'Cause Boys like Cars and Girls like Dolls! A Cognitive Analysis of Young Girls' and Young Boys' Development of Genderised Knowledge

This study examines the role of cognition in the social learning of culturally sexappropriate patterns of behaviour by four- and five- year old girls and boys in the United Kingdom. Cognitive perspectives have been influential in the understanding of how children develop gender knowledge, including genderised behaviours (i.e. stereotypes) and apply these in their social interactions (i.e. in play activities and choice of toys). The study focuses on the examination of four- and five- year old girls' and boys' awareness of their own gender knowledge, and whether genderised labels are utilised in choices of sex-typed toys for themselves and others in the classroom. Participants' ages place them in a stage of cognitive development which is usually characterised by little awareness of a point of view other than their own and to fully understand that objects remains the same despite changes in the appearance. The question of whether young boys and young girls understand their choices was investigated, with reference to the theoretical framework of Gender Schema (Martin and Halverston, 1981; Martin, 2002). Findings revealed that participating children are aware of their gender identities, and whilst responses given to detailed questions regarding gender identity, stability and consistency varied considerably, the results reveal no distinct trends about the exact ages at which these stages are reached. It was clear however, that children relied on using gender schemata in their reasoning for making genderised toy preferences. Boys and girls responses also highlighted the extensive presence of the normative genderised discourses children are exposed and the extent to which it influences emerging social identities in early childhood. The study also indicates developmental differences in gender-related knowledge, and the cognitive developmental contention that children construct their own sex role values within a genderised social order, and organise their gender knowledge around basic comprehensions of their own bodies and worlds, is supported. This was clearly demonstrated by the utilisation of schemata for organisation of gender label information, which also highlighted the extensive presence of genderised views. It was therefore inferred that such genderised knowledge which may, or may not be, detrimental, influences cognition as a basis of genderised behaviour.