Social Learning TheorySocial Learning Theory

KEY CONCEPTS• Reinforcement (Society as Actor)

• A behavior consistently followed by a reward will likely occur again, whereas a behavior followed by a punishment will rarely reoccur

• We get our gender identities by being rewarded for gender-appropriate behaviors and punished for gender-inappropriate ones

• Reinforcement has an “indirect” component

KEY CONCEPTS• Reinforcement (Society as Actor)

• A behavior consistently followed by a reward will likely occur again, whereas a behavior followed by a punishment will rarely reoccur

• We get our gender identities by being rewarded for gender-appropriate behaviors and punished for gender-inappropriate ones

• Reinforcement has an “indirect” component

• Modeling (Child As Actor)• We model ourselves after those who positively reinforce our behavior.• We model ourselves after readily available models.• We model ourselves after warm, friendly, powerful, and similar models.

KEY CONCEPTS• Reinforcement (Society as Actor)

• A behavior consistently followed by a reward will likely occur again, whereas a behavior followed by a punishment will rarely reoccur

• We get our gender identities by being rewarded for gender-appropriate behaviors and punished for gender-inappropriate ones

• Reinforcement has an “indirect” component

• Modeling (Child As Actor)• We model ourselves after those who positively reinforce our behavior.• We model ourselves after readily available models.• We model ourselves after friendly, powerful, and similar models.

• Criticisms Of The Theory• The weakest criticism: the “passive” role for the children• Direct reinforcement doesn’t work so well• Kids don’t model/imitate behavior in the theory’s clear-cut ways