Gender Development Concepts

1
Gender Development Concepts

• PSYB1

2
Activity

• In pairs try to list as many
• Biological/behavioural differences you can think
  of between males and females

3
Why study gender?

• Identify
• Understand their personality
• Biology vs environmental causes?

4
General concepts you should understand

• Sex
• Gender
• Androgyny
• Sex role Stereotypes
• Cultural diversity
• Nature Nurture

5
SEX

• The term sex refers to biological status as
  either male or female and can be defined by our
  chromosomes, hormones and anatomical differences.

6
GENDER

• Is psychosocial and refers to notions about the
  expected roles, behaviours and attitudes of males
  and females within society.

7
Social construction

• The concept of gender has been investigated by
  our society and so can change over time and vary
  from culture to culture.

8
Think

• What does it mean to be masculine?
• What does it mean to be feminine?
• Can you think of the advantages of adopting these
  adjectives?

9
Androgyny

• Androgynous people are people whose personality
  encompasses both masculine and feminine
  characteristics.
• Sandra Bem (1974) developed the BSRI (Bem Sex
  Role Inventory) which measures an individuals
  androgyny.
• Bems scale found that people with high androgyny
  scores are psychologically more healthy than
  people who show only masculine or feminine
  traits.

10
Read the handout

• Look at the evaluations - evaluations are really
  important in psychology. They are your AO2
  marks!!!
• Summarise into 4 key words then explain to me
  without your notes

11
Sex-role or gender stereotypes

• A stereotype is a belief you have developed over
  time about someones behaviour, attitude or
  characteristics
• We have over time developed a stereotype for
  people as what they should do to be male or
  female.

12
Baby Jack

• What type of outfit would you chose for Jack?
• What toy would you buy him?
• What story could you read to him at bed time?
• What colour would you paint his bedroom?

13
Adult gender stereotypes about infants

• Many baby X studies have been performed where an
  adult is misled about the babies gender and their
  behaviour is observed to look for gender
  expectations.
• Obviously how the baby is labelled affects how
  the adult treats the baby.
• See Seavey et al (1975) AIM, METHOD, RESULTS,
  CONCLUSION summarise into 4 key words
• What positive implications do you think knowing
  this information can have on a childs
  development?
• Can you think of any criticisms for this study?

14

• For example positive
• A parent should try not to treat their child in
  such a masculine or feminine way because Sandra
  Bem says that people with androgynous
  personalities are those people who ate more
  psychologically healthy.
• Negative Would the results be different if a
  different colour of clothing was used etc

15
Childrens gender stereotypes

• Golombok and Fivush (1994) believe that children
  develop very fixed gender stereotypes between 3
  5yrs of age.
• Read the study by Urberg (1982) and make notes
  what does it prove about childrens stereotypes?
  Summarise into 4 key words
• However, notethe older children get they become
  less likely to use only gender to predict
  behaviour but will use other information as well.

16
Gender stereotypes in the media

• How the sexes were represented in childrens
  books has changed enormously over the years.
• Has this stereotyped message changed today? Read
  DeLoache et al (1987) to see- summarise into 4
  key words
• On TV Davis showed how females on TV are
  outnumbered by men 21, younger than males and 4
  times more likely to be dressed provocatively.

17
Exam questions

• Describe one study which investigated adult
  gender stereotypes. What did they find.
  Remember to include the aim, method, results and
  conclusion. (5 marks)
• Now make up your own question where the marks
  would be worth (3 marks) for that same topic
• Describe one study which investigated gender
  stereotypes. What did they find. Remember to
  include the aim, method, results and conclusion.
  (5 marks)
• Now make up your own question where the marks
  would be worth for that same topic
• Androgyny is a term used to describe a person who
  displays both feminine and masculine traits.
  Suggest how a psychologist might measure
  androgyny (2mks)

18
Cultural diversity in gendered behaviour

• One of the most well known studies of cultural
  differences in gender related behaviour was
  carried out by the anthropologist Margaret Mead
  (1935)
• Read the study and discuss the evaluations
  summarise into bullet points then into key
  words.

19
More evaluations

• Meads methods have been challenged as
  unscientific
• Even before she made her observations she was
  always of the opinion that the environment was
  responsible for shaping behaviour. This may have
  led to researcher bias in her observations
• Errington and Gewertz (1989) revisited the
  Tchambuli and carried out an analysis of Meads
  original records. They concluded that the women
  did not dominate the men or vice versa.
• Some years later Mead significantly changed her
  views about cultural influences, stating that
  women were naturally better at childcare than men.

20
Cultural diversity

• See study by La Framboise et al (1990)
• Perhaps Mead exaggerated these cultural
  differences. Wade Tavris (1998) that in most
  cultures men have the status and engage in more
  warfare and women deal with children and
  housekeeping.
• Status women have highest status in
  Scandinavian cultures lowest in Bangladesh
• In western cultures women hold many male
  orientated jobs such as medicine and dentistry

21
Nature Nurture

• This is a debate concerning the extent to which
  our behaviour is governed by the forces of
  biology or the environment.
• An extreme nature view would argue gender is
  totally a result of genes and hormones so women
  are programmed o be nurturers and men protectors
• An extreme nurture view would explain gender
  related behaviour as a result of social and
  cultural factors in the environment.
• What do you think?

22
Recap

• List as many key concepts and researcher names
  and dates as you can..