178 Chapter 5car. Now she has to decide whether to
play with the doll, which would be be-
havior consistent with self-presentation
(pleasing the father), or to play with the
car, which would be behavior consis-
tent with self-verification.Box G: The daughter behaves. The in-
teresting part of this story is that re-
gardless of whether the daughter plays
with the doll or the car, the father’s
gender belief system (Box A) and the
daughter’s self-system (Box D) are
likely to remain intact. If the daughter
plays with the car, she will confirm her
belief that she likes cars (Box J), which
fits with her self-system (Box D). The
father is likely to make a situational at-
tribution for the behavior, such as, “The
car is novel, but in time she will return
to the dolls” (Box I). Thus the father’s
belief system (Box A) also remains in-
tact. Alternatively, if the daughter plays
with the doll, the father naturally sees
that the behavior fits his belief system
(Box I). The daughter will realize she
is playing with the doll so she can play
with her dad and discount her aberrant
behavior (Box J). She does not have to
alter her self-system either.
Box H: This box has to do with the
characteristics of the situation that
might influence behavior. Is the behav-
ior socially desirable? In our example,
playing with a doll or car is socially
desirable behavior. But what is socially
desirable may differ for females and
males. Is it socially desirable for a boy
to play with a doll? The certainty of the
perceiver’s and target’s self-concepts
will influence the outcome. In our ex-
ample, the 3-year-old is likely to have
a quite malleable concept of what toysfrilly dress? Or is the daughter wearing
a shirt and pants that do not distinguish
her from the other children? The day
care also may make gender salient if the
teacher has the girls on one side of the
room and the boys on the other side of
the room, or if it appears that children
are playing only with members of their
same sex.Box C: Here the father behaves toward
his daughter. If he is highly gender
schematic and has had gender schemas
recently activated, perhaps he will offer
his daughter a doll to play with. If he
is gender aschematic and has not had
gender schemas activated, he might of-
fer his daughter the toy that looks most
interesting to him or the toy he knows
will be of most interest to her.Box D: This box represents the target’s
self-concept, part of which is whether
the daughter is gender schematic. In this
example, the daughter is likely to know
she is a girl and probably has noticed
that girls and boys play with different
toys. The daughter, however, has her
own unique interests in the toys. Let’s
imagine her favorite toy is a remote-
control car and she does not like playing
with dolls.
Box E: The same things that activated the
father’s gender-related schema in Box
B can activate the daughter’s gender-
related schema in Box E. This also in-
cludes how the father behaves toward
her. Why did he offer her a doll when she
never plays with dolls?
Box F: Here the daughter interprets the
father’s behavior, which is that he has
just offered her a doll when she was
about to play with the remote-controlM05_HELG0185_04_SE_C05.indd 178 6/21/11 8:03 AM