Social learning

• Social learning theory originates from the behavioural perspective and states that gender develops as a result of learning through interaction with exposure both directly and indirectly.

  Bandura believes that children learn gender roles from their parents, friends and family.

  He states children are most likely to identify with people similar to them or with high status.
• Children observe behaviour and imitate it by looking up to their role models and wanting to mirror their behaviour.

  New gender related behaviours can be acquired through direct reinforcement e.g if they’re positively reinforced or negatively reinforced.

  This forms a medial response that their behaviour leads to a positive consequence or a negative one being reinforced which leads to repetition of behaviour.
• Children can also learn through indirect reinforcement e.g vicarious reinforcement where they watch what happens to their role model when they show acceptable and unacceptable gender related behaviour.
• Gender is also dependent on cognitive processes:

  • attention - studies behaviour e.g boy closely studies fav footballer
  • retention - tries out skills, hold in long term e.g. tries same skill as footballer
  • reproduction - must be physically able to do behaviour e.g. Kicks ball
  • motivation - wants to copy stereotypical behaviour e.g. wants to be like role model
• If the gender related behaviour is repeated enough it becomes internalised as a part of the child’s identity and therefore SLT states gender is a social construct.
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  Research to support SLT comes from Smith and Lloyd as they found when 4 - 6 month old babies were dressed in either boy or girl clothes, the babies dressed in boys clothes were given boy appropriate toys and the babies dressed in girls clothes were given girl appropriate toys.

  The boys were encouraged to be active and adventurous and the girls were encouraged to be passive and told they were pretty.

  Therefore this shows gender appropriate behaviour is stamped in early age through differential reinforcement.
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  A strength of SLT is that it may have temporal validity at explaining the changing gender roles within Western society as there’s a less clear cut distinction now compared to the 50s.

  This is because views on gender roles are ever changing as shifts in social expectations and cultural norms are recognised.

  Nowadays, new forms of acceptable gender behaviour are being reinforced.

  There have been no change in biology so these changes are better explained by SLT and children observing their models in new environments.
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  The issues with SLT is that it doesn‘t provide an adequate explanation to the changes in the understanding of gender that occur with age e.g. there are some age limitations for motor reproduction as a mediational process which suggests some children may have the inability to perform behaviours if they are not physically or intellectually capable.

  The general implication is gender appropriate behaviour can occur at any age but a 2 year old wouldn’t be able to kick a football like a 5 year old would.

  This therefore suggests that the influence of age and maturation is not considered.