Gender Development
Concepts
PSYB1
Activity
In pairs try to list as many
Biological/behavioural
differences you can
think of between males
and females…
Why study gender?
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Identify
Understand their personality
Biology vs environmental causes?
General concepts you should understand
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Sex
Gender
Androgyny
Sex role Stereotypes
Cultural diversity
Nature Nurture
SEX
The term sex refers to biological status as
either male or female and can be defined
by our chromosomes, hormones and
anatomical differences.
GENDER
Is psychosocial and refers to notions about
the expected roles, behaviours and
attitudes of males and females within
society.
Social construction
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The concept of gender has been investigated by
our society and so can change over time and
vary from culture to culture.
Think
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What does it mean to be masculine?
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What does it mean to be feminine?
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Can you think of the advantages of adopting
these adjectives?
Androgyny
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Androgynous people are people whose personality
encompasses both masculine and feminine
characteristics.
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Sandra Bem (1974) developed the BSRI (Bem Sex
Role Inventory) which measures an individuals
androgyny.
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Bem’s scale found that people with high androgyny
scores are psychologically more healthy than people
who show only masculine or feminine traits.
Read the handout
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Look at the evaluations - evaluations are really
important in psychology. They are your AO2
marks!!!
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Summarise into 4 key words then explain to me
without your notes
Sex-role or gender stereotypes
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A stereotype is a belief you have developed over
time about someone’s behaviour, attitude or
characteristics
We have over time developed a stereotype for
people as what they should do to be male or
female.
Baby Jack
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What type of outfit would you
chose for Jack?
What toy would you buy him?
What story could you read to
him at bed time?
What colour would you paint
his bedroom?
Adult gender stereotypes about
infants
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Many baby X studies have been performed where an adult is
misled about the babies gender and their behaviour is observed
to look for gender expectations.
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Obviously how the baby is labelled affects how the adult treats
the baby.
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See Seavey et al (1975) AIM, METHOD, RESULTS,
CONCLUSION – summarise into 4 key words
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What positive implications do you think knowing this
information can have on a child’s development?
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Can you think of any criticisms for this study?
For example – positive
A parent should try not to treat their child in such
a masculine or feminine way because Sandra
Bem says that people with androgynous
personalities are those people who ate more
psychologically healthy.
 Negative – Would the results be different if a
different colour of clothing was used etc…
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Children’s gender stereotypes
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Golombok and Fivush (1994) believe that children
develop very fixed gender stereotypes between 3 & 5yrs
of age.
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Read the study by Urberg (1982) and make notes –
what does it prove about children’s stereotypes?
Summarise into 4 key words
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However, note…the older children get they become
less likely to use only gender to predict behaviour but
will use other information as well.
Gender stereotypes in the media
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How the sexes were represented in children’s books has
changed enormously over the years.
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Has this stereotyped message changed today? Read
DeLoache et al (1987) to see- summarise into 4 key
words
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On TV Davis showed how females on TV are
outnumbered by men 2:1, younger than males and 4
times more likely to be dressed provocatively.
Exam questions
Describe one study which investigated adult gender stereotypes. What did they
find. Remember to include the aim, method, results and conclusion. (5
marks)
Now make up your own question where the marks would be worth (3 marks)
for that same topic…
Describe one study which investigated gender stereotypes. What did they find.
Remember to include the aim, method, results and conclusion. (5 marks)
Now make up your own question where the marks would be worth for that same
topic…
Androgyny is a term used to describe a person who displays both feminine and masculine
traits. Suggest how a psychologist might measure androgyny (2mks)
Cultural diversity in gendered
behaviour
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One of the most well known
studies of cultural differences in
gender related behaviour was
carried out by the anthropologist
Margaret Mead (1935)
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Read the study and discuss the
evaluations – summarise into
bullet points then into key
words….
More evaluations
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Meads methods have been challenged as unscientific
Even before she made her observations she was always
of the opinion that the environment was responsible
for shaping behaviour. This may have led to researcher
bias in her observations
Errington and Gewertz (1989) revisited the Tchambuli
and carried out an analysis of Mead’s original records.
They concluded that the women did not dominate the
men or vice versa.
Some years later Mead significantly changed her views
about cultural influences, stating that women were
naturally better at childcare than men.
Cultural diversity
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See study by La Framboise et al (1990)
Perhaps Mead exaggerated these cultural differences.
Wade & Tavris (1998) that in most cultures men have
the status and engage in more warfare and women deal
with children and housekeeping.
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Status – women have highest status in Scandinavian
cultures – lowest in Bangladesh
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In western cultures women hold many male orientated
jobs such as medicine and dentistry
Nature & Nurture
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This is a debate concerning the extent to which our
behaviour is governed by the forces of biology or the
environment.
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An extreme nature view would argue gender is totally a
result of genes and hormones so women are
programmed o be nurturers and men protectors
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An extreme nurture view would explain gender related
behaviour as a result of social and cultural factors in
the environment.
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What do you think?
Recap
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List as many key concepts and researcher names
and dates as you can…..