PSY 465 Exam 2 gender development

sex:

• often a label assigned at birth by doctors based on anatomy, physiology genetics and hormones

gender:

• socially constructed roles, behaviors, expressions and identities of girls, women, boys, men, and gender diverse people

gender identity:

• how you feel on the inside

gender development

• 3-4 months old, infants notice their own sex

• by 2 years old, most infants differentiate between a “man” and a “lady”

• becomes aware of their own gender by 2.5 years old

• beliefs about gender grow stronger over time

• by middle adolescence, the understanding of gender is pretty rigid and stereotyped

Stereotype:

• a generalized view about the attributes, characteristics, or roles that people should have or do based solely on their membership to a social group

Effect size:

• magnitude or the difference between groups

• it can also indicate practical significance

how do people get ideas about gender?

• gender socialization

• normative development

gender socialization:

• the process through which cultures communicate gender expectations to children and adolescents

different gender socialization

• socialization of gender according to different expectations about the attitudes and behaviors that are appropriate for the child’s gender

• begins early

• clothes, toys, and bedroom decorations

gender intensification hypothesis:

• teens face increased pressure to conform to culturally sanctioned gender roles

• with the increase in pressure, teens become more differentiated in their gender roles

negative consequences: adolescent girls

• more likely to develop a negative body image than boys

negative consequences: adolescent boys

• if aggression is valued, more likely to develop problem behaviors in adolescence

• car accidents are one of the leading causes of death in adolescence and 2 out of 3 teens killed in crashes are boys

negative consequences: trans adolescents

• 59% of transgender boys and 48% transgender considered suicide in the past year

intersectionality:

• people’s gender, race and social class interact on many levels

cognitive developmental theory

• work to actively comprehend the world → schemas make this easier → gender is most perceptually salient

• need for cognitive consistency → self-socialization → gender congruent activities, attributes, and peers

schema:

• a mental structure for organizing and interpreting information

Kolberg’s cognitive development theory

• development of formal operations, which includes the ability for self-reflection and idealization

psychoanalysis (freud)

• gender typing rooted in

• discovery of genital sex differences → “anatomy is destiny”

• oedipal complex

• identification with same sex parent

gender typing:

• process where a child becomes aware of their gender and start to adopt values and attributes that align with that gender

social cognitive (learning) theory (Bandura)

• centers on the idea that we learn by modeling behavior that you witness and by receiving rewards/punishments

• vicarious learning (learning through observation and modeling)

Gender schema theory

• borrows form cognitive development theory and social cognitive theory

• gender schema theory assumes that sex typing is a learned phenomenon and, hence, neither inevitable nor un-modifiable