gender development

Question 1

what is gender?

Answer 1

• Gender: the individual’s subjective sense of belonging to the male or female category or indeed neither of the two
• the primary category by which individuals identify themselves as well as being identified by others
• may determine self concept

Question 2

Briefly describe the milestones of gender development from infancy to elementary school years.

Answer 2

–infancy

-toddlers: labeling oneself as a “boy” or “girl” can begin as early as age 18 months; begin to exhibit gender-specific behavior

Question 3

how do infants and young children perceive gender? Can you provide relevant research examples?

Answer 3

—infancy: btw males and females by months; activity matching in 2nd yr (EX: baby makes connection that the voice matches either to the woman or the man)

-preschool & kindergarten: toy and play preferences (EX: Jacklin & Maccoby= by 2 1/2 children prefer playing with children of their own gender)

Question 4

How do gendered behaviors emerge?

Answer 4

–children prefer to play with toys that match their gender

-consciousness awareness of the biological basis of gender

Question 5

What is the essentialist bias?

Answer 5

–Children in middle childhood believe Chris would act like a typical girl (be stereotypically feminine)

–Children over 8 believe Chris would act like a girl but understand that the environment might influence her behavior and make her act more masculine

Question 6

What are the basic principles of the biological accounts of gender development?

Answer 6

• -chromosomal differences
• sexual differentiation
• hormonal differences
• behavioral differences: girls that produce too much androgen, behaved more stereotypically masculine

Question 7

What are the basic principles of the social learning theories?

Answer 7

• -observational learning
• children imitate same-sex models more
• children imitate models engaged in “gender-appropriate” activities
• parents reinforce gender-appropriate behavior in young children

Question 8

What role does the family play in gender development? Discuss findings by Rust et al. (2000).

Answer 8

-boys with an older brother or without their older brother showed a slight edge for showing male stereotypical behaviors

—if a boy has an older sister in the household, their male stereotype behaviors shown is lower

Question 9

What are the cognitive theories of gender development?

Answer 9

• Kohlberg claims that ‘gender’ is a concept

- the child first learns of the concept ‘girl’ or ‘boy’ in the same way s/he learns about other concepts

Question 10

What are Kohlberg’s three stages of gender development?

Answer 10

• gender identity
• gender stability: Children think that gender is consistent over time, but not across situations. Appearance plays a factor
• gender constancy/ consistency: This involves a kind of conservation. The child understands that gender remains the same despite changes in other characteristics, e.g. age, size, hairstyle, clothes etc.

Question 11

What do we mean with gender schema theory? How do children learn about gender according to this theory?

Answer 11

-gender schema: • Mental structure that incorporate what children know about gender and associations which guide our behavior
• They emerge with gender identity

-children learn by categorizing objects as being for boys and girls based on stereotypes will show behaviors that match more their gender and show more gender stereotyped behaviors

Question 12

How has the field’s perception of gender identity in transgender children changed?

Answer 12

• PAST: these children were diagnose as confused or delayed in the gender development and should be treated
• NOW: transgender is a normal variant of gender identity, children are expressing their true identity

Question 13

How are transgender children compared to cisgender children and siblings?

Answer 13

• people who were born with one sex, and transition to another gender, showed stereotypical behaviors that matched their new gender
• EX: girl transitions to a boy, will show stereotypical boy behaviors and beliefs like boy being born a boy instead of a girl

Question 14

what to tell studies to tell us so far?

Answer 14

• both transgender children and siblings understand the fluidity of gender,
• transgender children believe that their gender at birth did not match their true gender

Question 15

Why is sex different from gender ?

Answer 15

• Sex: means biological maleness/femaleness

- determined by chromosomes