Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology Section 6.3

Identity Development • When does Identity begin? • In vitro? • Label of sex in hospital? • Gender identity – When children correctly label their own or another person’s gender (about 2 years old.) • Based on child-rearing practices • Gender role (based on society/biological factors) • Gender constancy (7 years old)

Identity Development • Whiting and Edwards (1973) • Studied children in Kenya, Japan, India, Philippines, Mexico and the US. • Girls were more nurturing and made more physical contact. • Boys were more aggressive, dominant, and engaged in more rough-and-tumble play. • Nature vs. Nurture in developing gender roles. • Nature view claims that a child’s gender identity is programmed by genes and hormones. • Nurture view claims that the way a child is dressed and treated is the most important factor in determining gender.

Identity Development • Biological explanations: • Natural selection according to evolutionary psychologists. • Men are competitive and aggressive to attract a partner and being able to provide resources. • Women nurture because they need to raise the children in order to increases the chance of attracting a partner that provides for them. • Critics argue that roles are a consequence of cultural assignment of duties. • Androgens (male hormones) make the difference in the fetus between a male and a female.

Identity Development • Karen Horney • Trained as psychoanalyst (Freud) • Forced to resign from the New York Psychoanalytic Institute because of differing views from Freud. • Against the idea of “anatomy is destiny.” • One of the first feminist psychologist and argued that masculine cultures do not provide equal opportunities. • Claimed that if women wanted to appear like men, it was because they were regarded as inferior.

Identity Development • Horomones • Estrogen • Hormone replacement therapy • Testosterone • Exposure before birth leads to masculine features. • Theory of psychosexual differentiation • People born with innate predispositions of females or males. • Prenatal exposure creates brain circuitry. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXI9w0PbBXY&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1 • Biosocial theory of gender development • Money and Ehrhardt (1972) • Biosocial theory of gender development: Interaction between biological and social factors have the effect on gender. • Money: children are gender neutral at birth and it is later determined by nurture. • Theory based on intersex children: ambiguous genitals. • Children are not born with gender identity, therefore, it is possible to reassign sex within the first two years of life.

Identity Development • David Reimer • Penis accidentally burned off while undergoing circumcision. • David’s family (then Bruce) saw Dr. Money on tv and deemed it possible to change gender successfully through surgery, hormone replacement, and socialization. • At 22 months, Bruce became Brenda and was then on raised as a girl. • Brenda was very lonely and felt different from other girls and felt intimidated by Money. • In adolescence, he refused further surgery or to take oestregen. • At 15, his parents revealed the truth. • Brenda decided to take on the name David and underwent reconstruction surgery to have a penis. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GhbVFjIaN0&playnext=1&list=PL85187148EC93E475&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noqRhuE8_XA&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ctg3poxT9g&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnb3EwJtsDs&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OeITsQgKns&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

Identity Development • Social Learning Theory: • Direct tuition: children behave in ways where they are rewarded by others and avoid behaviors that are punished or frowned on. • The two factors of social learning theory on gender: • Presence or absence of reward for gender-appropriate behavior, and punishment for gender-inappropriate behavior. • Modeling of behavior demonstrated by same-sex models. • Fagot (1985) • Observed children between 21 and 25 months. • Boys made fun of other boys who played with dolls or girls. • Girls did not like it when other girls played with boys. • Children too young for gender identity? • In-group/out-group identification? • Sroufe et al (1993) • Observed children between 10 and 11 years. • Those who did not behave in gender-stereotyped ways were least popular.

Identity Development • Gender Schema Theory • Gender schema’s – mental representations of the genders. • Martin and Halvorson (1978) • Children actively construct gender identity based on their experience. • Children have mental representations of what is suitable for boys and girls. • There is a schema developed for each sex. • The tendency to categorize on the basis of gender leads boys and girls to be seen as different. • Can gender schemas become self-fulfilling prophecy or stereotypes? How?

Identity Development Gender Schema Model

Identity Development • Martin and Halvorson (1983) • Information may be distorted to fit existing schemas. • Research on boys and girls aged 5 to 6. • Showed pictures of males and females in activities that were in line with their role schemas or inconsistent with their gender role schemas. (ex: a girl with a toy gun, a boy with a doll, or a boy with a ball.) • A week later the children were asked what the pictures showed and distorted memories that favored gender role schemas (a girl playing with a gun became a boy.) • Strength of gender schema theory: • Gender schemas are maintained due to paying attention and remembering consistencies with the schemas. • Depicts children as actively trying to make sense of the world using current knowledge. • Limitation of gender schema theory: • Too focused on individual child gender development. • Social and cultural factors are not taken into account. • Not possible to explain how and why gender schemas develop or form.

Identity Development • Social Role Theory: • Eagly (1987) – gender stereotypes arise from differing roles men and women typically occupy. • Women are best suited for the roles they occupy…same for men. • Williams and Best (1990) – gender stereotypes arise out of gender roles. • Parents teach gender role socialization to prepare for adulthood. • Best et al (1977) – cross-cultural study on gender stereotypes.(including UK, Ireland, and US. • Kids 5 and 8 years old. • Agreed girls were soft-hearted, whereas boys were strong, aggressive, cruel, and coarse.

Identity Development • Mead (1935) – compared gender roles in 3 New Guinean tribes and found that masculine and feminine traits are a result of culture. • Arapesh tribe – men and women were cooperative, gentle, and loving (westernized female behavior.) • Mundugumor tribe – men and women were arrogant, competitive, and emotionally unresponsive (self reliance.) • Tchambuli tribe – men spent most of their time gossiping and discussing body adornments while women were responsible for food production, making tools and clothes. • Mead showed that: • labour division is not the same in all cultures. • Human behavior is not determined by genes alone, but include beliefs and culture.

Identity Development • Changed roles in the 20th century in western society. • Scandinavian women • are 76% employed. • Still more women than men in nursing and midwives. • More men than women in plumbing and engineering. • Children spend days in kindergarten so mothers can work. • Fathers participate in childcare and have paternal leave. • “father” clubs in Denmark for social networking (similar to “mom’s like me” in the US.

Identity Development • Adolescence – the period of development between puberty and adulthood. • The World Health Organization defines it as 10-20 years of age with cultural variations. • Hormones – males and females produce the same amount of testosterone and oestrogen until puberty. • Revised self-schema based on new body and changes. • Increase in eating disorders during this age because of ideal body image.

Identity Development • Adolescence • Changes in the body: • Girls: • growth spurt between 10 and 13. • Development of breasts • Widening of hips. • Menarche – first menstruation which indicates the end of puberty (beginning of reprductionability. • Armpit, leg, and arm hair develops.

Identity Development • Adolecence • Boys: • 2 to 3 years later in growth spurt than girls. • Broadening of the shoulders. • Increase in muscle strength. • Boys become closer to their ideal body image. • Sexual maturation starts with the enlargement of the testes (11-12) and growth of the scrotum. • Sperm production begins at about 15. • Facial hair and body hair production • Lowering in the voice.

Identity Development • Adolescence • Cultural ideal hypothesis - puberty brings boys closer to their ideal body whereas girls move further way (Simmons and Blyth 1972.) • Earlier maturing boys tend to be satisfied with their bodies. • Late maturing boys not satisfied until they catch up to their peers. • Caufmann and Steinberg (1996) – girls show more concern about appearance and express worry about how other people will respond to them. • Want to be seen as attractive. • Western cultures ideal of slimness creates negative body images and low self-esteem. • Body dissatisfaction is the norm among girls in the West.

Identity Development • Adolescence • Cultural differences in puberty • Ferron (1997) • Found that Most important cultural differences between US and French adolescents were based on their beliefs about the possibility of teaching the ideal body image. • 75% of US adolescents did not accept any biological predisposition to body shape. • could only obtain through trying hard and adhering to specific rules. • 80% believed specific diets or exercise programs will help to form an ideal image while less than half of the French believed so. • 75% of French participants acknowledged that physical appearance is predetermined and could not possibly be extensively modified. • 75% of US girls believed that personal worth depended on the way they look.

Identity Development • Adolescents • Increasingly aware of ones own sexuality. • Body image dissatisfaction – discrepancy between the person’s body image and their ideas of what an ideal body should look like. • Stice and Withenton (2002) Strong predictor of teenage depression, eating disorders, exercise dependence, and steroid use. • Boys image is generally more positive than girls. • Boys more likely to welcome weight gain.

Identity Development • Erikson • Believed in lifelong development with specific stages. • 5th stage of development concerned adolescence. • Identity vs. Role Confusion • Rapid physical growth and hormonal changes between 12 and 18. • Adolescence need to develop a strong personal identity at this stage. • Moratorium – status of a person who is actively involved in exploring different Identities, but has not made a commitment. • If successfully resolved, the adolescent will feel confident about their identity and possible occupation. • Moratorium specific to western culture. • Role Confusion – uncertainty about who one is and what one is to become. • May develop a negative socially unacceptable identity (better than no identity to Erikson.) • Need to develop a commitment to work and social role in order to pass on to “Intimacy vs. Isolation.” • Fear of commitment comes from being afraid of losing one’s own identity.

Identity Development • Support for Erikson • Espin et al (1990) – longitudinal study on one girl from Latin America who was arrested for political reasons and showed stronger identity from 13-18 years followed by decreased identity and increased intimacy at 19. • Evidence against developmental crisis • Rutter et al (1976) • Cohort Study on Isle of Wight to investigate crisis. • 2030 participants aged 14-15 (entire population this age.) • Questionnaires from parents, teachers, and interviews (two areas of interest) • Conflict between parents and children (generational gap) • “inner turmoil” in terms of observed behavioral or psychiatric disorders. • Found that the average adolescent is not in a state of crisis and conflict with parents. • Only 1/5th reported feeling miserable or depressed (mostly ones with psychiatric problems of some sort.)

Identity Development • Erikson’s theory is western based. • Condon (1987) reviewed anthropological evidence of the Unuit people in Canada. • Young women were regarded as adults at puberty where they were married off and started having children. • Young men were adults when they could build an igloo, hunt large animals, and support themselves and their families. • There was no time in this culture to develop individual identities, questioning Erikson’s theory.

Identity Development • Identity formation is not a project of adolescence alone. • O’Connell (1976) • Conducted retrospective interviews with married women that had children in school. • Showed that women had experienced an increasingly strong sense of identity when moving on from adolescence with marriage and children. • The study indicates that identity formation is a lifelong project related to experience. • Identity development is not only a phenomenon of adolescence. • Gradual rather than sudden changes in identity and self-esteem during normal development.

After ten years in therapy, my psychologist told me something very touching, he said, "no hablo ingles.~ Dennis Wolfberg ~

Developmental Psychology