gender schema theory - cog gender development

• gender schema theory (GST)

  • developed by Martin and Halverson
  • claim basic gender identity (labelling) is enough for child to identify themselves and take control in gender behaviours
  • suggest how schemas affect late behaviour
• schemas

  • learned from interactions with ithers as well as media
  • related to cultural norms
  • function - organising info presented to children
  • learn about gender appropriate behaviour
• ingroup and outgroup schemas

  • ingroup - group with which person identifies (eg, female)
  • positive evaluation of ingroup, negative of outgroup
  • why? enhances self esteem
  • seeks info about what ingroup does (ingroup schemas)
• resilience of gender beliefs

  • fixed gender attitudes
  • ignore any info not consistent with ingroup info
• peer relationships

  • playing with other children leads to belief that all girls share same interests and all boys share same interests
  • same sex peers are 'like me'
  • develop knowledge of consequences of being associated with diff social relationships - teased for playing w opposite sex
• gender schemas without constancy

  Martin and Little

  • children start gaining info on schemas before stability
  • under 4, no signs of stability or constancy
  • despite lack of constancy, displayed strong gender stereotypes

  shows children gained info on gender roles before Kohlberg suggested, in line with GST
• gender identity even earlier

  evidence children can label gender group earlier than indicated

  • Zosuls et found recorded samples of child language and observed at play
  • children started using gender labels at 19 months

  suggests age related predictions of GST may be incorrect
• gender schemas organise memory

  if gender schemas are important, so children pay greater attention consistent with schemas and recall this info better

  • Martin and Halverson
  • found when children asked to recall pictures of people, under 6 year olds recalled more gender consistent (eg. male firefighter) than gender inconsistent (eg. male nurse)

  so, gender schemas relate to memory and are important
• gender schemas may distort info

  distortion of inconsistent info

  • Martin and Halverson
  • children shown inconsistent pictures (counter stereotypical), they distorted info
  • eg. if shown boy w doll, they described a girl w doll
  • to maintain ingroup schemas

  support GST, show how behaviour can be explained w schemas