Gender is a complex phenomenon within humans and goes beyond the biological nuances of sex. We can differentiate, then, between gender and sex. Gender, many say, is a societal expectation rather than an innate behaviour in humans, whilst others suggest gender is innate. What does it mean to male? Does this differ intrinsically from being female? If so, who decides what is male behaviour and female behaviour? The social learning theory of gender explores the origins and development of gender.
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Sign up for freeCan the social learning theory explain the gender development of children with single parents or same-sex parents?
Is the following statement true or false? One of the main strengths of the social learning approach is that research is very recent.
Can the social learning theory explain gender development?
Who proposed the Social Learning Theory?
Can siblings be role models?
According to the Social Learning Theory, gender develops though ___ reinforcement.
Is the following statement true or false? Influential models on TV in gender-specific advertisements will likely affect a child’s personal choices and behaviours.
What type of role models are children more likely to copy?
Can the social learning theory explain the gender development of children with single parents or same-sex parents?
Is the following statement true or false? One of the main strengths of the social learning approach is that research is very recent.
Can the social learning theory explain gender development?
Who proposed the Social Learning Theory?
Can siblings be role models?
According to the Social Learning Theory, gender develops though ___ reinforcement.
Is the following statement true or false? Influential models on TV in gender-specific advertisements will likely affect a child’s personal choices and behaviours.
What type of role models are children more likely to copy?
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Social learning theory (SLT) explains behaviour through observation and copying. Humans are social beings; we pick up certain behaviours from those around us. Naturally, if men and women behave differently, we may pick up these behaviours depending on our own sex.
We observe them behaving in particular ways and copy their behaviours.
A child may exhibit gender-specific behaviours due to copying role models of the same sex, such as their older siblings.
Generally speaking, gender refers to a person's sense of their biological sex and its expression, including male, female and many other gender identities. SLT explains how social norms augment the expression of male- and female-like characteristics through behaviour.
Learning can take place passively or actively.
Passive learning occurs through observing the behaviour of a person of the same gender. Active learning involved reinforcement, negative or positive. Positive reinforcement occurs through giving rewards when the person behaves in a way that fits their ascribed gender, and negative reinforcement occurs through punishing non-gender conforming behaviours.
A parent may praise their son for not crying when upset, as 'boys don't cry'. The son will then try not to cry the next time they fall down. This is active reinforcement.
The younger brother, witnessing the situation, will aim not to cry the next time he falls down and hurts himself, also, which is an example of passive reinforcement.
Using our knowledge of SLT, we can understand how the culture we grow up in can have an influence on our gender expression.
In the Western world, we typically see gender in binary terms: male or female (although this is changing in modern times). Children in these cultures tend to develop very rigid ideas about gender and will often exhibit very similar gendered behaviours.
A child from a culture like this may experience negative reinforcement when they imitate behaviours that do not match their gender and are likely only to internalise gender-specific behaviours.
In other cultures, gender is expressed in different ways.
For example, in a study by Margaret Mead (1935), she discovered that in different tribes in Papua New Guinea, gender roles varied greatly. In the Arapesh tribe, both men and women exhibited similar behaviours. However, in the Tchambuli tribe, women showed dominant and violent behaviours, whilst men showed dependent behaviours.
Mead’s research shows that there are differences in gender across cultures, supporting the idea that gender is learned rather than innate.
SLT can also help to explain how the media we consume affects gender expression. In Bandura’s 1963 variation of the Bobo doll study, the children watched videos of models interacting with Bobo rather than seeing them in person, producing very similar results to the original study.
This suggests that media can have an effect on behaviour.
Bandura went on and described five processes that took part when gender was developed through social learning:
For example, a young pair of male and female siblings go to Disneyland and see a real-life version of Beauty and the Beast.
As they see the characters, their attention is shifted to their behaviour. The beast has a male connotation, although it is a mythological figure, and presents stereotypical male behaviours of protection towards Belle, the beauty. Belle is well-mannered and behaves in stereotypically feminine ways. The children observe the behaviours and retain them.
Later in the day, the brother reproduces the beast's behaviour and protects his sister. The parents, in turn, reward the behaviour with verbal positive feedback. After such an event, the brother is more likely to show more male-like gender characteristics and thus develop a male identity, according to Bandura's theory.
The application of the social learning theory in the development of gender can easily be exemplified in how humans engage with social media and when individuals watch movies or TV series.
An example could be children’s cartoons. If a young girl watches a cartoon in which a female character that she likes acts a certain way, she is likely to imitate that behaviour. This could result in her internalising feminine behaviours that the character displays, which then become part of her gender expression.
Cartoons may also portray genders in certain ways. If a young boy watches cartoons where men are stereotypically strong, play the hero, and never cry, the young boy may believe that is the way boys are supposed to be. They may also believe women are meant to play the damsel in distress, if cartoons use said tropes.
Humans are also influenced by advertising. Examples can be seen in toy marketing: Barbies are for girls, as well as pink scooters, pink bikes and dollhouses. The toys advertised for boys are soldiers, guns and cars, and dark colours, often blue.
Advertisements such as these can influence gender development as they portray a certain way that boys and girls should be.
Research has shown that the media's portrayal of gender can reinforce a child’s idea of gender stereotypes. Children tend to pay attention to those of the same gender/sex and imitate their behaviours later.
After performing these behaviours around other people, how others react (through punishment or reward) further reinforces or discourages these gender-coded behaviours.
Influential models on TV, for instance, in gender-specific advertisements, will likely affect a child’s personal choices and behaviours.
Let’s take a look at some strengths and weaknesses of social learning theory and how well it explains gender.
First, let's explore the strengths of Social Learning theory.
As with any other theory or approach, this explanation of gender development is not exempt from criticism.
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What is social learning theory?
Social Learning Theory (SLT) is a psychological approach that combines both behaviourist and cognitive concepts, originally proposed by Albert Bandura. SLT suggests that we learn our behaviours from the people around us by observing and imitating them. Then, based on what kind of reinforcement we receive, we may internalise that behaviour.
How does social learning theory account for gender role development?
Social learning theory suggests that we learn our behaviours from the people around us by observing and imitating them. Behaviour can also be reinforced through negative or positive engagement.
What is Bandura's social learning theory of gender?
Social learning theory suggests that we learn our behaviours from the people around us, by observing and imitating them.
What are the five principles of social learning theory?
The five principles of social learning theory are observation (seeing a behaviour), attention (how much we notice the behaviour), retention (how well we remember the behaviour), reproduction (whether or not we repeat the behaviour), and motivation (our drive to imitate the behaviour).
What does the social learning theory say about gender?
The social learning theory argues that we learn gender roles from imitating people around us, which we call models. By imitating and receiving reinforcement, we internalise new behaviours and gender roles.
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