It is essential to consider cognitive development theory, the belief that a child’s mind matures through interaction within his/her surrounding environment when viewing Boyhood Young children are described to see patterns in objects and events of the world and then attempting to organize those patterns to explain the world. An example of this can be found in the beginning of the movie when Mason is six years old and his mother picks him up from school Mason tells her that he had figured out where wasps came from and proceeds to explain to his mother that he believes if an individual were to flick water in the air “just right it would turn into a wasp.” In compliance, this theory helps explain children’s tendencies to play with peers of the same sex, Soon after Mason is home, he meets up with another male friend to spray paint graffiti on the wall and look at lingerie catalogs together.
By this age, Mason is aware of anatomical gender differences, whereas younger children would have differentiated gender by the color of their clothing. A criticism of cognitive-development is that it can overemphasize gender learning as something children must learn on their own and diminishes the role that culture plays with gender socialization. As Mason is with his father and sister at the bowling alley, his sister scores a strike but he continually rolls balls in the gutter and feels ashamed if not embarrassed, and justifies his actions because the bumpers on the side would have been helpful. Another example is shortly after when his father brings them home and he shows him his collections but feels belittled when his sister talks about her accomplishments in basketball. What Mason sees as a hobby that would be solely for boys is challenged by a physical activity that does not define one gender.
