Child Psychology 560 Moral Gender Role Development 2 03 04 2014 Gender Development Today s Outline Infancy omitting prenatal development Preschool ages 2 5 Middle childhood elementary school Adolescence Theories of gender development Infancy Learning gender o By 6 months infants can distinguish the category of female voices from the category of male voices o o By 9 11 months infants distinguish between male faces and female faces Gender categories placing human beings into male or female category Gender differences o Activity level o Boy babies are more active than girl babies Temperament inhibitory control Through the use of habituation Girls show more inhibitory control inhibit actions that aren t appropriate Gender similarities o Smiling Frequency of smiling is about the same o Many aspects of temperament e g negative affect As they get older girls smile more than boys by high school Negative affect tendency to be irritable boys and girls are about the same Gender socialization and parents differential treatment o o For the most part the same treatment to boys and girls from parents Boys played with more roughly ex throwing baby up in the air Preschool 2 5 years Gender learning o Gender identity by 2 2 5 years of age o Gender identity know that they are a boy or a girl beforehand difficult Gender of others by 3 Understand the gender of people in their environment Gender constancy by 5 6 years Gender constancy example If you ask a 3 year old boy When you grow up will you be a mommy He will say yes o They learn that gender is a permanent attribute as life goes on By age 5 Associate certain occupations with men and others with women Why Stereotypes form their environment male doctor dolls female nurse dolls Statistical learning process they learn statistical patterns Gender Differences o Aggressive behavior Boys tend to be more aggressive girls can be too but avg difference exists o Toy and game preferences Boys trucks girls dolls Gender Socialization o Parents encourage gender typed activities Over half of 4 year old boys said their father would think it was bad if they played with girls toys o Some parents are committed to overcoming stereotypes Others are concerned about making their child follow necessary gender roles Mothers talk more and use more supportive speech with daughters than sons o Family variations Girls later score a little bit higher on measures of verbal ability and are more expressive Processes of parents gender socialization 1 Channeling shaping Parents create a gendered world for the child e g choice of toys and activities by the parents Ex Girls room painted pink put girl in ballet lessons early Ex Boys room painted blue 2 Differential treatment Girls and boys treated differently Ex Mothers talk 3 Direct instruction Telling a boy Boys don t cry Tolerate more flexibility with girls boys role defined more rigidly narrow 4 Modeling Parents model gendered behavior often without being aware of it o Ex household division of labor Siblings DO play a role in socialization Middle Childhood Elementary School Gender Segregation o Gender Segregation Toy Game Preferences o Girls boys start wanting to play only with the same genders their play is different Mutually reinforcing the more that they play these things they more that they don t want to cross over and vice versa Gender Socialization o o Parents influence continues Increasing influence from Peers Gender Police The schools teachers differential treatment very subtle Ex Call on boys in class more than on girls The media Extent of stereotyping New media e g video games are more stereotyped than old media e g TV books Amount of TV viewing correlated with acceptance of gender stereotypes Adolescence Gender Intensification o o Dating and heterosexual interest o o Partially reverses gender segregation Emphasizes gender roles Femininity appearance for girls Masculinity athletics for boys Emphasis on heterosexuality Peer sexual harassment victimization PSHV o o About 11 12 increased pressure for girls to be more feminine boys to be more masculine Current data contradict the idea Among students 8th 11th grade 79 of boys and 83 of girls have experienced it A lot of it is cross gendered Forced kissing Sexual Touching Spreading sexual rumors Calling people gay or a lesbian Compared with boys girls more likely to be upset and to change behavior The Development of Gender Differences in Depression o o o o In adulthood twice as many women as men are depressed 2 1 ratio In childhood girls are no more depressed than boys The 2 1 ratio emerges between 13 and 15 Among 15 to 24 year olds lifetime incidence of Major Depressive Disorder o 21 females 11 males Why Puberty earlier for girls Girls more focused on body image More on Why Pubertal hormones estrogen progesterone testosterone Pubertal timing for girls early pubertal development is a risk factor Mixed feelings Early puberty PSHV Depression Body esteem and objectified body consciousness OBC Pubertal development moves girls away from the thin ideal Puberty moves boys toward the muscular ideal OBC the tendency to evaluate one s body and appearance as an outside observer Girls score higher on these scales that measure OBC Do girls experience more negative life events major stressors Child sexual abuse Interpersonal negative events Ex breakup of friendship Theories of Gender Development Social Learning Theory o o Rewards Punishments Imitation modeling and observational learning o Application to gender development Parents Peers Observational Learning Parents Peers Media Evolutionary Psychology o Rewards Punishments Not a developmental theory Gender Schema Theory o o o o Cognitive how kids are thinking about gender Gender schema a person s general knowledge framework about gender it processes and organizes information on the basis of gender Can distort memory Martin Halverson 1983 5 6 year olds Shown pictures of stereotype consistent or stereotype inconsistent activities Recall 1 week later Results misremembered gender of characters in gender stereotypeinconsistent pictures Ex If they saw girls boxing they would remember it as boys that were boxing Show how stereotypes are so resistant to change Gender Self Socialization o o Kohlberg 1966 Tobin et al 2010 1 Gender identity 2 gender stereotypes and 3 gender self perceptions all influence each other in development o Ex 1 I am a girl 2 girls are bad at math 3 I am good at math Stereotype emulation the more children identify with their