Answer to Question 1
Gender intensification is the tendency to magnify sex differences and promote adherence to traditional gender roles. It tends to occur in early adolescence. Why might gender intensification occur? Parental influence is one contributor: as children enter adolescence, mothers become more involved in joint activities with daughters and fathers more involved with sons (Crouter, Manke, & McHale, 1995)especially in families with both sons and daughters, in which each parent may take primary responsibility for properly socializing children of his or her own sex (McHale & Crouter, 2003; Shanahan et al., 2007). However, peer influences may be even more important. Adolescents increasingly find that they must conform to traditional gender norms in order to succeed in the dating scene. A girl who was a tomboy and thought nothing of it may find during adolescence that she must dress and behave in more feminine ways to attract boys, and a boy may find that he is more popular if he projects a more sharply masculine image (Burn, O'Neil, & Nederend, 1996; Katz, 1979). Social pressures on adolescents to conform to traditional roles may even help explain why sex differences in cognitive abilities sometimes become more noticeable as children enter adolescence (Hill & Lynch, 1983; Roberts et al., 1990). Later in high school, teenagers become more comfortable with their identities as young men or women and more flexible once again in their thinking about gender (Urberg, 1979). Nevertheless, even adults may remain highly intolerant of males who blatantly disregard gender-role prescriptions (Levy, Taylor, & Gelman, 1995).
Answer to Question 2
B