Developmental Stages of Gender Stereotypes:Psychoanalytic Approach, Hostile sexism

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Gender Issues In Psychology (PSY - 512)

Lesson 16

Developmental Stages of Gender Stereotypes:

The development of gender stereotypes takes place in three stages. Children as young as three years of age tend

to learn stereotypes.

Stage 1:

About 3 years of age.

· Characteristics and behaviors directly associated with males and females have been learnt.

· However indirect associations with gender that are essential requirements for the formation of gender

stereotypes are not learnt yet.

Stage 2:

· About 6 years of age.

· The development of indirect associations for behavior associated with gender begins to develop.

· However at this stage associations with only children's own gender develop and not those associated

with others'.

Stage 3:

· About 8-10 years of age.

· Indirect associations with not only own, but the other gender have been learnt.

· An 8-10 year old is capable of stereotypical judgments concerning men as well as women. (Martin,

hood, and Little, 1990)

Approaches to the Formation of Gender Stereotypes

The formation of gender stereotypes can be understood and explained in the light of the following approaches:

Psychoanalytic Approach

Behaviorist Approach

Authoritarian Model Approach

Observational Learning Approach

Feminist or Patriarchal Approach

Psychoanalytic Approach:

Gender stereotypes are formed as a result if a child's identification with the same-sex parent.

Behaviorist Approach:

Children learn gender stereotypes as a result of reinforcement from parents and significant others.

They are rewarded for adopting the stereotypes held by parents, and punished for not adopting them, or for

adopting beliefs contrary to the ones, held by parents.

Authoritarian Model Approach:

Authoritarian parents do make expression of their love for children, but at the same time make them behave

the way they want them to.

Children of such parents learn and adopt stereotypes held by parents almost automatically, since that is the only

way they are expected to behave.

Punishment or negative reinforcement is employed by parents for making children learn the desired behaviors.

Observational Learning Approach:

Gender Issues In Psychology (PSY - 512)

Children learn gender stereotypes as a result of their observation of parents, peers, and others. They see these

people as holding and practicing strongly held beliefs, and being rewarded or respected for it.

Feminist Approach:

Gender stereotypes are formed, held, and practiced as a result of male-dominance, and female-subservience in

the society. Men have been oppressing women since they have been in dominant positions.

It suits them, for maintaining their dominance that females are kept in second-rate citizen status.

Traditional stereotypes imply that women are weak, less capable and dependent upon their male counterparts.

Implications and Consequences of Stereotyping

Gender stereotypes whether positive or negative in nature can have a deep and serious impact.

Stereotypes can influence the way one perceives, interprets, and recalls gender- related information

Worchel, 2000).

The major implication of stereotypes is in the form of:

1. Prejudices

2. Discrimination

3. Faulty perceptions and interpretations of gender related behavior

Prejudices and stereotyping:

Prejudice is a negative evaluation of a group without judging or evaluating reality.

Stereotypes not only lead to prejudices, but also strengthen the ones already existing.

Prejudices entail feelings of worth for the in- group, and devaluation for the out- group.

Prejudices in turn lead to discrimination, thus leading to more serious personal and social consequences. As a

result of stereotypes, and the subsequent prejudices, people tend to hold positive biases towards the in- group

and stick to the negative perceptions of the out- group.

For example, if women are thought to be non- serious, foolish, and less capable of wise decision making, then

they will not only be perceived like that but will also be kept out of major decision making even when it

concerns their own life and welfare.

But gender stereotypes do not always lead to prejudices that directly end up in negative behaviors.

· A Meta analysis has shown that women received slightly more favorable ratings than men (Feingold,

1998).

· People generally have a positive feeling about the stereotypical characteristics of women, believing that

these were fine examples of human qualities.

Then how come women experience discrimination as a result of stereotyping?

· Focusing upon their conceptualization of sexism, Glick, Fiske, and colleagues (2002, 2001, 2000) have

tackled this issue in their research.

· They propose that sexism has two aspects:

Hostile sexism:

Negative in nature; i.e., having negative attitudes towards women.

Benevolent sexism:

Having positive attitudes towards women, which in turn actually lead to belittling women, and to their

subservience?

Therefore the traditional stereotypes imply that women deserve respect, a special treatment, and need to be set

on a pedestal. As a consequence of this perception, women are seen as weak, less competent, and more in need

of protection than men (Fiske et al., 2002). Therefore it can be assumed that it is the favorable traits that are

associated with women stereotypically, that perpetuate their lower status (Glick, & Fiske, 2001). For example

Gender Issues In Psychology (PSY - 512)

think of the consequences of a young man offering his bus seat to a young woman about his age, who is

perfectly healthy? In one study, the male participants were asked to engage in a task involving division of labor.

They had to decide as to what type of tasks will they do, and what type will be done by their partners. The

participants tended to allocate more "feminine" tasks to their partners when they believed that their partners

were females; the case was the opposite when they believed that their partner s were males (Stryphek, &

Snyder, 1982).

Sadkar & Sadkar (1994) have reported a study which revealed how teachers' behavior can be influenced by their

expectancies about male and female students.

Gender Stereotypes and Self Perceptions

Gender stereotypes have an impact upon people's expectancies for themselves. Gender stereotypes form sort

of a social pressure to behave in a certain manner. For example if it is generally believed in a family and a

society that girls can not be good in science subjects, then girls start feeling like that and do not feel confident

about their possible achievement and success in studying science subjects. People in general have a tendency to

confirm the stereotypes held about their gender. As opposed to racism, or other stereotypes, gender

stereotypes are also strengthened by the people about whom these are held. Men tend to try to be more

`masculine" and women try to be more "feminine". In most societies men displaying "manly traits" and women

displaying "womanly traits" are evaluated more positively and viewed as more psychologically healthy than

those who do not (Brown, & Geis, 1984). Striving to meet such strictly set standards may cause problems for

them.

Stereotypes and self fulfilling prophecies:

"Self fulfilling prophecy is the process whereby perceivers' beliefs, about a target person can elicit behavior

from the target person that will confirm the expectancy" (Deaux, Dane, & Wrightsman, 1993).

Stereotypes entail expectancies, which in turn lead to self fulfilling prophecies.

Therefore stereotypes and prejudices lead to self fulfilling prophecies at one hand, and discrimination on the

other.

Faulty perceptions and interpretations of gender related behavior

When people have stereotyped beliefs about others, then they tend to perceive them accordingly, and try to fit

even their ambiguous behaviors into the biased schema.

For example if women are considered to be impulsive then when a woman takes a just but quick decision, it

will be perceived as an impulsive act without any evaluation of its aptness; and when she is in a hurry about

something else, it will be taken as a manifestation of impulsiveness regarding the issue in question.

When girls, in our society, are told that they are weak, and only men can protect them, then they do not

develop a courage to go out on their own; some body has to escort them, and that can be a 6 year old brother.

And we can well imagine the pressure of responsibility on the young boy? But this is how boys are taught to

feel strong, and girls made dependent.

Research has shown that when males and females perform similarly on a task, people interpret their success

differently; males' success is attributed to their ability, whereas females' success is more likely to be attributed to

their luck Burgner, &Hewstone, 1993; Eagly, 1987).

Illusory correlation

People, both children and adults, have a tendency to maintain the stereotypes they have formed, as a result of a

cognitive process called illusory correlation (Meehan, & Janik, 1990).

It is "the erroneous perception of co variation between two events when no correlation exists, or the

perception of a correlation as stronger than it actually is" (Meehan, & Janik, 1990). As a result of this process

people see relationship between gender and different behaviors when there is no relationship; they also

perceive the relationship, if any, as a strong one when it is actually not.

Research has shown that this correlation operates in 2nd and 4th grade children; the way it operates is

consistent with developing gender stereotypes. Distortions in children's memory for gender related information

may be created as a result of children's tendency to gender stereotype (Meehan, & Janik, 1990; Susskind, 2003).

Gender Issues In Psychology (PSY - 512)

However other research suggests that counter stereotypical information is not ignored by children (Susskind,

2003).

Sex role Strain:

The traditional standards set for ideal manhood are so stringent, demanding, and hard to achieve that many

men find it tough to meet these.

Many men try to escape the expectations and prohibitions associated with their traditional role. For many men,

adherence to the traditional male role identity is a strain. In the 1960s and 1970s, a new trend emerged whereby

men and women started departing from the conventional gender role identities. Many men deviated from the

traditional masculine norms (Pleck, 1981, 1995). The Sex Role Strain model presented by Pleck (1981, 1995)

describes and explains the strain experienced by men. The strain is also known as Gender Role Strain now.

According to this model, the strain is felt by those males who adhere to the traditional expectations and are

successful n doing so.

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