Gender schema, gender constancy, and gender-role knowledge: The roles of cognitive factors in preschoolers' gender-role stereotype attributions.

Investigated the influence of several cognitive components of children's gender-role development on their attributions of gender-role stereotypes to a particular sex. A total of 83 children (44 boys and 39 girls) completed a 2-part interview that assessed degree of gender schematization, gender-role knowledge, flexibility, and stage of gender constancy. Children also completed tasks assessing attributions of gender-role stereotypes to male and female figures. Results indicated that children's gender schematization and other cognitive gender schema factors were significantly associated with children's accuracy in attributing gender-role stereotypes to both males and females. In contrast, stage of gender constancy per se was not significantly correlated with any of children's gender-role stereotype attributions. The patterns of results offer further evidence of the importance of gender schemata in early gender-role development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Korean children's conceptions of moral and conventional transgressions.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether children in a non-Western cultural context make conceptual distinctions between morality and social convention. Fifty children from Busan, Korea, 10 each in kindergarten, third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth grades, were presented with prototypical moral and conventional transgressions. They made judgments of rule contingency, generalizability, and permissibility and also justified the wrongness of the acts. At all ages, children treated moral transgressions as more generalizably wrong and independent of rules than conventional transgressions. All transgressions were seen as not permissible, but moral transgressions were judged as less permissible than conventional transgressions. Younger children (kindergarten and Grade 3) judged conventional transgressions as less permissible than older children. Further, all children justified moral transgressions on the basis of obligation, fairness, and welfare, whereas they justified conventional transgressions on the basis of authority, social nonconformity, social coordination, prudential reasons, and (among young children) sanctions and pragmatic reasons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infants' toy preferences and mothers' predictions.

Studied novelty, complexity, and sex-appropriateness of toys using 20 infant–mother pairs. The 10 male and 10 female infants ranged in age from 14 to 16 mo and were judged by level of parental education to be mainly middle class. Although no preferences for the toys varying in sex appropriateness were expected, it was felt that maternal predictions might reveal a tendency by the mothers to sex-type play objects. Results confirm earlier findings that infants' toy preferences are controlled by novelty and complexity and demonstrate that most mothers are sensitive to these attributes. In the area of sex appropriateness, little agreement was found between mothers' predictions and infants' preferences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maltreated and nonmaltreated preschoolers' conceptions of hypothetical and actual moral transgressions

Maltreated and nonmaltreated preschoolers' (mean age = 4 years 6 months) judgments regarding hypothetical and actual moral transgressions were examined. Thirty-six maltreated children (17 physically abused and 19 neglected) and 19 comparison nonmaltreated children judged, justified, and evaluated affective responses to 6 hypothetical moral transgressions. Perpetrators and victims also judged and evaluated affective responses to actual classroom moral transgressions. All children evaluated moral transgressions as very serious, punishable, and wrong in the absence of rules. Moral judgments and justifications differed as a function of context (hypothetical vs. actual) and type of transgression but not maltreatment status. Affective responses differed as a function of maltreatment subtype and gender. Maltreated and nonmaltreated children may differ in the organization of their affective responses rather than in their moral evaluations.     

Preschool children's conceptions of transgressions: Effects of varying moral and conventional domain-related attributes.

57 38–76 mo old Ss enrolled in preschool and/or day care centers were assigned to either 6 story-stimulus conditions or to a word-evaluation condition. Ss in the 6 story-stimulus conditions either heard stories describing familiar moral or conventional transgressions or stories varying in the consistency of prohibitions regarding actions and responses to events. Some events were unspecified. Ss were asked to justify the events' wrongness and make a series of judgments on criteria previously found to be associated with the domains. Ss' judgments and justifications were reassessed 1 wk later. Results show that Ss differentiated between familiar moral and social-conventional transgressions and that they treated stories having attributes associated with each domain like prototypical moral or conventional transgressions. The presence or absence of information regarding event-unspecified consequences of actions differentiated criterion judgments. Responses to the word-evaluation condition (in which Ss' judgments were assessed in the absence of stories) revealed no response biases to the questions. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correlates of preschool girls' feminine and masculine toy preferences.

Observed 47 preschool girls (2.5–4 yrs old) in social interaction with boys and girls. For young Ss, feminine toy preference was positively related to interaction with girls, whereas masculine toy choice was positively associated with interaction with boys. For older girls, feminine toy choice was positively related to interaction with girls. Large, older girls tended to play with masculine toys. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The acquisition of gender labels in infancy: Implications for gender-typed play.

Two aspects of children’s early gender development—the spontaneous production of gender labels and gender-typed play—were examined longitudinally in a sample of 82 children. Survival analysis, a statistical technique well suited to questions involving developmental transitions, was used to investigate the timing of the onset of children’s gender labeling as based on mothers’ biweekly telephone interviews regarding their children’s language from 9 through 21 months. Videotapes of children’s play both alone and with mother during home visits at 17 and 21 months were independently analyzed for play with gender-stereotyped and gender-neutral toys. Finally, the relation between gender labeling and gender-typed play was examined. Children transitioned to using gender labels at approximately 19 months, on average. Although girls and boys showed similar patterns in the development of gender labeling, girls began labeling significantly earlier than boys. Modest sex differences in play were present at 17 months and increased at 21 months. Gender labeling predicted increases in gender-typed play, suggesting that knowledge of gender categories might influence gender typing before the age of 2. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of counselor gender and gender-role orientation on client career choice traditionality.

The purpose of this study was to test common assumptions about the effects of counselors' gender and gender-role orientation on clients' career choice traditionality. A sample of 240 career counseling clients (120 women and 120 men) were counseled by a male or female counselor, who were further classified as possessing a masculine, feminine, or androgynous gender-role orientation as determined by the Bem Sex-Role Inventory. The clients' career choice traditionality was measured on three occasions: during the counseling sessions, at the conclusion of counseling, and with respect to clients' actual career choices 6 months after completion of the counseling process. Results showed that counselor gender and gender-role orientation had no effects on any of the three measures of client career choice traditionality. Client gender emerged as the only significant determinant of client career choice traditionality. We discuss the implications of these findings for counseling research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of gender constancy and social power on sex-linked modeling.

In cognitive-developmental theory, gender constancy is considered a necessary prerequisite for the emulation of same-sex models, whereas according to social learning theory, sex-role development is promoted through a vast system of social influences with modeling serving as a major conveyor of sex role information. The present 2 experiments, with 68 29–70 mo old children, tested these predictions. In accord with social learning theory, even Ss at a lower level of gender conception emulated same-sex models in preference to opposite-sex ones in Exp I. Level of gender constancy was associated with higher emulation of both male and female models rather than operating as a selective determinant of modeling. This finding corroborates modeling as a basic mechanism in the sex-typing process. Exp II explored the limits of same-sex modeling by pitting social power against the force of collective modeling of different patterns of behavior by male and female models. Social power over activities and rewarding resources produced cross-sex modeling in boys but not girls. This unexpected pattern of cross-sex modeling is explained by the differential sex-typing pressures that exist for boys and girls and socialization experiences that heighten the attractiveness of social power for boys. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of gender constancy and children's sex-typed free play behavior.

64 preschool children (aged 27–70 mo) with nearly equal numbers of boys and girls at each of 4 levels of gender constancy were observed during free-play sessions at their preschools to examine relationships among gender constancy, preferences for same- or opposite-sex playmates, and sex-typed activities. Each S's play was rated 40 times on a point-time schedule for type of activity and playmate-interaction style. With the effect of age removed, level of gender constancy was found to be related to playmate choice in social interaction. Females who had acquired an understanding that gender is temporally but not situationally stable engaged in more same-sex social interaction than females who understood that gender is invariant across situations. There were no differences in the proportion of same-sex social interaction among males at the 4 levels of gender constancy. Ss at all levels of gender constancy were found to be sex-typed in their toy and activity preferences when they played alone and when they played in parallel or interacted with same-sex peers but not when they played in parallel in mixed-sex groups. Males but not females were found to be sex-typed in activity preferences in mixed-sex social interaction. These findings suggest that, at least for females, gender concepts may have an organizing role in sex-role development by motivating children to seek social contexts in which to acquire and practice sex-appropriate behaviors. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex stereotypes and preferences in the toy choices of 20-month-old boys and girls.

Examined the toy preferences of 20-mo-old Ss under free play and modeling conditions. The relationship between toy familiarity and preference was also studied. The interaction between sex of child and sex-type of toy was significant. The hypothesis that toy contacts or imitation would be associated with toy familiarity was not supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Male role and gender role conflict: Relations to help seeking in men.

Tested theory that adherence to the traditional male gender role and help-seeking attitudes and behaviors are related. Ss were 401 undergraduate men who completed measures of help-seeking attitudes and behaviors, attitudes toward the stereotypic male role, and gender role conflict factors (i.e., success/power/competition, restrictive emotionality, and restrictive affectionate behavior between men). Canonical analysis and regression indicated that traditional attitudes about the male role, concern about expressing emotions, and concern about expressing affection toward other men were each significantly related to negative attitudes toward seeking professional psychological assistance. Restrictive emotionality also significantly predicted decreased past help-seeking behavior and decreased likelihood of future help seeking. The implications of these results for theory, research, and counseling practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between heavy drinking, gender, and substance-free reinforcement.

Behavioral economic theory and laboratory research have suggested that substance abuse may be associated with diminished engagement in enjoyable substance-free activities (substance-free reinforcement). However, college students, in particular men, have reported numerous social benefits from drinking that might mitigate the expected inverse relation between drinking and substance-free reinforcement. In this study, we examined the relations between college student heavy drinking, gender, and several categories of substance-free reinforcement (peer, dating, sexual, school, and family activities). Participants were 246 undergraduate students who were classified as a function of their reported frequency of heavy drinking during a typical week in the past month (120 heavy drinkers, 126 light drinkers). Heavy drinking was associated with significantly higher substance-free peer and sexual reinforcement. This association was gender invariant and remained significant in multiple regression models that controlled for gender, ethnicity, and fraternity or sorority membership. Substance-free reinforcement did not predict frequency of heavy drinking in models that included levels of substance-related reinforcement. The results indicate that college student heavy drinking is not associated with global deficits in substance-free reinforcement and is instead associated with increased peer and sexual activity that occurs outside the context of drinking or drug use. Prevention programs should help students to compensate for the potential loss of social reinforcement associated with reductions in drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of type of problem and expectations of counselor knowledge and understanding to students' gender preferences for counselors.

131 female and 57 male undergraduates rated, for each of 11 vocational and 22 personal problems, whether they expected a male or female counseling psychologist to be more understanding and more knowledgeable in dealing with a problem. Most Ss expressed no preference for psychologist gender for dealing with vocational problems, although males with a preference preferred a male psychologist to a slight degree. For personal-social problems, females expressing a preference showed a consistent pattern of preference for a female psychologist. However, the number of women expressing some degree of preference and the strength of preference varied across problems. Males expressed generally weaker but more varied preferences than females did. The expectancy for psychologist's understanding generally was a stronger and more consistent correlate of preferences than expectations of knowledgeability. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting spatial performance from gender stereotyping in activity preferences and in self-concept.

Tested competing hypotheses, derived from Bem's gender schema theory and Spence's gender identity theory. Two samples of college students were given a spatial task (either Piaget's water-level task or the Card Rotations Test) and self-report measures of participation in gender-stereotyped, space-related activities and of stereotypical masculine and feminine personality traits. Used causal modeling techniques to test the adequacy of the path models associated with the predictions from Bem's and Spence's theories. In both samples, sex, self-concept, and spatial activities made significant direct contributions to the prediction of spatial performance, supporting Spence's theory. The tendency of those with higher masculine trait scores to perform better on the spatial tasks was sometimes moderated by sex and feminine trait score. Implications of the results for the question of the origin of sex differences in spatial performance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How shape constancy relates to drawing accuracy.

There is increasing evidence that the major source of drawing errors lies in the initial perception of the to-be-drawn object. In four experiments, the authors explore the relation between an artist's susceptibility to perceptual transformations, as measured by a simple shape constancy task, and drawing accuracy. The data reveal a robust negative relation between errors on the shape constancy task and drawing accuracy in general, and specifically the accuracy of the rendering of spatial relations. The data further suggest that the perceptual processes that lead to errors on the shape constancy task occur during the initial encoding of the stimuli. The authors conclude that the shape constancy task likely measures one's ability to overcome constructive perception processes that transform the retinal image into a final percept, and that this ability is necessary for the accurate rendering of objects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-regulated learning in high-achieving students: Relations to advanced reasoning, achievement goals, and gender.

The relation between achievement and self-regulated learning (SRL) is more complex than originally believed. In this study, 222 seventh-grade students (53% boys) described their use of SRL strategies and rated their achievement goals (mastery and performance). Students were high achievers, performing at or above the 97th percentile on an achievement test. However, they ranged widely in their use of SRL strategies, suggesting that SRL strategies are not necessary for high achievement. Reasons for variation in SRL were examined. Advanced reasoning was not related to SRL. Performance goal orientation was related to SRL only in conjunction with mastery goal orientation. Mastery goal orientation and gender were significantly related to SRL. As mastery goals increased, so did the use of SRL strategies. Girls reported greater use of SRL strategies (a) involving personal regulation or optimizing the environment and (b) when completing difficult homework or engaged in reading and writing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender constancy and television viewing.

Cognitive developmental theory predicts that gender constant children bias their attention to same-sex TV characters compared with children who have not achieved gender constancy. The TV viewing at home of 24 5-year-old children was videotaped over 10 days. Half of the children were high in gender constancy. Gender constant boys biased their attention consistent with the hypothesis, and they viewed programs featuring a greater percentage of men as TV characters than did preconstant boys. An analysis of TV-viewing diaries of 313 5-yr-olds showed that gender constant boys viewed more programming intended for adults (especially sports and action programs) than did preconstant boys. Gender constant girls viewed more action programming than did preconstant girls. There was no association of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test IQ with level of gender constancy. Gender constancy is associated with multiple changes in TV-viewing behavior especially in boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changing a frightening toy into a pleasant toy by allowing the infant to control its actions.

A total of 24 boys and 24 girls, aged 12–13 mo, were observed reacting to a potentially frightening mechanical toy. Half of the Ss of each sex were randomly assigned to a condition in which they controlled when the toy started, whereas the other half served in a yoked comparison group and had no control over the toy's actions. Results show that for boys, having control over the toy changed it from being frightening to being pleasant. For the girls, although neither group was frightened by the toy, those who could control its actions smiled more at it. Results are discussed in terms of their relationship to the present theories of infant fear. It is suggested that many of the variables that have been shown to influence fear reactions may do so via their effects on the infant's control over events. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)