Explanations of the operant conditioning theory can explain gender development, which suggests that reinforcement and punishment craft the idea of gender development like all other natural human behaviors. Reinforcement proves to be the main concept in operant conditioning; two reinforces are presented: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Positive …show more content…
Punishment discourages a person from performing a certain behavior by demonstrating something unpleasant to provoke that person to stop the behavior. For example, if a girl can be punished by her parents because she was play-fighting which is viewed as rough and boyish behavior by her parents. The parents may be punished the girl by grounding for a week. Focusing on punishment for boys, a boy may be seen playing with a baby-doll by his parents, who punish him by not allowing him to have the baby-doll because it viewed as a girl’s toy. The significance of punishment enforces a stop to a particular behavior, so that an individual is not tempted to repeat that …show more content…
It suggests that people imitate what they see and hear through observation in role models that show similarities to themselves like gender. This theory also indicates that behavior that receives praise or reward will most likely be repeated. Bandura referenced there are four main cognitive processes that are involved in the social learning theory: attention, retention, reproduction, motivation (ARRM). Attention happens when the child identifies with the role model (e.g. a son identifying with his father because of gender) and notices the role model demonstrating a behavior, causing the child to is pay attention to the important parts of the role model 's behavior. Retention can be when the child documents the information to memory; the behavior is perceived and recorded. Reproduction takes place when the child is able to do the behavior over. The behavior can be imitated by the child which was learned the role model, thus creating a cycle in which the child continues to repeat the behavior. Lastly, motivation provides a reason for the child to repeat the behavior over and over