Introduction
I will discuss gender development in children from both a cognitive (social Cognitive theory) and environmental (social learning theory). While gender development is believed to be influenced by both, neither one tells us what we need to know about gender.
Gender Development
Gender refers to socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women (WHO, 2014). There are three concepts associated with gender.
Gender identity refers to an individual having the sense of being male or female. It usually matches the biological sex but some individuals may have a sense of maleness despite being biologically female (and vice versa).
Gender roles are the attributes, behaviours and attitudes that are associated with being male or female.
Gender stereotypes are commonly held beliefs about the characteristics of males and females, including abilities and skills, psychological disposition, physical appearance.
Gender is how a person feels about their sexuality, the body in which they find themselves and how they identify with images and models in society. Gender is viewed as a scale that ranges from very masculine to very feminine. From the child’s point of view, it is a sense of who they are that is, a boy or a girl, and how they behave in the world. This feeling of identifying as a boy or a girl usually happens at around the age of 7, where the child feels consistently about their gender.
Social Learning Theory
Walter Mischel (1966) argued that acquiring and demonstrating gender-typed behaviour is dependent on the same principles of learning that apply to other aspects of their behaviour. Consistent with the behaviourist approach, the feedback children receive encourages them to pursue being feminine or masculine through for example, negative or positive feedback. Factors such as rewards and punishments by parents can determine early gender development, if a boy is...