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Social Learning Theory (SLT) is a psychological approach that combines both behaviourist and cognitive concepts, originally proposed by Albert Bandura in 1977. This theory suggests that we learn our behaviours from the people around us by observing and imitating them. Then, based on what kind of reinforcement we receive, we internalise (or not) that behaviour.
But what does the social learning theory say about gender? How does social learning theory account for gender role development?
In his 1961 experiment, Bandura showed that children demonstrate social learning. In this study, the 72 children (who were between 3-6 years old) watched either a male or female model interact with a toy clown called Bobo.
In one condition, the model behaved in an aggressive manner, using violence towards the Bobo doll. In another condition, the model behaved in a relaxed manner and played with different toys gently and quietly. The final condition was a control condition, in which the children did not observe a model.
All the children then experienced what Bandura suggested was ‘mild aggression arousal’. To achieve this, the researcher would allow each child to play with some desired toys in a room for a short while, and then they would ask the child to move to another room, as these were their ‘best toys’ and they wanted to save them for other children.
The new room that the children entered had two different categories of toys: aggressive (eg: the Bobo doll, a mallet and peg set, etc.) or non-aggressive (eg: plastic farm animals, a tea set, etc.). The researchers observed the children for 20 minutes through a one-way mirror. They used a timed observation method, taking notes every 5 seconds.
Illustration of a Bobo doll.
The study found that the children who saw an aggressive model were much more likely to imitate that aggression towards the doll. Researchers also found that boys were more likely to imitate same-sex models.
Let’s review some of the study’s strengths and weaknesses.
Lab experiments like this one often offer strong evidence towards their hypothesis, as they usually require all confounding variables to be controlled. As this study was conducted in a lab, it is likely that this aspect of its design improves its validity.
The study uses a standardised method. This is helpful as it allows other researchers to replicate the study to test whether the results are replicable, which makes the study more generalisable. For example, Bandura replicated the study using videos of models rather than having the models show their behaviours in person and found very similar results (Bandura, 1963).
Due to the highly controlled lab environment where the study was conducted, the conditions used lack ecological validity. This means that, as the scenarios in the study are unlikely to occur in everyday life, it is hard to generalise its findings to everyday life.
Another criticism of the study is that the researchers recorded the children’s behaviours in a short space of time, and they didn’t conduct any follow-up. This means that we don’t know whether these behaviors were internalised or not, and therefore if the children had learned the behaviour, as Bandura suggests, or were just simply copying what they had seen.
Social learning theory explains how we pick up certain behaviours from the people around us, and we can apply this knowledge to our understanding of how we develop certain gendered behaviours. For example, a child could be exhibiting gender-specific behaviours due to them copying role models of their same sex such as their older siblings.
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 see gender in a very binary way with two options: male or female. 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 don’t match their gender and therefore are likely to only 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, gentle behaviors. However, in the Tchambuli tribe, women showed dominant behaviours whilst men showed dependent behaviours.
Indigenous people of New Guinea. Source: Frans Hubby CC-BY-3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Mead’s research shows that there are differences in gender across cultures, supporting the idea that gender is learned rather than innate.
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, and this produced very similar results to the original study. This suggests that media can have an effect on behaviour.
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, macho, and never cry, the young boy may believe that is the way boys are supposed to be.
Children can also be influenced by advertising. Just think of gender stereotypical toys: Barbies for girls, pink scooters, pink bikes, dollhouses. The toys advertised for boys are soldiers, guns, cars. 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 then imitate their behaviours later on. After performing these behaviours around other people, how others react (through punishment or rewarding) reinforces or discourages these gender-coded behaviours further.
Influential models on TV, for instance, in gender-specific advertisements will likely affect a child’s personal choices and behaviours.
Let’s take a look at some strengths and weaknesses of social learning theory and how well it explains gender.
Dweck et al. (1978) found that in schools, girls were reinforced for working neatly whereas boys were reinforced for getting answers correct. This suggests that there are gender differences in how we reinforce certain behaviours. This study supports the social learning theory, as it states that reinforcement influences our internalisation of certain behaviours.
Williams (1986) found that in a town where television had just been introduced, children showed far more gender-stereotyped behaviours two years later. This suggests that the models and advertisements on the television programs the children were watching may have influenced their gender expression.
Perry and Bussy (1979) showed film clips of children choosing different fruits to boys and girls aged 8-9. When they were asked to choose a fruit themselves, children often imitated the choice of the ir same sex model. This replicates Banduras findings which supports the social learning theory.
Many of the studies researching SLT were conducted in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The newest of these studies are still around 40 years old. This means that they may not be applicable 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.
Two gay dads and their child.
Social Learning Theory (SLT) is a psychological approach that combines both behaviourist and cognitive concepts, originally proposed by Albert Bandura in 1977. This theory suggests that we learn our behaviours from the people around us by observing and imitating them. Then, based on what kind of reinforcement we receive, we internalise (or not) that behaviour.
An example of this is Bandura’s 1961 Bobo doll study, in which he found that children would act aggressively towards a doll if this behaviour was modelled for them by an adult.
Social learning theory suggests that we learn our behaviours from the people around us, by observing and imitating them.
The 5 principles of social learning theory, also known as mediational processes, are observation (seeing a behaviour), attention (how much we notice the behaviour), retention (how well we remember the behaviour), reproduction (whether or not we repeat the behaviour), and motivation (our drive to imitate the behaviour).
The key concept of social learning theory is that we learn from imitating people around us, which we call models. By imitating and receiving reinforcement, we internalise new behaviors.
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