1. Cognitive theories emphasize children’s active role in the process of gender typing (self-socialization)

2. Cognitive Developmental Theory (Kohlberg) Three Stages:
Basic Gender Identity:
Recognition that one is a boy or a girl
Emerges between 2.5 and 3 years

3. Gender Stability Understanding that gender is stable over time
Emerges between 3 and 5 years

4. Gender Constancy/Consistency
Understanding that gender is constant/consistent across situations regardless of appearance or activities
Emerges between 5 and 7 years

5. Kohlberg: Gender constancy leads to gender typing
Why is this incorrect?
Gender typing begins before children have achieved gender constancy

6. Children construct gender schemas
Gender Schema Theory:
Children construct gender schemas
Organized mental representations incorporating information about gender
Include children’s own experiences and information conveyed by others, including gender stereotypes
Schemas are dynamic—change as children acquire additional information

7. Once children achieve basic gender identity, they are motivated to acquire gender-typed behavior and characteristics
Young children start with a simple “in-group/out-group” gender schema
Motivated to prefer, pay attention to, and remember more about others of their own sex
Form an “own-sex” schema—detailed knowledge about their own gender

9. Evidence: Gender Schema Theory
Children used gender labels given to toys to guide their behavior
Gender-neutral, unfamiliar toys/objects labelled as “for girls” or “for boys”
Children prefer the toys/objects consistent with their gender

10. Children show biases in their memory for information about gender
More likely to accurately remember information that is consistent with gender stereotypes
More likely to forget or distort information that is inconsistent with gender stereotypes