Evaluation

• Research support

  A strength of the GST is that there is evidence to support schema:

  • Martin and Holverson asked children to recall pictures with a variety of professions
  • Found that children under 6 recalled more gender-consistent pictures (e.g. a male firefighter) compared to inconsistent pictures (e.g. a male nurse)
  • This suggests that Martin and Holverson were accurate in assuming that children's schema develop at around 6
• Addition to research support

  • Martin and Holverson also found that when shown schema-inconsistent pictures (a boy playing with a doll), the children distorted the information and reported schema-consistent behaviour
  • This offers support to the role of distortion in the GST
• Research support

  A strength of the GST is that there is evidence to support ingroup and outgroup behaviour:

  • Bradbard et al. labelled gender-neutral items as either male or female
  • They found that the children took an interest in the items labelled as the 'ingroup' and were more likely to recall 'ingroup' items the following week
  • Therefore, this study offers support to the theory of ingroups and outgroups in the GST
• Selective attention


  One limitation of the gender schema theory is that children have selective attention:

  • Children actively look for behaviour that fits their schema
  • If they see schema-inconsistent behaviour they will ignore or forget it
  • Therefore, this will give invalid results