theories of gender typing

THEORIES OF GENDER TYPING

Dr Rukhsana Hassan

Introduction to Gender

Theories of Gender Typing

Several important theories have been constructed that try to explain how children become gender-typed.

There are basically four gender-typing theories: Psychoanalytic theory Social-learning theory Cognitive-development theory Gender schema theory

Psychoanalytic theory It is an oldest of a theory and was developed out

of a clinical, or case study approach. It is a theory and method of treatment for

psychological disorders as it emphasizes that people are not fully aware of their feelings.

This theory was originally developed by Sigmund Freud. He proposed that sexuality is supremely important in explaining human behavior. As infants mature the focus of their sexual energy shifts from one region of the body to another.

Cont’d Freud characterized human development in four

different stages known as oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage and latency stage.

Females and males develop similarly during the first two stages. In the first or oral stage, babies focus upon the mouth region.

In the second or anal stage children focus upon the anal region; the control on bowel movements is crucial. Both boys and girls are strongly attached to their mothers during theses early years of their lives.

Cont’d Girls and boys begin ton differ from each other

substantially at about the age of four. During third stage, children focus upon their genitals. Boys in phallic stage intensify their love for their mothers and suffer from a castration complex, fear that their genitals will be mutilated.

Freud also suggested that girls also suffer from castration complex. A little girl presumably sees the male penis, notices the differences between those genitals and her own, and feels inferior as she develops penis envy.

Cont’d

The fourth stage is relatively uneventful and psychosexual development does not move forward substantially. This stage lasts from approximately age six until puberty.

This brief description of Freud's theory of female development provides an introduction to his complex ideas.

The concept “anatomy is destiny” clearly dominates Freud's theory; a female’s anatomy determines her further development.

Drawbacks of the Theory

One of the draw back of the theory is that it dose not stress influence from outside forces.

The specific characteristic of parents are generally irrelevant. Others adults, peers, the school system, and additional important forces are not emphasized.

Furthermore, there is no way in which development can be shaped by children’s own ideas about what uis “feminine” and what is “masculine”.

Social Learning Theory Social learning theory focuses on the learning that occurs within a social context. It considers that people learn from one another, including such concepts as observational learning, imitation, and modeling. Among others Albert Bandura is considered the leading proponent of this theory.

Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory is concerned with how individuals learn the behavior patterns considered appropriate for their sex.

Children at young age dichotomies the world as female versus male and have a strong desire to match their own personal characteristics with the gender role standards they learn from parents and society.

Social-Learning Theory

Social-learning theory proposes two major mechanisms that explain how girls learn to act “feminine” and boys learn to act “masculine”:

Children are rewarded for “gender appropriate” behavior and punished for “ gender in appropriate” behavior.

Children watch and imitate the behavior of other people of their own gender. This process is known as “modeling”.

General principles of social learning theory

1. People can learn by observing the behavior of others and the outcomes of those behaviors.

They believe that the process of acquisition of gender identity is same as that of other behaviors, i.e., through – Observation– Imitation – Differential ReinforcementChildren Observe, they try to imitate, & eventually their

actions are reinforced through gestures of social approval.Theorists believe that development is context specific, i.e.,

expected behavior in school may be different from behavior at home.

Cont’d

Reinforcement of stereotypical gender roles Boys being reinforced for being loud,

aggressive & active and are not reinforced for playing with dolls & wearing makeup.

Children choose as role models those individuals who seems to conform to typical behavior.

Cont’d The extent to which they imitate a particular action

depends upon the gender of the person performing the action, whether that person is rewarded or punished.

For example a little girl would more likely to imitate mother than her father and more likely to imitate someone who has been praised.

Children might imitate models whom they have read about or seen on television which is known as “symbolic models”.

Effects of modeling on behavior:

Modeling teaches new behaviors.

Modeling influences the frequency of previously learned

behaviors.

Modeling may encourage previously forbidden behaviors.

Modeling increases the frequency of similar behaviors.

For example a student might see a friend excel in

basketball and he tries to excel in football because he is

not tall enough for basketball.

Cont’d Some examples of social learning theory are; Parents often treat their young daughters and

sons similarly for example by encouraging independence and discouraging aggression both in males and females. However, children still acquire gender-stereotyped knowledge and behavior.

Children reared in strongly feminists homes can produce some embarrassingly gender-stereotyped roles and behaviors e.g. a woman who is physician overhead her son saying to the child next door, “No, ladies can’t be doctors; they gotta be nurses.”

Cont’d Social-learning theory cannot completely explain

the acquisition of gender-typed behavior. It also does not explain how children develop stereotypes and attitude about gender.

Modeling, the second mechanism also receives little research support in explaining gender-stereotyped behavior. The studies showed no tendency for children to imitate adults who were the same gender as themselves.

WEAKNESSES

It does not explain individual differences with the group of boys & girls

It supports the idea that more-strongly gender type parents would have more strongly gender typed children & vice versa. In fact it may not be the case.

It fails to explain why children will do things that they have not observed or been reinforced for. Wearing of makeup against parental approval.

Cognitive Development

These theories focus on how we think about gender and how our thought processes influence our behavior.

Cognitive development is the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood.

There are two theories that are related with cognitive development.– Kohlberg’s cognitive development theory– Gender Schema theory

Kohlberg’s cognitive development theory

This theory proposes that children are responsible for shaping their on gender typing; they actively work to understand gender related concepts.

Gender IdentityIt is first major step in gender typing. It is a girl’s

realization that she is a girl and a boys realization that he is a boy.

Children label themselves accurately by the time they are 2 or 3 years old.

Cont’d

According to this theory children’s knowledge of gender is connected to their general understanding of the world.

Understanding of gender leads to the gender typed behavior.

Children construct their own understanding of gender.


First step towards gender typing is – Development of gender identity, or their ability to label

them as males or females.– Then comes Gender Stability, i.e., the knowledge that

gender remains same across time.– Gender Stability is followed by Gender Consistency,

i.e., it remains same across situations– Final stage of Gender Constancy is achieved when

biology determines whether some one is male or female. They would be able to understand that by cutting the hairs & wearing jeans women would not become men

Cognitive Development Theory . During development they acquire gender

constancy and preference for gender-consistent objects.

According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development as it proposes that children pass through a fixed series of stages as they mature into adulthood.

Cont’d

The thinking of young children is qualitatively different from the thinking of older children e.g. young children believe that a row of M&M ‘s has more candy if it is stretched out than if it is compact.

Younger children rely strongly on outward physical appearances when making judgments.


According to Kohlberg, Girls prefer stereotypically feminine activities because these activities are consistent with their female gender identity,.

Cont’d Most children are quite accurate in labeling

themselves by the time they are three. Children must learn how to classify people, just as

they must learn numerous others classification systems during the course of their cognitive development. However correct classification does not mean that she understands gender constancy.

Gender constancy means that a person’s gender stays the same in spite of the changes in outward physical appearance or behavior.

Cont’d Younger children do not appreciate gender

constancy but they believe that a person can change genders readily. a woman can become a man by cutting her hair short, and a man can become a woman by holding a purse.

Once children labeled themselves and have learned how to classify males and females, they usually begin to show systematic preferences and dislikes. They like things that are consistent with their own gender.

Cont’d Research has also demonstrated that by three

years of age children are likely to show preferences for objects consistent with their own gender identity; girls preferred “girls things” and boys preferred “boys things” (S. K. Thompson, 1975).

Cognitive development theory has some compelling support but it has some difficulties e.g. this theory depicts that a young girl must establish a firm gender identity before she can show preference for female activities. A girl must know that she is a girl before she prefers dolls to trucks.

Cont’d Because gender identity is not acquired until about

the age of three, children should not reveal gender-stereotyped behavior prior to that age. However it is seen that girls acting stereotypically feminine and boys acting stereotypically masculine well before the age of three.

Although this theory may explain some aspects of gender-typing, it does not explain children’s early preferences for gender-consistent activities and it does not address why gender is so crucial to children.

Gender Schema Theory by Sandra Bem

This refers to the theory that children learn about what it means to be male and female from the culture in which they live. According to this theory, children adjust their behavior to fit in with the gender norms and expectations of their culture.This theory blends together two prominent earlier approaches: (1) the cognitive development approach and the (2) the social learning approach.

Gender Schema Theory Gender schema theory according to Sandra Bem

(1981, 1983, 1985) proposes that children uses gender as a cognitive organizing principle in order to structure and guide their perceptions about reality.

In other words, they are likely to organize information about themselves and about the rest of the world according to the definitions of maleness and femaleness in a particular society.

The theory proposes that gender-typing is the result of the child’s readiness to blend his or her own self-concept into the gender schema.


1. Cognitive component

Gender Schemas Cognitive structures that organize

information in memory and influence what information is attended to and remembered.


Gender schema include everything children know about gender,

and they encourage children to act in gender stereotyped ways that are consistent with the gender schemas.


2. Social learning component Traditional learning principles play an important

role in gender typing Children are rewarded for “gender appropriate

behavior”, and they are punished for “gender inappropriate behavior”

Children watch and imitate the behavior of their own gender.


A little girl is more likely to imitate her mother especially if mother’s behavior is praised.

Children frequently imitate characteristics from books, films, and television, as well as real people.

Current theorists favor gender schema theory because it integrate both cognitive and learning principles (e.g., Reid et al., 1995 & Martin 1998)

Cont’d

As children grow up they learn about their own society’s gender schema. They learn what attributes are important for them to possess as they learn boys are supposed to be strong and girls are supposed to be weak. They also learn that some attributes are highly relevant for one gender and highly irrelevant for the other.

Children learn to chose only those attributes that are applicable to their own gender and as a result

Cont’d their self-concepts become gender-typed. They

learn that the two genders are not only different in degree but in kind; men are strong and women are nurturing.

Children also learn to evaluate their own adequacy as people in terms of gender schema. The gender schema is a standard on comparison, and a child’s self esteem is greater if she or he compares favorably with the gender schema.

Bem observes that a culture determines what kind of schema is most important.

Cont’d Bem (1983, 1985) outlines some strategies for

child rearing. She stresses that parents must try to “inoculate” their children against gender-schematic processing so that they can “build up their resistance” to the lessons they can receive fron their culture.

The first suggestion is that parents should eliminate gender stereotyping from their own behavior so that activities are not rigidly divided into “female things” and “male things”. Children should receive both dolls and trucks, and they should be exposed to both women and men in nontraditional occupations.

Cont’d Secondly, for young children parents can select

books and television programs that do not teach gender stereotypes and they can alter some materials, e.g. by drawing long hair on a story book’s male truck drivers. Thus, parents should censor materials for the early years.

Thirdly parents should substitute other schema for the gender schema e.g. “sexism schema” should be explained so that children would realize that “view of men and women conveyed by fairy tales, mass media etc is not only true but wrong”.


However both cognitive and social learning theories have been attacked in recent years.

First, Children of the same sex develop very similar gender- role identities.

Second, theories were criticized for assuming that early childhood is crucial period for gender role development.

FINALLY LAST SLIDE