set linked to gender development

• Social Learning Theory


  Suggests that males and females develop different gender identities because they identify with and imitate models of the same gender as them who they observe behaving in gender stereotyped ways
• How children learn gender behaviour

  1. Observe positive and negative consequences of behaviour of same-gender models (vicarious reinforcement)

  2. Imitate behaviour of models (imitation)

  3. Identify with models of same gender
• Vicarious reinforcement


  Contributes to child's decision to imitate behaviour
• Reward


  Makes a behaviour more likely to be imitated
• Punishment


  Makes a behaviour less likely to be imitated
• Identification with model


  Explains why people tend to copy models of the same gender as themselves
• Male and female role models tend to engage in quite different behaviours
• This helps to understand why there continues to be gender differences in behaviour
• Mediating processes


  Thoughts that occur prior to imitation that intervene between stimulus and response (attention, retention, motor reproduction, motivation)
• Gender differences in behaviour


  • Boys tend to want to play football more than girls
• How Social Learning Theory explains gender differences in football

  1. Young boys identify with and observe football players like Marcus Rashford playing football on TV (modelling)

  2. Footballers are rewarded for their footballing through money, fame, success, fan praise etc. (vicarious reinforcement)

  3. This makes boys want to play football when they are older (imitation)

  4. But they will only do this if they: pay attention to how the models play football, remember how to play football (retention), have the skills/ability to play football (motor reproduction), are motivated to be a good footballer
• Social Learning Theory


  A theory that children learn social behaviour by observing the behaviours of others
• Strength of Social Learning Theory

  • It is supported by Bandura's study
• Bandura's study


  1. Young boys and girls observed a video of a male or female adult model

  2. Half of the groups observed an aggressive model and the other half observed a non-aggressive model

  3. There was also a control group who were not exposed to the model
• Bandura found that children who had observed aggressive behaviour acted more aggressively and there was a greater level of imitation when the model was the same gender as the child
• Bandura concluded that children learn social behaviour by observing the behaviours of others and that this is most likely when the behaviour is modelled by someone of the same gender
• Strengths of Social Learning Theory

  • It is supported by Bandura's study
  • The results demonstrate how aggressive behaviour stems from the observation and imitation of role models of the same gender, as the theory suggests
  • It therefore follows that children are likely to also imitate other behaviour from models of the same gender which explains why males and females behave differently
• A limitation of the theory is that it favours the nurture side of the nature vs nurture debate
• Social Learning Theory


  Suggests that we learn gender specific behaviour through observation, vicarious reinforcement and imitation which are social/environmental factors
• This is a limitation as it takes a very one-sided, over-simplistic view of gender development and ignores any evidence to suggest other factors also contribute
• In Bandura's research, boys were more aggressive than girls which suggests that there is at least some biological component to gender
• The hormonal explanation of gender states that males are more aggressive than females because they produce more testosterone
• Bandura overlooked the biological component when analysing his result and creating his theory