Gender Constancy
Definition
A child's realization that gender is fixed and does not change over time.
Description
The concept of gender constancy, influenced by the cognitive development theory of French psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980), was introduced by Lawrence Kohlberg (1927–1987). In 1966, Kohlberg presented a revolutionary new view of early gender role development. Parting with previous views generally held by psychologists, Kohlberg emphasized that children actively self-construct their gender through a conceptual pattern in the mind called a schema. Gender schema models stress the roles of children's selective attention to gender and their internal motivation to conform to societal standards and...
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