Describe and evaluate Kohlberg’s cognitive theory of gender development

Point Evidence Conclusion Evaluation

Describe and evaluate Kohlberg’s cognitive theory of gender development. Refer to evidence in your answer.
The origin of Kohlberg’s theory of gender comes from the psychologist Piaget. It was Kohlberg’s theory that a person’s understanding of the social world develops in stages. His theory relates these stages to early childhood. There are three stages in Kohlberg’s theory from age two until age seven.
The first stage of Kohlberg’s theory of gender development is called ‘Gender Identity’. This stage happens between the ages of two and three. The belief is that, at this stage, children are correctly able to identify and label the two different sexes – male or female. At this stage the child’s understanding of the two sexes is based on physical characteristics particularly hair length and the clothing they wear. For example long hair for females and short hair for males. Children, at this stage, do not recognise that sex does not change over time – this understanding occurs in the next stage.
Stage two is called ‘Gender Stability’. This stage is the stage in which a child realises that their sex stays the same over time and occurs over three to four years of age. A child who has reached the gender stability will recognise that their gender is fixed and that they have always been and will continue to be the same gender, in contrast to a child who has not reached this stage who will know their past and present gender but do not know that they will be the same gender when they are older. An example of this would be a boy thinking he ‘will be a mummy’ when he grows up. Although a child now understands his/her gender they are still limited in the way they think about gender. At this stage the child understands that gender stays the same across time however they do not understand that gender stays the same across situations. For example a boy playing with dolls may cause a child to think that he has been turned into a girl and the same thing would occur if a child saw a girl playing with action figures. Another limitation in the child’s thinking is that they still base gender on physical appearances. A study conducted by McConaghy (1979), involved a doll being dressed in different clothing and despite its genitals being visible to the child, the child still judged the sex of the doll according to the clothing it was wearing. This supports the idea that children are limited in the sense that their thought processes are based upon the stereotypes of males and females that they are exposed to i.e girls wear dresses and boys wear trousers and shorts.
The third and final stage of Kohlberg’s theory is called ‘Gender Constancy’ or ‘Gender Consistency’. This stage happens between the ages of four and a half and seven. This stage, for the child, is the realisation that their gender is not going to change across time, according to different situations or according to whether their physical appearance changes. A child is said to fully understand gender when they reach this stage of development. Bem (1989) said that the understanding of gender consistency in a child is based upon their knowledge of biological differences in males and females.
Slaby and Frey (1975) conducted an experiment to test Kohlberg’s Cognitive theory of gender development. Their experiment consisted of asking young children questions first using two stimuli for gender identity, two questions for gender stability and then another two questions about gender consistency. The stages of gender development in Kohlberg’s theory were supported by the findings of this experiment - that gender develops in age related stages.