Media

• Media and gender roles - AO1

  - Media provides role models whom children may identify and want to imitate

  - Children are likely to select role models who are the same sex and engage in gender-appropriate behaviour
• Rigid stereotypes researchers - AO1

  - Bussey and Bandura - 1999

  - Furnham and Farragher - 2000
• Bussey and Bandura - 1999


  - Gender stereotypes that are quite rigid

  - men are independent, ambitious and advice givers

  - women dependant, unambitious and advice receivers
• Furnham and Farragher - 2000 - AO1


  - Study of TV adverts

  found men were more likely to be shown in autonomous roles with professional contexts

  - women were occupying familial roles within domestic settings

  - Suggests the media may play a role in reinforcing widespread social stereotypes concerning males and female behavior.
• McGhee and Frueh - 1980 - AO1

  - Evidence that children who have more exposure to popular forms of media tend to display more gender-stereotypical views in their behaviour and attitudes
• Information giving - AO1

  - The media does more to confirm gender-typical behaviour

  - May give information to males and females in terms of the likely success.

  - Seeing other people perform gender-appropriate behaviours increases the child's they are capable of carrying out behaviours in the future - self-efficacy
• Correlation not causation - AO3

  - Although the media has some considerable influence on the formation and maintenance of children's gender role stereotypes

  - It is still difficult to establish cause and effect with these studies

  - May be that media output reflects prevailing social norms about males and females.

  - May be that media is the cause of such norms.

  - Also vast majority of children exposed to media so no control groups available for comparison
• Counter stereotypes - AO3 


  - Much research in this area focused on how in terms of gender development the gender effect of media had been to reinforce status quo

  - In recent year many examples of counter stereotypes in the media - like brave - challenge traditional notions

  - Pingreee - 1978 - found that gender stereotyping was reduced when children were shown TV adverts featuring women in non-stereotypical roles