Social Learning Theory Gender

Social Learning Theory of Gender Role Development

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.

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.

Culture and Gender

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.

In other cultures, gender is expressed in different ways.

Mead’s research shows that there are differences in gender across cultures, supporting the idea that gender is learned rather than innate.

Bandura: Social Learning Theory of Gender

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.

Bandura went on and described five processes that took part when gender was developed through social learning:

1. Observation: For social learning to occur, the behaviour must be observed.
2. Attention: Then, the individual needs to pay attention to his/her role model's behaviour.
3. Retention: Then, the individual would need to encode and retain the gender-appropriate behaviour.
4. Reproduction: The individual would need to replicate gender-appropriate behaviour.
5. Motivation: Lastly, some kind of reinforcement would need to take place for the individual to be motivated to continue the behaviour.

Social Learning Theory Examples

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.

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.

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.

Social Learning Theory of Gender Development Evaluation

Let’s take a look at some strengths and weaknesses of social learning theory and how well it explains gender.

Strengths of SLT

First, let's explore the strengths of Social Learning theory.

• Rubin et al. (1974) examined how parents describe their newborn babies. They studied thirty pairs of primiparous parents, interviewing them within the first 24 hours postpartum. Results show, despite little differences in appearance or weight, parents often described daughters as little, soft, and beautiful and sons as strong and firm, with fathers doing this more so than mothers.
• Williams (1986) found that in a town where television had just been introduced, compared to a control, children showed different behaviours, including more gender-stereotyped behaviours two years later. This suggests that the models and advertisements on the television programs the children watched may have influenced their gender expression.
• Perry and Bussy (1979) showed film clips of children choosing different fruits for boys and girls aged eight and nine. When they were asked to choose a fruit themselves, children often imitated the choice of their same-sex model. This replicates Bandura's findings which support the social learning theory.

Criticism of Social Learning Theory of Gender

As with any other theory or approach, this explanation of gender development is not exempt from criticism.

Weaknesses of SLT

• Many of the studies researching SLT were conducted in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The newest of these studies is still around 40 years old. This means that they may not apply to modern-day gender roles. We can call this having low temporal validity.
• SLT does not explain how children from single-parent or same-sex-parent homes still have stable gender identities that are consistent with those from heterosexual-parent families, despite potentially not having a same-sex role model.
• Smith and Daglish (1977) found that, despite parents having a stereotypical way of viewing gender roles, there was no correlation between their views and their children performing gender-conforming behaviours.