social learning explanations

• Steps of SLT learning

  Observe, Modelling, Identification, Imitation, Reinforcement
• Observe

  To watch a demonstrated behaviour
• Modelling

  Demonstrating a behaviour Eg. Rooney playing football on TV
• Identification

  Seeing yourself like the role model; children generally identify more with same-sex role model. Eg. Little boys wants to be like Rooney
• Imitation

  Copy the behaviour Eg. boys joins football club & argues with players/refs
• Reinforcement

  Anything which increases the changes of the behaviour happening again; direct & vicarious reinforcement Eg. Direct- dad praises him for playing well, Vicarious - men's football on TV a lot so is seen in a positive way of society.
• Results of SLT

  Once a behaviour is reinforced it may then be carried out a number of times. This behaviour will then eventually become internalised. This then becomes part of the child's personality & will influence how they behaviour in the future. Eg. Dad watches son play football matches for the first 4 weeks.
• Factors which influence whether a person will become a role model

  This is the result of cognitive mediating factors such as:

  Attention, Retention, Reproduction, Motivation
• Attention


  Certain traits such as being same-sex role models, being attractive or having high status. So not all behaviours which are modelled to us are influential.
• Retention

  Involves whether the person actually remembers the behaviours being produced. More likely to remember the behaviours shown by the person of the same sex & race.
• Reproduction

  This involves whether the learner feels they can imitate the behaviour being modelled. Eg. boy may see male acrobat but the boy may not imitate as he doesn't think he can do those actions
• Motivation

  This relates to how the learner responds to reinforcement. How they've been responded to previously when they've done that behaviour & how they think people may react to them in the future.
• Support that children tend to identity & imitate same-sex role models: Perry & Bussey


  Lab experiment. Children observed 4 males picking an apple to eat & 4 females picking a banana to eat. Kids got to choose a piece of fruit - all boys picked apples & all girls picked bananas. However, lack mundane realism.
• Study to show that parents reinforce sex stereotypical behaviours: Fagot


  Naturalistic observation in family homes. 24 USA families with toddlers. Reinforced to behave in sex-stereotypical ways.
• Evaluation of social learning explanations - biological approach

  Gender is mainly due to nature - sex characteristics & hormones, not learned from observing & imitating role models. When parents try to raise their child in a non-sex stereotypical way they still seem to have a preference for sex stereotypical toys & activities which suggests that gender behaviour are innate and are not learned.
• Evaluation of social learning explanations - cognitive approach

  Cognitive theory argues that gender develops in 3 key stages. The cognitive developmental approach put forward by Kohlberg argues that identifying with same-sex role models only occurs after gender is fully acquired around the age of 6 yrs old once a child has gender constancy. However, cognitive schema theory would support the SLT idea that children identify with same sex role models as soon as they have gender identity which is around 2-3yrs of age.
• Psychodynamic approach & SLT agree

  A child develops their gender via the process of identification
• Psychodynamic approach & SLT agree

  Same-sex role models are important in a child's gender development
• Psychodynamic explanation

  A child can only develop their gender identity if they resolve Oedipus or Electra complexes
• SLT

  Anybody of the same-sex could become a role model & help a child to develop their gender
• SLT

  In order for a child to internalise a particular gender behaviour there needs to be some sort of reinforcement
• Psychodynamic (Freud)


  Children internalise their gender identity as a response to defence mechanism which are used to deal with the id wanting to possess the opposite-sex parent oppositely
• Mead cross-cultural study


  Supports social learning theory as it found that different cultures have different gender roles, implying they are learned behaviours
• Majority of social learning theory research is lab-based - kids get to watch same sex role models & then a chance to imitate away - so this is not realistic
• Social learning theory can't explain children who have atypical gender behaviours especially if parents are not modelling or reinforcing those types of behaviours
• Social learning theory fails to explain where gender stereotypes come from in the first place
• Gender stereotypes are generally similar across the world (William & Best) which supports nature rather than the social learning theory nurture explanation