At the age of four Hans developed a phobia of horses. He was frightened that a horse might bite him or fall down. He was particularly afraid of large white horses with black around the mouth

LITTLE HANS EXPERIMENR BY FREUD (1909) RESULTS: Freud claimed that Hans was experiencing the Oedipus complex. He unconsciously sexually desired his mother and saw his father as a rival and feared castration. He displaced the fear of his father on to horses. The white horse with black around the mouth represented his father who had a dark beard. His fear of being bitten by a horse represented his fear of castration and his fear of horses falling down was his unconscious desire to see his father dead CONCLUSION: This supports Freud s ideas about the Oedipus Complex

CASE STUDY - CARL Rekers (1974) described the case of Carl who was 8 years old and had a gender identity problem He had a feminine voice and liked to talk about dresses, cosmetics and delivering babies He preferred to play with girls and played house with his sister He also pretended to be ill or injured rather than playing with boys Carl lived with his mother and did not have a stable father figure in his life

GENDER DEVELOPMENT IN A LONE- PARENT HOUSEHOLD Freud suggested that if a child is brought up in a single-parent household they would have a poorly developed gender identity This is because the child does not experience and resolve the Oedipus/Electra Complex

GENDER DEVELOPMENT IN A LONE- PARENT HOUSEHOLD If a boy is raised without a father, he will not develop a masculine gender identity as he did not have a father to identify with during the phallic stage of development Freud suggested that a boy in this position would become homosexual

REKERS AND MORAY (1990) AIM: To investigate whether there is a relationship between gender disturbance and family background METHOD: Researchers rated 46 boys with gender disturbance for gender behaviour and gender identity. The family background was also investigated

REKERS AND MORAY (1990) RESULTS: 75% of the most severely gender-disturbed boys had neither their biological father nor a father substitute living with them CONCLUSION: Boys who do not have a father figure present during their childhood are more likely to develop a problem with their gender identity

EVALUATION Testing = it is difficult to test Freud s ideas as they are based on unconscious thoughts and feelings Has there been an increase in homosexuality = this has not increased despite the rise in the number of children raised in lone-parent families (something Freud suggested would happen) Is it just parents that influence gender development = there is a wide range of people influencing gender development, not just parents (e.g. siblings, peers, etc) Evidence for Oedipus/Electra Complex = there is actually little evidence to support these ideas Can results from Little Hans be generalised just one child investigated = results from the Little Hans case study cannot be generalised due this being on only one child

EVALUATION OF THE PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY OF GENDER DEVELOPMENT Based on thoughts and feelings This has not happened Difficult to test Freud s theories Freud said more lone-parent households would lead to an increase in homosexuality Influence of gender development comes from a variety of people Parents, peers, siblings, etc EVALUATION Little Hans Only one child in study so results cannot be generalised Oedipus Complex and Electra Complex No evidence for either complex

GCSE PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 2 SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY OF GENDER DEVELOPMENT

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY Social learning theorists believe that gender is learnt from watching and copying the behaviour of others There are three processes involve in this theory: MODELLING where an adult or other child acts as a role model or an example to follow IMITATION where the child copies the behaviour shown by the model VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT where the child learns from what happens to the model when the model carries out a certain behaviour Model being rewarded = child more likely to copy this Model being punished = child less likely to copy this

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY Who can act as a model to a child? Why? Models: People similar to the child (friends, samesex parent) People with power (teachers, older siblings) People loving and caring towards the child (parents, teachers)

PERRY AND BUSSEY (1979) AIM: To show that children imitate behaviour carried out by same-sex role models METHOD: Children were shown films of role models carrying out activities that were unfamiliar to the children. In one condition, all of the male role models played with one activity while all the female role models played with the other activity. In the second condition some of the male role models and some of the female role models played with one activity while the other male and female role models played with the other activity

PERRY AND BUSSEY (1979) RESULTS: In the first condition, the children imitated what they had seen the same-sex role models doing. The boys chose the activity the male role model had played with. While the girls chose the activity the female role models had played with. In the second condition, there was no difference in the activities the boys and girls chose CONCLUSION: When children are in an unfamiliar situation they will observe the behaviour of same-sex role models. This gives them information about whether the activity is appropriate for their sex. If it is, the child will imitate that behaviour

EXPLANATION Why did the boys and girls in the first condition choose different activities? This was because they imitated the men by choosing the activity the men chose and the girls imitated the women by choosing the same activity as them

EXPLANATION Why was there no difference in the activities chosen by the boys and girls in the second condition? This was because the boys and girls copied the behaviour of the same-sex models again However, as men and women chose both activities so did the boys and girls

MEDIA AND GENDER DEVELOPMENT The media provides us with models for gender behaviour Macklin and Kolbe (1984) claimed than children want to imitate characters on the TV as they are physically attracted to them TV demonstrates how males and females are stereotyped in a number of ways

WILLIAMS (1986) AIM: To investigate the effects of television on the gender development of children METHOD: In 1975, Williams studied the effects of television on children living in Canada. At the beginning of the study one of the towns was being provided with television for the first time while the other towns already had television. He measured the attitudes of children living in these towns at the beginning of the study and again two years later

WILLIAMS (1986) RESULTS: The children who now had television were more sex stereotyped in their attitudes and behaviours than they had been two years previously CONCLUSION: Gender is learnt by imitating attitudes and behaviours seen on television

EVALUATION OF SLT OF GENDER DEVELOPMENT The SLT is well supported by research (i.e. children learn their gender through observations and imitations of models) It does not explain why children brought up in oneparent families, without strong same-sex role model, do not have any difficulty developing their gender It does not explain why two children of the same sex, brought up in the same home with the same role models can behave differently SLT believes that gender is learnt and so ignores biological differences between males and females

GCSE PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 2 SCHEMA THEORY OF GENDER DEVELOPMENT

GENDER SCHEMA GENDER STEREOTYPES: believing that all males are similar and all females are similar GENDER SCHEMA: a mental building block of knowledge that contains information about each gender

GENDER SCHEMA Gender Schemas are made up of the knowledge we have about each gender, some of these are made up from gender stereotypes Martin and Halverson (1981) believed that these develop with age

GENDER SCHEMA MARTIN AND HALVERSON (1981) At 2yrs old children know if they are a boy or girl Ability to identify others belonging to same or different sex to them AGE Children then learn about gender Ideas are rigid and stereoty ped Knowledge gained about the world leading to gender schemas becoming more flexible By 6 understand their own gender better but not the opposite gender Understand what objects/behav iours are associated with each sex Concent rate on appropr iate things for their own sex

MARTIN (1989) AIM: To show that children s understanding of gender becomes less stereotyped and therefore more flexible as they get older METHOD: Children heard stories about the toys that male and female characters enjoyed playing with. Some of the characters were described as liking gender-stereotyped activities, while other characters were described as liking non-genderstereotyped activities. The children were then asked to predict what other toys each character would or would not like to play with

MARTIN (1989) RESULTS: The younger children used only the sex of the character to describe what other toys he or she would or would not like. E.g. they would say that a boy character would like to play with trucks even if they had been told that the boy liked playing with dolls. The older children, however, considered both the sex of the character and the other toys that the character enjoyed playing with. E.g. they would say that a girl who liked playing with trucks would be less likely to want to play with a doll CONCLUSION: Older children have a more flexible view of gender than younger children do

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN GENDER DEVELOPMENT Not all children develop gender schemas in the same way Even when children get older, some are still stereotyped in their ideas; some are less stereotyped Children who are stereotyped look for information to support their ideas and ignore or remember wrongly information that does not fit their schema

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN GENDER DEVELOPMENT Therefore, a child who was stereotyped and watching a television programme that showed a conversation between a male and female nurse, the child would recall both characters as being female. If they saw a scene between two male doctors they would concentrate on this scene and recall it in detail because it supports their stereotyped idea of gender roles. A less stereotyped child would accurately recall the gender roles shown in both scenes

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN GENDER DEVELOPMENT DEFINITIONS GENDER ROLES Behaviour seen as masculine or feminine by a particular culture HIGHLY GENDER SCHEMATISED Where gender is an important way of thinking about the world so information is organised according to what is gender appropriate and what is gender inappropriate

LEVY AND CARTER (1989) AIM: To show that there are individual differences in the way children think about gender METHOD: Children were shown pictures of two toys and asked to choose the one they would like to play with. Sometimes, the toys in the pictures were both stereotypically masculine, sometimes there was one masculine toy and one feminine toy. These pictures were shown to high and low schematised children

LEVY AND CARTER (1989) RESULTS: The highly gender schematised children chose quickly between the pictures when they were shown one masculine and one feminine toy. If, however, they were shown two masculine or two feminine toys they took longer to choose because they either wanted both toys or neither of them. The less gender schematised children chose on the basis of personal preference. It therefore took them the same time to choose between the toys of each set of pictures CONCLUSION: Highly gender schematised children choose toys on the basis of whether or not they are appropriate for their sex. Less gender schematised children choose on the basis of their personal preference

EVALUATION OF GENDER SCHEMA THEORY OF GENDER DEVELOPMENT Gender schema theory is quite a detailed explanation of gender development It is well supported by evidence It fits with our experience ( intuitive appeal ) It does not explain why some children are more highly schematised than others Or why gender begins to develop at the age of two Or why children choose samesex friends and genderappropriate toys before they can correctly identify themselves as being male or female