Kohlberg's theory

• Main assumptions

  • Gender development occurs in a sequence, in an order
  • This order parallels the cognitive changes that are happening as their brains mature
  • As children age, their understanding of gender becomes more sophisticated
  • Their brain then gets more info about gender and develop gender constancy
  • They realise that they are a boy or a girl - and will stay fixed in that

  They select same-sex models to acquire gender-related info from simply because they want to
• Piaget

  God-father of cognitive development psychology
• Conservation

  • understanding that something remains the same even if its outward appearance appears to be different
  • E.g seeing a man in a skirt and understanding he is in fact a man and not a woman as he ‘appears’ to be a woman
• Gender constancy has been challenged

  Ages surrounding the stages may be incorrect/not the case for every child
• Methodological issues

  • Problems arise asking children questions to investigate gender development
  • Children are not reliable participants
• Comparisons with other approaches

  • Social learning theory (passive) - contradicts how SLT says information is processed right from birth, and not as brain matures/develops
  • Combination with nature vs nurture
• Examples when it simply doesn't work

  • Gender dysphoria/transgenderism
  • Does Not explain atypical gender experiences
• Weakness: does not apply to those with atypical gender experiences.


  those with gender dysphoria choose to go against sex-appropriate behaviours even after achieving gender constancy
• better explained by the Social Learning Theory

  states that children learn behaviours from those they identify with, and as cultures are expanding over time  - there are more role models online who comfortably express traits from the opposite gender such as male MUA’s
• Lacks temporal validity


   gender constancy does not work the same in this generation where cultures are changing and role models can easily be accessed online.
• Weakness: may be different degrees of constancy suggesting limitation; low external validity and low explanatory power


  Martin et al

  • must be two different degrees of gender constancy separating when children are making friends or seeking information from same-sex adults and from when they start choosing appropriate clothes, attitudes and reactions reflecting their view on gender.

  these two aspects of gender constancy are too different to happen at the same time,

  and so the first degree must happen first, and possibly before the age of 6 as Kohlberg suggest.

  c