Social Learning Theory Flashcards
What is social learning theory?
Regards gender identity and role as a set of behaviours that are learned from the environment
What is the main way that gender behaviours are learned?
Through the process of observational learning, children observe the people around them behaving in in various ways
What do children do?
They pay attention to some of these people (models) and encode their behaviour. They may imitate the behaviour they have observed, they may do this regardless of whether the behaviour is gender appropriate
When is the child more likely to imitate these role models?
If they are perceived as similar to themsleves, therefore it is more likely to imitate behaviour modelled by people of the same sex as them
How will the people around the child respond to the behaviours?
With either reinforcement or punishment, it is likely that the child will be reinforced for acting in gender appropriate ways and punished or ignored for gender inappropriate behaviour
What is vicarious reinforcement?
The child will observe the consequences of other people’s behaviours and will be motivated to imitate the behaviour if it was reinforced and avoid it if punished
What do socialising agents do?
Model examples of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour and also the consequences of conforming or not conforming to gender norms
What do social learning theorists generally argue?
That gender identity is learned through observation and reinforcement from a number of sources e.g. parents, peers, media, school and culture
What are the 4 stages of imitation?
- Attention
- Retention
- Reproduction
- Motivation
What is attention?
The extent to which we notice the observed behaviour
What is retention?
Our ability to remember and store a particular behaviour
What is reproduction?
Try out the behaviour and needing to believe that you are capable of copying the behaviour
What is motivation?
There needs to be a reason to repeat the behaviour, either be wise it’s someone that you admire or because the modelled behaviour was rewarded in some way
What is direct reinforcement?
Praise or punishment to you directly
What is indirect reinforcement?
Praise or punishment to SOMEONE ELSE indirectly
What does the social learning theory believe?
That gender roles are developed because boys and girls are treated differently by their parents, adults are known to treat babies differently depending on if they perceive them to be boys for girls
What do parents use to encourage gender appropriate behaviour?
Rewards and punishments, they encourage feminine behaviour in their daughters and masculine behaviour in their sons
What did Fagot et al do?
Compared 27 egalitarian families with 42 traditional families in order to measure the effects of parenting style and children’s later gender roles
What was Fagot’s procedure?
- Interviewed the parents when their child was 18 months old and then observed them play with the toddler at 28 and 48 months
- When children reached 4 years old they were given a variety of gender labelling tasks
What did Fagot find?
Children in traditional families tended to use gender labels earlier and showed more gender role stereotyping
What are 3 evaluation points?
- Explains changing gender roles in Western society
- Not a developmental theory
- Age limitations
