Cognitive explanations for gender development

• Identify the two cognitive explanations for gender

  development.

  Kohlberg’s theory and the gender schema theory.
• Identify and outline the 1st stage of Kohlberg’s theory.

  The gender identity stage – occurs between 2-3 years.

  The child can identify what gender themselves and other people are (i.e. boy or girl).

  They do this by focusing on superficial characteristics such as hair length i.e. long hair = girl, short hair = boy.

  Children at this stage do not understand that gender is permanent e.g. a boy may think he can grow up and become a mummy.
• Identify and outline the 2nd stage of Kohlberg’s theory.

  The gender stability stage – occurs between 4-6 years.

  The child now understands that their own gender is permanent despite any appearance changes e.g. if a boy grows his hair long, he still recognises that he is a boy.

  They cannot apply this logic to other people e.g. if another boy grows his hair long, he will then he is now a girl.

  They also believe that people change gender if they carry out activities associated with the opposite gender (e.g. a female builder may be identified as a man).
• Identify and outline the 3rd stage of Kohlberg’s theory.

  Gender constancy stage – occurs at 7yrs onwards.

  The child now understands that the gender of both themselves and others remains the same despite changes in appearance/behaviour.

  This results in them engaging in socialisation i.e. they seek out same-sex role models whom they identify with and observe and imitate their behaviours.

  This means that, according to Kohlberg, children do not actively process gender information until they reach the gender constancy stage i.e. 7yrs of age.
• Outline Kohlberg’s theory of gender development.


  Kohlberg proposed a staged theory of gender development that comprises of 3 stages: gender identity, gender stability and gender constancy.

  The gender identity stage occurs between 2-3yrs of age and refers to when a child can identify their own and others gender based on superficial characteristics such as hair length. They do not recognise that gender is permanent.
• Outline Kohlberg’s theory of gender development.

  The gender stability stage occurs between 4-6yrs of age and refers to when a child learns to understand that their own gender is permanent despite any changes in appearance but cannot apply this logic to other people.

  Finally, the gender constancy stage occurs at 7+yrs of age and refers to when a child understands that their own and others gender is permanent and then actively start to process gender information by seeking out same-sex role models whom they then observe and imitate.
• Outline Kohlberg’s theory of gender development.

  Kohlberg therefore suggested that a child’s understanding of gender becomes more complex with age.

  This is because of biological maturation i.e. as children’s’ brains biologically mature, so too does their thinking about gender.
• Evaluate Kohlberg’s theory of gender development: supporting evidence.


  Researchers found that children aged 4 and above could accurately identify whether they were a boy or a girl and whether they would be a mummy or daddy when they were older. This is a strength as it supports the proposal that understanding of gender stability occurs at this age range i.e. they begin to understand their gender is permanent. This is a strength as it supports the proposal that children seek socialisation during the gender constancy stage.
• Evaluate Kohlberg’s theory of gender development: methodological flaws. 


  This is because Kohlberg identified the stages through interviews with young children. This is a limitation because young children may have lacked the vocabulary to fully express their understanding of gender. This means their understanding may be more complex at a younger age than suggested, it is just that they cannot verbalise this.
• Evaluate Kohlberg’s theory of gender development: gender development is argued to occur earlier than Kohlberg suggested.


  This is because Kohlberg proposed that children do not start to actively process gender-related information until they reach the gender constancy stage. This is a limitation because evidence suggests that children demonstrate sex-stereotypical behaviour before this e.g. younger boys will refuse to play with dolls suggesting they have actively processed what is and what it not expected of their gender.
• Evaluate Kohlberg’s theory of gender development: focuses on description rather than explanation. 


  E.g. Kohlberg’s theory provides information on how children are likely to think about gender at different stages but fails to explain why this change happens other than vaguely stating it is due to biological maturation of the brain. This is a limitation because it limits the ability of the theory when it comes to explaining gender development.
• Explain what is meant by ‘gender schema’.


  Gender schema refers to mental representations/understanding about gender based on experiences.
• Outline the gender schema theory.

  The gender schema theory proposes a continuous theory of gender development whereby a child’s understanding of gender becomes more complex as they develop their gender schemas.
• Outline the gender schema theory.

  It proposes that children begin to actively process gender-related information as soon as they are able to identify their gender at 2-3 years of age.

  This is because they identify with their in-group (those of the same gender) and seek information from them regarding what is gender appropriate behaviour.
• Outline the gender schema theory.

  This results in children positively evaluating their in-group and negatively evaluate their out-group (i.e. boys will favour other boys over girls).
• Outline the gender schema theory.

  They also ignore or reject behaviours associated with the other gender (e.g. boys refusing to play with dolls), and tend to forget or distort any information that does not fit their gender schema (e.g. children watching women cooking and mowing the lawn are more likely to remember the woman cooking).
• Outline the gender schema theory.

  This means that children’s gender schemas start off as being simplistic and rigid. However, through experience, children adapt their gender schemas to become more flexible (e.g. boys recognise that they can like the colour pink too).
• Evaluate the gender schema theory: supporting evidence.


  Researchers showed young children pictures of people carrying out either activities that were consistent with their gender schemas (e.g. a man mowing the lawn) or activities that were not consistent with their gender schemas (e.g. a woman fixing a car). They found that they were better at remembering the images that were consistent with their gender schemas. With inconsistent pictures, the children would distort the images by recalling that it was the expected sex who carried out the activity (e.g. a man was fixing a car).
• Evaluate the gender schema theory: supporting evidence from cross cultural research.


  When examining different tribes in Papua New Guinea, researchers found that the gender behaviours of men and women were very different. E.g. in one tribe, the women were more dominant than men – opposite to what we typically see in western society. This is a strength because these differences can be explained by the fact that individuals in different cultures would have different environmental experiences and so would develop different gender schemas. This, in turn, leads to different gender behaviours.
• Evaluate the gender schema theory: more appropriate than Kohlberg’s theory.


  This is because it proposes that children start to actively process gender-related information once they can identify their gender at 2yrs of age whereas Kohlberg’s theory proposes that children do not start to actively process gender related information until 7+ years of age. This is a strength of the gender schema theory as its proposal is better supported by evidence e.g. children as young as 2 can be seen engaging in sex-stereotypical behaviour so they must have processed this gender-related information.
• Evaluate the gender schema theory: focuses on the nurture perspective. 


  The gender schema theory emphasises how environmental experiences help to form and adapt gender schemas. This is a limitation because there is evidence to suggest that biological factors also play a role e.g. atypical sex chromosome patterns are found to lead to atypical gender development such as a shy and passive temperament in Klinefelter’s males. As there is evidence for both sides of the argument, researchers now propose that a biosocial approach is more appropriate.
• Identify similarities between the two cognitive theories for gender development.


  Both are cognitive theories of development i.e. emphasise the role of cognitive factors in gender development.

  Both highlight the importance of environment experiences e.g. Kohlberg’s focus on socialisation during the gender constancy stage and gender schema theory’s focus on forming and adapting gender schema through environmental experiences.
• Identify differences between the two cognitive theories for gender development.

  Kohlberg’s is a staged theory whereas gender schema theory is a continuous process. This is because Kohlberg’s theory proposes that children progress through the 3 stages of gender identity, stability and constancy. In contrast, the gender schema theory proposes that children continuously develop their understanding of gender by adapting their schemas.
• Identify differences between the two cognitive theories for gender development.

  The gender schema theory proposes that children begin to actively process gender-related information at a younger age than Kohlberg’s theory. This is because Kohlberg stated children do not actively start processing gender-related information until about 7yrs of age whereas gender schema theory states it occurs at around 2 years of age when a child can identify their gender.