Cognitive Explanations of Gender

• what was Kohlbergs theory?


  gender develops and matures through a sequence of stages, increasing in complexity as a child gets older.
• what are the three gender stages?

  1. Gender Identity (2yrs): Children use ‘male’ and ‘female’ labels to understand gender. They have no understanding of the fixed nature of gender.
  2. Gender Stability (4-7yrs): Children understand that gender does not change over time but are still confused by superficial cues.
  3. Gender Constancy (6-7yrs): Children understand that gender does not change and are ready to self-socialise (learn gender role from others).
• what is the gender schema theory?

  • proposed by Martin and Halverson (1981)
  • children acquire their gender identity through the development of gender schemas, a cognitive framework that consists of a person’s expectations about gender.
  • These schemas become more complex as the child matures and explores the world around them.
  • These schemas are then used to understand the world and to shape their gender behaviour.
• what is a in-group schema?

  Expectations and rules about your own sex. These are used to build your gender identity.
• what is a out-group schema?

  Expectations and rules about the opposite sex. These are less likely to be retained since they are not deemed relevant at a young age
• what are abandon in and out-group schemas?

  Teenagers start exploring their gender without the constraints of in and out-group rules and become more androgynous.
• evaluating Kohlberg

  • supported by empirical research by Slaby and Frey (1975). After interviewing 55 children, asking questions such as, ‘When you grow up, will you be a mummy or a daddy?’ to identify which stage they were currently in, they were able to identify who was/was not displaying strong gender constancy features. They found that the children who displayed high constancy features were more attentive to their same-sex model when watching a video than those who displayed low constancy features. This supports the notion that gender constancy is a crucial precursor to self-socialising.
• evaluating Kohlberg

  • view that children are active in their development. Kohlberg argues that the child is active and explores the world to develop their gender identity. Viewing the child as an active learner is much more favourable since this acknowledges the complexity and individual nature of gender, rather than assuming that it is passively learned through observation and imitation, as proposed by social learning theory. Therefore, Kohlberg’s theory acknowledges the role of the child in developing gender and includes an element of choice and free will.
• evaluating gender schema theory

  • lacks scientific credibility: Schemas are internal mental processes which make it hard for any studies to operationalise them accurately. Furthermore, the theory is very descriptive about schemas and the ages at which they develop and change over time; however, the theory fails to explain why we have schemas and precisely why they change. Therefore, this cognitive theory of gender is not regarded as the most scientific paradigm and would need to merge with biological theories to improve its scientific status.
• evaluating gender schema theory

  • lacks validity: Experiments that include the distinction between ‘boys toys’ and ‘girls toys’ may lack internal validity since this distinction is subjective to the researcher. In addition, the ways in which gender is operationalised in experiments may lack internal validity. In this study, the failure to recall the non-stereotypical images is assumed to indicate immaturity in gender development; however, memory recall can decrease for reasons other than gender or identity. Therefore, research into gender schemas may not measure what it originally intended to.
• evaluating gender schema theory

  • studies to support the role of schemas in gender. Bradbard (1986) found that when children (4-9 years old) were given gender-neutral toys to play with, labelled as ‘girls toys’ or ‘boys toys’, they were more likely to spend their time playing with the toys that corresponded with their gender. Furthermore, the children had better memory recall for the toys that corresponded with their gender up to a week after the study had finished. This suggests that the gender schema theory is accurate about the use of schemas in acquiring gender identity.
• evaluating cognitive explanations for gender

  • experimentally reductionist: They focus solely on cognitions and the role of thinking, whilst failing to acknowledge prenatal influences (e.g. biology) and postnatal influences (e.g. social learning theory) and consequently, both theories only offer a narrow explanation of gender. Therefore, the theories would benefit from taking a more holistic approach in line with interactionists who propose that gender is a complex combination of cognitions, biology and social experiences.
• evaluating cognitive explanations for gender

  • soft determinism. This means that the theories acknowledge that there is some free will involved in acquiring gender, with children being active in their explorations. This is in contrast to the biological theory of gender which claims that gender acquisition is passive and people do not have any control over this aspect of their development. Therefore, the cognitive theories of gender are preferred and suggest that individuals do hold some control over their gender development.