Gender is a complex phenomenon within humans and goes beyond the biological nuances of sex. We can differentiate, then, between gender and sex. Gender, many say, is a societal expectation rather than an innate behaviour in humans, whilst others suggest gender is innate. What does it mean to male? Does this differ intrinsically from being female? If so, who decides what is male behaviour and female behaviour? The social learning theory of gender explores the origins and development of gender.
Fig. 1 - Gender is a complex area of study in society.
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.
We observe them behaving in particular ways and copy their behaviours.
A child may exhibit gender-specific behaviours due to copying role models of the same sex, such as their older siblings.
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.
A parent may praise their son for not crying when upset, as 'boys don't cry'. The son will then try not to cry the next time they fall down. This is active reinforcement.
The younger brother, witnessing the situation, will aim not to cry the next time he falls down and hurts himself, also, which is an example of passive reinforcement.
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.
A child from a culture like this may experience negative reinforcement when they imitate behaviours that do not match their gender and are likely only to internalise gender-specific behaviours.
In other cultures, gender is expressed in different ways.
For example, in a study by Margaret Mead (1935), she discovered that in different tribes in Papua New Guinea, gender roles varied greatly. In the Arapesh tribe, both men and women exhibited similar behaviours. However, in the Tchambuli tribe, women showed dominant and violent behaviours, whilst men showed dependent behaviours.
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.
This suggests that media can have an effect on behaviour.
Bandura went on and described five processes that took part when gender was developed through social learning:
- Observation: For social learning to occur, the behaviour must be observed.
- Attention: Then, the individual needs to pay attention to his/her role model's behaviour.
- Retention: Then, the individual would need to encode and retain the gender-appropriate behaviour.
- Reproduction: The individual would need to replicate gender-appropriate behaviour.
- Motivation: Lastly, some kind of reinforcement would need to take place for the individual to be motivated to continue the behaviour.
For example, a young pair of male and female siblings go to Disneyland and see a real-life version of Beauty and the Beast.
As they see the characters, their attention is shifted to their behaviour. The beast has a male connotation, although it is a mythological figure, and presents stereotypical male behaviours of protection towards Belle, the beauty. Belle is well-mannered and behaves in stereotypically feminine ways. The children observe the behaviours and retain them.
Later in the day, the brother reproduces the beast's behaviour and protects his sister. The parents, in turn, reward the behaviour with verbal positive feedback. After such an event, the brother is more likely to show more male-like gender characteristics and thus develop a male identity, according to Bandura's theory.
Fig. 2 - Children learn about their gender roles in society from a young age.
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.
An example could be children’s cartoons. If a young girl watches a cartoon in which a female character that she likes acts a certain way, she is likely to imitate that behaviour. This could result in her internalising feminine behaviours that the character displays, which then become part of her gender expression.
Cartoons may also portray genders in certain ways. If a young boy watches cartoons where men are stereotypically strong, play the hero, and never cry, the young boy may believe that is the way boys are supposed to be. They may also believe women are meant to play the damsel in distress, if cartoons use said tropes.
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.
Advertisements such as these can influence gender development as they portray a certain way that boys and girls should be.
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.
Influential models on TV, for instance, in gender-specific advertisements, will likely affect a child’s personal choices and 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.
Social Learning Theory Gender - Key takeaways
- The social learning theory (SLT) is a psychological approach combining both behaviourist and cognitive concepts, originally proposed by Albert Bandura.
- This theory suggests that we learn our behaviours from the people around us by observing and imitating them. This can be passive or active. Active reinforcement punishes or rewards the 'correct gendered behaviour', and we may internalise that behaviour.
- Bandura’s Bobo doll study found that the children who saw an aggressive model were much more likely to imitate that aggression towards the doll. They also found that boys were more likely to imitate same-sex models.
- Using our knowledge of SLT, we can understand how the culture we grow up in can have an influence on our gender expression. Research has shown that gender expression can vary from culture to culture.
- Rubin et al. (1974) found that parents describe their newborn babies differently depending on sex, ascribing to gender norms and supporting SLT. However, studies like Smith and Daglish (1977) found no correlation between parent views and child behaviours in gender conformity.
Explanations 
Exams 
Magazine 
