Gender Schema theory

Gender schema theory

Developed by Martin and Halverson states that children from age 2-3 create a mental framework called a scheme to represent the idea of what sex if and the stereotypical behaviours that come along with it to influence our own behaviour and help understand others behaviour

What happens at 2-3 and age 6

It states that at age 2-3 we actively start to develop a schema using enviromental example such as other girls playing with dolls and other boys with trucks. By the age of 6 children have a fixed stereotype of what gender appropriate behaviour for their own in-group (own gender)

In VS Out group

In-group is the edgier the child belongs to and they focus more of this groups stereotypes behaviour vs the out-group the opposite se gender, this I usually reinforced by adults eg stop acting like a little girl

AO3- Suportive research

Smith v Lloyd, 23 boys 32 girls, shows how adults reinforce gender scheme bu how they interact with children eg calling girls pretty and promotion active play with boys, It suggests that children learn gender roles by observing and internalising these stereotypes, which fits with GST’s emphasis on active processing of social information in gender development

AO3- More supportive research

Martin and Halverson showed 5-6 year olds pictures of male and females either doing sex consistent or inconsistent behaviours and one week later when asked about what was shown they switched the gender to make stereotypical gendered behaviour, providing evidence children do have internal schemas that can influence recall and act as default expectations, supports Gender Schema Theory because it shows children actively organise and filter information based on their gender schemas.

AO3- only focuses on cognitive explanations

it doesn’t fully explain the biological influences on gender behaviour. Evolutionary theories suggest that some behaviours, like males being more aggressive and females being more caring, come from innate biological drives, for example Alexandr and Hines found male monkeys preferred playing with toy cars and females preferred playing with dolls with no prior experience, showing the biological factors at play challenging the schema theory as if schemas were the only factors affecting gender behaviour there would be more variation across species/cultures