Cognitive Explanations: Kohlberg

• Cognitive Explanations


  Focus on how children's thinking about gender develops, with thinking occurring in qualitatively different stages.

  - gender identity is seen to result from children actively structuring their own experiences rather than being a passive outcome of social learning.
• Kohlberg's Theory


  Sees knowledge of their gender and gender roles as arising from children actively constructing an understanding of the world through interacting with it.

  - theory influenced by Piaget's cognitive developmental theory, which saw children processing through stages of understanding as their biological level of maturity allowed them to do so.

  - before 7 children unable to conserve
• Kohlberg's Theory Continued


  Gender concept are seen as occurring through environmental interactions, restricted by biologically controlled mental capabilities at a given time

  - Kohlberg sees children acquiring an understanding of the concepts 'male' and 'female' in 3 stages, with their understanding becoming increasingly more sophisticated and each stage only appearing after thinking has matured to a certain point

  - consequently, children understand gender differently at different ages, with gender concept developing as children actively structure their social experiences.

  - it is not, therefore, a passive social learning process occurring through observation and imitation.
• Gender Stability


  Refers to the realisation that a person's own sex remains the same over time
• Gender Constancy


  Realisation that a person's sex remains stable not only over time but in different situations and despite superficial changes to appearance.
• Stage 1 - gender labelling (basic GI)

  - occurs between 18m to 3 years

  - refers to children's recognition of being male or female

  - sees an individual understanding their gender as a realisation that allows them to understand + categorise the world

  - knowledge fragile 'man' 'woman' just labels

  - sometimes choose incorrect labels and do not realise that boys become men and girls women.
• Stage 2 - Gender Stability

  - By the age of 3 to 6, most children can recognise that people retain gender for life, but rely on superficial physical signs to determine gender

  - if someone is superficially transformed - women cuts hair short, a child may infer the person has changed gender
• Stage 3 - Gender Constancy

  - By around 6-7 children realise that gender is permanent (women with short her remains a women)

  - gender constancy represents a kind of conservation, an understanding that things remain the same despite a change in physical appearance.

  - gender understanding is complete only when children appreciate that gender is constant over time and situation
• After the stages


  It is only after gender constancy is reached, at about the age of 7, that children start to develop greater concepts to suit their own gender, once children acquire gender constancy, they value the behaviours and attitudes associated with their own gender.

  - then identify with adult figures possessing the qualities seen as relevant to their concept of themselves as male or female, this entails imitating same-sex models and following sex-appropriate activities.

  - Maccoby and Jacklin (1974) called this 'self-socialisation' as it requires no external reinforcement.
• Slaby and Frey (1975)

  - Gave questions to 2-5 year olds to assess their level of gender constancy and then several weeks later showed them a film of a man and women performing gender-stereotypical activities.

  - children with high levels of GC paid more attention to the same sex models than those children with low levels of GC

  - suggests children who have achieved GC watch their own gender to acquire info about the gender appropriate behaviour.

  - Supports Kohlberg's claim that once children acquire GC, they observe and imitate same-sex role models to consolidate their understanding of own gender.
• Rabban (1950)


  - Found, by asking questions about gender, that children's thinking changes as they grow

  - by 3 most children demonstrate GI, but didn't have an understanding of what gender they would grow into.

  - by 5, 97% demonstrated gender stability

  - supports the developmental nature of theory - as suggests children can't grasp more abstract concepts until their brain has sufficiently matured.
• Thompson (1975)


  - By 2, children given pictures of boys and girls could select same-sex pictures, demonstrating that children could self-label and identify the gender of others

  - by 3, 90% showed GI, compared to just 76% of 2 year olds.

  - supports developmental nature of the theory as they couldn't grasp more abstract concepts until brain had matured.
• McConaghy (1979)


  - Children aged 3-5 judged gender using clothes rather than genitals, supports the idea that children this age use superficial physical indicators to determine gender

  - supports the characteristics of the gender stability stage.

  - artificial task, lacks mundane realism, can't be generalised.
• Evaluation: Cross-Cultural Research


  - C-C research evidence demonstrates that concepts of gender identity, stability and constancy occur in that order across many cultures.

  - Munro et al (1984) found evidence of Kohlberg's theory in countries such as Kenya, Samoa and Nepal.

  - This suggests that such development is universal and lends support to Kohlberg's theory which suggests that cognitive development is linked to biological maturity.

  - However, it could be argued that due to globalisation, cultures are becoming more aligned with western values making it difficult to differentiate between nature and nurture when concepts appear to be universal.
• Evaluations: Face Validity


  - Can be criticised for the fact that it predicts little or no gender specific behaviour before children acquire gender constancy, this lacks face validity.

  - Bussey and Bandura (1992) found that children as young as 4 reported 'feeling good' about playing with gender appropriate toys and 'bad' about doing the opposite.

  - Children generally demonstrate gender appropriate behaviours and reward gender-appropriate behaviours in peers before they have reached gender constancy, casting doubt on Kohlberg's theory.

  - However, the methodology of these types of research can be criticised, as the use of interviews with very young children may lack validity as they lack the vocab to express themselves fully.
• Evaluation: Gender Schema Theory

  The previous criticism (lack of face validity) was built upon by Bem (1981) who proposed an alternative cognitive theory of gender development to Kohlberg in which she believes that children have an awareness of gender and gender specific behaviours from around 2 years old, due to the development of gender schemas
• Evaluation: Reductionist


  - Can be considered reductionist as it is too simplistic to simply focus on cognitive factors ignoring important cultural and social factors such as the role of parents.

  - However, it could also be argued Kohlberg's theory is more holistic than others (e.g. biological explanation) as it combines elements of both social learning and biological development.
• Evaluation: Depth


  - Kohlberg's theory can be further criticised for lacking depth as it explains the processes involved in gender development but no how the developments occur.