COGNITIVE: GENDER SCHEMA THEORY

• GENDER SCHEMA THEORY


  Schema are mental constructs that develop via experience (basic or limited ones present from birth).

  they are used by us to organise our knowledge.

  gender schema contain what we know in relation to gender and gender-appropriate beh.
• Around 2 years, a child has established gender identity and they can label their own sex, they actively seek their own environment for information to widen/reinforce their understanding of what it is to be male or female.
• A child learns what things are associated with each sex eg) boys play with toy trains. They make links between the different components of the schema for their own sex, eg) a boy who plays with toy trains must also wear trousers and have short hair.
• Children have a much better understanding of the schemas that are appropriate to their own gender (ingroup) rather than opposite sex (outgroup). We then positively evaluate our own group and negatively evaluate the outgroup. This also enhances self esteem.
•  By 6 years, the child has a fixed and stereotypical idea of what is appropriate for its gender. Therefore, they are likely to misremember or disregard information that does not fix into their existing schema. It is not until 8 years when they develop schemas for both genders (ingroup and outgroup). Gender role schemas are more flexible and a minority define themselves as androgynous.
• (+) GENDER SCHEMA THEORY

  MARTIN AND HALVERSON =

   found that children under the age of 6 were more likely to remember photographs if gender consistent behaviour and children tended to change the sex of the person carrying out the gender inconsistency activity in the photograph (male to a female nurse). This supports GST and the idea that memory may be distorted to fit with existing gender schemas. 
• (+) GENDER SCHEMA THEORY

  POULIN-DUBOIS ET AL in Canada where children were asked to choose a doll to carry out gender-specific tasks e.g. vacuuming and shaving, and girls were found to choose the gender-appropriate task at 2 years old. By 31 months boys displayed the same stereotyping behaviour. However, these studies had small sample sizes of about 50 – 60 children and so generalisation of findings should be made with caution.
• (-) GENDER SCHEMA THEORY

  REDUCTIONIST APPROACH =

  it neglects the influence of biological factors suggesting that all gender oriented behaviour is created through our cognitions. This is a problem because if an individual behaves in a gender-inappropriate way, the gender schema theory blames their level of cognitive development for this. It fails to take into account that some individuals may have been exposed to too much or too little testosterone which may have caused it.
• (-) GENDER SCHEMA THEORY 


  CAMPBELL =

  who found no relationship between the amount of previously learnt gender specific knowledge and gender stereotyped behaviour in 2-3 year old children.This suggests that the  cause of gender schemas or why they develop is not explained.