Assess the effectiveness of the learning perspective explanations for either one psychological/social question.

Other observations from psychologists like Maccby and Jacklin however, have shown that there are very few differences between girls and boys. Through observation and tests, they have noted that girls have a greater verbal ability than boys, that boys have a greater arithmetical ability than girls, and that boys tend to be more physically active than girls. Hyde and Linn pointed out that these differences were fairly small and that there was a lot of overlap in this behaviour between bys and girls. Shaffer pointed out that girls seemed to be more emotionally sensitive, and were less likely to suffer from learning disability and hyperactivity. Because of these observations, it seemed to be logical enough to generalize that men could be seen as more dominant and aggressive, playing an instrumental role, while women were more nurturing, compassionate, and friendly, playing the expressive role. Acknowledging the concepts on which the learning perspective is based, it seems as though these stereotypes have persisted through time, and because of this, a gender pattern has been reinforced, whether it be through cheering on their son for their first fight, or encouraging their daughter to take dance lessons and act more womanly, the stereotype parents hold of how their kids should act influence their grandchildren, and their great grandchildren as these expected behaviours are passed on. Likewise, peer pressure and the media have also contributed to these expectations, and thus society adapts the behaviour through social learning theory. If these types of behaviour are learnt through reinforcement and social learning theory however, it is hard to explain where gender roles have originally come from.

        The biological perspective on the other hand can answer this. For example, Sigmund Freud argued that because of many anatomical differences between men and women, there were also significant psychological differences too. He claimed that boys develop an Oedipus complex with an intense fear of their father, causing them to submit to their fathers every wish because they’re afraid their fathers may castrate them. Girls on the other hand seem to suffer from ‘penis envy’ the moment they realize they lack one, and have a sexual desire for their father. However, in fear of angering their mother, they identify with her more strongly, and copy her acts. These sexual infatuations cause them to adopt the same behaviours as their same-sex parental figure. In addition, because of “penis envy” he proposed that this is what influenced the women’s obsession with physical vanity in an attempt to compensate for their original sexual inferiority

        Other explanations for specific-gender-related behaviour through the anatomy of a human include evolutionary explanations in which the males have generally been equipped with better physical strength, aggression and ability to hunt. Because of this, women may have automatically been pushed into work, which serve the men, thus developing their compassion for children and other art-based projects, as they were not thought to be as strong and skillful enough to hunt. It has been though that male hormones, especially testosterone have helped during prenatal development to increase the masculinity of the brain, therefore making men smarter than girls in some aspects. In addition, since men have a higher metabolic rate, they are more able to maintain less body fat, therefore giving the appearance of being fitter than women and earning the gender stereotype of being stronger than girls.