Psychology 320:
Psychology of Gender and Sex Differences
November 19
Lecture 19
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Office Hour Invitations
November 19, 2:30-4:30PM, Kenny 3102
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Announcement
The process of “matching” students to CSL partner
organizations is in progress. Please check your e-mail over
the next week for instructions regarding how to proceed.
Questions regarding your application and placement may be
directed to the teaching fellow for the CSL component of the
course, Adam Baimel, at: adambaimel@psych.ubc.ca.
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A little R&R ….
(Review and Reflect)
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Social Learning and Cognitive Theories of Gender
Development
1. What theories illustrate the social learning view?
(continued)
2. What theories illustrate the cognitive view?
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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:
1. describe the social role theory of gender development.
2. discuss evidence that supports the social role theory
of gender development.
3. consider the adaptation of social role theory to
gender non-conformity.
4. describe the stages of gender development identified
by cognitive developmental theory.
6
5. review evidence that supports and fails to support
cognitive developmental theory.
6. define the term gender schema.
7. discuss the development and effects of gender schemas.
8. consider the adaptation of gender schema theory to
gender non-conformity.
9. define the term gender aschematic.
10. suggest how a gender aschematic individual may
be raised.
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What theories illustrate the social learning view?
(continued)
3. Social Role Theory
 Maintains that the characteristics of females and males
diverge because they are assigned to social roles (e.g.,
domestic roles, occupational roles) that require distinct
attributes.
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 According to this theory:
“women and men seek to accommodate sex-typical
roles by acquiring the specific skills and resources
linked to successful role performance and by adapting
their social behaviour to role requirements” (Eagly &
Wood, 1999; also see Diekman & Eagly, 2008).
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 Accordingly, females are more likely than males to
develop expressive characteristics because they are
assigned to roles (e.g., homemaker, teacher, nurse)
that require these attributes.
 Males are more likely than females to develop
instrumental characteristics because they are
assigned to roles (e.g., executive, politician, military
officer) that require these attributes.
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 Consistent with this theory:
females are more likely than males to be employed in
occupations that require expressivity; males are more
likely than females to be employed in occupations
that require instrumentality:
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Percent Females in Distinct Occupations
(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005; Hegewisch et al., 2010)
Occupation
Percent Female
Lawyer
32
Police officer
14
Securities salesperson
29
Chief executive
24
Marketing manager
41
Social worker
80
Counsellor
70
Preschool/kindergarten teacher
98
Librarian
82
Child-care provider
95
Registered nurse
92
Secretary
97
Wait staff
78
Cleaner
90
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 Adaptation of social role theory to gender nonconformity?
13
What theories illustrate the cognitive view?
• The cognitive view emphasizes the development of
gender-related cognitions.
• According to this view, “children are neither pushed
by their biological desires nor pulled by external
rewards and punishments. Instead, children are
active learners, attempting to make sense of the
social environment” (Kohlberg, 1966).
• Two theories illustrate the cognitive view:
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1. Cognitive Developmental Theory
 Maintains that children pass through three stages of
cognitive development during which they acquire
gender constancy: the belief that their “gender” (more
accurately defined as sex) is irreversible and fixed.
Stage 1: Gender identity (or gender labeling).
Stage 2: Gender stability.
Stage 3: Gender consistency.
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 Research has provided support for the ages
associated with these stages:
E.g., Rubel et al., 2007: Assessed gender stability
and gender consistency in children aged 3 to 7:
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Gender Stability and Consistency As a
Function of Age (Rubel et al., 2007)
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 However, research has not supported the following
assumptions of the theory:
(a) after gender constancy is achieved, children begin to
“value” their gender identity and, thus, demonstrate
sex-typed preferences and behaviour.
(b) after gender constancy is achieved, children become
more rigid about the appropriateness of sex-typed
preferences and behaviour.
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Self-Rigidity As a Function of Age
(Rubel et al., 2007)
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2. Gender Schema Theory
 Proposed by Bem as an advancement over the twodimensional model of gender.
 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.
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 Gender schemas: Organized knowledge structures
about the sexes, their characteristics, and their
preferences; networks of associations related to sex
and gender.
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• 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?
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22
Social worker
Homemaker
Teacher
Mom
Nurse
Gentle
Sister
Female
Nurturant
Cooking
Empathetic
Long hair
Skirts
Sewing
Makeup
Female Schema
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Construction
worker
Surgeon
Breadwinner
Business
executive
Father
Ambitious
Brother
Male
Assertive
Football
Independent
Short hair
Neck ties
Hockey
Suits
Male Schema
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 Form among children as a consequence of the sociocultural emphasis on sex and gender.
 Children only require “gender identity” in order to
develop gender schemas.
 Once formed, children relate their self-concept to
their gender schemas; as a result, gender schemas
influence self-beliefs, in addition to beliefs about
others.
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Self
Social worker
Homemaker
Teacher
Mom
Nurse
Gentle
Sister
Female
Nurturant
Cooking
Empathetic
Long hair
Skirts
Sewing
Makeup
Self Schema (Female)
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Self
Construction
worker
Surgeon
Breadwinner
Business
executive
Ambitious
Father
Brother
Male
Assertive
Football
Independent
Short hair
Neck ties
Hockey
Suits
Self Schema (Male)
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 Gender schemas influence (a) what we attend to, (b)
what we encode in memory, and (c) what we recall
from memory. Examples:
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Martin and Halverson (1993): Found that children
were more likely to misremember images of people
engaged in gender-inconsistent activities than images
of people engaged in gender-consistent activities.
Cherney (2005); Cherney and Ryalls (1999): Found
that children and adults recalled sex-stereotyped
objects more accurately than “neutral” objects:
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Mean number of objects recalled
6
5
4
Male Objects
Female Objects
Neutral Objects
3
2
1
0
Men
Women
Mean Number of Sex-Stereotyped Objects
Recalled by Men and Women
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 Adaptation of gender schema theory to gender nonconformity?
 In her most recent theoretical work, Bem maintains that
the ideal is to be gender aschematic (vs. androgynous).
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Bem’s Ideas on How to Raise
a Gender Aschematic Child
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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:
1. describe the social role theory of gender development.
2. discuss evidence that supports the social role theory
of gender development.
3. consider the adaptation of social role theory to
gender non-conformity.
4. describe the stages of gender development identified
by cognitive developmental theory.
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5. review evidence that supports and fails to support
cognitive developmental theory.
6. define the term gender schema.
7. discuss the development and effects of gender schemas.
8. consider the adaptation of gender schema theory to
gender non-conformity.
9. define the term gender aschematic.
10. suggest how a gender aschematic individual may
be raised.
34