OBSERVATIONALLY INDUCED DISINHIBITION OF INAPPROPRIATELY SEX-TYPED RESPONSES IN YOUNG CHILDREN

Abstract

The present study was concerned with children's avoidance of inappropriately sex-typed toys. The first purpose of the study was to investigate whether the observation of a peer model of the same-sex playing with toys appropriate for opposite-sex children would weaken an inhibitory tendency in the observing S to approach these inappropriately sextyped toys. The second purpose of the study was to examine whether an inhibitory tendency in the observing S to approach toys for opposite-sex children would be weakened as a consequence of the observation of a peer model of the opposite-sex playing with toys appropriate for the model but not for the observer child.
Ninety kindergarten children, 45 boys and 45 girls, whose. ages ranged from 5-10 to 6-8 with a mean age of 6-3, participated as Ss. One-third of the Ss (Group SS) individually observed a peer model of the same sex playing with inappropriately sex-typed toys. The second one-third of the Ss (Group OS) were exposed to a. peer model of the opposite sex playing with toys appropriate for the model but not for the observing Ss. The remaining Ss (Control) were tested without such observations. S was then allowed to play with sex-inappropiate and neutral toys for 10 minutes during which time his behavior was observed and recorded once every 15 seconds in terms of predetermined behavior categories by judges who observed the session through a one-way mirror. Thus, each S was observed 40 times. Two scores were derived from the observations: latency scores and per cent-inappropriate scores Latency scores consisted of the number of titne intervals elapsing befove S was observtd to look at, come close to, or touch a sex inappropriate toy. Per cent-inappropriate scores consisted of the number of intervals in which S looked at, was close to, or touched a sex inappropria te toy divided by the number of intervals spent with all toys. Both latency and per cent-inappropriate scores, therefore, had three individual scores (looking, proximity and touching).
Intercorrelations among looking, proximity, and touching ranged from. 77 to. 98. The three individal scores were so highly related that theu main analyses were-performed on the basis of composite scores. The cornposite score was computed for each S by averaging his three individual scores.
The major findings of the study were the following:
(1) For boys, the Model who displayed inappropriately sex-typed responses appeared to have a disinhibitory effect. The data for the Group SS of boys showed that the latency of orienting toward the feminine toys was significantly shorter and the per cent of time spent with the feminine toys was significantly higher than OS and Control Groups. Although a similar trend of disinhibitory effect was observed in the girls' data, differences among the three conditions were not statistically reliable.
(2) The observation of the model displaying appropriate sex-typed behavior showed neither an inhiditory nor disinhibitory effect on children's inappropriately sex-typed responses.
The positive results for boys were interpreted to mean that both the observation of the deviated model and the observation of an adult's (E) nonreaction to previously “punished” behavior have a disinhibitory effect on the sex inappropriate behaviat of young boys.