Gender Differences In Children's Play Essay
Socialisation can potentially explain all of the gender/sex differences related to children’s play. Critically evaluate this statement.
In the eyes of most psychologists, there is little doubt that children’s play differs in accordance to their gender. This difference is noted in three main ways: toy choice, sex of play partner and social play (Hines, 2004). Boys appear to prefer toys like weapons and vehicles whereas girls choose cooking toys and dolls (Berenbaum and Hines, 1992). In play choice, there is evidence for girls and boys preferring playmates of their own sex and in social play boys spend more time play fighting than girls (Hines and Kaufman, 1994). Before evaluating the statement, it is important to put this essay into context. Firstly - that the terms ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ are used interchangeably. It used to …show more content…
This theory proposes that a child watches a role model that is perceived as similar to itself (i.e. same-sex) and sees the situations in which they are rewarded or punished. They encode this behaviour, and then later attempt the acts they saw receive positive sanctions. If the child is also rewarded for the behaviour, this reinforces the benefits of the conduct, and the child will continue to do it. The parental reinforcement in children’s play seems great, mainly because people in general have quite fixed opinions about what is appropriate for boys and girls play, which tends to form from preconceived ideas of the different traits of the genders. An example for this is that birth parents view their sons as bigger and stronger (Rubin, Provenzano, & Luria, 1974, cited by Spelke, & Pinker, 2005) and this is reflected in how they treat the child. For instance, Smith and Lloyd (1978) gave mothers ‘masculine’, ‘feminine’ and ‘neutral’ toys and found that when a baby was dressed as a boy the mothers encouraged masculine behaviour such as motor activity play. Lytton and Romney (1991) also found further evidence to support
In the eyes of most psychologists, there is little doubt that children’s play differs in accordance to their gender. This difference is noted in three main ways: toy choice, sex of play partner and social play (Hines, 2004). Boys appear to prefer toys like weapons and vehicles whereas girls choose cooking toys and dolls (Berenbaum and Hines, 1992). In play choice, there is evidence for girls and boys preferring playmates of their own sex and in social play boys spend more time play fighting than girls (Hines and Kaufman, 1994). Before evaluating the statement, it is important to put this essay into context. Firstly - that the terms ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ are used interchangeably. It used to …show more content…
This theory proposes that a child watches a role model that is perceived as similar to itself (i.e. same-sex) and sees the situations in which they are rewarded or punished. They encode this behaviour, and then later attempt the acts they saw receive positive sanctions. If the child is also rewarded for the behaviour, this reinforces the benefits of the conduct, and the child will continue to do it. The parental reinforcement in children’s play seems great, mainly because people in general have quite fixed opinions about what is appropriate for boys and girls play, which tends to form from preconceived ideas of the different traits of the genders. An example for this is that birth parents view their sons as bigger and stronger (Rubin, Provenzano, & Luria, 1974, cited by Spelke, & Pinker, 2005) and this is reflected in how they treat the child. For instance, Smith and Lloyd (1978) gave mothers ‘masculine’, ‘feminine’ and ‘neutral’ toys and found that when a baby was dressed as a boy the mothers encouraged masculine behaviour such as motor activity play. Lytton and Romney (1991) also found further evidence to support