What Are Social Identity Core Components in Adulthood - Nursing Assignment Help

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How is gender identity formed through childhood, and what are its social identity core components in adulthood? In your answer, please describe and discuss one relevant developmental and one social psychological approachIn this essay, I will be discussing how gender identity is formed and how theories like social learning theory and the cognitive development explanation help to explain gender identity formation. I will also be discussing how other factors can affect gender identity development such as CAH and gender stereotypes.Gender identity refers to how an individual views themselves. This includes, but is not limited to, male, genderqueer, and female, as gender is a spectrum. It also does not have to be the same as the sex assigned at birth (American Psychological Association, 2015). It is the chemistry that composes you and how you interpret what that means.Gender is part of our sense of self which is made up of three key parts. The first one is self-concept. This is how we see ourselves and how we perceive our abilities and behaviour. It includes beliefs such as ‘I am smart’. Self-concept is a set of beliefs an individual has about themselves and the responses of others and is based on the question ‘who am I?’ (APA Dictionary of Psychology, 2020a). Self-concept is closely related to identity formation which aims to establish a reasonable view of oneself as part of normal development (Herman, 2011).The second is the objective self. This is a reflective state of self-awareness where an individual evaluates themselves in an attempt to stay consistent in behaviours and beliefs (APA Dictionary of Psychology, 2020b). The third is looking-glass self which is about adapting to how other people view you and taking what they say into account in your personal views of yourself. This is developed from interactions with others and is like a reflection in a social mirror (APA Dictionary of Psychology, 2020c).

Children learn to label individuals as male or female as they develop, and they become more consistent in doing so. They develop the ability to recognise that, for example, if a boy puts on a dress, they are still a boy and that their gender has stayed consistent (Ruble et al., 2007).Gender identity can be affected by childhood trauma such as sexual abuse (Walker et al., 2012). Sexual abuse victims often view themselves as inadequate, worthless, and have other negative qualities. This can impact a child’s gender development. Being forced to do something can still lead to physical arousal which is likely to cause confusion and inner conflict for them. Experiences like these can rewire the brain into seeking out similar situations as an adult for complex psychological reasons other than because of natural inclination (van der Kolk, 2000). This can make it difficult for a child to develop their gender identity as the abuse will leave lasting impacts that can change an individual’s attitudes and behaviour towards others.One developmental approach that looks at gender identity formation is the cognitive development explanation by Piaget. This approach focuses on describing and outlining the stages of gender development but fails to explain them. Piaget (1964) suggested four factors that influence children’s learning and development. This includes schemas, these are categories of knowledge that can be added to with new experiences. Assimilation is the process of taking new information and putting it into a pre-existing schema. Accommodation is about changing or altering our existing schemas because of new information. Finally, equilibration is about getting a balance between assimilation and accommodation (Piaget, 1964).

For example, a young boy calls a woman with short hair a man. This is an example of assimilation as the child is applying his schema that boys have short hair, and girls have long hair, to this new experience with a woman with short hair. Another example is if the boy is then told that some boys and girls both can have long or short hair. The next time the boy sees a woman with short hair he will then be able to correctly identify that she is a woman using other features. This shows adaptation. He has adapted a previous experience of a woman with short hair and adjusted his schema.One social-psychological approach to gender identity formation is the social identity theory by Bandura (Falk & Kim, 2019). Social learning theory explains how children develop their gender identity based on influences from others. Bandura proposed four stages of gender development. These are attention – a behaviour is noticed and observed. Memory – the behaviour is memorised and committed to memory. Imitation – behaviour is reproduced based on desired consequences or what they will gain from the behaviour (Falk & Kim, 2019).

Bandura conducted the ‘bobo doll’ study which was used to test if there are gender differences in behaviour (Artino, 2007). One finding of this study was that males were highly likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour if they were shown a male being aggressive. However, they would not imitate this if a female has done so (Artino, 2007). This suggests that we only imitate behaviour that we believe we should or is from someone similar to us. It also found that boys are twice as likely to imitate the abusive behaviour towards the doll than girls showing that boys have a more aggressive tendency (Artino, 2007).The cognitive development theory by Kohlberg is focused on the individual which has helped us to see the role children play in their development (Martin & Ruble, 2004). Compared to social learning theory which suggests that children develop mainly by positively observing the environment they are in (Falk & Kim, 2019). However, the cognitive approach fails to consider such factors even though we are aware that external influences can impact a great deal on development.

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