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PSY 121: Developmental Psychology Learning Unit 6: Assignment

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Best Buddies or Television: Gender Roles, What Do You See?

SLO: Analyze biological, cognitive, and socioemotional developmental processes for middle childhood,

apply developmental psychological content to real-life situations to include individual differences,

beliefs, values, and interpersonal relationships, and develop critical thinking skills.

Select one (1) activity to complete.

Activity 1: The purpose of this activity is to reflect on your childhood friendships with regard to the

various elements identified as significant in peer relations. Friendship is a major area of study for life-

span developmentalists focusing on children’s social interactions, including the functions of cognitive

and emotional development.

Think and write about your best friend from childhood. To guide you, review the text coverage of

friendships and the six functions friendships serve in early and middle childhood.

Reply to each question in a numbered response-this is not an essay-

1. How did you meet and become friends?

2. What did you do together?

3. What did you like best about them?

4. What did you fight about?

5. What did you learn from your friend, and what did you teach your friend?

6. Are you still friends? If so, how has your relationship grown and changed over the years? If

not, when and why did the friendship end?

7. Compare childhood friendship to adult friendship.

8. Regarding the six functions that have been delineated for childhood friendships, which ones

apply to adult relationships?

9. What is different between adult friends? The same? What about the gender of our friends?

10. Compare and contrast friendships of the same and opposite sex then and now.

Activity 2: The purpose of this activity is to evaluate two (2) prime-time television shows for gender-role

stereotyping. Select three shows that children ages 6-11 tend to watch. Choose shows that children tend

to watch between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. For each show, you should record the following information:

• Number of male and female main characters

• Occupations of main male and female characters

• Thematic connections between males and females (e.g., female in distress and male as rescuer)

• Personality characteristics of one male and one female from the show

After collecting your data, and complete the results below, answer the questions that follow in a brief

report.

PSY 121: Developmental Psychology Learning Unit 6: Assignment

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Program #1 Title: _______________________________________________

Number of male characters: ________ Number of female characters: ________

Occupation of main male character(s):

Occupation of main female character(s):

Thematic connections between males and females:

Personality of one male:

Personality of one female:

Program #2 Title: _______________________________________________

Number of male characters: ________ Number of female characters: ________

Occupation of main male character(s):

Occupation of main female character(s):

Thematic connections between males and females:

Personality of one male:

Personality of one female:

Reply to each question in a numbered response-this is not an essay-

1. In the shows you watched, were more main roles taken by males or females?

2. What kinds of occupations did the males have? What kinds of occupations did the females

have?

3. Were there status differences in the occupations of the males and females? What were they?

4. What kinds of themes connected the males and females in the television programs you

watched?

5. Were the themes stereotyped for male–female relationships?

6. What do you think these models are teaching children about what it means to be a male or a

female in our society?

7. Do you think these models are a fair representation of the way women and men act in the

real world?

Submit to the appropriate location in the unit.

© Deb Vos and Indian Hills Community College