Week 11 Flashcards
Def: Sex
Biological difference
-XX vs XY
Def: Gender
All other characteristics related to maleness and femaleness
- Social roles
- Identity expressions
Def: Gender stereotype
beliefs about how men and women differ socially, cognitively and behaviourally
Are stereotypes universal
There is variability across cultures
ARE MEN AGGRESSIVE
- CAN: > 90% yes
- Nigeria: < 65 % yes
ARE WOMEN EMOTIONAL
- CAN: 98%
- Nigeria 60-65%
GENDER STEREOTYPES REFLECT CULTURAL EXPECTATIONS MORE THAN BIOLOGICAL DIFFERECES BETWEEN SEXES
Explain the student stereotype experiment
- Identical online course delivery with one taught by male and the other by female
- Measured variation in course evaluations
- Ratings were higher for male professors in instructor, course and use of technology
FINDINGS
- Rated female personality higher
- Female entertainment higher
- Refered to male as prof and female as teacher
- Female appearance rated higher on rate my prof
Stereotype development
- 12 month olds look equally long at gender-stereotyped toys
- 18 month olds look longer at stereotypical toys for their gender
- by age 2 they look longer at unexpected gender roles
Inherent gender bias of mothers on babies crawling behaviour
METHODS
- Researched mothers and 11- month olds
- mom can increase slant of slope from 0 to 90 degrees
- asked steepest slope baby can crawl down and steepest they will attempt to crawl down
FINDINGS
- No gender difference in crawling ability or attempt
- On average, Mothers underestimate females ability and attempt and overestimate male attempts
- There were over and underestimations on attempts for both genders
self development and gender biases
- By age 4-6 years most children have a stable schema of boys and girls
- School-age children tend to engage in gender-stereotyped activities and engage socially with children from their own gender
- With sexual maturity gender intensification occurs
Cognitive gender differences
- Girls’ behaviour may be better-suited for school
- Boys have better spatial abilities; orientation in space without landmarks
- MYTH: girls are better at language, boys better at math
” Which person do you think is really really smart?” experiment
and
“Which person do you think is really really nice?”
SMART
- At age 5, slight preference for own difference
- By age 7, boys maintain gender bias and girls start to choose men
NICE
- At age 5 no difference
- By age 7, bias towards females
CONCLUSION
-children assimilate society’s expectations about gender roles at an early age
Social Cognitive Theory
- Rewards & Punishment shape children’s concepts of gender and sex-role behaviours
- Children learn form society what it means to be a boy or a girl
Kohlberg’s Stage Theory
- Gender identity: by age 2 children categorize themselves as a boy or girl; by age 3 can discriminate anatomical differences
- Gender stability: age 4-5, children recognize that gender is a lifetime trait
- Gender constancy: age 5-7 children recognize that sex does not change even when appearances are unexpected
Gender Schema Theory
Development of identity not inherently different for gender than for any other in-group vs out-group distinction
- Children try to understand the world through categorization
Biological perspective
- Evolutionary pressures may have selected different traits for males vs. females
- MZ twins demonstrate higher correlation for preference for sex-typical toys relative to DZ twins
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
- Genetic disorder
- Adrenal glands secrete large amount of androgen
- Girls with CAH prefer masculine activities relative to girls without CAH
