1 Psychology 320: Psychology of Gender and Sex Differences Lecture 24

2 Office Hour Invitations November 20 th, 1:30-2:30, Kenny

3 Cognitive Theories of Gender Development 1. What theories illustrate the cognitive view? (continued)

4 2. define the term “gender schema.” By the end of today’s class, you should be able to: 3. review evidence that supports the gender schema theory of gender development. 1. review evidence that fails to support cognitive developmental theory.

5  However, two tenets of the theory have not been supported by research. These tenets are: (a) after gender constancy is achieved, children begin to “value” their gender identity and, thus, demonstrate sex-typed preferences and behaviour. What theories illustrate the cognitive view? (continued) 1. Cognitive Developmental Theory (continued)

6 (b) after gender constancy is achieved, children become more rigid about the appropriateness of sex-typed preferences and behaviour.

7 Self-Rigidity As a Function of Age (Rubel et al., 2007)

8 Consider the following: A father and his son were involved in a car accident in which the father was killed and the son was seriously injured. The father was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident and his body was taken to a local mortuary. The son was taken by ambulance to a hospital and was immediately wheeled into an operating room. A surgeon was called. Upon seeing the patient, the attending surgeon exclaimed, “Oh my God, it’s my son!” Can you explain this? 8

9 2. Gender Schema Theory  Maintains that children engage in sex-typed behaviour as a consequence of social learning and cognitive development, both of which contribute to the development of gender schemas.  Proposed by Sandra Bem as an advancement over the two-dimensional model of gender.

10  Gender schemas: Organized knowledge structures about the sexes, their characteristics, and their preferences; networks of associations related to sex and gender.

11 Consider the following: A father and his son were involved in a car accident in which the father was killed and the son was seriously injured. The father was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident and his body was taken to a local mortuary. The son was taken by ambulance to a hospital and was immediately wheeled into an operating room. A surgeon was called. Upon seeing the patient, the attending surgeon exclaimed, “Oh my God, it’s my son!” Can you explain this? 11

Nurse Female Gentle Homemaker Empathetic Teacher Skirts Nurturant Female Schema Mom Sister Makeup Cooking Sewing Long hair Social worker 12

Male Ambitious Breadwinner Independent Business executive Neck ties Assertive Male Schema Father Brother Suits Football Hockey Short hair Consruction worker Surgeon 13

14  Form among children as a consequence of the emphasis that society and culture place on gender.  Once formed, children incorporate gender schemas into their self-concept; as a result, gender schemas influence self-beliefs, in addition to beliefs about others.  Children only require “gender identity” in order to develop gender schemas.

Nurse Female Gentle Homemaker Empathetic Skirts Nurturant Self Schema (Female) Mom Sister Makeup Cooking Sewing Long hair Social worker Teacher Self 15

Male Ambitious Breadwinner Independent Business executive Neck ties Assertive Self Schema (Male) Father Brother Suits Football Hockey Short hair Consruction worker Surgeon Self 16

17 Cherney (2005): Found that both children and adults remembered sex stereotyped toys better than “neutral toys.”  Gender schemas influence (a) what we attend to, (b) what we encode in memory, and (c) what we recall from memory. Examples:

18 Martin and Halverson (1993): Found that children were more likely to misremember pictures depicting people engaged in gender-inconsistent activities than pictures depicting people engaged in gender- consistent activities. Cherney and Ryalls (1999): Found that adults exposed to gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent items in a room were better able to recall gender consistent items.

19 Mean Number of Gender-Stereotyped Objects Recalled by Men and Women Mean number of objects recalled

20  Research suggests that (a) males are more gender schematic than females and (b) sex-typed individuals are more gender schematic than non-sex-typed individuals (e.g., individuals who are androgynous, cross-sex-typed; Bem, 1981; Cherney & Ryalls, 1999).

21  On the basis of her recent work, Bem has argued that the ideal is to be gender aschematic (vs. androgynous).

22 Cognitive Theories of Gender Development 1. What theories illustrate the cognitive view? (continued)