1 Psychology 320: Gender Psychology Lecture 22. 2 Social Learning Explanations of Gender Differences: 1. What theories illustrate the social learning.

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Psychology 320: Gender Psychology

Lecture 22

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Social Learning Explanations of Gender Differences:

1. What theories illustrate the social learning view? (continued)

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Models may be “real-life” models or symbolic models. Common models include:

parents.

peers.

toys.

books.

television programs.

advertisements.

What theories illustrate the social learning view? (continued)

1. Social Learning Theory

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The Berenstain Bears

Little Bear

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Children, Family, and Adult TV SeriesDesperate Housewives

Flashpoint

The Young and the Restless

Mighty Machines

The Office

Sex and the City

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Signorielli & Lears (1992), Rivadeneyra & Ward (2005): Found a positive correlation between time spent watching television and the extent to which children held gender-role stereotypes.

Zurbriggen & Morgan (2006): Found a positive correlation between frequency of watching reality dating programs and traditional attitudes regarding heterosexual romantic relationships.

6Reality Shows

America’s Next Top Model

The Bachelor

The Bachelorette

7Advertisements

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Coltrane & Messineo (2000): Found that men were more likely than women to be depicted as aggressive and instrumental and women were more likely to be depicted as sex objects or in domestic settings.

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Percentage of Characters in Commercials by Sex, Activity and Race (Coltrane & Messineo, 2000)

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2. Socialization (Operant Conditioning) Theory

Maintains that the characteristics of females and males diverge because they are reinforced and

punished by their caregivers and peers for exhibiting different characteristics.

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Many studies have documented the differential patterns of reinforcement and punishment of females and males by caregivers and peers. Moreover, a number of these studies have demonstrated the influence of reinforcement and punishment on the behaviour of females and males. Examples:

Theorists distinguish between two types of reinforcement and two types of punishment: Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.

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Raag & Rackliff (1998): Found that boys were more likely than girls to say that their fathers would think cross-gender-typed play was “bad.” Moreover, found that boys’ perceptions of their father’s expectations influenced their toy choice.

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Perceptions of Social Expectations Regarding Gender-Typed Play

(Raag & Rackliff, 1998)

Source

Response Category

Good Bad Doesn’t matter

MotherBoysGirls

1413

00

1915

FatherBoysGirls

169

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1517

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Perceptions of Social Expectations Regarding Cross-Gender-Typed Play

(Raag & Rackliff, 1998)

Source

Response Category

Good Bad Doesn’t matter

MotherBoysGirls

25

83

2320

FatherBoysGirls

26

144

1617

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Mean Time (seconds) Boys Played With Tool Set as a Function of Perceptions of Father’s Expectations Regarding

Cross-Gender-Typed Play (Raag and Rackliff, 1998)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Bad

Good/Doesn'tMatter

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Mean Time (seconds) Boys Played With Dish Set as a Function of Perceptions of Father’s Expectations Regarding

Cross-Gender-Typed Play (Raag and Rackliff, 1998)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Bad

Good/Doesn'tMatter

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Lamb, Easterbrooks, & Holden (1980): Found that, with respect to teachers and peers:

(a) Boys and girls were more likely to be reinforced for gender-role congruent activities than gender-role incongruent activities. Types of peer-reinforcement identified: praise, join play, imitation, approval, observe, comply, covet toy.

(b) Boys and girls were more likely to be punished for gender-role incongruent activities than gender-role congruent activities. Types of peer-punishment identified: criticize, divert, abandon play, disapproval, disrupt activity.

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(c) Boys and girls continued gender-role congruent activities that had been reinforced for a longer duration than gender-role incongruent activities that had been punished.

(d) Older children were more likely than younger children to engage in intentional punishment (e.g., criticism, disapproval) of peers for gender-role incongruent activities.

(e) Boys were more likely than girls to receive intentional punishment from other boys and girls for gender-role incongruent activities.

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Social Learning Explanations of Gender Differences:

1. What theories illustrate the social learning view? (continued)