Learning Goals

A. What is Gender?

1.1 What is the nature of gender?

1.2 What is meant by one's gender role?

A. Biological Influences

2.1 How strong are the biological influences on gender?

2.2 What is the role of sexuality in adolescent gender development?

2.3 How do Freud and Erikson's ideas promote the premise that anatomy is destiny?

2.4 How do today's developmentalists believe that biological and environmental influences affect gender?

2.5 What are some criticisms of the anatomy-is-destiny view?

2.6 What is the evolutionary psychology view of gender development?

B. Social Influences

2.7 How do social roles impact gender development?

2.8 What roles do gender hierarchy and sexual division of labor play in sex-differentiated behavior?

2.9 According to the social cognitive theory of gender, what role do parents play in the development of gender-appropriate behavior?

2.10 How do peers reward gender-appropriate behavior?

2.11 How has the increase in the number of working mothers in recent years impacted adolescents?

2.12 What evidence suggests that gender inequity still exists in education?

2.13 How does television program to specifically male and females audiences, and what impact does it have?

2.14 How are men portrayed on television?

C. Cognitive Influences

2.15 What was Kohlberg's theory of gender development?

2.16 What is a schema?

2.17 What does the gender schematheory state about individual gender development?

A. Gender Stereotyping

3.1 What is the nature of gender stereotypes today?

3.2 How common is stereotyping?

3.3 How widespread is feminine and masculine stereotyping?

3.4 What is sexism?

B. Gender Similarities and Differences

3.5 What are the physical and biological differences that characterize male and female comparisons?

3.6 Have male/female differences been exaggerated?

3.7 How is modern sexism different from that in the past?

3.8 What distinguishes rapport talk from report talk?

A. Gender Controversy

4.1 What is the current nature of the controversy over the differences between males and females?

B. Gender in Context

4.2 Why is context an important factor in understanding gender?

A. Traditional Gender Roles

5.1 According to past tradition, what were the characteristics of a well-adjusted male?

5.2 According to past tradition, what were the characteristics of a well-adjusted female?

5.3 Do gender roles vary around the world?

B. Androgyny

5.4 When did alternatives to traditional masculinity and femininity begin to be explored?

5.5 What is meant by androgyny?

5.6 How do androgynous individuals compare with either masculine or feminine individuals?

5.7 What is gender role orientation?

5.8 What are some ethical concerns regarding teaching children and adolescents to depart from socially approved behavior patterns?

A. Traditional Masculinity and Problem Behaviors in Adolescent Males

6.1 What adolescent male problem behaviors may be attributed to traditional Western cultural masculine roles?

6.2 According to the role-strain view, what are some areas where men's roles can cause considerable strain?

6.3 According to Levant, what steps can be taken to reconstruct masculinity in more positive ways?

B. Gender-Role Transcendence

6.4 What is an alternative to androgyny?

6.5 What is the premise of gender-role transcendence?

A. Developmental Changes and Junctures

7.1 What is the gender intensification hypothesis?

7.2 Is early adolescence a critical juncture for females?

7.3 What is Gilligan's belief about the critical juncture for adolescent females?

7.4 What are some criticisms about Gilligan's beliefs about male and female differences in intimacy and connectedness?