Diane N. Ruble

Children's Search for Gender Cues Cognitive Perspectives on Gender Development

Young children search for cues about gender—who should or should not do a particular activity, who can play with whom, and why girls and boys are different. From a vast array of gendered cues in their social worlds, children quickly form an impressive constellation of gender cognitions, including gender self-conceptions (gender identity) and gender stereotypes. Cognitive perspectives on gender development (i.e., cognitive developmental theory and gender-schema theory) assume that children actively search for ways to make sense of the social world that surrounds them. Gender identity develops as children realize that they belong to one gender group, and the consequences include increased motivation to be similar to other members of their group, preferences for members of their own group, selective attention to and memory for information relevant to their own sex, and increased interest in activities relevant to their own sex. Cognitive perspectives have been influential in increasing understanding of how children develop and apply gender stereotypes, and in their focus on childrens active role in gender socialization.

The Development of Achievement-Related Expectancies.

PARSONS, JACQUELYNNE E., and RUBLE, DIANE N. The Development of Achievement-related Expectancies. CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1075-1079. This study investigated the development of achievement-related expectancies. Based on the models of attribution and cognitive developmental theory and on past research, it was predicted that younger children would relate past history of outcomes to expectancies differently than older children, that sex differences in expectancies would not be present in the preschool-age group, and that older children would have the lowest expectancies. As predicted, success/failure experiences had a more systematic effect on school-age childrens expectancies than on the expectancies of preschoolers, and older children consistently reported lower expectancies. In addition, the subjects sex in interaction with age influenced both initial expectancy and the use of outcome information.

the Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire

&NA; In order to examine the relationship of attitudes about menstruation to self‐reports of menstrual‐related symptomatology as well as to other aspects of behavior, an instrument to measure attitudes concerning menstruation was developed. After constructing the Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ), the factor analytic structure of the original MAQ sample was replicated on a second sample. Summary statistics are presented for college women, college men, and adolescent girls, and the relationship between menstrual‐related attitudes, expectations, and experience is examined.

Children's Lay Theories About Ingroups and Outgroups: Reconceptualizing Research on Prejudice:

The consensus from the developmental literature examining childrens intergroup attitudes has been that children as young as 3 years of age exhibit racial prejudice. We suggest, however, that as much of the developmental research has confounded ingroup positivity and outgroup negativity, it becomes difficult to determine whether young children are displaying ingroup bias or outgroup derogation. Furthermore, it appears that young children are not demonstrating hostility toward outgroups; studies that have separately assessed evaluations toward the ingroup and outgroup demonstrate that rather than evaluating the outgroup negatively, young children are demonstrating a positivity bias toward their ingroup. We propose, therefore, that young children are primarily utilizing a perceptually based lay theory that does not necessitate outgroup derogation. We argue, however, that childrens lay theories are subject to social structural conditions and specific social transitions, and hence, can lead to the development of prejudice.

Changes in the marital relationship after the first baby is born : predicting the impact of expectancy disconfirmation

A longitudinal study of 50 couples during the transition to first parenthood examined how failure to confirm expectations regarding the sharing of child-care and housekeeping responsibilities influenced postpartum reports of marital satisfaction. On the basis of recent theories of expectancy confirmation processes, 5 variables representing strength and importance were identified as possible moderators. As predicted, disconfirmation of stronger and more important expectations generally led to more negative reports about the marriage. Surprisingly, some subsets of wives showed opposite reactions; less negative feelings when they were doing more than they expected. These findings were interpreted in terms of personal and role traditionality influencing the valence of the reactions to expectancy disconfirmation.

Patterns of Gender Development

A comprehensive theory of gender development must describe and explain long-term developmental patterning and changes and how gender is experienced in the short term. This review considers multiple views on gender patterning, illustrated with contemporary research. First, because developmental research involves understanding normative patterns of change with age, several theoretically important topics illustrate gender development: how children come to recognize gender distinctions and understand stereotypes, and the emergence of prejudice and sexism. Second, developmental researchers study the stability of individual differences over time, which elucidates developmental processes. We review stability in two domains-sex segregation and activities/interests. Finally, a new approach advances understanding of developmental patterns, based on dynamic systems theory. Dynamic systems theory is a metatheoretical framework for studying stability and change, which developed from the study of complex and nonlinear systems in physics and mathematics. Some major features and examples show how dynamic approaches have been and could be applied in studying gender development.

Changes in the marital relationship during the transition to first time motherhood: Effects of violated expectations concerning division of household labor.

This research combined cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses to evaluate the hypothesis that violated expectations with respect to sharing child care and housekeeping responsibilities contribute to womens dissatisfactions with their marital relationships after the birth of their first child. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 670 women who completed questionnaires at one of six phases in relation to birth. The longitudinal sample consisted of 48 women who filled out questionnaires late in pregnancy and at three periods postpartum. The results showed, consistent with previous findings, that women reported less positive feelings about their husbands during the postpartum period than during pregnancy, and that women reported doing much more of the housework and child care than they had expected. Moreover, regression analyses indicated, as predicted, that violated expectations concerning division of labor were related to negative feelings postpartum concerning some aspects of the marital relationship. Additional findings suggested that the negative implications of the birth of a baby for the marital relationship may not be as great as has been emphasized in previous literature, and that expectancy violations affect some parts of the relationship but not necessarily the core affective feeling.

Self-evaluative Responses of Children in an Achievement Setting.

RUBLE, DIANE N.; PARSONS, JACQUELYNNE E.; and Ross, JENISE. Self-evaluative Responses of Children in an Achievement Setting. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1976, 47, 990-997. In 2 studies, age differences in childrens self-evaluative responses as a function of success/failure outcome and task ease information are explored. The approach to the research is based on the Weiner et al. attributional model of achievement. The model predicts that more extreme positive or negative affect results from internal, as opposed to external, attributions for success or failure. In both studies, each child worked on a task and was subsequently given information indicating that his or her performance outcome was due to either internal or external reasons. Self-evaluative ratings were then measured and were expected to vary as a function of the information condition. The results of both studies showed that task outcome was a strong predictor of evaluations, especially for older children. However, the effects of task ease information were neither strong nor consistent, though this information did appear to influence the ratings of the older children. Possible reasons for these developmental changes and their implications are discussed.

Menstrual symptoms: a social cognition analysis.

Research on menstrual-related cyclicity often reflects assumptions concerning the generality, severity, and physiological basis of symptoms associated with the menstrual cycle. According to arguments presented in recent articles, these assumptions are not fully justified by the empirical data. In addition, there is evidence that symptom associations may be viewed as reflecting, in part, a set of beliefs. In the present article evidence is reviewed which suggests that symptom associations may originate and be maintained by means of biases in the processing of information about cyclicity. Specifically, the origins of biased beliefs may arise from the connotative meaning of, the salience of, and selectivity in processing the information forming the association. In addition, mechanisms which contribute to the maintenance of biased perceptions, once associations have been formed, include distortion, autonomy, and category accessibility of the evidence.

Task orientation versus social orientation in young children and their attention to relevant social cues.

RUBLE, DIANE N., and NAKAMURA, CHARLES Y. Task Orientation versus Social Orientation in Young Children and Their Attention to Relevant Social Cues. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1972, 43, 471-480. This study examined how relevant cues given by an experimenter might differentially affect the performance of task oriented versus socially oriented children on 2 games. On the basis of past research, 2 independent variables were chosen: field dependence-independence and sex. It was expected that field-dependent children and girls would tend to be more socially oriented and therefore more responsive to social cues, while field-independent children and boys would tend to be more task oriented and therefore less responsive to social cues. The results supported the expectations regarding field dependenceindependence but failed to support those regarding sex differences.