An educational psychologist investigated gender schemas in young children. She read the following description to a group of 4-year-olds and a group of 9-year-olds:
'Pediatric nurses look after babies and children who are unwell in hospital. Their job is to administer medicine, monitor recovery, and comfort patients. Look at these two photographs. Who do you think is a pediatric nurse? Is it the man, the woman, or could both of them be pediatric nurses?'
Each child was shown a photograph of a male pediatric nurse and a female pediatric nurse side-by-side, and their individual responses were recorded.
Table 1: Response selections by age group
| Selected Response | 4-year-olds | 9-year-olds |
|---|---|---|
| 'Woman' | 25 | 5 |
| 'Man' | 1 | 3 |
| 'Both' | 4 | 22 |
With reference to cognitive explanations of gender development, what conclusion might be drawn from the results in Table 1? Justify your answer.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Cognitive explanations of gender development with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 49 questions, matched to the AQA A Level Psychology (7182) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.
