Final answer:
L'Meese's focus on gender to categorize all women as 'mommies' and all men as 'daddies' is an example of 'centration', a cognitive bias described by Piaget which occurs in the preoperational stage of development.
Step-by-step explanation:
The focus of L'Meese, a three-year-old, on a single attribute of a person's gender to determine their role as 'mommies' or 'daddies' is the result of centration. Centration is a term coined by Jean Piaget to describe the tendency of children in the preoperational stage of cognitive development to focus on one salient aspect of a situation and neglect others. It is associated with egocentrism, where children believe that everyone sees, thinks, and feels exactly as they do, but the specific term for L'Meese's behavior is centration.
Understanding the relation between gender and gender socialization, children learn and enforce gender roles from an early age, often through societal interactions and expectations. The process of gender socialization sees children adopting oversimplified views on what behaviors, attitudes, and roles are apt for males and females, which can lead to gender stereotyping. Even preschool environments, like the Egalia preschool in Sweden, are experimenting with gender-neutral approaches to avoid reinforcing societal gender norms in children.