Individual difference in play

Gender and play forms

Ketika anak-anak memasuki bangku
prasekolah, atau tempat pengasuhan
anak, mereka mulai menunjukkan
perbedaan gender yang ekstensif dalam
bermain.
persamaan dan perbedaan ini terlihat
dalam 4 domain bermain yaitu
motorplay, social play, object play, dan
pretenxe play
Physical or motor play
Motor physic play is define as gross and fine motor activity or the
use of body part in play.
Gender differences in physical activity level do not emerge prior to
age 4 or 5 years. Once boys reach this age they have been
found to be more active and boisterous than girls are
A prevalent type of physical pllay appearing in early childhood that
is gender related is rough and tumble play .
In general boys tend to exhibit more instrumental aggression
whereas girls score higher on measures of relational aggression.
During the grade school years, gender linked trends in physical
play are manifested in sports, athletics, and other organized
physical activities. Boys play compare ti girls play, is marke by
larger size play groups and by more competitiveness,
interdependence, role differentiation, and role governed team
play
Social play
Girl tend to be less direct and explixit boys
are more assertive and dominant
Same gender playmates are usually chosen,
beginning around age 4 years and growing
steadily in frequency during early childhood
Boys social worlds are more extensive,
individualistic, and competitive while girls
tend to be more intensive, affiliative, and
subjective
Object play
Preschool age female show a strong
propensity toward constructive play,
while their male counterparts disolay a
greater tendency for functional play.
Pretend play
Girl are ahead of boys in object
transpormational skill.
Gender difference in other play
related behavior
Toy preferences
Team or group activities
Imaginary companions
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
AND GENDER
Inka G. Kemala
(12120059044)

Parental influence
The initial shaping of gender-
differentiated behavior occurs within
the family.
Fathers describe newborn doughters as
soft,small,and delicate. Fathers of
newborn sons describe their offspring
as large and active
(Rubin,Provenzano,&Luria,1974)

How these parental expectations influence
the socialization of boys and girls is
illustrated by the way parents dress their
sons and daughters differently and
provide them with different toys early in
life.
Parental expectations are also transmitted
through their interactions with their
children.



Peer influence
There are considerable and extensive
gender differences in childrens play by the
time they are 3 years old.
Research suggests that gender-
differentiated play may be determined in
part by responses of peers to childrens
activity during free play.
Results indicated that the probability of play
with cross-sex toys was highest for both boys
and girls when they were alone and was
lowest when they were with an opposite-sex
peer.
Boys who engage in male-typed behavior
receive more positive responses from
peers than do girls who engage in female-
typed behavior.
Teacher influences
Research has shown that there is a
tendency for teachers to spend more time
with children who engage in female-sex-
type activity, such as arts and crafts, and
doll and kitchen play
Girls are often seen as being closer to the
teacher than boys are, and girls seek
structured or constructive play activities
far more than boys do (Carpenter, Stein &
Baer, 1978)
The boys were more responsive to teacher
involvement in male-preferred activity
areas, especially when the teacher was
male.
Adult roles
Mothers and fathers should make every
effort to treat sons and daughters equitably
by providing them with toys and other play
materials,including storage and space for
play.
Expenditures of time and money should be
about the same for boys and for girls.
Parents should engage their children in both
traditionally masculine and traditionally
feminine kinds of play.

PERSONALITY and PLAY
Play is open to unlimited forms of expression
and is subject to a wide range of influence.
Children in the same situation and at the same
level of cognitive maturity play differently as
they attempt to make sense of their worlds and
as they grapple with internal psychological
conflicts and states. Children express their
idiosyncratic preferences and unique
personalities in their play.
Object VS People Orientation

Jennings (1975) investigated the
relationship between preschoolers
cognitive abilities and object-versus-social
orientation. He found a significant
difference in childrens abilities to perform
cognitive tasks involving physical
manipulations of materials.
Children who spent more time playing with
objects performed better on tests
requiring organization and clasification of
physical materials.
Cognitive Style
Cognitive style refers to individual variations in
ways of responding to a cognitive task.
The child who is more field-independent has an
easier time finding a simple figure within a
complex design
The field-dependent child apparently gets
distracted by elements in the total design and
often cannot find the hidden figure.
Coates, Lord, and Jakabovics (1975) found that
children who were more field independent
sought out objects to play with, while field-
dependent children were more people oriented.

Playfulness
Playfulness, according to Lieberman
(1977), can be understood in terms of five
traits. She found that playfulness was
correlated with divergen thinking scores,
mental age, and chronological age.
Truhon (1979, 1982) has argued that
there appear to be two aspects of
playfulness. One aspect is a cognitive
component that may lead to creativity and
to the understanding of a joke. Other
aspect is the affective component, which is
seen in the joy of play and the laughter in
a joke.
TRAITS MANIFESTATION
Manifest joy Laughter, expressions of happiness
and enjoyment
Sense of humor Appreciation of comical events,
recognition of funny situations,
gentle teasing
Physical spontaneity Exuberant, coordinated movement
of the whole body or parts of the
body
Cognitive spontaneity Imagination, creativity, and
flexibility of thought
Social spontaneity Ability to get along with others and
to move in and out of groups.
SOURCE: Based on Lieberman (1977).
Fantasy-making Predisposition
Children high in fantasy-making abilities
display higher levels of imaginativeness,
positive affect, concentration, social
interaction, and cooperation during free
play than children with low fantasy-
making tendencies.
High fantasy is associated with the
ability to control impulses and delay
gratification (Singer, 1961).
Imaginative Play Styles
Symbolic play is defined as the ability to
represent actual or imagined experience
through the use of small objects, motions
and language (Wolf&Gardner,1979).
Objects-independent fantasy play, in
which the child creates imaginary world by
invoking nonexistent events, roles, and
props
Object-dependent transformational play, in
which the child creates an imaginary world
by ably transforming existing objects and
arrangementa in the environment.
Imaginative elements were defined as
vocal or gestural schemes through which
a child altered the pragmatic or actual
constituents of the ongoing situation
Object-dependent children constructed
arrangements or patterns with objects and
substituted items where actions required
props.
Object-independent children evoked
nonexistent elements, often incorporating
actual events and object, but in
nonappropriate and far-fetched
substitutions.
ENVIRONMENTAL
FACTORS AND
PERSONALITY
Home Factors
Smilansky (1968) & Singer (1973) -> anak
kecil tidak hanya membutuhkan lingkungan
rumah yang positif dan hubungan positif
dengan orang tua untuk bertumbuh dalam
permainan imaginatif, tapi juga menerima
modeling yang spesifik dan keberanian untuk
bertahan dalam make-believe play.
Barnett & Kleiber (1984) -> menemukan
perbedaan gender saat meneliti struktur
keluarga dan karakteristik latar belakang
orang tua sebagai variabel tambahan.




Pola asuh yang permisif dan kurangnya
kebersamaan keluarga dapat menjadi
faktor yang signifikan dalam
perkembangan kreativitas dalam masa
kanak-kanak.
Adult Roles
Pandangan umum menyetujui bahwa sama seperti orang
dewasa mempengaruhi perkembangan kepribadian anak secara
umum, mereka juga dapat mempengaruhi atau mengubah cara
bermain anak atau cara anak mengekspresikan diri dalam
bermain secara signifikan.
Dalam bermain anak-anak perlu dikontrol agar aktivitas menjadi
lebih menyenangkan dan bermanfaat. Permainan yang bersifat
menyangkut kekuasaan, pengkontrolan dan otonomi terlalu
integral untuk dimainkan dan kurang baik bagi perkembangan
anak dan bisa menjadi faktor yang mengacaukan orang dewasa
saat ingin menyaring atau menyisihkan gaya bermain tertentu.
GENDER AT PLAY
Peneliti menemukan bahwa
pengelompokan gender paling terlihat
dalam dominasi peer group terutama
pada setting publik seperti tempat
bermain di sekolah.

Children At Play
Berikut ini adalah beberapa isu yang
muncul saat anak-anak bermain :
1. Fun > anak bersenang-senang
2. Physicality -> bermain yang
menggunakan kekuatan
3. In relationship -> hubungan antar
teman terjalin
4. Conformity -> mengikut arus
Girls with Girls
Intragender variation
Girls walk and talk
Girls dyad
Girls create a circle
Groups based in shared interest
Membership in girls groups
Girls assert their power
Girls leaders
Girls and negative leadership
Girls alone
Boys with Boys
Physicality in motion
Boys in relationship
Entering boys groups
Boys show their power
Doing Gender On The
Playground
Language
Apparel
Choice of playmates
Roleplaying
Borderwork
Definisi : perilaku yang memperkuat batasan
atau perbedaan antara anak laki-laki dan
anak perempuan.
Isu yang sering muncul :
Boys VS girls contests
Gendered chasing
Invasions
Exclusions on basis of gender
Troupes
Gender meaning in flux
Tujuan :
Light-hearted
Aggressive
Sexual / romantic
Challenges To Traditional
Gender Roles
Asumsi tradisional mengenai gender beranggapan
bahwa terdapat perbedaan antara masculinity dan
femininity, dimana masculinity dianggap sebagai
karakter yang independen, agresif, dan jarang
menggunakan perasaan. Sementara femininity
dianggap sebagai karakter yang berfokus pada
hubungan, kepedulian dan menjadi emosional.
Namun ternyata terbukti bahwa terdapat tipe-tipe
anak perempuan yang bisa bergabung dalam
permainan anak laki-laki atau sebaliknya.
Girls with mostly boys
Tipe anak perempuan yang lebih sering bermain
atau menghabiskan waktu bersama teman laki-laki,
mereka biasanya anak perempuan yang suka dan bisa
olahraga atau permainan fisik lainnya.
Boys with mostly girls
Tipe anak laki-laki seperti ini biasa diterima untuk
bermain bersama anak-anak perempuan, namun anak
perempuan tidak terlalu mengharapkan kehadiran anak
laki-laki dalam permainan mereka. Ada 2 kemungkinan
alasan mengapa anak laki-laki tersebut ikut bermain
bersama anak perempuan, yaitu
(a) anak lak-laki yang memang ingin ikut bermain karen
a bisa atau suka dengan permainannya
(b) anak-anak laki-laki itu ikut ermain hanya untuk
mengganggu jalannya permainan.