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Lecture notes, lectures 8 - Sex Differences,

Gender-Development, and Sexuality
Social-Personality Development (University of Calgary)

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Sex Differences, Gender-Development, and Sexuality- Chapter EIGHT

• Gender typing: the process by which a child becomes aware of his or her gender and acquires motives, values, and behaviours
considered appropriate for members of that biological sex in a culture; acquiring gender specific female or male roles

Definitions
• Sex = biological identity
• Gender = social and cultural identity as male/female, appropriate ways they should act - how does a child learn that they are a boy,
and a boy is 'x'
• Gender-role standard = a behaviour, value, or motive that society deems more appropriate for males/females

Categorizing males and females: gender-role standards

• Gender-role standard: a behaviour, value, or motive that members of a society consider more typical or appropriate or members of
one sex
• A society's gender-role standards describe how males and females are expected to behave, and reflect the stereotypes by which we
categorize and respond to members of each sex
• Female's role as child bearer is largely responsible for the gender-role standards and stereotypes that prevail in many societies
• Girls have been encouraged to assume an expressive role which would prepare them for wife and mother roles
• Expressive role: a social prescription, usually directed toward females, that one should be cooperative, kind, nurturant, and
sensitive to the needs of others
• Male's role is seen as the traditional husband and father facing the task of providing for the family and protecting if from hard; and
therefore, they have been encouraged to adopt an instrumental role
• Instrumental role: a social prescription, usually directed towards males, that one should be dominant, independent, assertive,
competitive, and goal-oriented
• It appears the first goal of socialization is to encourage children to acquire traits that will nable them to become well-behaved,
contributing members of society; a second goal is to "gender-type" the child by stressing the importance of relationship-oriented (or
expressive) attributes for girls and individualistic (or instrumental) attributes for boys

SOME FACTS AND FICTIONS ABOUT SEX DIFFERENCES

• Actual Psychological Differences Between the Sexes
• (1) Verbal Ability: girls are superior; girls display greater verbal abilities than boys on many measures
• (2) Visual/Spatial Abilities: boys are superior; boys outperform girls on some tests of visual/spatial abilities
• Evident by age 4 and persists throughout the life span
• (3) Mathematical Abilities: in adolescence boys better at arithmetic reasoning but girls are better at computational skills
• (4) Aggression: different ways for men and women to express aggression in society; boys are more physically and verbally
aggressive than girls, however, girls more likely to show hostility toward others by snubbing or ignoring them or by trying to
undermine their relationships or social status
• (5) Activity Level: boys are more physically active than girls
• (6) Fear Timidity and Risk-taking: girls appear to be more fearful or timid in uncertain situations than boys are, taking fewer risks
than boys do, e.g., mothers of 6- to 10-year olds reported that they try harder with daughters that with sons to enforce rules against
risk taking because they have concluded that 'boys will be boys'
• (7) Developmental Vulnerability: boys more vulnerable to diseases and more likely than grils to display a variety of
developmental problems, e.g., autism, reading and language-related disabilities, attention-deficit, hyperactivity syndrome,
emotional disorders, and mental retardation (because boys have to repress stress whereas females are allowed to express stress)
• (8) Emotional Expressivity/sensitivity: boys more likely to express one emotion, that is, anger; girls use more emotion-related
words, parents talk to daughters more than sons about emotions and memorable emotional events
• (9) Compliance: girls are more compliant than boys to the requests and demands of parents, teachers, and other authority figures;
girls are expected to be more compliant
• (10) Self-esteem: boys shower a somewhat greater global self-esteem; the difference becomes more noticeable during
adolescences and persists throughout adulthood

• Even from physical and cognitive perspective there are differences between female and males, for example spatial orientation;
however, many differences are based on stereotypes in our society
• From a cognitive perspective the male brain is bigger than the female brain, but that doesn't mean they are smarter, females have
more neural density; this isn't a suggestion about cognitive capacity

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• Most developmentalists can agree that males and females are far more psychologically similar than they are different
• We find that fathers are the ones that push gender stereotypes; and if a girl is a tomboy thats okay, but if a boy acts in a non-
masculine way that is more catastrophic

Cultural “myths”
• Many gender-role stereotypes are 'cultural myths"
• Gender-role stereotypes are well-ingrained cognitive schemes that we use to interpret and often distort the behaviour of males and
females
• What are some gender-stereotypical beliefs we have in our society?
• Girls are more social than boys
• Girls are more suggestible than boys
• Girls have smaller brains, therefore boys excel at higher-level cognitive processing tasks
• Boys are more analytical
• Girls lack achievement motivation
• Girls don’t do as well in maths than boys
• Girls are more emotional than boys

Effect of these cultural myths

• On Sex difference abilities (or perceptions on personal abilities); children come to regard reading, art, and music as girls' domains,
and mathematics, science, athletics, and mechanical subjects are more appropriate for boys
• On Vocational opportunities, e.g., women are overrepresented in fields that call for verbal ability (library science, elementary
education) and are underrepresented in most other professions (engineering)
• By just by stating a myth, e.g., girls do worse than boys in 'X', we are creating self-fulfilling prophecy
• Self-fulfilling prophecy: phenomenon whereby people cause others to act in accordance with the expectations they have about
those others
• Stereotypes lead people to expect certain actions from members of social groups. These stereotype-based expectations may lead
to self-fulfilling prophecies, in which one's inaccurate expectations about a person' behaviour, through social interaction, prompt
that person to act in stereotype-consistent ways, thus confirming one's erroneous expectations and validating the stereotype
• Where did they myths come from? Home and school are the two environments that may enhance these stereotypes, e.g., boy chores
vs. girls chores, or peers push others towards particular standards; raising children inline with societal expectations to avoid
conflicts with society

Home and scholastic influences of cultural myths

• How do parents contribute to sex differences?
• What effect do parental expectations have on their child's abilities and self-perceptions?
• How do teachers contribute to stereotypical gender beliefs ?
• How do these beliefs effect the abilities or behaviours of students?

Home influences
• Parental expectations about sex differences become self-fulfilling prophecies
• (1) Parents expect sons to outperform daughters in math
• (2) Parents attribute their sons' successes in math to ability but credit their daughters' successes to hard work, e.g., "Go see Dad; he's
the math brain" (reinforcing the belief that girls lack mathematical talent)
• (3) Children begin to internalize their parents' views, so that boys feel self-confident and girls more inclined to underestimate their
abilities
• (4) Suspecting they lack ability, girls become less interested in math, value it less, less likely to take elective math courses, and
become less inclined that boys to pursue careers that involve math

Scholastic influences
• Teachers also have stereotyped beliefs about the relative abilities of boys and girls in particular subjects; believe that boys have
more ability in math but that girls try harder

Developmental trends in gender typing

• Gender-typing research focuses on three interrelated topics:

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• 1) Gender identity: knowledge that one is either a boy or a girl and gender is an unchanging attribute; children as young as two
or three know,
• 2) Gender-role stereotypes: preconceive stereotypes/ideas about what males and females are supposed to be like, that may be
inaccurate, but still lingering in society
• 3) Gender-typed patterns of behaviour: child's tendencies to select same-sex playmate and to favour same-sex activities over those
normally associated with the other sex

Development of the gender concept

• First step in the development of a gender identity is to discriminate males from females and to place oneself into one of these
categories;
• Although at the end of their first year children can discriminate photographs of men and women, e.g., women are the long haired
ones, many 3- to 5-year olds, for example, think that a person who changes clothing and hairstyles can become a member of the
other sex
• Children normally begin to understand that sex is an unchanging attribute between the ages 5 and 7

Development of gender-role stereotypes

• Toddlers begin to acquire gender-role stereotypes at about the same time they become aware of their basic identities as boys or girls
• Over the preschool and early grade-school years children learn more about the toys, activities, and achievement domains considered
appropriate for boys and girls
• Grade-school children draw distinctions between sexes on psychological dimensions, learning first the positive traits that
characterize their own gender and the negative traits associated with the other gender
• Between ages 3 and 7 children are rigid about gender roles, possibly because this is the time when they are classifying themselves as
boys or girls and beginning to suspect that they will always be boys and girls
• By ages 8 and 9 children become more flexible in thinking about gender
• More tolerate of girls violating gender roles but hard on boys who 'behave' like girls, therefore, seems to be a greater pressure placed
on boys to conform to gender roles
• Gender roles become again less flexible during adolescence, tied to a process called gender intensification
• Gender intensification: a magnification of sex differences early in adolescence; associated with increased pressure to conform to
traditional gender roles
• Why might gender intensification occur?
• Parental influence - as children enter adolescence, mothers become more involved in joint activities with daughters and fathers
more involved with sons
• Peer influences - conform to traditional gender norms to succeed in the dating scene

Development of gender-typed behaviour

• Gender segregation: children's tendency to associate with same-sex playmates and to think of the other sex as an out-group
• Children who violate gender segregation rules were more likely to be rejected by their peers
• Gender boundaries and bias against other-sex companions decline in adolescence when the social and physiological events of
puberty trigger an interest in members of the opposite sex
• Why does gender segregation occur?
• Reflects differences between boys' and girls' play styles (boys have more rambunctious behaviour)
• Cognitive and social-cognitive development; once children begin to acquire gender stereotypes they come to favour the group to
which they belong and will view the other sex as a homogeneous out-group with many negative characteristics
• In many cultures, there is a greater status assigned to males and male gender role, and boys face stronger pressures than girls do to
adhere to gender roles
• Between ages 3 and 5 boys:
• (1) are much more likely that girls to say they they dislike opposite-sex toys
• (2) may even prefer a girl playmate who likes "boys" toys to a boy playmate who prefers "girls" toys
• Girls more likely to retain an interest in cross-sex toys, games, and activities
• Why?
• Girls become aware that masculine behaviour is more valued
• Girls are given more leeway than boys to partake in cross-sex activities

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• Fast-moving masculine games and "action" toys may simply be more interesting than the plaything and pastimes (e.g., dolls,
dollhouses, dishes, cleaning and care-taking utensils) often imposed on girls to encourage their adoption of a nurturant,
expressive orientation
• Girls by adolescence come to prefer many of the prescriptions for the feminine role; probably for biological, cognitive, and social
reasons
• Bodies assume more womanly appearance and girls feel they need to become more "feminine" if they hope to be attractive to
members of the other sex
• Attaining formal operations and advanced role-taking skills
• More susceptible to gender intensification pressures and thus more inclined to conform to the social prescriptions of the female
role

Subcultural variations in gender typing

• Middle-class adolescents (but not children) hold more flexible gender-role attitudes than their low-SES peers
• African-American children hold less stereotype views of women than European-American children do
• These variations may be due to differences in education and family life
• African-American community endorses more favourable attitudes toward gender equality in the sharing of family responsibilities
• Children raised in "counterculture" families (in which parents strive to promote gender equality) are less gender-stereotyped than
children from traditional families in their beliefs about which activities and occupations are appropriate for males and females; but
are quite aware of traditional gender stereotypes and are just as gender-typed in their toy and activity preferences

Categorizing Males and Females

• Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes
• This field continues to be very controversial.
• This is a prime example of a politically sensitive area--i. e., one where the attitudes of the scientists have to be scrutinized
• Defining sex and gender
• Gender: masculine or feminine behaviors
• Sex: biological and physical attributes
• Gender typing: culturally assigned roles

Defining sex and gender

• Gender-based beliefs: expectations
• Gender stereotypes: based on beliefs
• Gender roles: distinct behaviours displayed
• Gender identity: perception of self
• Gender-role preferences: desires, what you would hope to at least acquire in terms of characteristics

Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes

• Gender socialization begins at birth:
• Parents have a role in socializing gender: Dress boys and girls differently, select toys based on gender, and often react negatively
if they behave in ways they think are gender inappropriate.
• Gender stereotypes
• Males: controlling, dominant, independent, controlling and manipulating the environment; assertive, dominant, competitive.
• Females: relatively passive, loving, sensitive, and supportive in social relationships,
• especially in their family roles as wife and mother.
• Warmth in personal relationships, the display of anxiety under pressure, and the suppression of overt aggression and sexuality as
more appropriate for women than men.

Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes

• These stereotypes are true cross-culturally as well (i.e., years ago women stayed at home while men went out, evolutionary theory
says it held constant because it is in genes - regardless of the times we need men to be dominant, and women to nurture)
• This implies that the origins of these stereotypes does not lie in local cultures.
• But there are some variations.
• African American families: African-American families do not have clearly different boy-girl gender-role distinctions. They also
encourage girls to be aggressive and assertive.

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• Mexican American families: For example, Mexican-Americans have very clearly differentiated gender-role socialization
standards.

Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes

• Some recent findings:
• Sex differences: Men are more likely to have traditional gender stereotypes than women, especially if they are the sole wage
earner in the family. Fathers are more concerned that their children maintain behaviours appropriate to their gender; fathers play a
more important role than mothers in children's gender stereotyping (and in particularly towards the boys)
• As women age there is a decrease in female hormones, and then we see the grandmothers being leaders in family; at the same time
there is a decrease for males and we see grandfathers as more nurturing

Gender-Role Standards and Stereotypes

• Some recent findings
• Age differences: Young children are especially rigid in gender stereotyping; children between ages 3-6 are more gender
stereotypes than adults. This reflects a general tendency for young children to have rigid, absolutist sense of rules. (This is also
the case in moral reasoning where young children allow no exceptions to rules like "stealing is bad.")

Theories (see pamphlet)

• Evolutionary
• Biosocial
• Freud
• Learning
• Kohlberg

THEORIES OF GENDER-TYPING AND GENDER ROLE DEVELOPMENT

Evolutionary Theory
• Males and females face different evolutionary pressures over the course of human history and natural selection process conspired
to create fundamental differences among males and females that determined gender divisions of labor
• Males, who need only contribute sperm to produce offspring, can best ensure that their genes survive by mating with multiple
partners and producing many children; therefore, they should become more competitive, assertive, and aggressive because these
attributes should increase their chances of successfully attracting mates and procuring resources
• Females must incest much more to achieve the same objective, taking nine months from conception to the birth of each
offspring and years to raise each to ensure that their genes survive; to successfully raise children, women presumably evolved
in ways that would make them kind, gentle, and nurturant and prefer men who would display kindness toward them and would
provide resources (food and protection)
• Women and men still have a particular way of thinking when selecting a mate
• Males and females may be psychologically the same but differ in any domain in which they have faced different adaptive
problems, e.g., male spatial skills were essential for hunting, and with pressures to provide food they would develop greater
spatial skills
• Children at young age can differentiate between boys and girls toys - they say this is because it is because of genetics

Criticisms of the Evolutionary Approach

• Applies to sex differences that are consistent consistent across cultures but largely ignores differences that are limited to particular
cultures or historical periods
• Social roles hypothesis: the notion that psychological differences between the sexes and other gender-role stereotypes are created
and maintained by differences in socially assigned roles that men and women play (rather than attributable to biologically evolved
dispositions)
• Psychological differences emerge because:
• Cultures assign roles based on gender, e.g., provider versus homemaker
• Socialization practices (to promote traits in boys and girls, e.g., assertion versus nurturance)

Money and Ehrhardt's Biosocial Theory

• There are a number of critical episodes or events that will affect a person's eventual preference for the masculine or the feminine
gender role

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• First critical event occurs at conception as the child inherits either an X or Y chromosome from the father; second critical point
development of male internal reproductive system or female internal reproductive system; third critical point is growing penis and
scrotum or female genitalia
• When a child is born social factors come into play and then biological factors come into play again at puberty, when large
quantities of hormones are released, stimulating the growth of the reproductive system, the appearance of secondary sex
characteristics, and the development of sexual urges
• All these factors combine to provide basis for an adult gender identity and gender-role preference
• Evidence for biological influences on gender-role development
• Genetic Influences
• X-linked recessive trait: an attribute determined by recessive gene that appears only on the X chromosomes; because the gene
determining these characteristics is recessive (that is, dominated by other genes that might appear at the same location on X
chromosomes), such characteristics are common among males who have only one X chromosome; also called sex-linked trait
• Timing of puberty: biological variable regulated in party by our genotypes, and it has been found that people who reach
puberty late preform better on visual/spatial tasks than those who mature early
• However, later research indicates that spatial performance is more heavily influenced by their previous involvement in spatial
activities and their self-concepts than their timing of puberty; males have strong masculine self-concept and experience with
spatial toys and activities
• Hormonal influences
• "Wrong" hormones given to women during prenatal period with negative consequences, e.g., women given progestin, which
converts to male hormone testosterone by the body, or adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) which causes females to be born with
external genitalia that resembles those of a boy
• Androgenized females: females who develop male-like external genitalia because of exposure to male sex hormones during the
prenatal period
• Androgenized girls were more likely to be tomboys who payed with boys and preferred boys' toys and activities compared to
traditional girls' toys
• Social-labelling influences
• Money and Ehrhardt insisted that social-labelling influences can modify or even reverse biological predispositions (surgery and
gender reassignment)
• Money concluded that there is a "critical period" between 18 months and 3 years of age for the establishment of gender identity
• Cultural influences
• Differences across cultures in what people expect of boys and girls
• Tahiti: few distinctions are made among boys and girls
• Mead’s study of tribal societies
• Arapesh – both males and females were taught to be expressive
• Mundugumor – both genders were taught to be “masculine”
• Tchambuli – from Western standards, males more feminine, females more masculine
• So despite biology, their characteristics and identity was determined by the culture
• So you see we are tossed back and forth from nurture and nature

Evidence for Social-Labeling Influences

• Condry & Condry
• Saw film of 9 m/o presented with jack-in-the-box
• Half told male, half told female
• “boy” was described as angry
• “girl” was described as afraid

Psychobiosocial viewpoint
• Psychobiosocial model: perspective on nature/nurture interactions specifying that specific early experiences affect the organization
of the brain, which in turn influences one's responsiveness to similar experiences in the future

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory (children are passive and genetics determine gender role development)
• One's preference for a particular gender role emerges during the phallic stage of psychosexual development

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• Phallic stage: Freud's third stage of psychosexual development (from 3 to 6 years of age) in which children gratify the sex
instinct by fondling their genitals and developing an incestuous desire for the parent of the other sex; females envy the penis, boy
identifies with the father because he wants to take over role but fears father chopping off the penis
• During this stage children begin to emulate and identify with the same-sex parent
• Identification: child's tendency to emulate another person, usually the same-sex parent
• Males = oedipus complex and females = electra complex
• Males become gender typed as they identify with their father to resolve the Oedipus complex
• Freud believe gender typing is more difficult for a girl (because she lacks a penis); but f athers encourage feminine behaviour in
females, and act that increases attractiveness of the mother who serves as the girl's model of femininity
• By trying to please her father a girl is motivated to incorporate her mother's feminine attributes
• Evaluating Freud's theory:
• Lack of research support
• Children at this age are so ignorant about differences between male and female genitalia
• Research suggest that child identifies with the parent that is nurturing and comforting

Social Learning Theory

• Children acquire their gender identities in two ways: direct tuition and observational learning
• Direct tuition – children are encouraged and rewarded for gender-appropriate behaviours
• Parents begin the process by encouraging gender-appropriate activities and discouraging cross-gender play during the second
year of life, before children have acquired their basic gender identities or display clear preferences for male or female activities
• Siblings and peers reinforce it
• Research suggests that children are gender neutral till mid-childhood or adolescences: then children face peer pressure, i.e.,g
don't want to be part of the out group; puberty development of gender organs that are considered feminine or masculine; and if
they want a relationship they think they need to act according to your gender
• But in later years, they are less rigid, more flexible and more accepting
• Observational learning – children adopt the attitudes and behaviours of same-sex models; children acquire man of their gender-
typed attributes and interests by observing and imitating a variety of same-sex models
• Also important is the label attached to the attitude or behaviour (and not just observation)
• Same-sex models become more important at ages 5 to 7, when gender is unchanging aspect of the self ; then girls more likely to
imitate the women adults and boys more likely to imitate the men models
• Media influences; learning gender roles from reading stories and watching television (how media emphasizes gender appropriate
roles, e.g., girls must be attractive, wear makeup etc.)

Kohlberg’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory

1. Gender-role development depends on cognitive development; children must acquire certain understandings about gender before
they will be influenced by their social experiences
2. Children actively socialize themselves; they are not merely passive pawns of social influence

• Children notice characteristics and classify themselves according to that, like gender detectives, start to create schema
• That is they first establish a stable gender identity and then actively seek out same-sex models and other information to learn how to
act like a boy or girl
• Basic gender identity: the stage of gender identity in which the child first labels the self as a boy or a girl; around preschool
years (2-3 years of age), they recognize they are either a boy or girl and organize any information the environment gives them
around that
• Gender stability: the stage of gender identity in which the child recognizes that gender is stable over time (ages 4-5); they
understand and accept that if 'I'm a boy I will always remain a boy,' and if girl cuts her hair might think she 'is a boy'
• Gender consistency: the stage of gender identity in which the child recognizes that a person's gender is invariant despite changes
in the person's activities or appearance (also known as gender constancy); superficial changes has no effect on their sex, they
realize it doesn't matter if they cut their hair
• Self-socialization begins only after children reach gender consistency
• Criticisms of Kohlberg’s Theory
• Research has shown that:
• Gender-typing begins well before children acquire a mature gender identity
• Gender reassignment is very difficult after age 3

Gender Schema Theory (Martin & Halverson) (another way of approaching it - information-processing theory)

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• Like Kohlberg they believe that children are intinsically motivated to acquire interests, values, and behaviours that are consistent
with their 'boy' or 'girl' self-images, but unlike Kohlberg, they argue 'self-socialization' begins as soon as the chid acquires a basic
gender identity
• Establishment of a basic gender identity motivates a child to learn about the sexes and to incorporate this information into gender
schemes; look at the environment for consistency of their schemas
• Gender schemas: organized sets of beliefs and expectations about males and females that guide information processing
• First children construct a simple in-group/out-group schema: one's general knowledge of the mannerisms, roles, activities, and
behaviours that characterize males and females
• Children also construct an own-sex schema: detailed knowledge or plans of action that enable a person to perform gender-
consistent activities and to enact his or her gender role
• Once formed gender schemas structure experience by providing a framework for processing social information; they are more likely
to encode and remember information consistent with their gender schemas and to forget schema-inconsistent information or to
otherwise distort it so that it becomes more consistent with their stereotypes
• Example: Children who heard stories in which actors performed gender-atypical behaviours, e.g., girl chopping wood, tended to
recall the action but to alter the scene to conform to their gender stereotypes, saying that a boy had been chopping wood

An Integrative Theory
• Biological theories account for major biological developments
• Social-theories account for differential reinforcement processes
• Cognitive development explains the growth of categorization skills
• Gender schemas are also important as are models as children age

STOPPED TAKING NOTES HERE

• Between the ages of 3 and 7, gender-related issues are very important to children. This is the time when they are starting to firmly
classify themselves as boys and girls…. They are starting to know that they will always be boys and/or girls.
• As children develop they learn that gender stereotypes don’t always apply
• Older children are more willing than younger children to ignore stereotypes when judging children

Is There Any Truth to Gender Stereotypes?

• Physical Development
• As infants, boys are more active than girls
• This difference increases during childhood
• In a classroom, boys are more likely than girls to have a hard time sitting still.
• On a playground, boys more often play vigorously and girls more often play quietly.
• Girls tend to be healthier than boys
• Female embryos are more likely than males to survive prenatal development
• Infant boys are more prone to diseases and dysfunctions
• Adolescent boys and young men are more likely to engage in unhealthy, risk-taking behaviors
• Intellectual Ability
• Females tend to have greater verbal ability than males
• Girls read, write, and spell better than boys
• More boys have reading and other language-related problems such as stuttering
• Males tend to have greater spatial ability than females
• From childhood on, boys tend to have better mental rotation skill than girls
• From adolescence on, boys are more accurate than girls on spatial tasks that involve relations between objects in space
• On standardized math tests:
• Initially, girls excel in math computation, but later boys excel in math problem solving
• For grades in math courses:
• Usually there is no difference between boys and girls, BUT, if there is a difference it usually favors girls

Think on Your Own…

• Why are girls doing worse on achievement tests but getting better grades in the classroom?

Personality and Social Behaviour

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• Starting at age 2, boys are more physically and verbally aggressive than girls.
• They are more likely to be physically aggressive toward other boys rather than toward girls
• Girls display covert forms of aggression snubbing others or undermining social status or relationships.
• Boys and men are more aggressive in virtually all cultures and in nonhuman species

Why are boys more aggressive?

• There is a Biological link to aggression in the hormone Androgens, which are secreted by the testes.
•
• Parents are more likely to be more tolerant of aggressive behaviour in sons than in daughters. So… experience encourages boys
rather than girls to express their aggression physically.

Is there a Societal link?

• Media presents us with aggressive male role models - Jedi Knights to John Wayne
• These role models are rewarded for their aggressive behaviour.
• Parents are more likely to use physical punishment with sons than with daughters.

Personality and Social Behaviour Continued…

• Girls are better able at expressing their emotions and interpreting others ’ emotions
• Girls are more willing to admit to feelings, but boys and girls are equally able to feel what others are feeling

Personality and Social Behavior

• Females are more easily influenced by others - more persuadable
• Girls are more compliant than boys with the requests and demands of teachers, parents, and other authority figures.
• Young girls are more likely to seek an adult’s help

What is actually the case?

• BOTH boys and girls are aggressive. BUT… the method of aggression is different between the sexes.
• In American children (African American and Euro American ) in grades 3 to 6, when they want to harm their peers, boys try to hurt
them physically whereas girls try to damage relationships with peers.
• Relational aggression (typical of girls) is less visually obvious.

Why is there a gender difference?

• Parents are more “feeling-oriented” with daughters than with sons. They are more likely to talk about their emotions with daughters
than with sons. They are more likely to emphasize the importance of considering others’ feelings with their daughter than with their
sons.

What Influences How Children Learn Gender Roles?

• Parents
• From birth, fathers tend to interact more with sons than daughters while mothers interact more with daughters than sons
• Mothers play traditional games like peek-a-boo whereas fathers play more physical, rough-and-tumble activities
• Parents treat sons and daughters similarly, except for gender-related behavior
• Example: a dad might urge his frightened son to jump off a diving board (Be a man!) but not be so insistent with his daughter
(That’s okay, honey!).

Peers
• By 3 years of age, most children’s play shows the impact of gender stereotypes:
• Boys prefer blocks and trucks
• Girls prefer tea sets and dolls
• Young children are even critical of peers who engage in cross-gender play
• Once children learn rules about gender-typical play, they often harshly punish peers who violate those rules
• Between 2 and 3 years of age, children begin to prefer playing with same-sex peers
• Children spontaneously select same-sex playmates. Adult pressure is not necessary.
• Boys and girls prefer same-sex playmates even in gender-neutral activities such as playing tag or doing puzzles.

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• This preference increases during childhood, reaching a peak in preadolescence

• Children resist parents efforts to get them to play with members of the opposite sex.
• Girls are often unhappy when parents encourage them to play with boys, and boys are unhappy when parents urge them to play
with girls.

Gender Identity
How d we develop a sense of being male or female?

What do you think?

• Imagine you meet a 1-year-old named Leslie who is dressed in gender-neutral clothing and is sporting a bowl-cut hairstyle, so that
you cannot tell whether Leslie is a boy or girl.
• How long would it be before you become curious about Leslie’s sex? How would you determine whether a 1-year-old like Leslie is
a boy or a girl?

Development of Gender Identity

• The first step is to discriminate males from females and to place oneself in to one of these categories
• By 1 year, infants can discriminate male photographs from female photographs
• By 2-3 years, children tell us they know about gender
• They use “mommy” and “daddy” labels correctly
• They use “boy” and “girl” labels correctly
• They accurately label themselves as either a boy or girl
• Between 3-5 years, children still believe they can change gender identities if they want to
• Between 5-7 years, children have a firm, stable, future-oriented identity as a boy or a girl

Psychological androgyny: A prescription for the 21st Century

• Androgyny: a gender-role orientation in which the individual has incorporated a large number of both masculine and feminine
attributes into his or her personality

Sexuality and Sexual Behaviour

• Sexuality: aspect of self referring to erotic thoughts, actions, and orientation

Cultural Influences on Sexuality

• Some societies are more permissive and others restrictive
• Parents in restrictive societies societies often elude sexually explicit questions posed by their children and leave the task of
preparing for sexual relations up to the children themselves; therefore children end up learning from their peers how they should
related to members of the other sex

Adolescent sexual explorations, attitudes, and behaviour

• Internet provides adolescents a multitude of information about sexual matters as well as relatively safe and anonymous opportunities
to explore their emerging sexual identities without exposing themselves to risks they might encounter through similar identity
explorations in the real world
• Changes in sexual attitudes:
• Adolescents believe that premarital sex with affection is acceptable
• Decline of the double standard: view that sexual behaviour that is appropriate for members of one sex is less appropriate for the
other, e.g., sexual practices viewed as appropriate for males are less appropriate for females
• Reflect increase confusion about sexual norms, e.g., sex with affection is very ambiguous, must one truly be in love, or is mere
liking enough to justify sexual intercourse
• Changes in sexual behaviour:
• Adolescents involved in more intimate forms of sexual activity
• Girls more than boys insist that sex and love should go together

Downloaded by Jeffrey Manzano (freymanzano.mr@gmail.com)