1 Psychology 320: Psychology of Gender and Sex Differences Lecture 26

2 Office Hour Invitations November 25 th, 11:30-12:30 Kenny

3 Cognitive Theories of Gender Development 1. What theories illustrate the cognitive view? (continued)

4 1. define the term “gender schema.” By the end of today’s class, you should be able to: 2. review evidence that supports the gender schema theory of gender development. 3. suggest how a “gender aschematic” individual may be raised.

5 2. Gender Schema Theory (continued) What theories illustrate the cognitive view? (continued)  Gender schemas: Organized knowledge structures about the sexes, their characteristics, and their preferences; networks of associations related to sex and gender.

Nurse Female Gentle Homemaker Empathetic Teacher Skirts Nurturant Female Schema Mom Sister Makeup Cooking Sewing Long hair Social worker 6

Male Ambitious Breadwinner Independent Business executive Neck ties Assertive Male Schema Father Brother Suits Football Hockey Short hair Consruction worker Surgeon 7

8  Form among children as a consequence of the emphasis that society and culture place on gender.  Once formed, children incorporate their self-concept into their gender schemas; as a result, gender schemas influence self-beliefs, in addition to beliefs about others.  Children only require “gender identity” in order to develop gender schemas.

Nurse Female Gentle Homemaker Empathetic Skirts Nurturant Self Schema (Female) Mom Sister Makeup Cooking Sewing Long hair Social worker Teacher Self 9

Male Ambitious Breadwinner Independent Business executive Neck ties Assertive Self Schema (Male) Father Brother Suits Football Hockey Short hair Consruction worker Surgeon Self 10

11 Cherney (2005): Found that both children and adults remembered sex stereotyped toys better than “neutral toys.”  Gender schemas influence (a) what we attend to, (b) what we encode in memory, and (c) what we recall from memory. Examples:

12 Martin and Halverson (1983): Found that children were more likely to misremember pictures depicting people engaged in gender-inconsistent activities than pictures depicting people engaged in gender- consistent activities. Cherney and Ryalls (1999): Found that adults exposed to gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent items in a room were better able to recall gender consistent items.

13 Mean Number of Gender-Stereotyped Objects Recalled by Men and Women Mean number of objects recalled

14  Research suggests that (a) males are more gender schematic than females and (b) sex-typed individuals are more gender schematic than non-sex-typed individuals (e.g., individuals who are androgynous, cross-sex-typed; Bem, 1981; Cherney & Ryalls, 1999).

15  On the basis of her recent work, Bem has argued that the ideal is to be gender aschematic (vs. androgynous). She has proposed several ways in which individuals may become gender aschematic:

16 Bem’s Ideas on How to Raise a Gender Aschematic Child

17 Cognitive Theories of Gender Development 1. What theories illustrate the cognitive view? (continued)