Gender Identity

Define gender expression

the manner in which individuals express their gender through appearance and behavior

Define gender identity

self-categorization of one’s gender

Define genderfluid, bigender, and agender

Genderfluid: persons who self-identify with different groups or aspects of both femininity and masculinity depending on the context

Bigender: persons who identify with both feminine and masculine gender identities

Agender: persons who do not identify with any gender category

Define gender typing

The process of gender socializations which describes attitudes and behaviors associated with the cultural norms for a given persons gender

Describe the physiological influences on gender development

Genes: biological sex is determined by whether a person has XX or XY chromosomes but there are cases of one one or three

Hormones and brain functioning: organizing influences (certain sex-linked hormones affect brain differentation and organization during prenatal development or at puberty) and activating influences (fluctuations in sec linked hormone levels influence the activation of certain brain and behavioral responses)

Describe the cognitive and motivational influences on gender development

Addresses the ways that children learn gender-typed attitudes and behaviors through observation, inference, and practice

Gender schema theory: children’s understanding of gender develops through their construction of gender schemas (mutual representations based on one’s knowledge, stereotypes, attitudes about gender)

Social cognitive theory: distinguishes among 3 modes of learning with an emphasis on observation; tuition (direct teaching during gender socialization like a father showing his son how to throw a baseball), enactive experience (children learn to guide their behavior based on the feedback that their past behavior has evoked from others), and observational learning (seeing and encoding other people’s behavior and noticing the positive or negative consequences)

Social identity theory: the influence of group membership on people’s self concepts and behavior with others (in-group bias and assimilation and between group contrast which is exaggerating the difference between one’s ingroup and other groups)

Developmental Intergroup Theory: gender is psychologically salient, used to categorize individuals and to develop stereotypes and prejudices

Describe the cultural influences influences on gender development

Bioecological model: fundamental feature of the macrosystem is its opportunity structure (economic and social resources available to members of a society), the patriarchy, the microsystems where children practice socialization to prepare them for adult roles

What ways do boys and girls show similarities across development?

Cognitive abilities and academic achievement are none to small effect sizes throughout childhood and adolescence

Personality and adjustment (activity level, depression, self-esteem) are none to medium in childhood and adolescence

Communication with peers is none to medium across childhood and adolescence