Gender identity develops through a complex interaction of biological, cognitive, social, and environmental factors from a very young age. Children begin showing preferences for gender-typed toys and behaviors between 18 months and 3 years old. Between ages 2 and 4, children progress through stages of gender identity development, gaining the ability to correctly label themselves and others by gender and understand that their gender remains constant. Nurture also plays an important role, as parents influence children's development of gender schemas by encouraging gender-typed behaviors and preferences in toys and activities from a young age.

1. Gender Identity
CASSIDY WILLETTS

2.  The textbook definition of gender is “The psychological and social associates of
gender.”
 In todays society there are many arguments of nature vs nurture and what makes
a boy a boy and a girl a girl
 Most preschoolers are able to identify whats “Girly” and whats for “boys”

3. Social Cognitive theory
 Parents help form sex roles by buying certain clothes and encouraging play with
certain toys(I.e Having a female toddler play with dolls)
 Parents enforce these sex roles as young as 18 months old
 One study has found an infants sex is affected by the way the mother interacted
with them

4. Cognitive Development
 Kohlberg’s theory suggest that there are three stages for a child coming to
understanding gender development
 The first stage is gender identity. This is the childs ability to label themselves
according to sex correctly and to correctly label adults correctly . By age 2 most
children are able to do this.
 The Second stage is gender stability which is the understanding that they will stay
the same gender throughout their entire life
 The third stage is gender constancy which is the understanding that the gender is
the component of the self that is not altered but the external appearance.

5. Gender Schema theory
 Information-processiong theorists use the term schema to refer to mental frame
works.
 Gender Schema is the assumption that the development of a framework for a
gender underlies the gender development
 Gender Schema begins as soon as the child is able to notice the difference
between male and female, knows his own gender and is able to do so with clear
consistency

6. Biological
 For a king time it was believe that the biological differences between males and
females is what cause the psychological differences
 Some studies have been done find that some experiences when they took boys
and force them to have surgery to have female appearing gentils at a young age.
And were raised as females.

8. Dr.Money and the Boy without a Penis
 The BBC documentary of the same title follows the story of two twins boys, one
was raised as a female(David) and the other was raised as a male(Bruce) to test the
theory that nurture played a large part of ones gender identity.
 While Dr.Money published the results as a positive interviews with boys and their
fates showed the project was a failure
 Bruce ended up committing suicide and later David followed. Both made
accusations of different abuse occurring while under his care Dr. Money
 Despite the failure of the experiment many see it was necessary or worth it.

9. Sex Role Knowledge
 A study done by Serbin, Powlishta, & Gulko in 1993 shows that by age 3 most
children are able to identify some sex roles i.e “Mommy uses the oven and Daddy
use the grill.”
 By age 4 they can make comparisons such as “Daddies are better at fixing things
then mommies.

11. Sex Typed Behavior
 As early as 18 months of age children will start to show preference in toys geared
towards their sex such boys playing blocks or girls playing with dolls, this is
months before they can consistently identify gender.
 By age 3 they start to show prefence in playing with same sex playmates
 Preschoolers is the age group where children are started to be taught certain
behaviors are “manly” or “Lady-like”

13.  Whether the way a child perceives gender and the gender around them is strictly
nature or nature we aren’t entirely sure.
 We do know that raising a child as the incorrect gender can have long term effects
on their mental health.

14. References
 Lifespan Development
FIFTH CANADIAN EDITION
Denise Boyd
Paul Johnson
Helen Bee
 “DR. Money and The Boy with No Penis” BBC 2004

15. References(images)
 http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02183/baby-
max_2183067b.jpghttp://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbly
rxfgJq1qhbl6ao1_500.png&imgrefurl=http://imsuchanafroholic.com/tag/gender-
roles/&h=222&w=500&tbnid=IcoKuH3_IAR3iM:&docid=Qoau7dx87Z7ciM&ei=h105VsXEJ4HFogS
iwpyIDQ&tbm=isch&ved=0CB0QMygBMAFqFQoTCIWknJvN9cgCFYGiiAodIiEH0Q
 http://www.bricks4kidz.com/maryland-ellicottcity-columbia/files/2010/07/2.15.13-Preschool-
children-2-kids.jpg
 https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/w/wearing_the_trousers.asp
 https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved
=0CAcQjRxqFQoTCLmSju7_9cgCFQ8tiAodKkIMqg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.duelinganalogs.com
%2Fcomic%2Frejecting-gender-identity-
roles%2F&psig=AFQjCNFH9A_p8nxILUJX75iyNV9aWeOU2A&ust=1446699999643421