11/29/2017. Gender is salient and, not surprisingly, important. Boys and girls have play preferences: By 4 years of age:

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1 is salient and, not surprisingly, important. Boys and girls have play preferences: By 4 years of age: same sex playfriends social orientations (type of play) What causes these preferences? How does sex-typed knowledge change over time? Football, Bentota, Sri Lanka, 1998 (oil on canvas), Andrew Macara / Private Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library is salient and, not surprisingly, important. Boys and girls have play preferences: By 4 years of age: same sex playfriends social orientations (type of play) What causes these preferences? How does sex-typed knowledge change over time? Does society cause children to think about themselves as masculine or feminine? Are biological factors at work? Are there real cognitive and social sex/gender differences? Men: Aggressive Competitive High spatial and math skills Women: Passive Nurturing Socially adept Verbally skilled Do estrogen and testosterone affect gender-related behavior? 1

2 Terminology We will use the term gender and sex : 1. Sex implies based differences 2. invokes explanations based on. PRESCHOOL GENDER & FAMILY STEREOTYPES Do mommies feed the baby? Scoring Sheet If yes, how much of the time is it mommies who feed the baby? Some of the Time Most of the Time Do daddies feed the baby? Do mommies wash the dishes? Do mommies make the most money? Theories of Development How much of the time is it daddies who make the most money? Some of the Time Most of the Time Do daddies yell at the kids? Biological androgens (testosterone) - Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia Brain lateralization and differences in gray and white matter Social learning theory Evolutionary theory Do mommies spank the kids? 2

3 The Evolutionary Perspective Studies of play behavior in boys and girls show sex differences consistent with the evolutionally perspective, with more rough-and-tumble play in boys and more play parenting girls Maintains that sex differences in behavior emerged because they offer reproductive advantages Good spatial reasoning helps men to track animals Females tendency to build strong alliances with other females could have insured assistance with childcare, benefiting their offspring Theories of Development Biological androgens (testosterone) - Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia Brain lateralization and differences in gray and white matter Social learning theory Evolutionary theory Cognitive-developmental theories Kohlberg s theory Stage theory 2-3 years: identity 4 years: stability (external cues) 7 years: constancy (internal cues) -schema theory Schema Theory Carol Martin and Charles Halverson (1981) proposed to explain children's gender development. -typed interests emerge after gender constancy is achieved. Motivation to enact gender-typed behavior begins soon after children can label other people's and their own gender during toddlerhood. Children's understanding of gender develops through the construction of gender schemas. 3

4 Bonnie Kamin/ PhotoEdit 11/29/2017 Schema Theory Ingroup/outgroup gender schema Used to classify other people as being either the same as me or not Form an own-gender schema consisting of detailed knowledge about how to do things that are consistent with one's own gender Are responsible for bias in processing and remembering information about gender According to gender schema theory, children classify new objects and activities as for boys or for girls. They tend to investigate objects and activities that are relevant to their sex and to ignore those that are associated with the other sex. Schema Theory Cognitive intervention program (Bigler and Liben, 2002) Elementary school children learned that interests and abilities are important for jobs in gender-free examples. stereotyping decreased and memory for gender-inconsistent stimuli increased. Interventions typically fade after intervention. Children's stereotyped beliefs about gender can be changed through cognitive intervention programs. Sex Stereotypes and Sex Roles Sex stereotypes: widely held beliefs about characteristics associated with one sex as opposed to the other. Sex roles: reflection of these stereotypes in behaviors regarded as culturally appropriate for males and females. Adults, clearly, have sex stereotypes: Male (instrumental) traits: Female (expressive) traits: 4

5 Children s Display of Sex-Stereotypes By 2, children have labels boy, girl, mommy, daddy. Children associate these labels with activities and behaviors. By 2½, boys and girls associate with gender: Toys, clothing, tools, household objects, games, occupations. By 2 years: children choose same-sex as opposed to oppositesex toys (Fagot, 1978). This knowledge is rigid: shown a Scottish man with a kilt, boys say men don t wear skirts! Changes in Sex Stereotyping in later childhood Awareness of sex stereotypes increase but: children realize that activities and behavior are. Male traits learned before female traits. By 2nd grade: children believe: reading, arts, and social skills are feminine athletics, math, and mechanics are masculine. Changes in Sex Stereotyping in later childhood Awareness of sex stereotypes increase but: children realize that activities and behavior are. Male traits learned before female traits. By 2nd grade: children believe: reading, arts, and social skills are feminine athletics, math, and mechanics are masculine. Influences on Stereotyping and - Role Adoption The case for biology: Is there cross-cultural similarity in gender typing? Most societies promote traits in males and traits in females but diversity in magnitude of differences. There are, however, few cultural reversals of traditional roles: Mead (1935, 1963): New Guinea men and women were cooperative and nurturing. But. 5

6 Sex hormones and gender-role adoption The case for environment Play styles: animals exposed to sex hormones are affected in play styles androgen (male sex) increase male-type play. Maccoby: hormonal effects extend to humans: Perceptions and expectations of adults Baby X: adults see qualities fitting baby s artificially assigned sex. Indistinguishable male and female rated differently by parents: At 4 years: children spend X3 more time with same sex play friends By 6 years: this is 11 to 1. Sons: Firmer Larger featured More alert Stronger. Hormones affect play styles: rough-and-tumble play in boys calm and gentle actions among girls. Daughters: Softer, Finer featured More delicate & inattentive. Children chose partners with similar play styles. Treatment by parents: Are parents guided by stereotypes? A meta-analysis of 172 studies: differences in way parents socialize boys and girls. But: younger children receive more direct training in gender roles. Infancy & early childhood: 1. Parents encourage gender appropriate play behaviors. 2. Rooms (bedrooms) decorated differently. Middle childhood: Parents demand greater independence from boys. Parents interrupt girls, but let boys finish a sentence. Parents rate girls higher in English and boys higher in math and sports: but beliefs stronger than real differences. Boys allowed to stray farther from home. Girls have cleaning chores, boys given yard work & errands. 6

7 Who engages in differential treatment? Fathers: encourage gender-appropriate behavior and place pressure on sons to achieve. Teachers: reinforce feminine behaviors (obedience) may create discomfort in boys but has LT consequences for girls. Peers: reinforce one another for gender appropriate behavior, and develop different gender related social styles. Siblings: with mixed-sex siblings, older child chooses toys. To what extent do boys and girls really differ in gender stereotyped attributes? Maccoby and Jacklin (1974): meta-analysis of 1600 studies. Few large differences: convincing evidence in only three: This graph depicts a typical distribution of scores for males and females on a hypothetical dimension. There is a statistically significant difference in average performance, but the difference is very small and there is considerable overlap between the scores for the two groups. This pattern is typical for most psychological sex differences. Physical Growth The changes associated with puberty affect adolescents body image, or perceptions of and feelings about their own bodies Roughly half of the boys and two thirds of the girls dissatisfied with their bodies, with boys wishing to be pumped up and girls, to lose weight Puberty also affects adolescents interactions with the opposite sex 7

8 To what extent do boys and girls really differ in gender stereotyped attributes? Maccoby and Jacklin (1974): meta-analysis of 1600 studies. Few large differences: convincing evidence in only three: Verbal abilities: Girls develop language earlier and vocabulary grows quicker. Girls score higher on reading and writing tests in school. But, difference has declined since 1970s. Spatial abilities: (ability to mentally manipulate visual info). Males have an advantage for mental rotation. Males also better on spatial perception tasks (e.g., which bottle has horizontal water line). Boys slower maturation leads to stronger right-hemispheric specialization in adolescence Prenatal exposure to androgens: girls who receive more androgen do better on mental rotation. Why difference? 1. Left cerebral hemisphere develops quicker. 2. Reading seen as a feminine behavior. Mathematical Abilities Male advantage by 13, very evident by high school. Only on tests of mathematical reasoning, complex word problems and geometry. On SAT: 2X more boys than girls score above X more boys than girls scored more than Biological: Caused by spatial skill differences? 2. But social pressure pushes girls away from maths. Cognitive Abilities Males are more vulnerable than females to developmental disorders of mental function BUT: Females are more prone to affect disorders, panic disorders, phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, and severe depression Males are more susceptible to antisocial personality disorder and substance abuse 8

9 The Case of Aggression Girls are more likely than boys to be empathic, caring, and prosocial, and are also likely to show less aggressive behavior Girls exhibit less verbal and physical aggression than boys do Reminders Paper 3 due on Tuesday, December 5 4 th exam on Thursday, December 7 Girls, however, demonstrate more relational aggression than boys 9