Transcript Gender - PBworks

Gender
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What is Gender?
Biological Influences
Parental Influences
Peer Influences
Theories
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
What is Gender?
• Sex – the biological dimension of being male or
female.
• Gender – the social dimensions of being male or
female.
• Gender identity – the sense of being male or female.
• Gender role – a set of expectations that prescribe
how males or females should think, act, and feel.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Biological Influences
• The 23rd pair of chromosomes in humans either
contains two X chromosomes to produce a female, or
an X and a Y chromosome to produce a male.
• Estrogens influence the development of female
physical sex characteristics.
• Androgens promote the development of male
physical sex characteristics.
• Some research is exploring possible differences in
aspects of male and female brains.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Parental Influences
• Both mothers and fathers are psychologically important in
children’s gender development.
• By action and example, they influence their children’s gender
development.
• Fathers are more likely to ensure that boys and girls conform
to existing cultural norms, but tend to be more involved in
socializing their sons than their daughters. Thoughts?
• Fathers are more likely than mothers to act differently
towards sons and daughters, thus contributing more to
distinctions between genders. Why?
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Peer Influences
• Children show a clear preference for being with and
liking same-sex peers.
• This tendency becomes stronger during the middle
and late childhood years.
• Boys teach one another the required masculine
behavior and enforce it strictly.
• Girls pass on female culture and congregate with one
another.
• Peer demands for conformity to gender roles
become especially intense during adolescence.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Theories of Gender
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Psychoanalytic Theory of Gender
Social Cognitive Theory of Gender
Cognitive Developmental Theory of Gender
Gender Schema Theory
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Psychoanalytic Theory of Gender
• Psychoanalytic theory maintains a preschool
attraction to the opposite-sex parent
ultimately results in identification with the
same-sex parent.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Social Cognitive Theory of Gender
• Social cognitive theory emphasizes gender
development occurs through observation and
imitation of gender behaviour, and through the
rewards and punishments for gender-appropriate
and -inappropriate behaviour.
• Critics of this approach argue that gender
development is not as passive as it indicates.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Cognitive Developmental Theory of Gender
• This theory says children’s gender typing occurs after
they have developed a concept of gender.
• Once they consistently conceive of themselves as
male or female, children often organize their world
on the basis of gender.
• Children use physical and behavioural clues to
differentiate gender roles and to gender-type
themselves in early development.
• They then select same-sex models to imitate.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Gender Schema Theory
• States that an individual’s attention and
behaviour are guided by an internal
motivation to conform to gender-based
sociocultural standards and stereotypes.
• “Gender typing” occurs when individuals are
ready to encode and organize information
along the lines of what is considered
appropriate for males and females in society.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Gender Schema Theory (cont’d)
• A general readiness to respond to and
categorize information on the basis of
culturally defined gender roles fuels children’s
gender-typing activities.
• This theory acknowledges, like Kohlberg’s
cognitive developmental theory, that gender
constancy is important along with other
cognitive factors.
©2005 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Brain Differences
Male/Female
History
• Late 1800s neurologists Brown-Séquard and
Bastian discovered left side of the brain seems
to be specialized for language.
• Right side of brain seems to be specialized for
spatial functions (navigation, mental imagery)
• BUT – does this apply to women as well as???
• Studies from the 1960s show that male and
female brains are organized differently –
functions are more compartmentalized in
male brains and more globally distributed in
female brains.
• For example – research from studies of stroke
survivors show that women use both
hemispheres of their brain for language, but
men do not.
• In mid 1980’s assumption was that these
differences were due to hormonal differences
• Therefore, since hormonal differences are
small in children, these sex differences in the
brain would also be small in children.
BUT
• Studies from 2004 (US) show that different types
of proteins in male and female brains are derived
from the X and Y chromosomes.
• In other words, in men, many areas of the brain
are rich with proteins that are coded by the Y
chromosome – in women these proteins are
absent.
• Conversely, women have proteins in their brains
that are coded by the X chromosome that are
absent from male brains.
• THEREFORE:
– These observable sex differences in brain are
GENETICALLY PROGRAMMED, not the result of
hormonal differences.
DIFFERENCES
• Hearing
– Studies from ‘97 and ‘98 show that newborn girls
hear at a different frequency than newborn boys.
– Girls hear better at the 1000-4000 Hz range, which
is key to speech discrimination (learning language)
– This difference in male-female hearing grows as
kids get older
– Eleven year old girls are distracted by noise levels
10 times softer than noise levels that boys find
distracting.
– Implication for the classroom?????
Vision
• Boys and girls have different wiring for their
vision as well…
– Girls are more sensitive to colour (variation in the
thickness of the retina compared to boys)
– Boys are more sensitive to motion (thicker retina
than girls)
– Implications??
ART
• Girls draw nouns, boys draw verbs
• Girls use colours – especially red, orange,
green and beige.
• Boys use colours such as black, gray, silver and
blue.
• Girls typically draw pictures of people (or pets,
flowers, trees) arranged more or less
symmetrically, facing the viewer.
• They also tend to use 10 or more colours in
their pictures.
• Boys typically draw action – a rocket hitting its
target, a monster about to eat someone – and
draw about others (third person)
• Boys tend to use at most 6 colours
• IMPLICATION: about 95% of kindergarten
teachers are female and the curriculum
expectation is that students draw peoplecentred pictures with lots of colour.
Thoughts??
Feelings
• MRI studies from Harvard of children 7-17 years
old looked at negative emotional activity (feeling
sad, upset, depressed)
• In young children, this activity takes place in
primitive areas of the brain, specifically the
amygdala.
• But the part of the brain that does the talking,
the cerebral cortex, has few direction
connections to the amygdala.
• Therefore, it does not make much sense to ask a
7 year old to tell you why he/she is sad – she
does not know.
• In adolescence, a larger part of the brain
activity associated with negative emotions
moves up to the cerebral cortex.
• So, a 17 year old is capable of explaining why
she/he is feeling sad in great detail.
• BUT, this change only occurs in GIRLS
• In boys, the centre of brain activity for
negative emotions remains in the amygdala –
there is no change as boys mature.
• Therefore: asking a 17 year old boy to explain
why he is sad is the same as asking a 7 year
old boy why he is said – in both cases he will
not be able to explain why.
• In males, the part of the brain where
emotions happen is not well connected to the
part of the brain where speech happens.
Directions
• Research shows that females and males use
different strategies for navigation (and
geometry)
• Women typically navigate using landmarks
that can be seen, heard or smelled.
• Men typically use absolute direction such as
north, south, or absolute distance such as
miles/kilometers or blocks.
• Study from 2003 found that this gender
difference in navigation is well established by
FIVE years of age.
• Neuroscientists found that young males and
females use different areas of the brain when
they navigate.
• Young women use the cerebral cortex
• Young men use the hippocampus.
Toys
• During the period of time from mid 1960s to the
mid 1990s most experts believed that children’s
toy preferences were socially constructed.
• A two year old boy prefers to play with a truck
because his behaviour is governed by gender
schema
• This schema works like this:
– I am a boy
– Boys are supposed to play with trucks, not dolls
– Therefore, I will play with trucks and not dolls.
• However, studies show that most 18 month
old toddlers do not know what gender they
belong to, even when prompted.
• But even not knowing their gender, boys still
chose the truck to play with instead of the
doll.
• Boys preferred trucks over dolls more strongly
than girls preferred dolls over trucks.
• Another study that looked at 9 month old
toddlers found the same result: 9 month olds
clearly have no concept of gender.
• CONCLUSION: Boys and Girls show gendertypical toy preferences long before they
understand gender.
– 18 month old boys play with trucks not because
they are “supposed” to, but because they would
rather play with trucks.
Taking Risks
• Boys enjoy taking risks
• Boys are impressed by other boys who take
risks.
• Girls are less likely to enjoy risk-taking for its
own sake.
• Girls are less likely to be impressed by risktaking behaviour in others.
• Girls are willing to take risks, but are less likely
to seek out risky situations just for the
opportunity to take risks.
• Boys and girls assess risk differently
• Studies show that universally (globally) boys
are more likely to engage in physically risky
activities.
• Boys are more likely than girls to be seriously
injured or killed in accidents such as drowning,
misuse of firearms, or head injuries related to
riding a bicycle.
• When parents try to stop their child from
doing something risky, boys are less likely to
comply.
• In a study involving children 6-10:
• Compared to the girls, the boys in the study:
– Were more likely to attribute their injuries
erroneously to “bad luck” rather than to any lack
of skill or foresight on their part.
– Were less likely to tell their parents about the
injury
– Were more likely to be around other boys at the
time the injury occurred.
CONCLUSION
• A boy is more likely to do something
dangerous or stupid when he is in a group of
boys than when he is by himself.
WHY:
– Due to differences in brain wiring, boys find risktaking (danger) exciting
– Boys also overestimate their own ability (girls tend
to underestimate their ability).