Gender differences: nature or nurture?
Are ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ behaviour patterns learnt, or are girls and boys simply pre-programmed to act differently? Nobody knows for sure but it’s certainly true that people reinforce the gender differences with subtle behavioural clues. Do you talk about ‘big strong boys’ or ‘Daddy’s little princess’? Find out more!
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GIRLS VERSUS BOYS Whether these differences are purely biological or also social in nature is a question of debate amongst experts. Research has shown that the moment that parents know the sex of their child, they treat the child in subtly different ways depending on whether it is a boy or a girl. For instance, one study filmed a young baby moving around in its cot. Then they showed the film to two groups of adults. For one group of adults, the baby’s pyjama was coloured blue; for the other group, the filmmakers coloured the same baby’s pyjama pink. The adults were asked to describe what they saw (which was obviously identical for the two groups since only the colour of the pyjama changed on the film). The group of adults watching the baby in the blue pyjama automatically presumed that it was a boy and talked about his movements as “strong, determined, will probably become a good footballer” etc. By contrast, the adults in the group watching the baby dressed in the pink pyjama automatically assumed that it was a girl and described the identical movements as “graceful, delicate, probably destined to be a ballet dancer”, etc. In other words, there’s nothing objective about the way in which we observe events; we bring to the situation all our preconceptions about life as a male or a female. In another study researchers measured the strength with which adults held babies. Again, two groups of adults were tested. The first group of adults was lured into thinking that the baby was a girl (the baby was referred to with a typical female name) and in the other case that the same baby was a boy (referred to with a typical boy’s name). The adults held the baby differently according to whether they thought it was a boy baby or a girl-baby, tending to grip the so-called boy-baby tighter and move him around more jerkily than the so-called girl-baby. The baby, of course, was the same for both groups of adults. So, although there are indeed certainly biological differences between the sexes, it is clear that social differences also play a huge and subtle role from the very start of life in how we eventually turn out. Simply buying dolls and jewellery sets for boys, or train sets and hammers for girls will not undo those subtle clues that we constantly give to our children as to which gender they are. If your two children are of different sexes, then you’ve probably noticed lots of small differences between them. But what is less easy for you to notice is how you yourself, as well as your partner, relatives or friends, have enhanced those biological differences by subtle differences in your behaviours towards each of your children. Try spending a little time observing people in the park. If a little girl falls over, parents tend to rush to comfort her and help her get up. By contrast, if a little boy falls over, parents tend to say: “Come on, you haven’t hurt yourself. Up you get”. Or observe the subtly different ways in which parents dress boys and girls even if the girls are wearing trousers. There are some assumptions about gender differences, however, that really do not hold and that you can help both your children avoid. Attitudes asserting that girls are gentle and passive, and that boys are rough and assertive, just do not hold; both of your children can learn to be assertive in some circumstances and show gentle caring in other situations. It is up to you to encourage them to bring out both of these qualities in their behaviours. If you focus on positive behaviours and compliment each of your children whenever they display assertiveness or gentleness in appropriate situations, they will come to value these two qualities in themselves and in one another. By contrast, if you focus on the negative, your children may come to see this as a way of getting your attention and therefore frequently repeat the negative behaviours. Source pampers.co.uk |
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Category -Science & Psychology Biology, Experimentation, Nature, Nurture, Psychology, Study —
