AO3

• M&H found children aged 5-6 were more likely to remember gender-consistent pictures (eg a boy playing with a train) and more likely to distort gender-inconsistent pictures (eg a girl sawing wood) suggesting memory is distorted to fit in with existing gender schemas
• Bradford et al, gave children gender neutral objects and assigned a gender to them, eg pizza cutter is a boy object. They found children spent more time w objects appropriate to their sex showing children assimilate information and experiences into their schema and allow it to direct their behaviour. This explains why children’s attitudes and behaviour concerning gender and rigid and lasting - children only focus on things that strengthen their schemas 
• Gender schema theory is reductionist, neglects importance of bio factors, assumes all behaviour is created through cognitive means: Alexander et al found babies display gender-typical behaviour from 3 months of age showing gender is programmed into the brain suggesting factors other than gender schema eg biology influence gender development and that an interactionist explanation would be more appropriate
• Evidence for gender stability - McConaghy et al found when children were given doll with transparent clothing so genitals were visible would base gender of doll on superficial appearance
• Evidence for gender constancy - Damon, 4-9 year olds, george wanted to play with dolls but parents said only girls can, 4y said it was alright, 6y said wrong not allowed, 9y said unusual but not bad thing concluding child’s understanding of gender-appropriate behaviour varies with age and is a reflection of gender development
• Munroe et al found stages apply to children in a variety of cultures increasing reliability which suggests biological mechanisms are important for gender development
• Kohlberg's theory is holistic - combines cog, soc learning and bio theories and describes how once a child reaches gender constancy they identify and imitate a same sex role model
• Gender schema theory argues children start behaving in gendered ways at 2 years old - Bussey and Bandura found children behave in gender-typical ways regardless of age and level of gender constancy
• Methodological issues - interviews conducted on young children so opinions on gender may have been more complex than they could express due to limited vocabulary, raising questions about validity of theory
• Both cognitive theories see the child as active, seeking out information about gender and trying to make sense of the gendered world they live in
• In both these theories, the direction of development goes from the cognitive concept (the schema of boy or girl) to information processing (looking at the world through the lens of the gender) and then to gender preferences (I am a boy - boys play with cars - I like cars)
• The difference between Kohlberg's theory and gender schema theory is the age at which gender development occurs - research studies have found that children pay attention to same-sex role models earlier than Kohlberg thought
• Gender schema theory believes children only need gender identity to develop gender consistent behaviour, whereas Kohlberg sees the acquisition of gender constancy necessary first
• Kohlberg's theory is more holistic whereas gender schema is more reductionist