gender schema theory - cognitive

Gender Schema theory

Developed in 1981 by Sandra Bem (of BSRI) and updated 1983 by Carol Martin and Charles Halverson, this theory is also cognitive and so agrees with Kohlberg that as we mature so does our understanding of gender, it also agrees that the person selects which information to turn to schema.

Gender schema

: Is the collection of information about what it means to be male and female, this directs the person to show gender appropriate behaviour and in contrast to Kohlberg the child begins to collect this from 2/3ish (not from 6/constancy).

Schema

directs behaviour and self understanding: children use their own experiences to create basic understanding of gender egocentrism - "I wear blue, I am a boy, so boys wear blue), around 6 (when they become decentred) they will start collecting schema based on their environment and experiences that is more accurate.

Martin and Halverson's study

Aim: To investigate if children ignore information they regard as incorrect/unimportant to their gender
Procedure: Children shown 16 photos for 10 seconds each and asked to identify if it is a male or female. Half photos show the actors carrying out gender consistent behaviour and half show gender inconsistent behaviour.
Findings: Children remembered the gender consistent images better, especially their own gender. Not many mistakes, but 84% of mistakes were on the inconsistent photos.
Conclusion: Children are likely to misremember or disregard information that does not fit with their existing schema.

In groups and out-groups

People have better schemas for their own gender (in-group) than others (out-group), this is simply because they are more interested in fitting in. Eventually at around age 8 this "fitting in" is vital for self esteem, with it coming directly from how well they feel they "fit" the in-group (their gender).

Gender Schema ( and how this relates to gender appropriate behaviour)

Schema are mental constructs that develop via experience and are used to organise knowledge around particular topics.
Gender Schema refers to a generalised representation of everything we know in relation to gender and gender-appropriate behaviour.

Gender identity (and how this contrast with Kohlberg's view)

According to Martin and Halverson, when a child is in a stage of gender identity around the age of 2-3 years, he/she will begin to actively engage in their understanding of gender as they will start searching the environment for information that encourages the development of gender schema.

How Gender schema determines behaviour

Gender schemas are mostly formed around stereotypes (such as girls wearing pink clothes and boys wearing blue) and these provide a framework that directs experience as well as the child's understanding of itself (I am a girl so pink is my favourite colour).

What do children do with information that does not with their schema?

By 6 years of age, children have a fixed and stereotypical understanding of gender-appropriate behaviour, therefore they begin to misremember/disregard information which is inconsistent/ does not fit with their existing schema.

Ingroups and outgroups

As children have a better understanding of the schema appropriate to their own gender (the ingroup), they pay more attention to information relevant to their gender identity, rather than the opposite gender (the outgroup). Ingroup identity supports the self-esteem in a child. It is only by the age of 8 years, that children begin to develop schemas for both genders.

Smith & LLoyd

Aim: To investigate if adults make toy choice based on the "gender" of the baby
Procedure: Little babies were put in blue or pink clothes and participants were told the baby was the opposite gender, and then told to use some toys to play with the child. They wanted to see which toys they would give the children.
Findings: The adult participants were more likely to give the "girls" the dolls and the "boys" the trucks
Conclusion: Adults start to reinforce gender identities in little babies based on their "gender."

AO2

Beatrix actively engages in the understanding of her own gender at the age of 3 years which relates to Martin and Halverson's Gender Schema theory (gender identity of being a girl).
Her girl schema is an organised representation of concepts which consists of all the knowledge she has of girls and how they look/behave. Her gender schema is formed around a stereotype that girls play with dolls and toy kitchens, therefore this framework provides an understanding of her own behaviour. Beatrix pays more attention to the ingroup, meaning the information relevant to her own gender, therefore she talks to her mother about other girls in the nursery and hardly ever mentions boys (outgroup).

AO3: empirical support

P: Empirical support for innate preferences/schema
E: Animal studies using monkeys - monkeys were given a choice of "girl" or "boy" toys - male monkeys ran to trucks and female monkeys to dolls.
J: Offers support - even if anthropomorphism support - for the idea there are gender specific preferences... at least with toys (nature).

AO3: nature/nurture

P: Support for the idea that adults gender stereotype infants i.e nurture/environment creates gender
E: Babies were dressed in pink if they were boys and blue if they were girls and mislead participants to see if they would gender stereotype their toy choices - they did.
J: This proves that actually it may well be environmental factors which influence toy choices (nurture) .

AO3: supported by research

P: One strength of GST is that it is supported by research.
E: Martin and Halverson tested gender schema theory by asking children to recall pictures of people depicting a variety of professions. They found that children under the age of 5 recalled more gender consistent pictures (e.g male firefighters) in comparison to gender inconsistent ones (a male nurse).
J: This shows how by under the age of 5 children have a fixed idea of stereotypes of what roles are appropriate for each gender, increasing the validity of gender schema theory.

AO3: martin & halverson

P: Furthermore,
E: Martin and Halverson found that where children were shown schema consistent pictures (e.g girl playing with a doll) or schema inconsistent pictures (e..g a girl playing with a gun), the children distorted the information and reported schema - consistent image (e.g a boy playing with a gun).
J: this suggests that children disregard information that is inconsistent with their schema which is what GST predicts.

AO3: more comprehensive

P: One strength of GST is that it is a more comprehensive cognitive theory for gender development.
E: Martin and Little reported that children under the age of 4 showed no signs of gender stability or gender constancy. However, despite this lack of constancy shown in children, they do display strong gender stereotypes about what girls are and are not allowed to do.
J: This suggests that Kohlberg's theory might not have been accurate, and instead gender stereotypes are formed more in line with GST's assertions.

AO3; cultural differences

P: One strength of GST is that it accounts for cultural differences in the development of gender.
E: The psychodynamic approach suggests gender identity is driven by unconscious biological urges. Gender schema theory, by contrast, can explain how gender schema are transmitted between members of society and how cultural differences in gender stereotypes come about.
J: This can therefore explain how different cultures have different beliefs about what's appropriate for men/women, boys/girls.

AO3: role of the individual

P: One real weakness of the theory is that it places too much of a role on the individual child in shaping their own gender identity
E: In theory a child could accidently collect schema about the wrong gender and try to identify with the wrong gender, this does not happen very often and as such we can assume that reinforcement and punishments may play some role in shaping which ideas children take notice of. (Smith and Lloyd) - SLT makes more role
J: Therefore this theory is weakened by the fact that it ignores the role of social factors in shaping the child's gender like SLT does. = Ignores the role of environment beyond the child.

Children are more likely to recall photographs of gender appropriate behaviour over gender-inappropriate behaviours.