Culture and media

• Outline social explanations


  Social explanations explain how we learn to display behaviour associated with a gender due to observational learning and imitation of models e.g. peers and parents of the same gender who we identify with. When the models are praised for their behaviour, we are vicariously reinforced, meaning we are more likely to display that behaviour. When we then display this behaviour we get directly reinforced, helping to maintain the gender appropriate behaviours. Eventually the attitudes and behaviours of these models become internalised, meaning that we believe these gender appropriate behaviours are the correct way to behave.
• What are the strengths of social explanations

  perry and bussey 1979 showed a group of boys and girls aged around 9 a film of a male and female model choosing from a selection of items e.g. an apple and banana. When the children were in the same situation they picked the same object that was chosen by their same-gender model. This supports the idea of identification with models of the same gender and observational learning of gender appropriate behaviour.

  
  

  fagot and leinbach conducted a longitudinal study investigating how similar children's behaviour was to that of their shared gender parents between the age of 18 months to 4 years. They found a positive correlation, supporting the idea that children learn to immitate gender roles from their parents. However, this could also be influenced by inherited genetics, supporting a biological approach.
• What are the weaknesses of social explanations?

  martin et al 1995 showed 91 children aged 4-6 a series of items ranging from fun toys to everyday appliances, and told them which were liked by girls and which were liked by boys. When asking the children which items they liked it was found that the participants preferred the items that they were told their corresponding gender preferred, despite how exciting the object was. Suggesting that gender approximate behaviour is influenced by direct instructions about what is "for boys and girls" instead of imitating the behaviour of same gender models.

  
  

  Another weakness of the social explanations to gender development is that expectations of what is masculine or feminine behaviour changes i.e. the social norms change. Although social learning theory can explain how we begin to follow social norms that already exist, but it fails to explain how new social norms are created as there is no one to imitate the behaviour from.
• Outline medial influences on gender

  Observational learning of gender appropriate behaviours can be influenced by the media e.g. TV, books, and social platforms, where men and women are often portrayed in very stereotypical ways.

  
  

  Similarly to social learning theory, when the models are praised for their behaviour, we are vicariously reinforced, meaning we are more likely to display that behaviour, and when we see those being punished for not behaving accordingly for their gender we are also reinforced. When we then display the behaviour similarly to the models we get directly reinforced, helping to maintain the gender appropriate behaviours. Eventually the attitudes and behaviours of these models become internalised, meaning that we believe these gender appropriate behaviours are the correct way to behave.
• What are the strengths of medial influences on gender

  Supporting research - McGhee and Freuh

  
  

  Supporting research - Williams
• Elaborate on McGhee and freuh as a strength of medial influences on gender?

  The main strength of this research comes from supporting studies. McGhee and Freuh 1980 studied two groups of children aged between 6 and 13, one group being heavy viewers of TV and the other light viewers. After being read short stories of imaginary people, the children had to decide wether they were portraying men or women. Results showed that children who were heavy TV viewers held stronger stereotypes about gender
• Elaborate on Williams as a strength of medial influences on gender


  Additionally, Williams 1986 studied an isolated Canadian town named Notel with no TV signal and found that there gender stereotypes were weaker than those in towns with TV signals i.e. access to the media. 2 years later, once Notel had gained access to TV, it was measured that there gender stereotypes were stronger than before. Suggesting that watching TV strengthens gender stereotypes in children.
• What are the weaknesses of medial influences on gender?

  Research comes from natural experiments

  
  

  No control group due to modern day society
• Elaborate on natural experiments as a weakness for medial influences on gender

  However most of these studies are natural experiments, meaning that participants cannot be randomly allocated to groups and that extraneous variables are difficult to control. For example participant variables such as how traditional a family are or the community they live in which could effect both time spent watching TV and views on approximate gender behaviour. This means a cause and effect relationship is difficult to establish questioning the internal validity of the experiment an its findings.
• Elaborate on no control as a weakness for medial influences on gender


  Additionally, due to modern technology and society, such a high proportion of children have access to the media, meaning there is no control group to compare the results to, reducing the validity of the findings.
• Outline cultural influences on gender

  One explanation of the origin of gender stereotypes is culture. Different cultures have different social roles and expectation of behaviour which get passed down through generation e.g. in Scandinavian countries men are expected to take on more childcare responsibilities whereas in European countries this is seen as a female role.
• What are the strengths of cultural influences on gender

  One strength of research into cultural influences on gender development is the supporting research. Mead et al 1935 studied 3 different tribes in Papa New Guinea that had different cultures and traditions. They observed behaviour and interviewed the men and women in the tribes to see if the behaviour were similar across tribes. Results showed that each tribe had different gender roles, suggesting that gender is influenced by culture.
• What are the weaknesses of cultural influences on gender

  Investigator effects in interviews

  
  

  Ethnocentrism

  
  

  Contradicting evidence
• Elaborate on investigator effects as a weakness for cultural influences on gender

  However, interviews with participants can hold investigator effects if the participants answers were influenced by the presence of the interviewer e.g. they mights provide answers that they thought the interviewer would want to hear, responding to demand characteristics. Or there could have been language barriers between the two.
• Elaborate on ethnocentrism as a weakness of cultural influences on gender


  Additionally, because Mead was a weastern researcher but the tribes were not, ethnocentrism could be an issue, where the researchers interpret observations in the perspective of their own norms not taking into account cultural relativism, potentially invalidating the research.

  
  

  From this we can see that it is possible that culture has less of an influence on gender than we thought.
• Elaborate on contradicting evidence as a weakness of cultural influences on gender


  This idea was supported in 1990 as Williams and best looked at male and female behaviours across 26 different countries. Asking participants to look at 300 words describing either behaviours and characteristics e.g. dominant, adaptable, and active, asking weather they are associated with men or women. Results showed that there were more similarities than differences between the countries, suggesting that the influence of culture on gender roles is week and there must be other influencing factors like biological factors.