Kohlberg suggested that a childs understanding of gender develops and changes
with age, gradually beccomming more sophisticates. He proposed three stages of
gender identity
1. GENDER IDENTITY/LABELLING:
age 2-3, When a child has a BASIC
understanding that they are a boy or
girl and can label their own sex
correctly. This is based on the things
they can see, people's physical
attributes e.g. hair length
2. GENDER STABILITY age 3-4: A child now understands that
gender remains the stable for themselves but think that other
people's gender can change, for exaple if someone changes their
appearance they may think that their gender has changed.
3. GENDER CONSTANCY age
4-7: The child now has a complete
understanding of gender and knows
that gender remains the same even
though external appearance may
change.
Slaby & Fry: This study involved young
children of various ages who were asked
questions to test their understanding of
gender at different stages. To test G.
IDENTITY children were shown a fem doll
and asked its sex. To test G. STABILITY
they were asked 'when you were a little
baby were you a boy or a girl'. And to test
'GENDER CONSTANCY a boy would be
asked if you wore girls clothes would that
make you a girl?
These tests showed that
the children's answers were
in line with Kohlberg's
proposed stages of
development.
However it can be difficult to
reliably categorise a childs'
answer into on stage as there
may be overlap
Evaluation: Children aged 4-9 were read a story
about a boy called george who liked playing with
dolls even though his parents wanted him to
stop. Children were asked if he should be
allowed to play with dolls. Their answers
showed age related differences which supports
Kohlberg's theory. 4 year olds said it was ok, 6
year olds said no, 9 year olds said yeah.
Kuhn et al: Children were shown
paper dolls called Micheal and Lisa and
were asked to associate them with
certain phrases (such as "I like to
fight/help mummy","I need some help"
The children associated the girl with
helping and the boy with fighting. This
CHALLENGES Kohlberg as he
suggests that young children are
unaware of gender roles.
EVALUATION
Munroe established that this sequence applies cross
cultural and is universal which SUPPORTS this theory.
Kuhn's research CHALLENGES Kohlbergs theory
Doesn't explain why boys have a more fixed understanding that girls
The phsychodynamic theory says that gender develops at one
specific stage - the phallic - rather than gradually.
Gender Schema Theory
This is an ORGANISED UNIT OF INFO about the types of
behaviour and attitudes associated with a specific gender.
As soon as children can label their own sex, they actively
search the environment for information to increase their
understanding of what it means to be male or female which
guides thheir behaviour. Children disregard info which
doesn't fit their gender schema which is why children have
very fixed view on gender behaviour.
Boston and Levy 1991
Researchers were interested in examining whether boys & girls had a better
understanding of activities associated with their own sex than the opposite. Boys &
girls aged 3 and 6 were asked to put 4 pictures in the correct order. Each set of
pictures described an activity e.g. cooking.
Both boys & girls were able to put their own gender specific activities in
order more accurately than for the opposite gender activity - this was more
evident in boys. This supports gender schema theory.
Gender schema theory does not explain individual
differences e.g. some girls are assertive. There are
different schemas about what it is to be
masculine/feminine which vary over time - SLT
explains this better as it takes into account.