kohlberg's theory (cognitive)

• Kohlberg’s cognitive-developmental theory of gender (1966) is based on the idea that a child’s understanding of gender becomes more sophisticated with age. 

  He proposed that gender development progressed through 3 stages.
• Stage 1 in Kohlberg's theory is gender identity.

  • Around the age of 2, children can correctly identify themselves as either a boy or girl and at 3, they can identify other people as male or female.
  • However, they have less of an understanding of gender roles and are often unaware that sex is permanent
• Stage 2 of Kohlberg's theory is gender stability.

  • Around 4, the child understands that their own gender is fixed and they will be male or female when they’re older. 
  • Children of this age cannot apply this logic to other people in other situations. They are often confused by external changes in appearance (they may describe a man with long hair as a woman) and they also believe that a person changes sex if they engage in activities more often associated with the opposite gender
• Stage 3 of Kohlberg's theory is gender constancy.

  • Usually reached by 6 or 7, the child realises gender is consistent over time and situations; they begin to identify with people of their own gender and start to behave in gender appropriate ways. 
• The seeking of gender-appropriate role models to identify with and imitate is significant in gender constancy. This links to social learning theory.
• Slaby and Frey (1975) support the gender constancy phase. They found that if children were presented with split-screen images of males and females performing the same tasks, younger children spent roughly the same time watching both sexes whereas those in the gender constancy stage spent longer looking at the model who was the same sex as them.
• Bussey and Bandura found that children of the age of 4 felt good about playing with gender appropriate toys and bad about the opposite. This would suggest that gender constancy can be acquired at an earlier stage that Kohlberg first proposed.
• Kohlberg used interviews with children as young as two years old. It has been argued that children of this age may have sophisticated ideas about gender development but are unable to articulate them. This means that they are unable to provide a full and complete understanding of gender. This could affect the internal validity of Kohlberg’s research
• Kohlberg also fails to consider the effect of socialisation on a child’s development where research suggests that boys have more rigid concepts of gender roles than females which are likely due to social/cultural differences