Changing the way you learn

Sex and Gender

distinction between sex identity and gender identity
1. Sex identity is a biological term. a child's sex identity can be identified by their hormones and chromosomes. this determines whether the childs sex identity is male or female.
  1. Male Hormone: Testosterone; Chromosome: XY
  2. Female Horomone: Oestrogen; Chromosome: XX
  3. for most t[here is a match between their sex identity and their gender identity
    1. there is a match between sex identity and gender identity when a boy thinks and acts in a masculine way.
      1. this isnt always the case. boys may think and act in a feminine way
2. Gender identity: a psychological term. a child's gender can be identified by their attitudes and behaviour. this determines whether the child's gender identity is masculine or feminine
  1. a girl may showfeminine gender by wearing pink and playing with dolls
3. our distinction between sex identity and gender identity is that sex identity is defined in the same way in all cultures wheras gender identity can be different in may cultures.
  1. in britain, masculine and feminine. mohav indians have 4: traditional males/females, males who choose to live as women and women who choose to live as men
psychodynamic theory of gender development
1. Described by Freud.
2. it was the belief of Freud that development happens in 5 stages. The 3rd stage was the PHALLIC stage (3-5 yrs). in this stage the child unconsciously sexually desires the opposite sex parent and is jealous of the same sex parent. to deal with these feelins and the anxiety, the child behaves like the same sex parent - IDENTIFICATION.
  1. Girls' gender development
    1. in the phallic stage, the girl is unconsciously attracted to her father and is jealous/resentful to her mother. she is worried that her mother will fnd out. Freud stated that she believes that she has already been castrated so isn't as fearful as a boy.
      1. she feels conflict between the feelings for her father and the love of her mother - ELECTRA COMPLEX. to resolve this, she identifies with ger mother and behaves in a similar way to her.
  2. Boys' Gender development
    1. in the phallic stage, a boy unconsciously sexually desires his mother. he is jealous of his father and is anxious that his father will find out and castrate hik. OEDIPUS COMPLEX
      1. He is torn between the desire he has for his mother and the fear he has for his father. to resolve this, he gives up his feelings for his mother and identifies with his father. he begins to behave liek his father and adopts a masculine gender role. he has resolved the oedipus complex
  3. IDENTIFICATION - to adopt the atitudes and behaviour of the same-sex parent
  4. it was the belief of Freud that if a child is bought up in a lone-parent household, they will have a poorly developed gender identity - they didn't experience/resolve the Oedipus/Electra Complex. if a boy is raised without a father, he wont develop a masculine gender identity as he didnt have a father to identify with during the phallic stage - such a boy would be a homosexual
3. Evaluation:
  1. Freud's ideas are difficult to test - based on unconscious thoughts and feelings.
  2. although ther has been an increase in the number of children in lone-parent households, there hasnt been an increase in the Homosexual population
  3. Psyvhologists have shown that a wide range of people - not just parents - influenvce a child's gender development
  4. little evidence ti support the idea of the Oedipus/Electra complex. Little Hans' study was carried out on one child - findings can't be generalised
social learning theory of gender development
1. these theorists believe that gender is learnt from watching and copying the behaviour from others
  1. Vicarious Reinforcement
    1. learning from the model's being either rewarded/punisjed
  2. Modelling:
    1. a role model provides an example for the child
      1. people who are most likely to be models for the child are: similar to them - friends, same-sex parent. Powerful - teachers, older brothers/sisters. Loving towards child - parents, teachers
  3. Imitation
    1. copying the behaviour of a model
2. the media provides models for gender behaviour. it was claimed by macklin and Kolbe that children want to imitate characters on TV as they are often physically attractive.
  1. TV shows men and women in stereotyped ways
3. Evaluation
  1. this theroy is well supported by research. there are a large number of studies that have found that children learn their gender through the observation and imitation of role models
  2. it doesnt explain why children brought up in one parent families withot a strong same-sex role model have no difficulty developing their gender
  3. it doesnt explain why 2 children of the same sex brought up in the same home with the same role models can behave differently. e.g. 2 brothers could be bought up in the same house/group of friends but one is more masculine than the other in behaviour.
  4. this approach believes that gender is learnt - ignores biological differences between males/females
gender schema theory of gender development
1. gender schmas are made up of knowledge we have of each gender. they contain information about behaviours, clothes, activities, peronality traits/roles (for males/females)
  1. gender schemas of some people are made up of gender stereotypes. builders are all male; secretaries are all female
2. a schema is a building block of knowledge - strengthened/changed as we learn more about the world around us
3. from the age of 2, children know whether they are a boy or a girl. they are able to idenify others as belonging to the same or opposite sex.
  1. once they know there are 2 different sexes, they learn abot gender from what they see and experience in their environment., their ideas are rigid and stereotyped. but as they get older, - gender schemas become more flexible. e.g. they learn some footballers are women and some nurses are men
    1. by the age of 6, children have gained a detailed and complex knowledge of their own gender but know less of the other gender.this is because when they label themselves as a boy/girl, they learn which objects, behaviours and activities are associated with each sex.
      1. they then concentrate on the things that are appropraite to their own sex and pay less atentiont to information associated with the opposite sex.e.g. dolls are for girls - avoid. it isnt until children are older that they gain knowledge at the same level for each gender
4. Evaluation
  1. this theory is seen as the most setailed and a thorough explanation of gender development. it is well supported by evidence and has INTUITIVE APPEAL - fits in with our experience
  2. it doesnt explain why some children are more hghly gender schematised than others
  3. it doesnt explain why gender begins to develop at the age of 2
  4. why children choose same-sex friends and gender appropriate toys before they are able to correctly identify themselves as male or female
5. not all children develop gender schemas in the same way. even as they ge older, some children remain highly stereotyped in their ideas. other children are however less stereotyped
  1. children who are stereotyped look for information to support their ideas and ignore/wrongly remember information that doesn't fit into their schema

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Sex and Gender

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	Created by pv7137 over 10 years ago