social learning explanations

• • Differential reinforcement- boys and girls are rewarded for showing different behaviours e.g- boys praised for being confident, girls are punished for the same behaviour
• Vicarious reinforcement/punishment- child sees a role model or someone else being rewarded or punished for a gendered behaviour, helping them to know whether or not they should replicate it
• • Direct reinforcement/punishment
  • child's gendered behaviour is directly rewarded or punished by another person, facing the consequences of their own behaviour
• • Mediational processes- attention (is the child paying attention to the behaviour that the role model is presenting) , retention (has the child remembered the behaviour they observed) , motivation (does the child want to replicate this behaviour), motor reproduction. 
• Social learning theory:

  • Believes gender is a social construct
  • Gendered behaviours are learned/taught from a young age
• Identification and role models

  • child chooses a role model from their environment who they are similar to, such as a boy choosing another boy as a role model to identify with
• supportive evidence - Smith & Lloyd: babies ages 4-6 months who were dressed in boys clothes half the time and girls clothes the other half of the time. When interacting with adults, when the babies dressed in boys clothes were more likely to be given hammer shaped rattle and encouraged to be adventurous. When babies were dressed in girls clothes they were more likely to be reinforced for passive behaviours and were given dolls to play with

  Suggests that gender appropriate behaviour is stamped at an early age through differential reinforcement
• Social learning theory:

  • Believes gender is a social construct
  • Gendered behaviours are learned/taught from a young age
• social learning theory of gender development is environmentally determinist, ignoring the influence of free will on our gendered behaviours