Four-phase developmental sequence of gender understanding: labeling, stability, motive, constancy¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The article organizes gender understanding as a gradually culminating developmental sequence of four levels. As printed, "This process hás been described as consisting of ~foui distinct phases: gender labeling, the consistent application of appropriate gender labels to self and others; stability, the child's awareness that gender remains stable over time", followed by motive (desire does not change gender) and constancy (gender maintained despite transformations of clothing, hairstyle, and behavior). The study's gender pretests and posttests scored children against these levels.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Assessment must probe each phase with questions about self, same-sex and other-sex referents, as the study's gender pretests did.

Constraints¶

• The article notes research had not yet systematically examined the factors underlying this development prior to this study.

Target Learners¶

• preschool children aged 4 and 5

Target Learning Objectives¶

• gender labeling
• gender stability
• gender constancy

Claims¶

Related Theories¶

• Shared cognitive operations account: identity and reversibility underlie conservation, pretense play, and gender constancy

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Golomb, Claire; Vogel, David. (1983). The Role of Cognitive Operations in the Development of Gender Constancy. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED233823