Culture and media influences on gender

Question 1

what does culture refer to?

Answer 1

The rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people

Question 2

what does media refer to?

Answer 2

tools used to store and distribute information, e.g books, films, TV commercials

Question 3

How do cultural differences impact gender development?

Answer 3

• in the different ways that gender expectations vary from one culture to another
• for example it is thought that women are more conformist then men across all cultures
• Berry et al in 2002 reported that conformity is highest in sedentary societies (groups that are not nomadic) with a correlation of +7.8
• if culture influences gender then that suggests that gender is learnt
• evidence that gender role behaviour is consistent across all gender suggests that it could be inherited

Question 4

What are the APFC of Magaret Meed’s 1935 gender study?

Answer 4

• Classic study of gender differences
• provided evidence of culture role differences
• Arapesh men and women were more gentle, responsive and cooperative
• Mundugumor men and women were more violent and aggressive seeking power and position
• Tchambuli exhibited gender roles differently the women were dominant, impersonal and managerial whereas the men were emotionally dependent

Question 5

How does the media influence gender?

Answer 5

• the main way that gender behaviours are learnt is through observation
• in society children are surrounded by many models, these models provide examples of what constitutes as masculine or feminine behaviour of which a child imitates
• children are more likely to imitate same sex models as they are able to identify with them
• they encode their behaviour and imitate them.
• they may do this regardless of whether this behaviour is appropriate or not
• the people around the child will respond to the behaviour it imitates with either reinforcement or punishment with it likely being that the child will be reinforced for acting in gender appropriate ways and punished for not
• the child can also learn through vicarious reinforcement as they take into account what happens to other people and decide whether or not they should copy their actions

Question 6

Name and describe two studies that support the influence of the media in gender

Answer 6

• Bussey and Bandura in 1999 found that in the media women are more likely to be portrayed as dependent, unambitious and emotional ways as opposed to men (reinforces sex-role stereotypes)
• Hodges et al in 1991 found that men are more likely to be shown exercising control over events whereas women are shown to be at the mercy of others