Describe and evaluate the gender schema theory of gender development.

Martin and Halverson believe that gender identity is gained around the age two-three. They also stated that when children realise that they are either a boy or girl they split themselves into two groups, their gender group being the ‘in-group’ and the opposite sex group is the ‘out-group’. The children then actively seek out how members of their group should behave (toys, games, activities) and ignore those that do not relate to their group, for example a young boy would completely ignore a girl’s toy and may avoid anything perceived to be ‘girly’. This leads them to form schemas and their environment, peers and parents helps them to develop these which become more complex over time. Gender schemas help us to understand why children’s beliefs and attitudes about sex roles are so rigid, for example children may ignore behaviours which go against gender schemas e.g. female fire fighters or male nurses. Studies that support this have shown that when young children watch films which depict contradicting gender role behaviours, they tune them out.

A study that goes against Martin and Halverson’s theory of gender development is Campbell’s study (2000). Although Martin and Halverson believe that gender identity is gained earlier than what Kohlberg thought, Campbell has proof that children develop gender schemas even earlier than ages 2-3. His study was with children of three months, nine months and eighteen months, he showed them videos with male and female toys and children in them and noted which characters/toys each child preferred to look at using observation. He found that three month old children had a minor interest in watching same sex babies, whereas he found that nine month old boys preferred to look at boy’s toys. He also found that both girls and boys preferred to watch male