AO3

• Kuhn et al showed 2-3 y/o male and female paper dolls and asked to match gender stereotyped statements to dolls eg i like to fight and found majority of children had similar ideas about the two sexes showing stereotypes of males and females form at an early age
• Smith and Lloyd - group of mothers filmed playing with baby, boys encouraged motor play, girls encouraged playing with dolls, showing parents raise their children in line with sex role stereotypes
• BSRI is self report so subjective as assessing own personality reduces validity as different interpretations of items on checklist 
• BSRI culturally and temporally invalid, american 1970s so traits may be outdated and other cultures may have other ideas about gendered traits
• BSRI has test-retest reliability, Bem re-administered BSRI 4 weeks after and results were consistent
• implies the best way to raise child was without sex-role stereotypes but when british couple did this they were accused of abusing their child so people believe that stereotypes are important for healthy development
• sex role stereotypes not a one-size-fits-all explanation of gender stereotypes eg men are more aggressive than women likely to be a biological explanation whereas women wear skirts and men wear trousers is a cultural explanation so could argue some srs have biological basis that gets reinforced by social learning, adopting an interactionist approach to reconcile explanations of srs and gender roles
• stereotypes may cause us to overemphasise the differences between members of the same group eg all males are ambitious, which can be a disadvantage to others as could imply that females aren’t ambitious because males are
• the idea that androgynous individuals are more psychologycally healthy was supported by Flaherty and Duest (1980) who found that androgynous individuals have a higher degree of self-esteem, better sense of emotional well-being and more adaptable behaviour
• Bem saw androgyny as positive and desirable, but it may not be as some researchers have argued that people who display a greater proportion of masculine traits are better adjusted as these are more highly valued in society
• the media are subjected to criticism of their stereotypical presentation of sex roles and so their portrayals have become less stereotyped - the way in which the sexes are represented in children's books has changed enormously since the 1960's when females were under-represented and were often shown in passive and needy roles