Cognitive people explanation of gender development: gender schema theory

Gender schema

A mental representation of everything we know about being a girl or a boy

Key principles:

1. We have schemas for both genders- the gender we identify with is know as our ‘in-group’. From an early age, we focus on our ‘in-group’ schemas in order to learn about what is appropriate for their gender

2. Gender schemas are very resilient- when a child sees information that doesn’t fit with their gender schemas, they discard it (e.g. seeing a male nurse on a TV show would be ignored so it doesn’t alter their ‘in-group’ schema)

3. Young children often play with peers of their own gender- children of the same genders are their ‘in-group’- they favour their ‘in-group’ to learn gender-appropriate behaviours to improve self-esteem and strengthen their schemas.

Similarities to Kohlberg’s theory

1. Thinking is the basis of children’s development of gender

2. Children’s understanding of gender increases with age

Differences to Kohlberg’s theory

1. Once children have achieved gender identity (age 2-3), they start scanning the environment for information to add to their gender schema, Kohlberg said it doesn’t happen til (6-7)

Strength of gender schema

1. Research support- Martin and Halverson presented boys and girls with drawings of stereotypical gendered activities, they found that children remembered images that related to their ‘in-groups’.

Weaknesses of gender schema theory

1. Individual differences- GST cannot explain why children with similar environments respond differently to gender appropriate behaviours. For example, why some girls like action figures

2. Gender bias- girls are more willing to do male activities than the other way round. Thus the development of gender schemas may be different per gender.