PSY 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Spatial Memory, Mental Rotation, Gender Identity
Document Summary
Social roles means boy and girl are associated by social roles that act as cultural guidelines for individual behaviour. Gender roles differ in that they are simply appropriate behaviours for male and female. Gender identity is the perception of oneself as either male or female and develops at an early age. Definition: beliefs about how males and females differ in personality traits, interests and behaviours. Male associated traits are called instrumental because they describe people who act on the world and influence it, example: independent, competitive, ambitious, aggressive, dominant. Female associated traits are called expressive because they describe emotional functioning and people who value interpersonal relationships, example: kind, creative, considerate, gentle, excitable. In a study by williams and best (1990) they discovered that gender stereotypes are not shared worldwide, most americans view men as aggressive and women as emotional and in nigeria they do not. In fact, gender stereotypes are more extreme in america.
