Schema Theory essay

                        -Evaluate schema theory with reference to research studies -

    Gender schema theory is a theory that explains the stereotypes between men and women. We are teached to this theory from the moment we are born. Different colors of clothes,different toys and our general look,that is also different.
    Boys,for example, are mostly not playing with dolls, and girls with cars.This is an theory of Sandra Bern from the year 1981. She suggested,that a child is teached to stereotypes,from the day they are born. Why do,for example,girls have earrings and boys don't? Why are girls and women more likely interested into cooking, then boys? Simply because,the kids see it ion their childhood and when they grow up,it's typically for them to do this stereotypes. Another thing,that Sandra Bern theorized was the question of why do women have to use make up and men don't. Nowadays it'd s duty for women to use it,because like it was also 20 years ago,they are supposed to look good and pretty.  Why don't men have such a duty?  Because this is simply the stereotype that they are working and women should stay at home,carry the children and represent them. Even though the role of women changed,the duty of "looking good" stayed the same.
Bartlett (1932),theorized the effect of schema's on memory.  The main idea of this study,was to investigate how memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge. He used serial reproduction, so that the participants heard a story and then they should reproduce it,after a short time and then again & again after some period of time. As a result, it was shown,that people changed their story as they tried to remember it.       The story became shorter,because they didn't said things,unimportant to them.  The story became  more consistent with cultural expectations and they also changed the order of this story.
Some of the negative consequences of gender schema theory is,that it requires the separation of males & females into two different groups. This stereotyping can lead to generalizations about expected behaviors,like for example : " every woman is emotional and every man is aggressive" Even though this is not true,people are still having this opinion. Because of this stereotypes,people are often discriminated and that's why it's not always a good thing.