Explain the Gender Schema Theory.
Explain the Gender Schema Theory. Give four examples.
1) Gender Schema Theory explains how one comes to process information about oneself as a male or female (p.486). It is a schema or a framework that is possible to understand and link information from social experiences. Each gender theory deal with the perception of gender differently, like the child\’s feelings, behavior, and reasoning.
First is the recognition of male and female as distinct categories, children at 2 ½ years old start to label this new information as they observe behavior around them. What males and females do in society is separated as a schema for each one and named as gender schemata.
For example, girls imitate the same-sex models, mom, cooking or boys imitate dad, doing repairs.
About 4 to 5 years old they conceptualize stereotypes and reject the opposite gender activities until 7 to 8 years old these gender behaviors are very rigid on their mind and this explains why gender stereotyping is difficult to modify. They refuse to do what is not matching with the gender that they identify with, like if anyone offers a boy to play with dolls, he is going to say “No way! I’m a boy!”. The girl that is invited to play with cars is going to say “no, I’m a girl!”
The text also says, gender schema also proposes that self-concept is associated with the degree that the children perceive themselves as they learned with the female and male schema. When their behavior matches with what is appropriate to the gender, they feel positive. When the behavior doesn’t match, they feel negative about themselves.
2) The Gender Schema Theory, who was proposed by Sandra Bem, describes how one comes to process information about oneself as a male or female by perceiving and interpreting gender-linked information. (Berns 486). As children develop they begin to observe the female and male behaviors that are around them. The Gender Schema Theory helps to explain why gender stereotypes are self-perpetuating and difficult to modify. Throughout time, these deep gender stereotypes have gradually become a part of everyday society. More recently, people have been questioning these stereotypes more and more. Since they have become such a big part of our society as a whole, it will be hard to reverse the thoughts that we all have when it comes to the different roles that gender plays in our lives. The Gender Schema Theory also states that if children\’s behavior matches what they interpret as appropriate to their gender, they feel positive about themselves and if they don\’t conform to the stereotype, they feel negative about themselves.
One example of the Gender Schema Theory are the \”girl\” and \”boy\” toys. Young boys are more likely to play with a toy car than a doll and vice versa for young girls. Another example is boys and girls that are raised in an environment where the mother does most of the cooking and the father takes care of the household repairs. These kids grow up with the mentality that they can only do what their gender would normally do. The same goes with blue being a boy color and pink a girl color. Who created that rule? Like whatever color you want!
3) Hello everyone
Gender schema theory, proposed by Sandra Bern (1981), as well as by Martin and Halverson (1981, 1987), deals with how one comes to process information about oneself as a male or female by perceiving and interpreting gender-linked information. (Berns pg. no 486). Gender schema theory is a cognitive theory of gender development that says that gender is a product of the norms of one\’s culture. It suggests that people process information, in part, based on gender-typed knowledge. As children learn about gender-specific attributes, they form gender schemas. learn whatever gender schemas are available in their culture, including whatever divisions exist between the two sexes. These cognitive structures enable people to apply the subset out of schemas match their own sex to themselves, which influences their self-concept. In addition, their sense of adequacy may be based on their ability to live up to the appropriate gender schemas. Bem cautioned that gender schema theory was a theory of process. The theory does not account for the specific content of gender schemas, as they may differ between cultures. Instead, it focuses on the way people process and utilize the information their culture provides about masculinity and femininity.
For example, a traditional culture (even in my family also) may maintain strict divisions between men and women, such that women are expected to take care of the household and raise children while men work outside the home and support the family. I was raised in such a culture will develop gender schema in line with what I observe, and through their schema, will develop an understanding of what they can do as a boy or girl. But now after a generation gap, there is no such type of rules.
Many of these influences are overt, while others are more subtle. For instance, even the placement of gender titles in vocabulary (\”how men and women are meant to behave\”) inherently places women in a secondary position by rule. All of these influences add up to how gender schema is formed.
It also dictates a person\’s value and potential in that culture. For example, a girl raised in a traditional culture might believe that the only path available to her as a woman is to get married and raise kids. By contrast, a girl raised in a more progressive culture might pursue a career, avoid having children, or decide not to get married.
Requirements: the answer is 1 page and replies at least 5 sentences each
Answer preview to explain the Gender Schema Theory.
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