Dissertation Information for Bruce Carter NAME: - Bruce Carter
- (Alias) Donald Bruce Carter
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Psychology
SCHOOL:
- University of Virginia (USA) (1980)
ADVISORS: - None COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - None
MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected
Title: THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN'S THINKING ABOUT SEX-ROLE STEREOTYPES, SEX-ROLE FLEXIBILITY AND SOCIAL-CONVENTIONAL THINKING
Abstract: "The present study investigated the development of children's thinking about sex-role stereotypes. In particular, the study focused on children's conceptions of sex-role stereotypes as a form of social convention, their beliefs in the flexibility of stereotypes, and the changes in children's thinking concerning these topics which occur during childhood and early adolescence.
Ninety-seven children at five grade levels (kindergartners, second-, fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-graders) were interviewed about their conceptions of four different topics: sex-role stereotypes of toys, sex-role stereotypes of adult occupations, conventional table manners, and a natural law (specific gravity of rocks). In each case, children were asked to specify the rule (rule knowledge), indicate whether or not it was subject to exception (rule flexibility), and indicate whether or not the inverse of the rule could be true in another country (cultural relativity). Children's level of general cognitive flexibility (as measured by the Alternate Uses Test) was also assessed to determine if this form of flexibility was related to children's ideas about the flexibility of social and physical rules.
The results revealed significant increases with age in children's knowledge of sex-role stereotypes and in their beliefs in the flexibility and cultural relativity of both sex-role stereotypes and social convention. Older children were more likely than younger children both to know the sex-role stereotypes and also to believe that the stereotypes are subject to exception. In contrast, children's beliefs in the flexibility and cultural relativity of the natural law decreased with age. As predicted, changes in children's conceptions of sex-role stereotype flexibility occurred concurrently with changes in conceptions of social-conventional flexibility. Children who stated that sex-role stereotypes were flexible were more likely to state the social convention was also flexible. These changes were unrelated to changes in children's conception of the natural law. Also as predicted, divergent thinking on the Alternate Uses Test was unrelated to children's beliefs about flexibility in sex-role stereotypes, social convention or natural law.
These results are consistent with the hypothesis that changes in children's beliefs about the flexibility of sex-role stereotypes and social convention occur as a result of changes in children's conceptions of social rules. Thus, the findings suggest that sex-stereotypes and social conventions are not two separate areas of social cognition but different aspects of the single conceptual domain of social convention. Development of thinking about sex-role stereotypes should therefore be regarded as an aspect of the development of social-conventional thought."
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MPACT Scores for Bruce Carter A = 0
C = 1
A+C = 1
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:12:16
Advisors and Advisees Graph
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