AO3

• Critism of mead (and cross culture research)

  • Evidence about cultural differences may be flawed, which challenges the conclusion of such research
  • Indigenous people may tell researchers what they want to hear
• Demonstrating media influences

  • Evidence for the influence of TV on gender stereotypes comes from the Notel study by Williams (1985)
• Cross-cultural research can provide a useful insight into cultural differences in gender roles and therefore the potential role that media has to play. Mead (1935) who found that within the same island of New Guinea, there were significant differences in the gender roles and temperaments of several tribes, such as the Arapesh and the Mundugumor. Therefore, gender may not entirely be biologically determined, but we are simply biologically predisposed towards identifying with one gender rather than the other, and this can be influenced by culture and media.
• Research support - Mcghee and Frueh

  • 2 groups of 6-18 yrs old
  • 1 group heavy viewers the other light viewers
  • I was then tested on how much the child knew about gender stereotypes
  • They found those who watched more TV had stronger stereotypes on gender
  • This suggests TV reinforces gender stereotypes
• Limitations to McGhees study

  • The experiment was a natural experiment, therefore difficult to control extraneous variables
  • Factors such as how traditional their family were or the community they lived in were not accounted for
  • Therefore, it was hard to test cause an effect of the amount of TV consumes to gender stereotypes