Cognitive Explanations of Gender Development (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

Kohlberg's stage theory

• Kohlberg’s theory is a cognitive theory of gender development

• Unlike other cognitive theories of gender, like gender schema theory, it does not see gender development as a passive learning process which occurs as a result of socialisation

• Kohlberg saw knowledge about gender identity arising from children interacting with the world and actively constructing their understanding of gender 

• Kohlberg’s stage theory is very similar to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development:

  • Both theories see development as a series of universal stages that are determined by biological changes in the brain as well as active interaction with the environment

• Kohlberg’s stage theory suggests that once children understand their gender, they begin to identify with others of the same gender

  • Gender identity is a sense of self as male, female or transgender (APA, 2006)

  • Gender constancy is gained when children are capable of recognising that gender remains stable over time and is consistent despite changes in appearance

• Gender identity develops in stages over a period of time, and it is only after gender constancy is reached at about the age of seven that children start to develop ideas of gender that align with their own identities

• Children then value the behaviours and attitudes associated with their gender, and identify with adult figures who are the same sex as them

The 3 stages of Kohlberg's theory

Gender identity

• Gender identity occurs between eighteen months and three years

• Children recognise that they are female or male and learn the gender labels ‘girl’ and ‘boy’

• However, children do not realise that boys grow into men and girls grow into women

Gender stability 

• Gender stability occurs between three and five years

• Children understand that people remain the same gender for life

• Children rely on appearances to determine gender, e.g. if a woman cuts her hair very short or a man grows his long, then children at this age believe they have changed gender

Gender constancy 

• Gender constancy develops between six and seven years

• Children realise that gender is constant and does not rely just on appearances

• Children become more attentive to models who are the same sex as them

• Gender constancy is complete only when children appreciate that gender is consistent over time and in different situations

Research which investigates Kohlberg’s theory of gender development

• McConaghy (1979) conducted interviews with young children and found that if a doll was dressed in transparent clothing so its genitals were visible, 3-5-year-old children still judged its gender by its clothes

  • This supports Kohlberg’s argument that children in the gender stability stage still rely on external appearances to determine gender

• Halim et al (2013) interviewed parents from different cultures to investigate gender appearance rigidity in children in the gender stability stage

  • The results showed that the more children aged about 3-6 years old understood that gender was constant, the more likely they were to dress rigidly according to their gender

Evaluation of Kohlberg’s theory of gender development

Strengths

• Kohlberg’s theory recognises the role of the child in their gender development and includes an element of choice and free will

• Kohlberg’s theory is supported  by research with children and their parents, including cross-cultural research (see McConaghy and Halim et al, above)

Weaknesses

• Kohlberg’s theory concentrates on cognitive factors and ignores the possible influences of parents and friends, reducing them to just those with whom the child interacts and disregards the nature of these interactions

• The theory does not account for individuals who identify as nonbinary, transgender or gender fluid

Link to Issues and Debates:

Kohlberg’s theory and associated research link to the debate between determinism and free will. Kohlberg saw gender constancy as a universal and inevitable last stage in gender development, as children accepted a direct sex-gender link and the sex-role expectations through interaction with their culture and society. This is determinism, as changes in brain structure due to maturation allow for higher levels of cognitive functioning, which in turn, produce changes in understanding of gender. The argument that gender development is similar across all cultures suggests a biological predisposition underpinning gender development. 

However, the fact that the theory acknowledges the active role of the child in identifying with their own gender and attaining gender constancy also gives Kohlberg’s theory an element of free will, though not so much as Bem, whose concept of androgyny saw gender constancy as a choice and part the free will to live one’s life according to one’s own decisions regarding which personal traits are desirable, whether or not they reflect the sex-role expectations for one’s gender.

Kohlberg’s theory is fairly holistic than as it combines interacting with one’s social environment and biological developmental factors as explanations for gender development.

Link to Approaches:

Kohlberg’s theory is relevant to the cognitive approach, as it assumes that children are active information processors, not passive recipients of environmental input. True, it is their brain development that gives them an increasing ability to process the gender expectations around them, and pass through Kohlberg’s three stages, but it is their evolving understanding of concepts of gender around them (e.g. ‘what girls do’ and ‘what boys do’) that leads to gender constancy.

Martin & Halverson's gender schema theory

An explanation of gender schema theory

• Gender schema theory (Bem, 1981; Martin and Halverson, 1981) sees gender identity alone as providing children with the motivation to assume gender-consistent behaviour

• Gender schema theory is different from Kohlberg’s gender development theory

  • This states that gender constancy by seven years old is necessary for gender-consistent behaviour to emerge

• A gender schema is a cognitive framework constructed through observation of older children and adults’ gendered behaviour

• Developing a gender schema is a process of separating people into two genders and can happen between the ages of two to three years of age

• Children are socialised into a binary view of gender, as toys, clothes, their parents’ occupations, hobbies, domestic chores, and even the ‘he’ and ‘she’ pronouns all vary according to gender

• By the age of three years old, the child has in-group (my sex) and out-group (opposite sex) schemas:

  • In-group schemas socialise the child into gender-consistent behaviour

  • Out-group schemas are recognised as inconsistent with the child’s in-group and are initially ignored

  • Behaviour that is consistent with the appropriate gender schema is remembered better

• By the age of six years old, children stop ignoring out-group schemas and, as their cognition develops, begin to show an understanding that the opposite sex may want different things from them 

• Adolescents are more likely to reject the rigid binary view of gender and dress and act in a more androgynous manner

Research which investigates gender schema theory

• Martin and Halverson (1983) conducted an experiment asking young children under the age of six to recall pictures of people

  • They found that they recalled more gender-consistent pictures (such as a male footballer) than gender-inconsistent pictures (such as a female lorry driver)

  • This supports the idea that gender schema negatively affects memory for behaviour that is gender-inconsistent 

• Todd et al. (2016) carried out a naturalistic observation of children younger than 4 years old, and their toy preferences

  • The results showed that both boys and girls aged between nine and 32 months showed strongly gender-consistent preferences for toys

  • This suggests that gender identity motivates young children to engage in gender-consistent behaviour

Evaluation of gender schema theory

Strengths

• Gender schema theory explains why children act in gender-consistent ways years before they reach Kohlberg’s stage of gender constancy, through gender identity leading to socialisation into gender norms

• Gender schema theory explains why children are more likely to recall and imitate gender-consistent behaviour rather than gender-inconsistent behaviour

Weaknesses

• Gender schema theory does not fully explain why gender schemas develop in the way that they do, because it focuses too much on cognitive factors and not enough on social factors like parental influence and peer pressure

• Gender schema theory also cannot explain why some girls may prefer action figures and some boys may prefer dolls

• Gender schemas lack the same construct validity as general cognitive schemas in that they are internal mental processes that cannot be seen, and their development cannot be explained, just described

Link to Issues and Debates:

Gender schema theory is reductionist, as it neglects both biological development and social context or culture, focusing instead on cognitive schemas as the sole source of gender-appropriate behaviour. It is less holistic than Kohlberg’s theory as it does not take biological stages into account. However, it could become more holistic if it considered the role of differences in socialisation by parents. Gender schema theory could also be used to critique the presentation of just two genders in the media, in pronouns, toys and children’s literature. This would help to raise awareness of the several developing gender schemas, including non-binary, transgender and agender.

Link to Approaches:

Gender schema theory belongs in the Cognitive Approach, suggesting children process and internalise information about gender by their cognition of the world around them