social learning explanation of gender development

• SLT acknowledges the role of social context in gender development. Gender behaviour is learned from observing others and being reinforced for the imitation of the behaviour. SLT draws attention to the influence of the environment in shaping gender development. Influences can include peers, parents, teachers, culture and the media
• boys may be praised for being active and assertive and punished for being gentle or passive. Therefore, girls and boys are reinforced for different behaviours which they then reproduce
• modelling in gender development occurs in 2 ways:

  • a mother may model stereotypically feminine behaviour when tidying the house or preparing dinner
  • when a girls copies her mother setting the table or attempts to feed her doll using a toy bottle, she is modelling the behaviour she has observed
• the 4 mediational processes in learning gender behaviour are:

  • attention- for instance a little boy may watch the behaviour of his favourite footballer
  • retention- remembering the behaviour and skills of the footballer
  • motor reproduction- being able to do the skills or behaviour
  • motivation- desire to be like his hero
• One strength is supporting evidence for differential reinforcement. Researches observed adults with babies ages 4-6 months who were dressed half the time in boys clothes and half the time in girls clothes. Babies assumed to be boys were encouraged to be adventurous and active and given a hammer shaped rattle. Babies assumed to be girls were reinforced for passivity, given a doll and praised for being pretty. This suggests that gender appropriate behaviour is stamped in at an early stage through differential reinforcement and supports SLT explanation of gender development
• One strength is that SLT can explain cultural changes. There is more androgyny in many societies today than there was in 1950. This shift in social expectations and cultural norms means new forms of gender behaviour are unlikely to be punished and may be reinforced. This shows that social learning not biology can better explain gender behaviour
• One limitation is that SLT doesn’t explain the developmental process. The implication of SLT is that modelling of gender appropriate behaviour can occur at any age. It’s illogical that children who are 2 learn in the same way as children who are 9. This shows that influence of age and maturation on learning gender concepts is not considering by SLT