PSY 2105 Chapter Notes - Chapter 16: Gender Role, Ender Wiggin, Sex Organ
27 Apr 2018
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CHAPTER 16: GENDER ROLE DEVELOPMENT & SEX DIFFERENCES
GENDER-RELATED DEFINITIONS
•Sex: biological maleness or femaleness of an individual
•Sex difference: an observed difference between males and females
•Gender: differences resulting from socialization
•Gender-role: pattern of behaviours that are considered appropriate for a female or male in a particular
culture
Biologically female and gender is female, develop gender-role
•Sex typing: process by which children develop a gender role
THEORIES OF GENDER-ROLE DEVELOPMENT AND SEX DIFFERENCES
•Evolutionary and biological approaches
Evolutionary approach:
Sex differences reflect the different reproductive challenges faced by males and females in our
ancestral past – gender role due to diff reproductive challenges
focus on the adaptive function of behaviours and traits
to understand sex differences, they must address why behaviours adaptive for one sex may not be
adaptive for the other - to answer this, they point to different roles male and females play in
reproduction
females have large potential investment in each copulation. Males invest the energy required for
copulation.
females evolved to be choosier about their mates and to incest more in parenting, males incest less
in individual offspring, evolved to focus their reproductive efforts largely on mating
higher rates of aggression and dominance displayed by boys show preparation for adult male
competition over mates
Psychobiological approach:
Genes and hormones set gender-role development in motion; the environment completes the
process born male have more testosterone, and biological sex diff but also society will put all of those
into motion. You find out friend is pregnant with a boy – plan the shower with blue and girl is pink. As
soon as find out the sex, start to socialize them. When baby dressed as boy say “so strong, encourage
to explore, use motor skills, and not spend lots of time talking. If thought girl, spend time talking, say
“youre listening so well, look so pretty” treat like they’re delicate. Talk a lot but not play as much. Diff in
expectations of child and what we do with them,
Look to more immediate causes like genes, hormones, and brain structure and organization
fetal hormone guide development of male/female reproductive organs and external genital
differences in masculinity and femininity sometimes due to hormone levels. Hormone levels can be
influenced by enviro factors like temperature, immunological reactions and maternal stress
•Sociocultural approaches:
Gender roles develop as children interact with their social and cultural environment. Born female,
socialized as female and play with other girls and see how they play and that will reinforce what I like to
do. Also playing my peers and seeing people with the same sex and see what they like and do
socio vs. enviro: socio - sex diff observed among children and adults follow from the roles commonly
held by females vs males. enviro - intrinsic, inborn differences between the sexes give rise to and
maintain gender roles.
gender roles affect behaviour through cognitive and social processes - and they can’t be fixed
aspects of male and female inheritance because their roles vary with diff cultures.
•Cognitive-Developmental
Kohlberg’s Stage Model: children construct their gender identity from what they see and hear around
them. A key component is development of gender constancy - Notion that gender is a fixed part of
ourselves and irreversible and children typically get a full understanding of it by age 6 Male and females
go through the stages the same rate but ma progress more slowly in non-western cultures. Gender
constancy develops in 3 stages in the following order:
1. Gender identification
-Ability to categorize themselves and others as male or female “I am a boy/girl” - developed by
age 3
-Most 2 year olds know their gender, same age develop gender stereotyping
2. Gender stability
-Knowledge that gender does not change with age. “I will grow up to be man/woman” by age 4
3. Gender consistency
-recognition that your gender remains the same despite changes in dress, hairstyle, activities or
personality. “I can’t change my sex” by age 5
-5 years old they start to understand. Similar to Piaget’s concept of conservation.
idea that gender constancy precedes children’s adherence to gender norms isn’t supported by
research - children show gender-typed toy preferences and reward peers for gender appropriate
behaviour years before they understand that gender is a permanent, unchanging attribute
Information processing models / Gender Schema Theory explain developmental changes in children’s
gender-role behaviour in terms of mental models that organize children’s experiences concerning gender.
It focuses on concepts such as:
Gender schema
-Cognitive representation of the characteristics of being either male or female idea that we have
in our head that if I’m a male, this is what I do
Gender script
-Cognitive representation (mental idea) of a familiar routine or activity that is usually only
associated with one gender follow idea that society knows what male should be doing
Difference with this and Kohlberg’s stage model: the level of knowledge or understanding required
for the child to begin to act in accordance with gender norms. Kohlberg believed that children don’t
behave in sex-types ways until they achieve gender constancy. GST: children begin to organize their
experience and behave in ways compatible with gender norms once they can identify themselves as
male or female - reached between 2-3 years old.
•Environmental/Learning theory
Gender role is learned through experience
Gender roles not set in stone, can change with experience – go to what you’re interested rather than
what society has already prescribed to you
Within this family, social learning theorists view gender roles as primarily learned patterns in behaviour
that are acquired through experience
many sex-typed behaviours are products of the same learning principles that govern other social
behaviours
don’t deny that biological distinctions separate the two sex but argue that many of the sex diff in
children’s social behaviour and cognitive abilities aren’t inevitable results of their genetic makeup, nor do
they deny that children develop a cognitive understanding of different gender roles.
Sex differences are not inevitable
We may not see all sex diff because kids have so much pressure on what they’re playing, maybe
there are neutral toys
SOME PERCEIVED AND REAL SEX DIFFERENCES
•Meta-analysis: method of reviewing the research literature on a given topic tat uses statistical procedures
to establish the existence and the size of effects.
•Physical differences
In Infancy
Physiological
-Female newborn is healthier, less muscular, more developed, more sensitive to pain before any
awareness of socialization; they themselves don’t know their gender and they are better
coordinated neurologically and physically and they reach developmental milestone earlier than
boys
-males are more physiologically vulnerable with higher risk of miscarriage, physical and mental
illnesses.
Behavioural / Activity level
-Female newborns spend less time awake, and display less motor activity than do male
newborns
-male fetus more active in the womb and throughout childhood. The sex difference is small when
children play alone but boys activity greatly increase when in company of other boys or an
observer
In Preschool
Motor development
-Girls have better fine motor skills actual sex difference that require balance and precise
movement (hopping, skipping, writing)
-Boys do better in activities that require strength and better gross motor skills (jump, run, throw)
-i.e. girls and boys painting
Document Summary
Chapter 16: gender role development & sex differences. Biologically female and gender is female, develop gender-role: sex typing: process by which children develop a gender role. Theories of gender-role development and sex differences: evolutionary and biological approaches. Genes and hormones set gender-role development in motion; the environment completes the process born male have more testosterone, and biological sex diff but also society will put all of those into motion. You nd out friend is pregnant with a boy plan the shower with blue and girl is pink. As soon as nd out the sex, start to socialize them. When baby dressed as boy say so strong, encourage to explore, use motor skills, and not spend lots of time talking. Youre listening so well, look so pretty treat like they"re delicate. Talk a lot but not play as much. Diff in expectations of child and what we do with them,
