On Broadening the Cognitive, Motivational, and Sociostructural Scope of Theorizing About Gender Development and Functioning: Comment on Martin, Ruble, and Szkrybalo (2002) (original) (raw)

SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY OF GENDER DEVELOPMENT AND DIFFERENTIATION

Human differentiation on the basis of gender is a fundamental phenomenon that affects virtually every aspect of people's daily lives. This article presents the social cognitive theory of gender-role development and functioning. It specifies how gender conceptions are constructed from the complex mix of experiences and how they operate in concert with motivational and self-regulatory mechanisms to guide gender-linked conduct throughout the life course. The theory integrates psychological and sociostructural determinants within a unified conceptual structure. In this theoretical perspective, gender conceptions and roles are the product of a broad network of social influences operating interdependently in a variety of societal subsystems. Human evolution provides bodily structures and biological potentialities that permit a range of possibilities rather than dictate a fixed type of gender differentiation. People contribute to their self-development and bring about social changes that define and structure gender relationships through their agentic actions within the interrelated systems of influence. Bussey, K., & Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation. Psychological Review, 106, 676-713.

A Brief Review of Cognitive Theories in Gender Development

Behavioural Sciences Undergraduate Journal

In this paper I review three cognitive theories that attempt to explain the mechanisms and processes through which we develop an understanding of gender. Cognitive-developmental theory, gender schema theory, and social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation are compared in this article through the exploration of empirical evidence. Cognitive-developmental theory emphasizes the development of cognitive processes which allow for the understanding of gender. Gender schema theory highlights the active role schemas play in acquiring and interpreting gender relevant information, and social-cognitive theory stresses the role of the environment. I found that there is a considerable amount of overlap with the evidence between each theory. Therefore, rather than each theory existing in opposition to one another, there are multiple relevant factors at play concerning both cognition and the social environment in the development of gender. Thus, the main conclusion is that th...

Gender stereotypes : a social cognitive approach

1989

A social cognitive approach to stereotype research, utilizing the theory and methods of cognitive psychology while emphasizing the fundamentally social nature of the phenomena in question, was used to investigate gender stereotypes. Stereotypes of femininity and masculinity were conceptualized as schemata, following the work of Bern (1981) and Markus & Crane (1982), and some anomalies in the previous research were addressed. Markus and her colleagues focussed on gender self schemata, and seemed to establish that sex typed individuals are either feminine schematic or masculine schematic; while Bern confounded self schemata and role schemata, and argued for a generalized gender schema for both self and other relevant information. One of the aims of the current investigation was to assess the structure of gender role schemata. Particular reference was made to negative sex typed traits and how important they are to stereotypes of femininity and masculinity. The cognitive methodology use...

Cognitive theories of early gender development.

Psychological Bulletin, 2002

The contribution of cognitive perspectives (cognitive-developmental theory and gender schema theory) to a contemporary understanding of gender development is evaluated. Recent critiques of cognitive approaches are discussed and empirical evidence is presented to counter these critiques. Because of the centrality of early gender development to the cognitive perspective, the latest research is reviewed on how infants and toddlers discriminate the sexes and learn the attributes correlated with sex. The essence of cognitive approaches-emphasis on motivational consequences of gender concepts; the active, self-initiated view of development; and focus on developmental patterns-is highlighted and contrasted with social-cognitive views. The value of cognitive theories to the field is illustrated, and recommendations are made concerning how to construct comprehensive, integrative perspectives of gender development.

The Content and Function of Gender Self-stereotypes: An Exploratory Investigation

Sex Roles, 2006

We drew on gender identity theory and social identity theory to examine the structure and content of college students' gender selfstereotypes and how their selective self-stereotyping relate to academic self-schema, personal self-esteem, and collective self-esteem. Although students were aware of the gender stereotypes and perceived them to be true "in general," when asked, which traits were self-descriptive, participants engaged in selective self-stereotyping. Participants tended to report that positive stereotypes were more self-descriptive than group-descriptive, whereas negative stereotypes were more group-descriptive than self-descriptive. The tendency to selectively self-stereotype personality and physical traits was associated with increased personal and collective selfesteem. Selective self-stereotyping in cognitive domains was associated with academic self-schemas for men. The results provide an interesting perspective into the structure, content, and function of gender self-stereotypes. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.

Putting Gender Development into Context

Although there is a high level of research activities in the field of gender, these activities are only very loosely interconnected. In particular, the developmental and social psychological paradigms of research do not seem to have very much in common. This paper shows that at the intersection of developmental and social psychology many issues emerge that pose new kinds of questions for theorizing and research, and that developmental processes and social influences are closely linked. A conceptual framework is proposed for a developmental social psychology of gender. Gender is put forth as a social category, viewed as having many facets that are highly variable among people, as well as across contexts and points in time. The paper suggests that the sexes relate to each other at four interconnected levels: individual, interpersonal, group, and cultural levels. Content areas related to gender are proposed as biological/categorical sex, activities and interests, personal-social attrib...

The Social Psychology of Sex and Gender From Gender Differences to Doing Gender

Psychology of Women Quarterly, 2011

The social psychology of gender is a major, if qualified, success story of contemporary feminist psychology. The breadth and intellectual vigor of the field is reflected in the following six commentaries in the broadly defined area of the Social Psychology of Gender which were commissioned for this third of four 35 th anniversary sections to feature brief retrospectives by authors of highly-cited PWQ articles. Our goal in this section's introduction to is to provide a brief history of the development of this area, placing the articles described in the commentaries into this historical context. The six papers in this special section, individually and taken together, identify significant turning points in the social psychology of gender. We focus on how, within a few brief years, the study of gender in psychology underwent massive transformation. 1

Advances in Gender Research

Advances in Gender Research, 2009

This study examines the relationship between endorsement of positive stereotypes of women and support for women's rights to shed light on the role that endorsement of positive stereotypes may play in maintaining social stratification. Design/methodology/approach The study uses data collected from a web-based survey of 181 male undergraduate students in six different universities and colleges to examine the relationship between the endorsement of positive stereotypes of women and support for women's rights. The paper examines four OLS regression models to determine the relationship and utilizes the statistical software Stata 9.2. Findings Rather than a simple direct relationship, the findings suggest that the relationship between the endorsement of positive stereotypes and support for women's rights varies based on the level of hostile sexism. Increased endorsement of positive stereotypes of women was associated with decreased support for women's rights among males with the lowest level of hostile sexism, but the opposite relationship was found for males at the mean and the highest level of hostile sexism. Research limitations/implications The findings suggest that endorsement of positive stereotypes plays a unique role for males who do not endorse traditional sexist attitudes. Although data are not available to clarify what processes might be undergirding the relationship, the author suggests directions for future research. Practical implications Given the relationship found, prejudice reduction interventions that rely on the promotion of positive stereotypes of various social groups should be closely examined to determine if they actually foster attitudes that are detrimental for the eradication of social stratification. Originality/value This study is one of the first to examine the possible negative impacts of endorsement of positive stereotypes of women on gender stratification through a moderated relationship with levels of hostile sexism.