Gender - Gender Schema Theory

Question 0

Martin and Halverson GST

Answer 0

The process of acquiring gender relevant information happens before gender constancy is achieved
Basic gender identity is sufficient for a child to identify themselves and subsequently take interest in appropriate behaviours

Question 1

What is gender schema theory

Answer 1

Your scheme is your mental representation of an aspect of the world that creates a concept in your mind, as an extension of a typical stereotype that involves complex inferences and expectations.
Personal theories about appropriate behaviours

Question 2

Where do the schemas come from?

Answer 2

Children learn schemas from interactions with other children, adults, and the media.
Schemas organise and structure information that is presented to children.
They learn what toys and activities are appropriate for each gender.

Question 3

In group and Outgroup Schema

Answer 3

Ingroup schema - who you identify with
Outgroup - everyone else
Evaluations motivate a child to be like their own group and avoid behaviours of other group.
Children aquire the ingroup Schema
Children focus on ingroup schemas even before gender constancy

Question 4

Gender beliefs in gender schemas

Answer 4

Children hold fixed attitudes as they ignore irrelevant information
So schemas can lead to misremembering or distorting information.

Question 5

A02: Martin and Little

Answer 5

Children under 4 showed no signs of gender stability but did display strong gender stereotypes
This shows they have acquired information about gender roles before Kohlberg suggested

Question 6

A02: Martin and Halverson

Bradbard

Answer 6

When children were asked to recall pictures of people, children under 6 recalled more of the gender consistent ones
They pay more attention to ingroup Schema

Gender neutral, boy or girl items. Children took greatest interest in their ingroup items
A week later they remembered most info about ingroup objects
Effect on memory

Question 7

IDA

Answer 7

TBC