All three of the authors look into the role of the perceived gender of an infant and the gender of an adolescent on ratings of the infant.  To do so, thirty-six junior high students; eighteen boys and eighteen girls; will view a photo of a 3-month-old infant.  The students will receive a name for the infant or not.  The names that are received will either be Larry or Laurie.  The students will tan rate the infant on a scale of firm/soft, big/little, strong/weak, hardy/delicate, well coordinated/awkward, and beautiful/plain. The scale that will be used is 1-5.  For example, for big/little 1 would be big and little would be 5. The same scale was used for each pairing. It was predicted that both the name that was given to the infant and the students’ gender would affect the ratings.  The study was motivated by how sex-stereotyped perceptions of infants change during the time of adolescents.  Another prediction is that males and females will rate the infant differently regardless of the name given.  Lastly, it was predicted that the effect of the infants’ perceived gender depends on the adolescents’ gender.  If they find that the results are what they predicted than the generality of sex-stereotyped perceptions of infants will be extended to adolescents.  One limitation they find is the use of only one photograph of one infant of a specific age.  An interesting aspect of the study is that they expect to find girls to rate infants more beautiful than boys do.  I think that the study may find challenges in how the setting in the photo will affect the perceptions of the infant. 

Degelman , Douglas , Veronika Dvorak, and Julie Ann Homutoff. 2010. “Effect of Infant’s Perceived Gender on Adolescents’ Ratings of the Infant.” Vanguard University of Southern California. Accessed March 12, 2017. http:/www.vanguard.edu/psychology/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/proposal.pdf.