Gender Identity And Sex Role Stereotype example essay topic

Flipping through our sociology reader, I read an interesting article that also related to the subject of development in psychology. The title of this article is! ^0 Sexuality and Gender in Children!'s Daily Worlds! +/-. The sociologists named Barrie Thorne and Zulla Luria studied boys and girls in fourth and fifth grade of four different school in different states. During this age, the sociologists organized the friendship and games kids played according to their sex and gender role that develops in elementary school.

Both boys and girls had their own specific patterns and characteristics that were common in all four schools. Boys are usually involved in activities and sport games more than girls. They also show their affection by physically hitting someone or teasing. They are greater risk takers and actually enjoys challenging the authority. Boys also use more inappropriate words. Girls are more home-oriented, playing with few girls with sets of kitchen toys and dolls, making a house setting like their own family.

They usually play turn-taking games and try to! ^0 be nice! +/-. They have sets of! ^0 best friends! +/-, which they often change the pairs around. Same gender groups and the stereotype continues on to the boys! and girls! adolescence and adulthood, even if the idea might be come more flexible as they both begin to tolerate and understand each others! groups.

Although the article merely talks about the interaction of male and female groups in four elementary schools, the organized sets of behaviors reflect the psychological theory of parental attachment to sex-role stereotypes and gender identity in development chapter. Gender identity, according to the text, is! ^0 a sense of! ^0 femaleness! +/- or! ^0 maleness! +/- that becomes a central aspect of our personal identity! +/-.

Also, sex-role stereotypes are! ^0 beliefs about the types of characteristics and behaviors that are appropriate for boys and girls to possess! +/-. Both gender identity and sex-role stereotype develop through parental attachment between the children and their parents. Boys tend to follow the behaviors of their father in acting, whereas girls tend to follow mothers! actions through observational learning.

For example, as said above, boys sometimes show affection by physically hitting their friends. This action is how some fathers play with their sons, physically hitting and playing, ! ^0 just to have fun! +/-.

On the other hand, girls tend to get into groups and play kitchen or build a house setting with their dolls. These behaviors clearly reflect what mothers would do. Girls in the house observe these behaviors and follow them when they are playing with their peers. As for sex-role stereotype, boys and girls clearly separate by the time they reach fourth or fifth grade.

They usually do not sit together on one table and do not play together, unless the game is run by a teacher or involves a large group. Femaleness and maleness is truly important in the development of an individual, and without physically and forcefully teaching the children, most of them will develop their own characteristics and be included in a group naturally.! +/- Barrie Thorne and Zulla Luria Feb., 1986 [Copyright 1986 be the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Reprinted from Social Problems, Vol. 33, No. 3, February 1986, pp. 176-90 Included in Down to Earth Sociology, Twelfth Edition by James M. Hens lin, Chapter 15, pp. 162-174].