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Chapter 4

Chapter 4. Gender Self-Concept: Developmental Processes and Individual Differences. ____________________. Gender Self-Concept . Gender identity: One’s self-definition as female or male Most people establish a gender identity consistent with their external reproductive organs

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Chapter 4

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  1. Chapter 4 Gender Self-Concept: Developmental Processes and Individual Differences ____________________

  2. Gender Self-Concept Gender identity: One’s self-definition as female or male • Most people establish a gender identity consistent with their external reproductive organs • Across gender identity, people vary in their gender attitudes: beliefs about the appropriate traits, interests, behaviors, and roles of females and males ______________________

  3. Theories of Gender Typing Gender typing: the acquisition of the traits, behaviors, and roles that are generally associated with one’s gender _____________________

  4. Theories of Gender Typing Psychoanalytic theory (Sigmund Freud): gender typing stems from children’s awareness of anatomical differences between females and males combined with their strong inborn sexual urges • Oedipus complex • Castration anxiety • Identification • Penis envy _____________________

  5. Theories of Gender Typing Social learning theory (Walter Mischel): children acquire behaviors associated with their gender because those behaviors are more likely to be imitated and to be associated with positive reinforcement • Observational learning • Reinforcement and punishment • Cognition (Social cognitive theory) _____________________

  6. Theories of Gender Typing Cognitive developmental theory (Lawrence Kohlberg): Children are active learners, attempting to make sense of the social environment • Gender constancy: the belief that gender is permanent regardless of changes in age, behavior, or appearance _____________________

  7. Theories of Gender Typing Gender schema theory (Sandra Bem) • Children develop an interrelated set of ideas (schema) about gender that guides their social perceptions and actions • Gender schema development stems from learning the gender norms and practices of society • Individuals vary in the extent to which they use gender schemas to understand and evaluate others and to guide their own behavior _____________________

  8. Prenatal Development Prenatal sex differentiation: The biological processes that influence the making of our physical sex _____________________

  9. Prenatal Development Stages of prenatal sex differentiation • Chromosomes • Gonadal development • Androgens • Estrogens • Development of internal reproductive organs • External genitalia • Brain differentiation _____________________

  10. Prenatal Development

  11. Prenatal Development

  12. Prenatal Development Intersexuality: The intermingling of female and male sexual characteristics • Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) _____________________

  13. Prenatal Development • Turner syndrome • 1/3000 females • Single X chromosome (XO) : small, unable to reproduce, stubby fingers, webbed neck

  14. Prenatal Development • Klinefelter’s syndrome • 1/200 males • XXY: Sterility, feminine traits

  15. Prenatal Development • Androgen-insensitivity syndrome • Born XY • Inability of receptors to receive testosterone

  16. Prenatal Development • 5 alpha-reductase and 17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase deficiency • “guevedoces”

  17. Prenatal Development Development of intersexuality • Effects of prenatal hormones on gender-related interests and activities • Prenatal experiences and gender of rearing • Cultural values • Sexual orientation • Research challenges _____________________

  18. Prenatal development • The John/Joan Case • David Reimer “As Nature Made Him” • Transgender • Gender dysphoria

  19. Gender-Related Traits Individuals vary in the extent to which they conform to stereotyped expectations about their gender • Femininity • Masculinity • Androgyny • Undifferentiation _____________________

  20. Androgyny Scale • 1 = never or almost never true • 2 = usually not true • 3 = sometimes, but frequently not true • 4 = occasionally true • 5 = often true • 6 = usually true • 7 = always true • http://androgyne.0catch.com/gentest1.htm

  21. Gender-Related Traits Changes in gender-related traits over time • Women’s scores on masculinity have increased since the 1970s (Twenge, 1997b) • Young women today are more likely than their counterparts in the 1970s to have experienced and been encouraged toward roles that involve male-stereotyped characteristics _____________________

  22. Gender-Related Traits Gender-related traits and psychological adjustment • Research demonstrates that positive aspects of masculinity (e.g., independence, mastery) are associated with positive psychological well-being (Woodhill & Samuels, 2003) • Male-related traits are more highly valued in North American society _____________________

  23. Gender Attitudes People differ in the extent to which they believe that gender should dictate females’ and males’ roles • Traditional gender attitude: the belief that females should engage in communal behaviors and roles and males should engage in agentic behaviors and roles • Nontraditional or egalitarian gender attitude: the belief that behaviors and roles should not be gender specific _____________________

  24. What do you think? Should gender dictate roles? _____________________

  25. What are your gender attitudes? On a scale from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree), indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with the following statements: • The husband should be the head of the family • Keeping track of a child’s out-of-school activities should be mostly the mother’s responsibility • Home economics courses should be as acceptable for male students as for female students • A person should generally be more polite to a woman than to a man • It is more appropriate for a mother rather than a father to change their baby’s diaper • It is wrong for a man to enter a traditionally female career • Things work out best in a marriage if a husband leaves his hands off domestic tasks • Women can handle pressures from their jobs as well as men can • Choice of college is not as important for women as for men _____________________

  26. Gender Attitudes Perceived value of female versus male gender-related attributes • College students associate more advantages with being male than being female • Advantages and disadvantages associated with each gender _____________________

  27. Gender Attitudes Males who violate gender expectations are evaluated more negatively than females • Social status hypothesis: because the male gender role is more highly valued than the female role is, a male is seen as lowering his social status by engaging in female-stereotypic behaviors, whereas a female performing male-stereotypic behaviors is perceived as raising hers • Sexual orientation hypothesis: cross-gender behavior in boys but not girls is considered a sign of actual or potential same-sex sexual orientation _____________________

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