Psychology- sex and gender

Describe this complex (girls)

desire for their father, experience envy unconsciously but fears loss of mother's love. She thinks she has already been castrated so is less fearful. She identifies with her mother in order to reduce the conflict. Adopts female characteristics and acquires female identity

What is gender identity?

determines a child's gender by their attitudes and behaviour. This determines whether they are masculine or feminine

What age span does the psychodynamic approach focus on?

focusses on identification with the same sex parent during the phallic (3-5 years old) stage of development

What were the results to this study?

the highly gender schematised children chose quickly between pictures when they were shown one masculine and one feminine toy. If, however, they were shown two masculine toys or two feminine toys, they took longer to choose because they either wanted both or neither of the toys. The less gender schematised children chose on the basis of personal preference; took same amount of time to choose between the toys on each set of pictures

What was Martin's study aim?

to show that children's understanding of gender becomes less stereotyped and therefore more flexible as they get older

What does highly gender schematised mean?

where gender is an important way of thinking about the world so information is organised according to what is gender appropriate and inappropriate

Describe gender labelling

• By the age of 18 months a child knows whether it is a boy or a girl. • By the age of two and half years, they can identify other children according to their gender. • However, the children does not know at this age that we stay the same sex throughout our life and that we stay the same sex even if we change our appearance

Describe gender constancy

• Child understand gender remains constant even in other people as well despite appearance changes • The child is now able to conserve 9have the understanding that something remains the same even when appearance changes) • The child pays more attention to people of the same sex and adopts their behaviours, attitudes and values, adopting their gender role

What are our ego-defence mechanisms

• DISPLACEMENT- transferring our negative feelings towards something that will not harm us e.g. shouting at someone who hasn't don't anything, but you are in a bad mood • SUBLIMATION- channelling negative energies into an acceptable activity e.g. sport • IDENTIFICATION- adopting and internalising the ideas and behaviours of another person

Evaluate the social learning theory

• Ignores biological differences between males and females • The theory is well supported by research • Large number of studies have found that children learn their gender through the observation and imitation of role models • Does not explain why children without the same-sex parents do not have gender difficulties • Does not explain why two children of the same sex can behave differently

What are the processes involved in the social learning theory?

• MODELLING: a role model provides an example for the child • IMITATION: copying the behaviour of a model • VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT: learning from models being rewarded will reinforce the imitated behaviour or make them less likely to imitate them if the model is punished

Evaluate the gender scheme theory

• Most detailed and thorough explanation of gender theory • Well-supported by evidence and fits with our experiences • Does not explain: why some people are more highly schematised, why gender develops at age 2, why children choose same sex friends and gender appropriate toys before they can identify themselves as male or female

What are the three parts to our personality that Freud identified?

• The ID (instinctive drives) is present at birth. Concerned with the immediate satisfaction. ID works on the pleasure principle. • The ego- starts developing at around 3 as we begin to understand we cannot always have what we want. We begin to find realistic and safe ways of satisfying our desires. Works on the reality principle • The superego- develops at around 6 years old. Moral part of our personality- wrong and right. Two parts: conscience and the ego. Works on the morality principle

Describe gender stability

• The child realises that their sex is table an remained unchanged • However, they may be confused by a man in a dress for example

Evaluate Freud's study

• Too much emphasis on sex- did not consider social factors • Controversial to time era (Victorian) • Difficult to test as they are based on unconscious feelings- not directly measureable • Children grow up in single parent families and develop their gender without any issues • Case study on just one child- cannot generalise • Ignores biological factors and social influence

What is a model?

anyone who is observed, similar to you, powerful/caring

What is a gender stereotype?

believing all males and females are similar

What are the three stages to gender identity from the gender schema theory?

1) Gender labelling 2) Gender stability 3) Gender constancy

When does Freud believe this gender identification is finished by?

6 years old

What is sex?

Biological aspects of an individual

What do girls experience according to Freud during the phallic stage?

ELECTRA COMPLEX

Who conducted a study using this method: children were shown pictures of two toys and asked to choose the one they would like to play with. Sometimes, the toys in the pictures were both stereotypically masculine; sometimes they were one masculine and one feminine toy. Those pictures were shown to high and low gender schematised children

Levy and Carter

How did Freud investigate this theory?

Little Hans study

What was the method and results of Reckers and Moray's study into gender disturbance?

METHOD: Researchers rated 46 boys with gender disturbance for gender behaviour and gender identity- their family background was also investigated RESULTS: Of the group, 75% of the most severely gender disturbed boys had no father figure

What do boys experience during this period?

OEDIPUS COMPLEX

How is it proposed that children learn their gender in the social learning theory?

Observation- children notice everything and imitate it; gender is learnt from watching and copying the behaviour of others

What did Martin and Kolbe say was the reason for children imitating people on the tv?

Physical attractiveness

What was Freud's approach?

Psychodynamic approach- Believed we have thoughts and feelings that we are not aware of because they are unconscious

What is gender?

Psychological aspects of maleness and femaleness

What did Perry and Bussey conclude?

When children are in an unfamiliar situation they will observe the behaviour of same-sex models, assessing if that task is appropriate for that sex. If it is, the behaviour will be imitated.

Who investigated the effects of television on the gender development of children

Williams

What is a gender schema?

a mental building block of knowledge that contains information about each gender. They contain information about behaviours , clothes, activities, personality traits and roles about each gender

Describe this complex (boys)

•The child unconsciously sexually desires the opposite sex parent and is jealous of the same sex parent. In order to deal with these feelings and the anxiety of castration, the child begins to behave like the same sex parent (identification). Internalises male characteristics and acquires male identity