GENDER - SOCIAL LEARNING EXPLANATION

SLT - all behaviour (including gender) is learned from observing others - nurture shapes gender development

  • significant others - e.g. peers/teachers

Direct Reinforcement

  • Behaviour is more likely to be reinforced if behaviour is gender appropriate - more likely to be rewarded for gender appropriate behaviour
  • e.g. boys encouraged to engage in rough + tumble play - will be rewarded for this behaviour because it is what boys should do
  • More likely to be punished for gender inappropriate behaviour - e.g. boys playing with dolls
  • Reinforced behaviours = repeated
  • Punished behaviours = not repeated
  • Through reinforcement, children learn their gender identity

Differential Reinforcement

  • Encouraged to show distinct gender appropriate behaviour
  • Boys + girls are encouraged to show different behaviours

Indirect (vicarious reinforcement)

  • Observing the consequences of another persons behaviours
  • if the individual if rewarded = behaviour is more likely to be imitated
  • E.g. little girl hears her mum being complimented for wearing makeup + a pretty dress = girl will copy this when she is able
  • Little boy sees a classmate being called 'sissy' for being feminine = learns not to copy this behaviour

Identification + Modelling

  • Identification - More likely to imitate those who are like us/we can identify with
  • Role models - parents, peers, teachers - Usually high status, attractive, same sex as the child
  • Modelling - demonstration of behaviour - e.g. mother models stereotypical cleaning/tidying behaviour
  • Little girl copies her mother by setting the table or 'feeding' her doll - she is modelling the behaviour she witnessed

Mediational processes

  • Attention - Little boy pays close attention and watches his favourite premier league player, he wants to emulate him
  • Retention - remembers the skills he did on the pitch + tried to reproduce these
  • Motivation - motivated to be like his hero
  • Motor Reproduction - is he capable of psychically performing the skill

Supporting Evidence - Smith + Lloyd

  • Observed mothers playing with an infant who was either presented as a boy (in terms of name + clothing) or as a girl - e.g. a baby boy dressed up as a girl + present them to a mother
  • The mothers selected gender appropriate toys + also showed increases motor activity when the child was presented as a boy
  • This shows us that gender appropriate behaviour is stamped from an early age

Supporting Evidence - Perry + Bussey

  • Showed film clips to children aged 8-9
  • In the film, boys were seen as either selecting an apple or a pear - aka both gender neutral items
  • Later the children were given the choice of fruit
  • Boys selected the fruit they had seen another boy selecting + the same happened with the girls
  • This shows how social learning occurs from peers + how gender roles may be reinforced through vicarious reinforcement

Reductionist Theory

  • Ignores the role of biology
  • Case study of David Reimer shows the power of biology - you cannot socialise a child to be masculine/feminine - supports the influence of testosterone on gender development as it show's David's brain development was influenced by the presence of this hormone + its effect on gender identity was stronger than the influence of social factors - he went back to being a boy after he found out his penis was cut off during surgery and had been raised as a girl in his teens

Cultural Bias

  • All studies conducted in the West, even the studies to support it = western
  • If we were to conduct it in other cultures, would we get the same results?
  • This questions the validity of the theory, because if the supporting studies lack validity, then the overall theory lacks validity