Module 7.
Theories of Gender Development
Learning Objectives
At the end of this module, the students should be able
● To familiarize with the five theories of gender development
● To identify the proponents of the theories of development
● To formulate appropriate gender and difference and gender
identity
Theories of gender development - how individuals develop gender identity.
1. Social Learning Theory
2. Cognitive – Developmental Theory
3. Gender Schema Theory
4. Freudian Theory
5. Self-Construal Theory
These theories explain in various lenses what makes a male or a female,
and why he or she behaves the way he or she does.
● Cultural Learning Theory is also known as Social Transmission Theory.
The acquisition of gender identity and behaviors is shaped by parents,
teachers and other adults by reinforcing responses that are deemed
appropriate to the child’s gender role and discouraging inappropriate
ones.
Children are given cues to their gender roles in a variety of ways, from
how their rooms are decorated to what toys they play and the clothes
they wear.
This theory assumes that the individual is passive, and his behavior is
influenced or programmed by the immediate environment.
Proponent:
> Parents as the distributors of reinforcement, reinforce appropriate gender
role behaviors
> Encourage their children to engage in gender appropriate behavior
> If parents have good relationship with their children, they become models
for their children to imitate
> Children are reinforced or punished for different kinds of behavior
> They learn appropriate behavior from other male or female models
(example: television shows)
● Cognitive Developmental Theory
Unlike the Cultural Transmission Theory, Cognitive Developmental Theory
asserts that children actively seek to acquire gender identity and roles.
The child is an active participant in choosing and defining his own gender
as well as his own development.
Cognitive theorists like Kohlberg and Ullian explained that children come to
label themselves as “boys” or “girls” when they are 18 months and three
years of age, which is called self-socialization. Once they have identified
themselves as males or females they would adopt behaviors consistent
with their newly discovered status.
They use a particular image to organize their behavior and cultivate their
attitudes and actions associated with being a boy or a girl.
Proponent
1. Kohlberg - children begin the process of acquiring gender appropriate
behavior
2. Piaget’s - children engage in symbol thinking by about two years of
age. Using this activity, children acquire their gender identity.
● Gender Schema Theory
A schema is a mental blueprint for organizing information.
A schema helps a child to develop gender identity and formulate an
appropriate gender role (Elliott et. Al., 1996).
The theory asserts that gender differences are based primarily on
relationships and group memberships.
This is with the view that maintaining harmonious relationships with others
is extremely important.
Many social influences promote independent ways of behaving, feeling,
and thinking for men, while relational ways of behaving, feeling, and
thinking for women. Consequently, these create gender differences,
including those of cognition, motivation, emotion, and social behavior. For
example, women are more likely to be sensitive to the emotions of others
and they base their emotions on others.
● Freudian Theory
Sigmund Freud assumed that biology is destiny, which means that children
learn their gender by simply observing whether they have penis or vagina.
He and his followers argued that gender identity and the adoption of sex-
typed behaviors are the result of and Oedipal conflict that emerges
between the ages of three and six. During this period, children discover the
genital differences between the sexes.
This discovery prompts children to see themselves as rivals of their same
sex parent for the affection of the parent of the opposite sex. The main
point in this theory is the process of identification, that is, the process by
which a person absorbs the behaviors, attitudes, and characteristics
exhibited by his mother or someone very close to the individual.
In effect, children unconsciously model the behavior of their role models
and make them the standards for acting and behaving.
● Self-Construal Theory
> Synonymous with self-conception or self-definition
> Gender difference is based primarily on relationship and group
membership
> Mainstreaming harmonious relationship with others is extremely
important
> Many social influences promote independent ways of behaving, feeling
and thinking for men while relational ways of behaving, feeling and thinking
are more likely promoted for women.
