Social Learning Theory
Describe and discuss the social learning theory of gender development - 10 marks
The social learning theory states that gender is effectively learned through others. It also states that there are no differences between males and females psychologically. This would lead to the fact that gender differences occur because of society and other factors such as culture and religion.
Firstly, the social learning theory states that individuals learn or develop behaviours through attention and retention. For example through attention the boy watches his dad playing rugby however through retention the boy may recall the things his dad does when fixing a car. This leads to the fact that an individual learns their gender from people in which are surrounding …show more content…
Reinforcement occurs when the behaviour rewarded by a positive outcome. For example a little girl may help her mum in the kitchen and her mum may praise her for this. The girl likes to be praised so will keep helping her mum in the kitchen. However, the outcomes in which occur after a behaviour is copied also influences whether that individual will imitate the behaviour. For example a little boy may see football on TV and see that after the match the contestant a male win a prize he will be more influenced to imitate the behaviour. On the other hand if this was a little girl she wouldn’t be influenced to imitate the behaviour because she might not identify with the model or prize. The little girl may also not imitate this behaviour because of sex-role stereotyping. Other factors in which she may not imitate this behaviour may be because she may think shell get punished for the behaviour since it may not be …show more content…
The cognitive approach would argue that gender develops in stages this defies the SLT’s view that gender is able to develop and change in any point of the individual’s life depending on their experiences. But the cognitive approach does agree that certain parts of gender are developed in the individual’s lifetime. The cognitive approach also does argue that imitation of same-sex role models happens after the gender is learned and developed.
Some biological explanations would question whether gender is really learnt. This is because they believe that a individuals gender is determined before birth and if gender identity is innate.
The psychodynamic approach goes against the SLT’s idea that gender development occurs in stages and accuses SLT of focusing too much on behaviour and ignoring the significance of the unconscious mind in gender development.
Furthermore, some critics are concerned that most of the evidence for SLT is mostly experimental. Most of the situations which are tested in laboratories have a rare chance of occurring in real life, so is there a point in using information from it. Also the participant would have a chance to imitate the modelled behaviour straight after observing it. This leads to the fact whether the results can be used to for the SLT approach in judging gender
The social learning theory states that gender is effectively learned through others. It also states that there are no differences between males and females psychologically. This would lead to the fact that gender differences occur because of society and other factors such as culture and religion.
Firstly, the social learning theory states that individuals learn or develop behaviours through attention and retention. For example through attention the boy watches his dad playing rugby however through retention the boy may recall the things his dad does when fixing a car. This leads to the fact that an individual learns their gender from people in which are surrounding …show more content…
Reinforcement occurs when the behaviour rewarded by a positive outcome. For example a little girl may help her mum in the kitchen and her mum may praise her for this. The girl likes to be praised so will keep helping her mum in the kitchen. However, the outcomes in which occur after a behaviour is copied also influences whether that individual will imitate the behaviour. For example a little boy may see football on TV and see that after the match the contestant a male win a prize he will be more influenced to imitate the behaviour. On the other hand if this was a little girl she wouldn’t be influenced to imitate the behaviour because she might not identify with the model or prize. The little girl may also not imitate this behaviour because of sex-role stereotyping. Other factors in which she may not imitate this behaviour may be because she may think shell get punished for the behaviour since it may not be …show more content…
The cognitive approach would argue that gender develops in stages this defies the SLT’s view that gender is able to develop and change in any point of the individual’s life depending on their experiences. But the cognitive approach does agree that certain parts of gender are developed in the individual’s lifetime. The cognitive approach also does argue that imitation of same-sex role models happens after the gender is learned and developed.
Some biological explanations would question whether gender is really learnt. This is because they believe that a individuals gender is determined before birth and if gender identity is innate.
The psychodynamic approach goes against the SLT’s idea that gender development occurs in stages and accuses SLT of focusing too much on behaviour and ignoring the significance of the unconscious mind in gender development.
Furthermore, some critics are concerned that most of the evidence for SLT is mostly experimental. Most of the situations which are tested in laboratories have a rare chance of occurring in real life, so is there a point in using information from it. Also the participant would have a chance to imitate the modelled behaviour straight after observing it. This leads to the fact whether the results can be used to for the SLT approach in judging gender