Gender and Moral Development Overview

Gender and Moral Development

Overview of Lecture Content

  • Course: PSYC 3500
  • Term: Winter 2026
  • Instructor: Dr. Carolyn Baer

Key Questions

  • How do we decide who we should be?

Lecture Outline

  • Nurture Influences on Gender
  • Nature Influences on Gender
  • Morality
  • Antisocial Behavior
  • Prosocial Behavior
  • Deep Dive into Infant Morality

Nurture Influences on Gender

  • Understanding Gender
    • Infants form gendered categories of other people.
    • Infants differentiate male from female voices by 6 months of age.
    • Infants differentiate male from female faces by 9-11 months.
    • Toddlers can label their own gender by 2.5 years.
    • Between 3-6 years, children move from perceptually-based features to an understanding of an invariant internal gender identity (known as gender constancy).

Sources of Gendered Messages

  • Discussed the role of socialization in shaping gender perception.
  • Reference to a video related to socialization effects.

Self-Socialization

  • Example: "Yellow is a girl colour"
  • Study by Yeung & Wong (2018) investigated if children use gender categories for self-socialization.
    • 5-8 year-olds rated preferences for various toys.
    • Children showed preference for toys in the same-gender color, indicating self-selection based on gender identity.

Effects of Socialization

  • Stereotypes regarding brilliance for males and warmth for females emerge by 6 years (Bian et al., 2017).
    • Boys tend to label boys/men as "really, really smart" more frequently than girls do.
    • Girls tend to label girls/women as "really, really nice" more than boys do as they age.
  • By age 6, girls are less likely than boys to choose a difficult game when it is labeled as being for "really, really smart" kids.
  • Self-socialization extends beyond toy preferences.

Changing Stereotypes

  • Questions posed: How can we present counter-stereotypical ideas to children?
    • Example phrase: “Girls are good at soccer too!”
    • Consideration of the impression this gives regarding soccer skills.
  • Counter-stereotypical generic sentences can still promote essentialist thinking, leading children to view gender as a significant marker for traits.
    • More effective strategy: use specific individual examples (e.g., “This girl is good at soccer”).

Are Stereotypes Warranted?

  • Generally, stereotypes are not warranted.
    • Key point of the Gender Similarities Hypothesis indicates that genders are more similar than different.
  • Main real differences are in preferences such as toys and clothing, with most other differences being minor.

Recap of Nurture Influences on Gender

  • Infants begin detecting gender cues in their first year and can categorize their gender verbally by 2.5 years.
  • Children receive gender messages from their environment, influencing their preferences and activities consistent with gender.
  • More effective stereotype change strategies should focus on specific individuals rather than general categories.

Nature Influences on Gender

  • Reminder that sex comprises biological parameters such as:
    • Chromosomes
    • Hormones
    • Genitalia
    • Secondary sex characteristics
  • Gender is defined as socially constructed parameters which include:
    • Identity
    • Roles
    • Stereotypes
  • Culturally variable aspects of gender must be considered.

Sex and Gender Development

  • Observations show that by age 2, children engage in gender-typed play:
    • Boys typically engage in activities like building and physical adventure.
    • Girls often play with dolls, dress-up, and family routines.
  • The influence of socialization is seen as early gendered messages are encountered by children at this age; evaluating the role of biology.

Gender in Monkeys

  • Reference to a video examining gender behavior in monkeys, indicating biological influences on behavior irrespective of socialization.

Transgender Children

  • Characteristics of transgender children:
    • Display persistent, consistent, and insistent identification with a different gender than their assigned sex.
    • Gender identity often recognized by preschool age.
    • Developmental patterns for transgender children mirror those of cisgender peers, including achieving gender constancy.

Trans Youth Project Findings

  • A study tracked 317 transgender children against 218 siblings and 377 cisgender children (matched by age and gender).
  • Found that 80% of gender identities remained stable over time, with many shifting from a binary to a non-binary understanding.

Gender in Intersex Individuals

  • Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome:
    • Male XY babies with malfunctioning androgen receptors may develop female or feminized genitalia and often identify as women.
  • Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia:
    • Female XX babies born with high androgen levels may have masculinized genitalia and often identify as women despite masculine preferences.

Strengths of Nature vs. Nurture Perspectives

  • The biological features associated with sex can predict certain gendered features, with a notable example being toy preferences developed by age 2, observable even in monkeys.
  • Preferences among transgender youth for their identified gender are stable and persist despite contrary socialization.
  • Variations in androgen levels in intersex conditions relate to differing gendered preferences.
  • This underscores a nuanced interplay of both nature and nurture in shaping gender identity.

Morality Development

  • Case study scenario presented: A woman commits a bank robbery but donates the money to an orphanage. The moral dilemma involves whether to inform the authorities of her identity, risking the orphanage's closure.

Social Domain Theory

  • Key insight involves identifying three primary domains of influence on moral decisions:
    • Moral Domain: Universal moral principles (e.g., “You shouldn’t hurt others”).
    • Societal Domain: Social rules and conventions (e.g., “On Wednesdays, we wear pink”).
    • Personal Domain: Individual preferences (e.g., “I like this person better”).

Reasons for Moral Behavior

  • Discussed the evolutionary perspective on morality as well as social learning perspectives that explain why individuals choose moral actions.

Antisocial Behavior

  • Antisocial behavior defined as actions aimed at harming others, observable as early as 12 months of age and primarily driven by a desire to gain something.
  • Aggression typically decreases during preschool years as language skills improve.
  • Children with a hostile attribution bias display higher aggression rates, often justifying their actions through perceived provocations.

Hostile Attribution Bias

  • Some children are predisposed to interpret others' behaviors as hostile and may engage in reactive aggression (an aggression reaction to perceived threats).
  • Questions arise regarding who defines original aggressions, complicating delineation of aggressor and victim.

Lying in Children

  • Most children tend to lie when given opportunities to cheat, indicating that lying emerges early in development.
  • Reference to a study by Talwar & Lee (2008) illustrating the prevalence of lying with statistical outcomes presented.

Variability in Antisocial Behavior

  • Children in punitive environments, with harsh punishments, may exhibit more lying behavior (Talwar & Lee, 2011).
  • Praise for intelligence can lead to increased cheating behavior (Zhao et al., 2018).
  • Some attitudes towards lying are for prosocial reasons, like attempting to spare someone's feelings (white lies) (Talwar & Lee, 2002).

Summary of Antisocial Behavior

  • Aggressive behavior in children is a means to gain resources and starts early in lifecycle; it declines with improved language skills.
  • Hostile attribution bias can contribute to reactive aggression.
  • Early lying behavior develops within a context, where motives may sometimes favor prosocial outcomes despite antisocial actions.

Prosocial Behavior

  • Reference to the Inequity Game study:
    • Children interact with distributions that can be equal, advantageous, or disadvantageous.
    • Children have options to accept or reject unfair distributions, revealing attitudes towards fairness.

Findings from Inequity Game

  • All ages of children rejected unfair and disadvantageous options.
  • Only children older than eight rejected advantageous options that were viewed as unfair.

Fairness Considerations

  • Fairness matters to children but is influenced by personal perspectives, indicating heightened aversion to disadvantageous outcomes as opposed to advantageous ones.
  • Merit-based fairness judgments arise as children mature: importance of effort increases over time (Noh, D’Esterre & Killen, 2019).
  • The observation of fairness constructs the “veil of fairness” concept (Shaw et al., 2014).

Helping Behavior in Children

  • Children show intrinsic motivation to help others from a young age (around 14-18 months).
    • Actions are not solely driven by rewards but can include personal cost or effort.
    • Helping behaviors are particularly rewarding for children.
    • Toddlers demonstrate increased joy post-helping, especially when making sacrifices (Aknin, Hamlin, & Dunn, 2012).

Summary of Prosocial Behavior

  • Children's ideas about fairness, especially regarding personal relevance, develop in diverse cultural contexts.
  • Factors like merit and oversight influence fairness judgments, suggesting strategic thinking concerning fairness.
  • Children display a genuine joy in helping others, motivated by intrinsic satisfaction rather than extrinsic rewards.

Final Announcements

  • Reminders for upcoming quizzes and reflection submissions.
  • Study for forthcoming exams focusing on lectures 7-10 only, with study guides available.
  • Seminar discussions scheduled for W02/W04 groups this week, with a summary due on Friday!