Gender Identity Perspectives

According to this view

According to this view, children might learn what it means to be a woman or a man from the culture in which they are raised or reside. Additionally, it asserts that kids alter their own conduct to precisely conform to the gender norms and expectations of their culture. The notion was first presented in the 1980s by a psychologist named Sandra Bem (Cherry, 2016). The cognitive revolution of the 1970s and 1960s and Bem’s desire to preserve what she sees as the shortcomings of the developmental and psychoanalytic theories have had a significant impact on the theory. Bem proposed that the children are forming their identities from the associations which they develop. The beliefs of the society about what make up the “female traits” and “male traits” widely affected by this development of the gender schema. These schemas have a lot of influence not only on how people are processing social information, but also on their beliefs, behaviors and attitudes (Williams, 2016). A number of kids engage in the behaviors which are in line with their respective schema. What has been proposed by Bem in his theory is true and is applicable in most of the people. In a typical family environment, boys always associate themselves with males and girls associate themselves with females. This enables them to learn what their gender counterparts are doing and they are able to copy these behaviors, attitudes and beliefs.

Changing Gender Identity over Generation

Studies such as the one carried out by the Indian Institute of Technology show that gender identity of the girls is changing faster than that of boys as more girls than boys have turned away the traditional personality traits to the non-traditional personality traits. This is a result of the fact that more options are readily available for young women at present to develop a gender identity of their own choice (Tiwari & Ghadially, 2009). Men also have such options, but are limited in scope as more women have engaged themselves in public domain, hence their changes are easily noticeable in them. Generational comparison indicated that the younger generation girls are more sex-typed, but younger generation boys do not show the gender identity change. Most of these are interpreted in the political, economic and social-historical changes which have occurred currently.

How Gender Identity Impact the way People communicate with those of same Gender

Feminine and masculine cultures and individuals generally vary in how they are communicating with each other. For instance, feminine people tend to be self-disclose more than the masculine people. Likewise, the feminine people communicate with more affection and with a lot of confidence and intimacy than the masculine people (Boundless, 2016). Generally, it can be concluded that feminine people tend to communicate more and also prioritize communication as compared to masculine people. Feminine people since when they are young, they are trying to express themselves, making their issues, beliefs and problems known by those who can assist. But the male counterparts in most cases are introverts even at a younger age, and they seem to fear seeking recognition from those around him. This has made them left behind by the female counters whose identity has since a lot in the past two to three generations. Females are using their outspoken nature to make their issues known and attended to hence changing their identity with time.

References

Boundless. (2016, May 26). Gender Differences in Social Interaction. Retrieved from www.boundless.com: https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/gender-stratification-and-inequality-11/gender-and-socialization-86/gender-differences-in-social-interaction-502-10212/

Cherry, K. (2016, May 9). What Is Gender Schema Theory? Retrieved from www.verywell.com: https://www.verywell.com/what-is-gender-schema-theory-2795205

Tiwari, N., & Ghadially, R. (2009). Changing Gender Identity of Emerging Adults. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 313-321.

Williams, L. (2016, September 27). Gender Schema Theory. Retrieved from Owlcation.com: https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/gender-shema-theory