Gender development is a critical debate in the field of psychology. The importance of both social and cognitive factors in the field of psychology is something that psychologists try to relate (Martin & Ruble, 2004). This paper will show the two relevant theories in gender development while showing the comparison and contrast. Kohlberg’s theory of gender development and Bandura’s theory of social cognitive development are the two theories that psychologists use to refer to gender development and orientation. They basically focus on a child’s thinking which is critical to their gender development. The theories give a clear explanation as to why children turn out the way they do while explaining why they behave in a certain way.
According to Kohlberg’s theory of gender development, he basically shows that gender develops in various stages. He then predicts how children perceive gender characters in the different stages. In Kohlberg’s theory, he believes that the mind of children develops in stages that are dictated by age and as the brain grows physically, there is also a change that is made. Due to the above factors, gender development then takes place in three stages and a child develops from one stage to another as maturity grows (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Proper development of gender role then occurs as they understand how gender is constant and fixed once they are in the third stage. Kohlberg believes that children dictate their own gender orientation and socialization. The stages that gender development takes place mainly involve; Gender identity which takes place between two to three years, Gender stability that occurs between age three to seven and Gender consistency as from seven to twelve years old.
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In gender identity, the child is able to refer to themselves as a girl or boy while also labeling their friends. At the first stage, they believe that it is possible for gender to change as they grow up. After the establishment of gender identity, they then realize that gender is fixed hence gender stability, therefore, acceptance to their respective genders. They realize that boys grow into men and girls become women although still think that gender can be transformed through a change in appearance. Therefore, children pay attention to the same sex personalities whom they admire and imitate their gender characters (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). An imitation of such characteristics and actualization is referred to as self-socialization as external factors such as parent do not reinforce the imitation. Finally, once they have matured cognitively, there is gender consistency where they realize that gender cannot be changed.
Bandura’s Social Learning theory, on the other hand, states that behavior can be learned from one person to another through imitation, observation, and modeling. His theory is seen mainly as a bridge between cognitive learning and behaviorist theories because it involves attention, motivation, and memory. According to Bandura, a child would observe others tends to pick attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes which is applied in their gender orientation (Bandura, 2001). Through observation, the child creates an idea of the new behaviors it then serves as a guide to how they act. In the social learning theory, it is seen that human behavior is formed through continuous repeated interaction between environmental, cognitive and behavioral influences. Theory shows three factors that lead to gender development. Firstly is retention which is the remembering of what one observed, second is a reproduction that involves the creation of an image of what a person intends to become. Lastly is motivation where a person gains a reason to imitate.
It is clearly seen that both Kohlberg and Bandura believe that observation is key in gender development. In Kohlberg, it is seen in the second stage where gender stability takes place. A child observes a person of the same sex that he or she admires and imitates their way of doing things. Bandura mainly focuses on observation in his theory in that a child will retain, reproduce and motivate themselves to a certain gender orientation. Through observation, the child will continuously imitate behaviors such as dressing style, grooming, and talking and due to repetition, it becomes part of their sexual orientation (Bandura, 2001). An example is a friend who grew up with a mother and never had a father figure. As a boy, he wanted to become just like his mother and began imitating his mother’s dressing style. Now as a man he has the sexual orientation of a woman due to the exposure he got.
A difference is seen in the theories where Kohlberg believes in the gender development stages where each stage, a child is made to believe something different about their genders (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). As they mature they realize that change cannot take place and therefore accept their respective genders. On the other hand, Bandura mainly focuses on observation of attitudes that lead to an outcome. He believes that observation leads to a repeated imitation which at the end becomes a person’s orientation. Gender development occurs through observation.
References
Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual review of psychology , 52 (1), 1-26.
Bussey, K., & Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation. Psychological review , 106 (4), 676.
Martin, C. L., & Ruble, D. (2004). Children's search for gender cues: Cognitive perspectives on gender development. Current directions in psychological science , 13 (2), 67-70.
