Research Update 5

While this article was older, I found that it was still helpful because it talks about children’s psychology. This is the first article that I’ve found on how children remember and perceive gender-role stereotypes. This article was almost common sense. I expected that children from traditional homes would notice the altered sex-roles more than children with nontraditional backgrounds. Hopefully I can find another article that is more modern and involves some of the shows I want to write about.

Collins, W. Andrews, Judith A. List and Sally D. Westby. “Comprehension and Inferences from Traditional and Nontraditional Sex-Role Portrayals on Television.” Child Development 54.6. p1579-1587 (Dec 1983). Web. Academic Search Premier. 2 Mar 2011.

Collins, List and Westby’s study of children’s perceptions of gender-role stereotypes analyzes not only if children remember nontraditional sex-roles shown on television more than traditional ones but also if they are remembered more easily by children holding traditional or nontraditional stereotypical sex-role views. Third grade students from metropolitan Minneapolis public schools participated in the study. They viewed films of “traditional” and “nontraditional” gender stereotypes and then were asked to take a multiple-choice test to see which sex-roles they remembered the most easily. To make sure the study had as little bias as possible, the students were about 50 percent male and 50 percent female from different backgrounds and different levels of stereotype recognition. The study concluded that children with strong sex-role stereotypes already in place were more likely to remember when sex-roles were altered. Children noticed when gender-roles were stereotyped and also when the typical male and female stereotypes were broken down.