Cognitive explanations of gender development: Kohlberg’s theory and gender schema theory

What did Kohlberg argue?

• Gender development (including gender identity and roles) is determined by a child’s level of thinking and understanding

What happens at 7 years old?

• Children have the cognitive ability to understand that gender is fixed and constant

• They develop schemas of appropriate and inappropriate same sex behaviour & characteristics such as clothing and hairstyles etc.

How do gender schemas and gender roles develop?

• Develop through environmental interactions

  • Children actively seek out and imitate same sex models and focus on other gender information of how to behave like a boy or girl - self-socialisation

Name the 3 stages of gender development

1. Gender identity

2. Gender stability

3. Gender constancy

Describe stage one: Gender identity

• Occurs between 2-3 years old

  • When a child understands they are a boy or girl - understanding stretch much beyond simple labelling

  • They believe gender can change

    • E.g., a boy may say “when I grow up I will be a mummy”

Describe stage 2: Gender stability

• Occurs between 3-5 years old

  • The child understands that their gender is fixed over time e.g., boys become men and girls become women

    • They are unable to apply this logic to other people and other situations

    • Become confused by changes in appearance - e.g., saying a man with long hair is a woman

Describe stage 3: Gender constancy

• Occurs between 6-7 years old

  • Child understands that gender remains fixed over time and different situations

  • Children are cognitively ready to develop gender roles and behaviour

Describe Slaby and Frey (1975)

• Children were presented with split screen images of males and females performing the same tasks

  • Younger children spent roughly the same amount of time watching both

  • Children the gender constancy stage spent longer looking at the model who was the same sex as them

    • Children actively seek out gender appropriate models when they reach the constancy stage

There is supporting evidence for Kohlberg’s theory. Describe how this is a strength

• McConaghy (1979): dressed a doll in transparent clothes so there was a discrepancy between its clothing and its genitals

  • 3-4 year old children (gender stability stage) decided on the doll’s gender on the basis of clothing

• Munroe et al (1984): found that Kohlberg’s 3 stages of gender identity development was similar and occurred in the same order in 6 cultures (Nepal, Kenya etc.)

• This is a strength since the studies demonstrate that the stages proposed by Kohlberg are universal and occur in the same order in many cultures

There is contradictory evidence for Kohlberg’s theory. Describe how this is a weakness

• Martin and Little (1980): found that children under the age of 4 (showed no signs of gender stability or constancy) still demonstrates strong sex-typed behaviour and attitudes

• Bussey and Bandura: found that children as young as 4 said they felt good about playing with gender-appropriate toys and bad about playing with gender-inappropriate toys

• This is a weakness since the findings dispute Kohlberg’s claim that children only begin to demonstrate gender-appropriate behaviour once they reach the gender constancy stage

There are methodological problems with Kohlberg’s theory. Describe how this is a weakness

• Kohlberg’s theory was developed using interviews with children who were as young as 2 years

  • Children may have lacked the vocabulary needed to express their understanding of gender despite the questions being tailored towards their age group

• This is a weakness since it may have lowered the validity of the interviews so the findings are not representative of the children’s understanding of gender

Boys tend to show stronger sex-typing than girls. Describe how this is a weakness

• Males are less flexible than females - these differences are difficult to explain by Kohlberg’s theory

  • If gender development was due to maturation, there would be no difference in male and female gender identity

    • This suggests the less flexibility is due to socialisation and psychologists have found that fathers react more negatively towards their son’s feminine play than mothers did

    • Suggesting environmental influences such as this could be responsible for boys being less flexible and showing greater resistance to opposite-sex activities

• This is a weakness since social explanations may be a better explanation of gender development that cognitive

Define gender schema

• An organised set of attitudes, beliefs and values stored in the memory about gender behaviour

What does the gender schema theory propose?

• We learn gender schema about what is appropriate and inappropriate gender behaviour through our observations and interactions with others

  • Develop from about 2 years old after basic gender identity is established

  • Children are most interested in and therefore focus on schemas which match their in-group gender identity and avoid out-group gender schema

Describe in-group and out-group schemas

• In-group schemas - develop concerning expectations and attitudes about one’s own gender

• Out-group schemas - about the other gender

  • Gender schemas provide the basis for what is perceived to be appropriate and inappropriate gender role behaviour

  • They also determine what information pay attention children pay attention to

Describe how gender schemas change

• They change and become more complex as a child’s cognitive abilities develop

  • By adolescence, gender schemas become more flexible as children understand that gender roles are socially constructed

  • Many teenagers become less sex-typed and more androgynous

There is supporting evidence for gender schema theory. Describe how this is a strength

• Martin and Halverson (1983): found that children under the age of six were more likely to remember photographs of gender consistent behaviours than gender inconsistent behaviours when tested a week later

  • Children tended to change the sex of the person carrying out the gender - inconsistent activities in the photographs when asked to recall them which supports that memory is distorted to fit in with existing gender schema

• Martin and Little (1980): they found that children under the age of four (who showed no signs of stability of constancy) still demonstrated strong sex typed behaviour and attitudes

• This is a strength since it supports gender schema theory whilst contradicting Kohlberg’s theory

The key assumptions of the gender schema theory are unsupported. Describe how this is a weakness.

• The theory suggests it should be possible to change a child’s schemas - by adolescence gender schemas become more flexible but this has been shown to be very difficult

  • E.g., people may have strong views regarding sex equality and division of labour in the home but this fails to show in their day-to-day behaviour

• This is a weakness as it demonstrates that the attitudes do not necessarily lead to behaviour but gender schema theory states this - this questions the validity of the theory

The gender schema theory exaggerates the importance of schemas. Describe how this is a weakness

• The theory does not pay sufficient attention to social factors such as the roles of parental influence and the role of reward and punishment

  • E.g., a girl may be punished for being assertive and dominant whereas a boy may be praised for showing these qualities

• This is a weakness since it would be inappropriate to conclude that schemas alone are responsible for gender role development and that other factors should be taken into consideration

Gender schema theory and Kohlberg’s theory complement one another. Describe how this is a weakness

• Stangor and Ruble (1989) argued that gender schemas and gender constancy may be two different processes

  • Gender schemas explain how information is organised and sorted in memory

  • Gender constancy is related to motivation - once a child has established their concept of what it means to be a boy or girl they are then motivated to find out more

• This is a weakness since it would perhaps be more appropriate to look to combine these gender theories to provide a wider understanding of gender development