Gender

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  • Gender
    • Sex-Role Stereotypes
      • Our behaviour based around our gender. They are shared expectations and assumed norms. It is an expectation of society
      • Learnt from childhood
      • There is evidence for parental influence
        • Smith and Lloyd found mothers who played with a baby that was named and dressed as the opposite gender gave them toys based on that gender
          • They gave boys more motor based toys, and girls dolls and barbies.
    • Androgyny
      • A combination of both male and female characteristics
        • Prakesh et al tested 100 women in India on levels of androgyny and levels of depression. They found that women with more masculine scores had lower depression scores, and androgynous women had the lowest depression score.
      • Bem's Sex Role Inventory
        • Method
          • Asked 100 male undergrads to put together 20 masculine adjectives, 20 feminine adjectives, and 20 neutral
          • Each person had to rate themselves on a likert scale of 7 for each characteristics, and their scores for each category was added up
          • People were categorised as; Masculine (high male, low female), Feminine (high female, low male), and androgynous (both high)
            • A fourth category was added by Spence, who created an undiffferentiated type for those with low masculine and feminine
        • Validity
          • Lacks temporal validity. A test was done and the only words people still categorised as male and female were the words masculine and feminine
          • There is response bias, as people have been found to rate themselves as a seven than any other number.
        • Reliability of the study was found through doing test-retest. There was scores found between .76 and .90
      • The backlash for androgyny was found when a parent raised their child gender neutral and many people disagreed with them.
    • The Role of Hormones and Chromosomes
      • Hormones
        • Testosterone
          • Produced prenatally and affects genital development
          • In some cases no male genitalia is produced, due to testosterone insensitivity
          • Berenbaum and Bailey found that females whose mothers were exposed to high doses of testosterone were found to be tomboyish and engage in male typical behaviours.
        • Oestrogen
          • Shi et al found it may lead to a smaller brain size
          • Is not needed to determine gender
          • Only found in females
          • Plays a role in secondary puberty, promoting; sexual characteristics and directing the menstrual cycle
        • Oxytocin
          • Called the love hormone, as it promotes bonds between men and women
          • Important in breastfeeding women as it causes milk to flow in lactating women
          • Dampens fight or flight response in men but triggers tend or befriend in women
      • Chromosomes
        • In a human, there are 23 pairs of chromosomes and one pair is the sex chromosomes
          • ** is female, XY is Male. In males with XY, the Y allows for testes to develop
    • Cognitive Explanation
      • Kohlberg's Theory
        • Emphasises the role of thinking. Part of cognitive theory. Children develop through stages naturally
        • Stages
          • Stage 1: Gender Labelling
            • Occurs between the ages of 2-3
            • Children are able to label themselves as boy or girl, but this is not consistent with time or appearance
          • Stage 2: Gender Stability
            • Occurs around the age of four
          • Stage 3: Gender Constancy
            • Occurs at age 6
            • Gender is constant across all situations
            • Children start learning about gender-appropriate behaviours.
              • Martin and Little found children may learn gender appropriate behaiours before this. They found that children who showed no signs of gender stability did display strong sterotypes, showing previously aquired information had influenced the child.
        • Evaluation and Evidence
          • Thompson found two-year-olds were 76% correct in identifying their sex, whereas three-year-olds were 90% correct
          • Slaby and Frey found that when they asked children questions like "where you a little boy or girl when you were a baby?" The answer showed that children did not recognise these traits were stable over time until they were three or four
            • Their method has been criticised. Researchers listened to the answers and judged that children adopted a pretend model and based their answer on that rather than what they really thought.
          • Slaby and Fey asked kids "if you played football would you be a boy or girl?" They found that children who scored high on both stability and constancy showed greater interest in same-sex models.
          • Bem criticised that asking a child to resolve a contradiction between hair and genitals, children will go for the cue most societal relevance i.e knowing gender though hair and clothing
          • Slaby and Frey found gender constancy occurred in some children as young as five. This does not challenge it directly, but suggests some adjustment needed
          • Slaby and Frey found boys are gender constant before girls. It's easier to get girls to join in masculine activities then it is to get boys to engage in female ones. Could be due to majority of powerful role models being male. Girls less likely to identify with model as they are less powerful
      • Gender Schema Theory
        • Based around schemas. Children learn schemas related to gender through interactions with children and adults as well as media
          • The reason for gender schemas is to organise and structure information
        • Groups
          • Ingroup: The group a person identifies with. Once a child identifies with a group it lead them to positively evaluate their group and negatively evaluate the outgroup
            • Actively seek out information about ingroup and dismiss information about out group
          • Outgroup: The group that the child does not identify with
        • This theory shows that children have fixed gender beliefs due to ignoring information that is not consistent with ingroup information
        • Playing with others show girls play with girls and vice versa.This leads them to play with same-sex kids because "They are like me"
        • Children learn consequences associated with different social relationships, as other kids may tease them
          • Martin found gender schemas influence children's likelihood of developing relationships with same and opposite-sex peers
        • Evaluation
          • While GST predicts children aquire info before gender stability, Martin and Little found children under four showed no signs of gender stability, let alone constancy
            • However, despite lack of constancy, they did have strong gender roles, which is in line with GST
          • Zosuls et al found children can label their gender groups early than GST suggests. They recorded children's language and found them labelling themselves as boy or girl by 19 months
          • Martin and Halverson found children under six were more likely to recall pictures of people in their jobs if they were consistent with their groups
            • Bradbard et al told 4-9 year olds to group neutral items into boy or girl items, and found they took more interest in the items labelled as ingroup
          • GS also distort information. If children saw gender inconsistent pictures like a boy holding a gun (consistent) and a boy holding a doll (inconsistent) they recalled that it was a girl holding a doll
            • This means counter stereotyping may not be the best way to reduce children's gender schemas
          • Hoffman found children who's mothers worked had less fixed gender sterotypes
    • Psycho Dynamic Explanation
      • Developed by Sigmund Freud
      • Evaluation/ Criticism of Freud's theory
        • Little Hans developed a love for mother and wished father dead. Mother said would chop off penis if he touched it. Hans associated the word touching with castration, and heard father say don't touch horse, so had fear of horse. Resolution came when identified with father
        • Levin found that 22/32 mental patients with manic depression were suffering from unresolved Electra complex, and 12 regressed to early psycho sexual development. Links unresolved stage of gender development and mental health.
        • Evidence that awareness of genitals affect later life. Okami et al studied 200 children who saw their parents having sex as a child, and the girls were more likely to be pregnant or have an STI by 18
        • According to this complex, children living in one parent families would struggle, but there is no evidence for this
        • Evidence shows girls are just closer to their mother because they are the same-sex, but for this reason boys are more independent
        • Freud's theory should not be taken literally, and penis envy should be interpreted as an envy of male power in a male-dominated world
      • The Oedipus complex
        • Occurs at the phallic stage
        • 1. The boy desires his mother, and at 3 and 4, he becomes aware of his sexuality and his want for the mother
        • 2. The boy's father is his rival for his mother's love, and so he wants the father dead. This creates anxiety and castration anxiety. These fears are then repressed
        • 3. A resolve occurs as the boy identifies with his father, and therefore the boy internalises his fathers gender identity
        • Leads to masculine behaviours and attitudes
      • The Electra complex
        • 1. The girl is first attracted to mother, but this stops when girl knows mother doesn't have penis. Girl thinks mother castrated girl, and blames mother. Girl experiences penis envy
        • 2. Girl's sexual desires are passed onto her father
        • 3. Resolved when girl's penis envy is converted into wanting a baby, reducing anger towards mother. Girl identifies with mother and takes on her gender identity
      • Unresolve at the phallic stage
        • Frustration and overindulgence at any stage can lead to fixation. At genital stage this can lead to a phallic character who is afraid or not capable of love. Could be the root of amoral behaviour and homosexuality
    • Social Learning Theory
      • Evalaution
        • Boys and girls watched other picking neutral fruit. If a boy picked a fruit, another boy would pick the same
        • Martin et al found boys played with toys labelled as boy toys even if they saw girls playing with them, disproving modelling
        • Peer behaviour reinforces steroetypes. Observed children. Girls who had male behaviour reinforced on them carried it out for shorter amount of time than the boys
        • Although acknowledges biological, does not take it into account. For example, the role of hormones
      • Indirect reinforcement
        • Children observe behaviour and then learn the consequences
        • They witness gender behaviour at home and in the media and gradually learn what behaviours are their gender and are worth repeating
        • Vicarious reinforcement is imoortnt, as they copy people they identify with so girls will copy girls
      • The role of the mediational processes: If a child was punished/rewarded for a behaviour they are more liekyl to not carry out/carry out the same behaviour again
      • Maintenance through direct reinforcement: if a child is rewarded for behaviour, they will repeat this behaviour again
      • Direct tuition: Learning behaviours through explicit instructions. Begins when a child acquires linguistic skills. Way of showing children which behaviours are appropriate and inappropriate.
      • Self-direction: Once a child has internalised a behaviour, then reward or punishment no longer matter
        • Environmental determinism
    • Cultural and Media influences
      • Evaluation
        • Culture
          • Contrasting evidence form social role theory argues biologically physicality allow women and men to preform different tasks.  Child rearing women and strong men
          • Problems with Mead; imposed etic, socially desirable answers, Freeman found native Somoans told him they created a false picture of behaviour (but he was criticised for inaccuracy
        • Media
          • Difficult to demonstrate effects as all children watch TV and there are no control groups for comparison
          • Charlton et al found no changes in aggressive behaviour in those watching TV and concluded this was because of pre-existing community values
          • It was found that pre-adolescent boys were had stronger stereotypes after watching counter stereotypes, possibly because boys at that age want to think the opposite of parents
      • Media
        • Bandura and Bussey: Media portrays men as independent and directive, and women as dependent and emotional
        • Hodges found men are the ones running the event whereas women are the ones showing mercy
        • Mcghee and Freuh found children who watched 25+ of TV a week had more sex-stereotype perceptions than those hwo watched 10 hours of less
        • Media also gives information about likely outcome of male or female behaviours. The failure of someone similar to them allows self doubt in the persons own abilities
        • Media should be responsible for counter stereotypes. It was found that stereotyping was reduced when children were shown comercials of women in nontraditional roles
      • Culture
        • This is the rules, customs, morals, and ways of interacting that bind together members of a social group
        • There are differences between culture, but across cultures, men are always more dominant then women
          • However Berry et al found conformity was higher in tight, sedentary societies
        • Cultural influences are changing historically. In UK women still have lower jobs, but gender wage gap is less
        • Mead studied three tribes. One had gentle, repsonsive, cooperative women, one had violent and aggressive women, and the last had swapped gender roles, where women were more independent

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