Social Learning Theory of Gender by Bandura

4 Parts:

Studies and Research

Questions and Answers

Referencing this Article

Comments

The Social Learning Theory was proposed by Bandura as a way of explaining how children acquire their gender identity based on the influence of other people (particularly their parents).

Stages of Learning

There are four stages that a child goes through when develop gender behaviour. These are:

1. 1
   Attention

   .

   This is merely where the behaviour is noticed and observed.

   Advertisement

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
2. 2
   Memory

   .

   This is when the behaviour is memorized and committed to memory.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
3. 3
   Imitation

   .

   The behaviour is performed or 'reproduced' based on Imitating what they see around them.

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help
4. 4
   Motivation.Their behaviour is based on the desired consequences or what will be gained by the behaviour, either immediately or in the near future

   .

   This can be illustrated by the example of boys playing football (soccer for North Americans). A boy may see his friends playing the game (attention) and then memorize this. Later, at school, he joins in a game (imitation) and a teacher comments on how good he is (motivation).

   Was this step helpful? Yes | No| I need help

There are also some factors that will affect the chance of behaviour being modelled i.e. things that make someone more likely to copy what someone else is doing. The appropriateness of the behaviour. For example, Bandura (1961) found that males would imitate aggressiveness from another male, but not copy the behaviour if a female did it. In short, someone is more likely to imitate a behaviour they think they should perform. Also, there is relevance of the model to yourself. So a girl will be more likely to model someone with similar characteristics to her, like another female. And the same would be true for males.

The following is a pair of studies that appear to show that gender behaviour is learned socially. Both are pretty memorable so you won't have much difficulty recalling them in an exam situation.

Evaluation and Social Cognitive Theory

• The theory doesn't take into account how children of different ages will understand and interpret behaviour. For example, younger may think about a meal situations - how people eat, while older children learn about how the people interact.
• The Social Learning Theory only looks at specific behaviours, and doesn't look at general learning.
• And the final point is that the theory doesn't look at how the child itself feels about the particular behaviour (if you don't feel happy with it will it be copied?). And it's for this reason that Bandura later modified this theory to the Social Cognitive Theory.

A piece of research by Bandura and Bussey asked 3 & 4 year olds to explain how they felt about playing with particular toys. By 4, boys felt 'great' playing with trucks and robots and 'bad' playing with dolls. The reverse was true for girls. By this, they concluded that children learn to become uncomfortable with particular behaviours.

What is the social learning perspective on gender differences?

Can you please explain to me the theories we have on gender differences. I need other theories that best explains gender differences

'Sociologists' attribute differences between genders to socialization or the process of transferring values, behaviors and beliefs. Groups people join or categories. (Cisgender and Transgender) is the process of socializing males, females and intersex children to values, behaviors, and beliefs.

Biological Determinism being a theory that psychological, social and behavioral traits were a result of metabolic state meaning women being (anabolic) men being (katabolic). These traits were used as an argument to omit women from political and social issues.

There have been numerous theories on gender differences but one must hold the notion that these are only theories and nothing more. One of the most notable was a study conducted by [Maccoby and Jacklin] in 1974.

If you need to reference this article in your work, you can copy-paste the following depending on your required format:

APA (American Psychological Association)
Social Learning Theory of Gender by Bandura. (2017). In ScienceAid. Retrieved Apr 26, 2024, from https://scienceaid.net/psychology/gender/learning.html

MLA (Modern Language Association) "Social Learning Theory of Gender by Bandura." ScienceAid, scienceaid.net/psychology/gender/learning.html Accessed 26 Apr 2024.

Chicago / Turabian ScienceAid.net. "Social Learning Theory of Gender by Bandura." Accessed Apr 26, 2024. https://scienceaid.net/psychology/gender/learning.html.

If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

Comments