SLT applied to gender developement Flashcards
LANGLOIS + DOWNS
observation of children who were given either gender appropriate or gender inappropriate toys to play with in a room with other children of their own age. E.g. boys and girls were given either a gun or a doll. They found that those playing with gender inappropriate toys were ridiculed by their peers who openly made fun of them, when playing with gender appropriate toys this was not the case
- -> SHOWS IDEA OF VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT
- LEARNING THROUGH OBSERVING THE CONSEQUENCES OF OTHER REACTION, CHILDREN WILL SEE OTHERS BEING REWARDED OR PUNISH AND IMITATE REWARDED BEHAVIOUR
Learning through observation
BANDURA Created the social learning theory and argued learning takes place by selecting our role models. Then imitating the behaviour they get rewarded for we are more likely to select role models which belong to the group we identify with
Parents as role models
Compare and 27 egalitarian families with 42 traditional families. Interviewed and observed parents playing with children. At age 4 children were given a gender labelling task which shows children in traditional families tend to use gender labels earlier and showed more gender role stereotyping than those in egalitarian families.TS Parent act as role models, and children imitate the behaviour
Issues with testing children- Young kids Ltd in vocalising their feelings, lack of communication skills, and can’t articulate and express therefore does not actually reflect child understanding of gender. Lacks validity
In BANDURA’S bobo doll experiment he found boys are more aggressive than girls and that children tended to imitate the same sex role model more showing further support for the idea of imitation and identification in developing gender
McGhee et al – longitudinal study on a sample of 40 boys + 40 girls sampled at age 4, 8, 10 and 12. FOUND positive correlation between the amount of television they watched and their sense of traditional gender stereotypes. TS people imitate the behaviour seen on TV
impications for social policy - schools
Why are girls out performing boys?
o More teachers are female -> better role models
o Women teach humanities and men teach sciences, students tend to divide between these lines
o Boys receive praise for the intellectual quality of their work, girls for their neatness.
cross cultural differences
Different cultures have different social norms which shape gender behavior. These can exert influence through a variety of ways.
Firstly, through normative social influence in which people conform to gender stereotypes to gain acceptance. eg, girls wearing make up. Although initially, people may only superficially conform, over time individuals internalize the norms and thus become likely to pass them on to their children. Thus cultures pass norms to the next generation.
Secondly, people conform due to informational social influence which is where people change their gender behavior because they genuinely believe the social norms set out by the groups eg, wearing make up because they genuinely think It makes them look better
Secondly, different cultures reinforce or punish different behaviors in their gender groups. Thus they use Operant conditioning to ensure sex-typed behavior. Furthermore, societies vary in how strongly they condition sex-typed behaviors. For example, more individualist cultures may promote individual freedoms rather than group roles and thus not reinforce sex-typed behaviors. More collectivist cultures may rely more strongly on each member of the society performing a particular role and thus strongly reinforces gender behaviors. For example, reinforcing sex-typed social roles such as men being the wealth earners and females raising children and being domestic workers.
related research into cross cultural varaition
Anthropological study of New Guinea tribes:
ARAPESH: both men + women peaceful + gentle
MUNDUGUMAR: both men + women fierce + cannibalistic
TS may not be a direct biological link between sex and gender – instead culturally determined
Chang (02) compared 145 American and 173 Chinese Students. Given Egalitarian Gender Roles Attitude Scale which measured their attitudes to gender equality at home and work. US emphasised equality at work and Chinese emphasized equality at home.
→ Cultural differences in gender appropriate behavior may be due to individualist and collectivist cultures reinforcing different gender behaviors
→Changing gender behaviors – is possible by changing the way in which we reinforce social norms
Moore (03) showed both m and f Australians tended to have more masculine traits and m and f Chinese Australians showed more feminine traits – How might this relate to individualistic and collectivist cultures?
→Highlights issues of androcentric in individualistic cultures as masculine traits are more favorable
→BEM suggests rather than structuring a society that rewards the differences, we should focus on the similarities
cultural differences eval
Imposed etic
Researchers from western cultures generalize their beliefs and findings and imposing them onto other cultures
MEAD → American → explained gender behaviors in new guinea → went in with a preconception of why → observer bias
Berry (2002) advocates the inclusion of indigenous psychologists as a way of guarding against the problem. People from that culture
media
The media provide role models with whom children might identify with and want to imitate. Media forms include magazines, social media, tv etc Children are more likely to select role models who are the same age as they are, and who engage in gender appropriate behavior, as it is more likely to be reinforced. For example, see girls who wear make up on social media and magazine → got onto magazine / social media popularity, want to imitate that. In TV on the whole, males are represented in higher status roles than females, whereas women are depicted as unambitious and dependent (Bussey and Bandura, 1999) and those who ‘consume’ the most media develop stronger perceptions of gender roles.
media research
McGhee et al – longitudinal study on a sample of 40 boys + 40 girls sampled at age 4, 8, 10 and 12. FOUND positive correlation between the amount of television they watched and their sense of traditional gender stereotypes. TS people imitate the behaviour seen on TV
Huston and Wright (1998) found that in US TV programmes males always outnumbered females, especially in children’s TV. Men are shown in dominant roles and higher occupational status and women in a narrow range of inferior roles, and less able to deal with problems
Children learning stereotypical gender behaviors. Men more dominant roles -> reinforced male dominance
Practical applications – explain counter stereotyping e.g Disney film Brave, combat sex role stereo types by portraying females with stereotypically male traits
Pingree (1978) showed that stereotyping is reduced when children were shown women with non-traditional roles. This has lead to pressure on programme makers to use this knowledge to alter attitudes BUT preadolescent boys displayed stronger stereotypes after exposure to non-traditional model. May be due to boys at that age wanting to take a view that is counter to the adults. OR may encourage more stereotypical behavior due to their gender identity being threatened
