Gender Development » (New Edition)

This new text offers a unique developmental focus on gender. Gender development is examined from infancy through adolescence, integrating biological, socialization, and cognitive perspectives. The book’s current empirical focus is complemented by a lively and readable style that includes anecdotes about children’s everyday experiences. The book’s accessibility is further enhanced with the use of bold face to highlight key terms when first introduced along with a complete glossary of these terms. All three of the authors are respected researchers in divergent areas of children’s gender role development and each of them teaches a course on the topic.

The book’s primary focus is on gender role behaviors – how they develop and the roles biological and experiential factors play in their development. The first section of the text introduces the field and outlines its history. Part 2 focuses on the differences between the sexes, including the biology of sex and the latest research on behavioral sex differences, including motor and cognitive behaviors and personality and social behaviors. Contemporary theoretical perspectives on gender development – biological, social and environmental, and cognitive approaches – are explored in Part 3 along with the research supporting these models. The social agents of gender development, including children themselves, family, peers, the media, and schools are addressed in the final part.

Cutting-edge and comprehensive, this the perfect text for those who have been searching for an advanced undergraduate and/or graduate book for courses in gender development, the psychology of sex roles and/or gender and/or women or men, taught in departments of psychology, human development, and educational psychology. Although chapters have been designed to be read sequentially, a full author citation is included the first time a reference is used within an individual chapter rather than only the first time it is used in the book, making it easy to assign chapters in a variety of orders. This referencing system will also appeal to scholars interested in using the book as a resource to review a particular content area.

Pt. I Introduction to the World of Gender Development
1 Introduction 1
2 History of the Study of Gender Development 19 Pt. II Describing Differences Between the Sexes
3 Biological Foundations of Sex and Gender 39
4 Motor Development and Cognition 69
5 Personality and Social Behaviors 95 Pt. III Approaches to Explaining Gender Development
6 Biological Approaches to Gender Development 133
7 Social Approaches to Gender Development 177
8 Cognitive Approaches to Gender Development 197 Pt. IV Social and Cognitive Agents of Gender Development
9 The Cognitive Self as an Agent of Gender Development 227
10 The Family as an Agent of Gender Development 271
11 The Peer Group as an Agent of Gender Development 305
12 The Media as an Agent of Gender Development 339
13 The School as an Agent of Gender Development 365 Epilogue 391 Glossary 395 References 413 Author Index 481 Subject Index 507