social learning theory applied to gender development

• BANDURA proposes that gender is learnt through observing and imitating same-sex role mdoels
• Children select models whom they identify with and aspire to be like
• children are most likely to identify with people who are similar to themselves
• models can include parents, peers, and people in the media
• according to BANDURA, mediating cognitive factors occur between stimulus and response
• what are the 4 mediating factors according to BANDURA?

  1. Attention
  2. Retention
  3. Reproduction
  4. Motivation
• a major factor that impact on the child's motivation to repeat a gender behaviour that they have observed is vicarious reinforcement
• vicarious reinforcement means that the child observes the model being reinforced for their behaviour
• individuals learn about the likely consequences for an action observing a model and then adjust their behaviour accordingly (indirect learning)
• if the child imitates the behaviour and is directly reinforced for it, they will be more likely to repeat it in the future (direct learning)
• being rewarded makes it even more likely for the child to continue repeating the gender-related behaviour, strengthening and maintaining the behaviour
• BANDURA sees children as having an active role in their acquisition of gender-related behaviour
• once children have been exposed to environmental learning and internalise gender appropriate behaviours, they rely less on the environment of rewards and punishment and mor eon their own stability to direct their own behaviour
• BANDURA 1977 proposes that gender is learnt through observing and imitating same-sex role models
• children select role models whom they identify with and aspire to be like
• children are most likely to identify with people who are similar to themselves
• models can include parents, peers and people in media
• according to BANDURA mediating cognitive factors occurs between stimulus and response
• what are the 4 mediating cognitive factors according to BANDURA?

  • Attention
  • Retention
  • Motor Reproduction
  • Motivation
• what is attention as a mediating cognitive factor?

  a child pays attention to the model's gender behaviour
• what is retention as a mediating cognitive factor?

  they memorise the gender behaviour
• what is motor reproduction as a mediating cognitive factor?

  the believe the can reproduce the gender behaviour themselves
• what is motivation as a mediating cognitive factor?

  they want to repeat the gender behaviour
• a major factor that impact's a child's motivation to repeat a gender behaviour is that they've observed is vicarious reinforcement
• what is vicarious reinforcement in SLT?

  the child observes the model being reinforced for their behaviour (indirect learning)
• Individuals learn about the likely consequences for an action from observing a model and then adjust their behaviour accordingly
• if a child imitates the behaviour and is directly reinforced for it, they will be more likely to repeat it in the future (direct learning)
• being rewarded makes it even more likely for a child to continue repeating the gender-related behaviour, strengthening and maintaining the behaviour (reinforcement)
• BANDURA sees children as having an active role in their acquisition of gender-related behaviour

  • once they've been exposed to environmental learning and internalise gender appropriate behaviours, they rely less on the environment of rewards and punishment and more on their own ability to direct their own behaviour
• who were the participants in BANDURA'S bobo doll study?

  72 children (half each gender) aged 3-6 years old from Standford University Nursery School
• What was the IV in BANDURA's bobo doll study?

  the type of model the children were exposed to

  • aggressive
  • non-aggressive
  • no model (control)
• what was the DV in BANDURA's bobo doll study?

  level of aggression displayed by the children towards the bobo doll after observation of model
• what type of experimental design was used in BANDURA's bobo doll study and why?

  matched pairs was used. Children were matched in pre-existing levels of aggression to ensure that the differences in aggression were due to the experimental manipulation and not individual differences
• which behavioural categories were observed in BANDURA's bobo doll study?

  • physical aggression
  • verbal aggression
  • imitative aggression
  • non-imitative aggression
• how can the results of the study support SLT as an explanation for gender development?

  • it showed that children who observed the aggressive model were more likely to imitate the same behaviours compared to those who observed in the non-aggressive model or no model.

  this supports SLT as it demonstrates that children learn and imitate behaviours by observing others, especially when the model is of the same gender or perceived as a role model
• SLT predicts that gender is learnt through the socialisation process