Concepts of self, gender, and sex
role
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Self-concept, one’s knowledge of and thoughts about the set
of qualities attributed to the self.
Subjective self, the component of the self-concept that
involves awareness of the“I,” the self that is separate from
others.
Objective self, the component of the self-concept that
involves awareness of the self as an object with properties.
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First year, infant develops a sense of himself as an agent in the
world. E.g., Make a mobile move or create a noise by squeezing a
squeaky toy.
Bandura. Roots of sense of self-efficacy are found during first year,
when the infant realizes he control certain events in the world.
E.g. Changing the diapers or feeding, from the baby’s perspective
that he had made it happen
Piaget. Critical element in the development of the subjective self is
the understanding of object permanence that develops around 9 to
12 months.
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Infant come to understand that
she is also an object in the
world.
By 21 months 75% children
showed that level of recognition.
Self-aware toddlers begin to
insist on doing things for
themselves and show a newly
proprietary attitude toward toys
or other treasured objects
（”mine!”）
Self-definitions, 2 years know
their name, gender, big or little,
About to age 5-7 full description
of themselves.
Age 2 the toddlers become
aware of themselves as player in
social game. Routines of play or
interaction with others.
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Child’s ability to understand and regulate her own
expressions of emotion in first year.
Impulse control or inhibitory control the growing
ability to inhibit a response.
By 5-6 most children have control of their
expression of strong feelings.
Need to learn the social rules of specific emotional
expressions. Social smile.
Age3-6 Children gradually internalize such
parental standards and expectations and take on
more of the control task for themselves.
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Self-concept at school age as the child moves through the
elementary school years, her self-definition becomes more
complex, more comparative, less tied to external features,
and more focused on feelings and ideas.( teachers emphasize
effort and work habits, parents judgments and expectation)
Self-descriptions, as they get older, children and adolescent
define themselves less by what they look like and more by
what they believe or feel.
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Identity versus role confusion, child’s early sense of identity
comes partly unglued at puberty because of the combination
of rapid body growth and the sexual changes of puberty.
The psychosocial stage in which teenagers must develop a
sense of personal identity or else enter adulthood with a
sense of confusion about his or her places in the world
Ultimately, each teenager must achieve an integrated view of
himself, including his own pattern of beliefs, occupational
goals, and relationship.
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Marcia’s four proposed identity statuses, based on Erikson’s
theory. To come a fully achieved identity, the young person must
examine his or her values of goals and reach a firm commitment.
 Identity achievement. Been through a crisis and has reached a
commitment to ideological or occupational goals
 Moratorium: a crisis is in progress, but no commitment has yet
been made
 Foreclosure: a commitment has been made without the
person’s having gone through a crisis.(parentally or culturally
commitment.)
 Identity diffusion: the young person is not in the midst of a
crisis, and no commitment has made
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Development of a complete ethnic identity
moves through three rough stages
• unexamined ethnic stage(similar to Marcia’
foreclosed status.)
• Ethnic identity search
• Resolution of the conflicts and contradictions
Culture determine the kinds of behaviors that signify
the transition from childhood to adulthood.
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Self-esteem: a global evaluation of one’s own worth; an
aspect of self-concept.
Each child experiences some degree of discrepancy
between what he would like to be and what he thinks he
is- a gap between his ideal self and what he perceives to
be is real self
The key to self-esteem is the amount of discrepancy
between what the child desires and what the child thinks
he can achieved. Being good at something
Another major influence on a child’s influence on a child’s
self-esteems the overall sense of support the child feels
from the important people around her, particular parent
and peers.
Self-esteem seems to be particular unstable in early
adolescence, especially at the time the shift from
elementary school to junior high school.
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Gender concept; constant and permanent,
unchanged by appearance.
Sex role(gender role): the set of behaviors,
attitudes, rights, duties, and obligation that
are seen as appropriate for being male or
female in any given culture.
Sex-typed behavior: behavior that matches a
culturally defined sex role.
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Gender is a highly significant variable for
children from the earliest days of life.
Infants as young as 3months of age
distinguish between photos of male and
female infants
Children prefer playmates of same sex by
early as 18 months
By 4 children can identify the gender of
speaker.
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Gender identity: in which a child labels self
and others correctly as male or female
Gender stability: the child understand that a
person’s gender stays the same throughout
life
Gender constancy: child understand that
gender doesn’t change even though there
may be external changes(in clothing or hair
length).
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Even 2 years old already associate certain
tasks and possessions with men and women.
By 5 children begin to associate certain
personality traits with males and females.
Children figured out that she is permanently
a girl or boy , is searching for a rule about
how girls and boys behave. Pick up from
adult or watching television.
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The content of sex-role stereotype is remarkably
similar in cultures around the world.
Male stereotype and sex-role seem to develop a bit
earlier to be stronger than the female stereotype and
sex-role concept. And this is true in virtually all
countries.
By 18 to 24 months, children begin to show some
preference for sex-stereotyped toys. Dolls for girls or
building blocks for boys.
One important part of same-sex interactions seems
to involve instruction and modeling of sexappropriate behavior. In other words, older boys
teach younger boys how to be “masculine,” and older
girls teach younger girls how to be “feminine”.
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Social learning theories argue that little boys
prefer play with trucks because parents buy them
more truck and reinforce them directly for such
play
Children are constantly exposed to sex-role
stereotypes in entertainment media.
How environment affects the child’s gender
concept, parents, media, school, culture.
Cognitive-development theories: once the child
realizes that he is a boy or she is a girl forever,
he or she become highly motivated to learn to
behave in the way that is expected or appropriate
for that gender
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A theory of the development of gender concept
and sex-role behavior that proposes that,
between about 18 months and age 2 or 3, a child
creates a fundamental schema by which to
categorize people, activities, and qualities by
gender
Different between cognitive-developmental
theory is that for the initial gender schema to be
formed, children need not understand that
gender is permanent
It is the most fruitful current explanation of sexrole development.
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There are four sex-role types suggested by the work of
Bem and others
Masculine: a type characterized by high scores on
masculinity measures and low scores on femininity
measures.
Feminine: a type characterized by high scores on
feminine and low scores on masculinity measures.
Androgynous: a type characterized by high levels of both
masculine and feminine qualities
Undifferentiated: a type of characterized by low levels
scores of both masculine and femininity measures
Who describe themselves as androgynous or masculine
have somewhat higher self-esteem. At least in U.S culture.
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Do you agree that teen with weak academic
self-concept are more likely to get into
trouble in school than those who have more
confidence in their ability to succeed
academically? Why?
Do you think that entertainment media is
giving the right modeling or image to the
children in the way of sex-role behaviors.
Why? Or why not?