Social learning explanation of gender development

Question 1

Direct reinforcement

Answer 1

Child repeats gender behaviours that are rewarded and avoids those that are punished
- e.g A boy climbing trees may be rewarded with praise but a girl climbing a tree may be punished as it is dangerous

Question 2

Indirect reinforcement

Answer 2

Child observes consequences of gender behaviour, imitates those with favourable outcomes and avoids those that are punished
- e.g if a boy sees another boy being praised for climbing a tree he will want to go and imitate him

Question 3

Identification and modelling

Answer 3

• Child attaches to role models and imitates their behaviour - role model could be live or symbolic - role model is usually the same gender as the child
• e.g a boy wants to be like batman whereas a girl wants to be like a disney princess

Question 4

Mediational processes

Answer 4

1) Attention - A boy wants to be like David Beckham so pays close attention to how he plays
2) Retention - The boy remembers David Beckham’s skills and tries to reproduce these
3) Motivation - The desire to want to repeat the behaviour comes from wanting to be like his hero
4) Motor reproduction - The boy must be physically capable of doing it

Question 5

Social learning - evaluation - strength

Answer 5

• Research support
• Babies aged 4-6 months - dressed half the time in boys clothes and other half in girls clothes
• When interacting with adults - babies assumed to be a boy were given boyish toys and vice versa
• Suggests gender-appropriate behaviour is stamped at an early age through reinforcement

Question 6

Social learning - evaluation - limitation

Answer 6

• No developmental sequence
• Doesn’t give explanation of how learning processes change with age
• General idea of social learning is that modelling of gender-appropriate behaviour can occur at any age
• Seems illogical that children aged 2 learn in the same way as children aged 9
• Conflicts Kohlberg’s theory
• Suggests influence of age and maturation isn’t a factor considered in social learning