Gender

Question 1

• Actual Gender Differences

Answer 1

o Differences are small
o Verbal abilities – women
o Spatial abilities – men – rotation, speed and rotation - women
o Mathematical abilities – men, young girls even better
o Aggression – varied between gender
o Activity level - boys
o Developmental vulnerability - boys
o Empathy – depends upon the measure chosen

Question 2

o Psychoanalytic theory (identification – Oedipus, electra)

Answer 2

 Psychosexual stages
• Oral (0-1)
• Anal (1-3)
• Phallic (3-6)
o Gender role at this stage – identification with same sex parent
• Latency (6-12)

Question 3

o Biological basis (chromosomes, hormones, evolutionary theory)

Answer 3

 Male XX vs female XY chromosomes
 Hormonal differences
 Morphological differences (sex characteristics)
 Evolutionary basis

Question 4

o Cognitive developmental theory

Answer 4

 Gender constancy
o Sex is a permanent attribute tied to biological properties, not dependent on surface characteristics
• Gender identity
• Gender stability – grow up
• Gender consistency – played with dolls?

Question 5

o Gender schema theory

Answer 5

 A schematic processing model of sex role stereotyping
• Once you know you are boy/girl – you want to be life others of your gender

Question 6

o Social cognitive theory

Answer 6

 Children learn gender stereotypes and gender identity form a combination of personal and social influences
 This is achieved through the triadic model of reciprocal interactionism b/w person, environment, behaviour

Question 7

• Agentic self-regulation

Answer 7

o Developed through 3 main modes of influence
 Models
 Enactive experience
 Direct instruction

Question 8

• Regulators of gendered conduct and role behaviour

Answer 8

o Gender-linked social sanctions
o Regulatory self-sanctions
o Regulatory self-efficacy beliefs

Question 9

• Creation of self-efficacy beliefs

Answer 9

o Constructed through integration of cognitive appraisals of information from the following four sources
 Mastery experiences
 Vicarious experiences
 Verbal persuasion
 Physiological states

Question 10

• Relationship between the sources of self-efficacy beliefs

Answer 10

o Although sources provide different experiences and information for students to draw on informing their self-efficacy beliefs, correlations between the different sources are typically positive and strong
o However, in gender non-traditional domains mastery experiences are not sufficient. For example, the social persuasion from teachers is very important for girls mastering STEM subjects

Question 11

• A developmental analysis of gender-role development and functioning

Answer 11

o Only between 2-3 yr of life that most children begin to reveal knowledge of their own gender

Question 12

• Pre-gender identity knowledge

Answer 12

o Infants can discriminate m/f faces and voices <1. Also show intermodal gender knowledge – able to associate male face-male voice and f-f.
o 2nd year of life – preference for gender linked activities and objects. 18 months look at gender-stereotypical objects more.
o By 3 – awareness of gender stereotype. By 24 months, girls aware linkage with household activities and gender. Boys not until 31 months and then only for gender-typed activities.
o Children look longer at males engaged in feminine stereotyped activities and vice versa
o Girls seem to show gender associations earlier than boys do.

Question 13

• Development of Gender Self-Categorisation and Gender Identity Knowledge

Answer 13

o Children attain considerable knowledge about gender before this occurs. They prefer activities that are linked to their gender and they develop considerable knowledge of gender stereotypes.
o Of course children’s ability to label their own gender and that of others is of considerable importance in the process of developing gender identity
o Gender identity – 18 months
o Gender self-knowledge – 36 months
o Knowledge of gender stereotypes was unrelated to children’s ability to classify their own gender category.
o Interesting study on summer with t-shirts – it was only when the assignment to a group carried functional significance and group status differences.
 i.e. social category needs to be perceptually salient and functionally significant

Question 14

• Role of gender identity in Gender Development

Answer 14

o Egan and Perry (2001) – gender identity
 A) Knowledge of membership in a gender category
 B) Typicality – feeling contented with one’s gender
 C) felt pressure for gender conformity
 D) attitudes towards gender groups
o Social cognitive theory
 Gender identity does not follow a linear and predictable age-related pattern based on biological assignation and age-related cognitions about one’s biological sex

Question 15

• Gender identity

Answer 15

o It takes until the third year of life for most children to be aware of their own gender
o Infants are aware of the gender categories from the first year of life
o Parents highlight their children’s gender
o Gender segregation highlights the importance of gender
o For some people their gender identity is more important than it is for other people
o Monitor and self-regulate behaviour on the basis of gender
o Self-efficacy beliefs based on gender
o Collective efficacy beliefs

Question 16

• Social influences

Answer 16

o Parents
o Peers
o Media
o Educational practices

Question 17

• Parental influences

Answer 17

o Boys and girls are provided with different toys and activities
o Girls are encouraged to be nurturant and polite and boys to adventuresome
o Mothers talk more about emotions with their daughters than with their sons
o Parents also explicitly inform children about expected behaviour and activities based on their gender.
o Gender based direction extends to academic pursuits
o When fathers instructed their children about a physical science task, they used more scientific terms when they communicated with their sons than with their daughters
o Girls do better academically when they are raised by parents who espouse gender-egalitarian views
o Parents also influential in the development of their daughters self-efficacy beliefs in gender non-traditional academic domains
o Boys are sanctioned more strongly for cross-sex conduct than are girls

Question 18

• Peer influences

Answer 18

o At about 30-36 months of age, children begin to play with same-sex peers and these preferences increase across childhood
o Peer group promotes gender traditional behaviour
o In gender segregated peer groups, boys and girls engage in different play activities which foster the development of different skills.

Question 19

• Educational practices

Answer 19

o Teachers are more inclined to attribute boys’ academic failure to lack of effort and girls’ academic failure to lack of ability
o Teachers interact in the classroom more with boys, regardless of their level of academic achievement
o Girls weaker self-efficacy beliefs in these domains are mainly the result of a lack of encouragement for their achievement rather than of their ability. Not inevitable though, girls responsive to vicarious experiences and verbal persuasion

Question 20

• Gender-role disengagement practices

Answer 20

o Relabeling the activity as neutral
o Goal driven
o Atypical role models
o Displacement of responsibility
o Advantageous comparison
o Selective attention to consequences