Introductory Psychology Concepts
Gender
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© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Introductory Psychology Concepts: Gender
Gender: Perception of Being Male or Female
Although there is a good deal of overlap between the
concepts of sex and gender, they are not the same.
• Sex typically refers to sexual anatomy and sexual behavior
• Gender refers to the sense of maleness or femaleness
related to our membership in a given society.
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© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Introductory Psychology Concepts: Gender
Gender: Psychological Aspect of Being Male or Female
Men and women differ in how positively they view their own
abilities and how they estimate the probability of their future
success.
• In general, women evaluate themselves more harshly than
men.
• Content of men’s and women’s speech differs, with
women’s speech being more precise. Speech patterns lead
others to view them as more tentative, less assertive.
• Women’s and men’s nonverbal behavior differs in several
significant respects. In conversation with opposite sex,
women look at their partner significantly more while
listening than while speaking.
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© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Introductory Psychology Concepts: Gender
Gender Typing: Process in Which People Learn their
Cultural Appropriate Gender Role
Starting from the moment of birth, with blue blankets for boys and
pink ones for girls, most parents and other adults provide
environments that differ in important respects according to
gender.
• Differences in environment and activity based on gender
are described as socialization, the process by which an
individual learns the rules and norms of appropriate
behavior.
• According to Sandra Bem (1998), socialization produces a
gender schema, a mental framework that organizes and
guides a child’s understanding of information relevant to
gender.
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© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Introductory Psychology Concepts: Gender
Gender Identity
Gender identity is the sense of “femaleness” or “maleness”
that becomes a central aspect of one’s personal identity.
• Most children develop a basic gender identity between the
ages of 2 and 3 and can label themselves and others as
being either a boy or a girl.
• Gender constancy is the understanding that being male or
female is a permanent part of person, developing at age 6
or 7.
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© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Introductory Psychology Concepts: Gender
Gender Stereotyping
As gender identity develops, children acquire sex-role
stereotypes; beliefs about the characteristics and behaviors
that are appropriate for boys and girls to possess.
• Every group, including family and cultural groups, has
norms for expected and accepted gender behavior.
• Parents, siblings, friends, the mass media, and other
socializing agents convey these norms as we grow up.
• As we internalize these norms, they become part of our
identity (Martin & Ruble, 2004).
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© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Introductory Psychology Concepts: Gender
Gender Stereotyping: Positive and Negative Aspects
Stereotyping can be either negative or positive, but in either
case stereotyping is inherently harmful for three reasons:
1) Stereotypes reduce our ability to treat members of a gender
as an individual.
2) Stereotypes lead to narrow expectations for gender behavior.
3) Stereotypes lead to faulty attributions, the theory that people
tend to look for explanations for specific behavior based on
gender stereotypes.
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© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.