Mayaa SH | World Mental Health Day

Women Empowerment Culturist, Essayist, Thinker, Social and Legal Activist on advisories on family law in India, Evolutionary Developmental Feminist, Social Activist and Campaigner for Women's Rights, Multiple State, National Award Winner and Internationally acclaimed Multiple World Record Holder, Suicide Prevention Expert, Renowned name in Contemporary Literature Authoress Mayaa SH in a candid conversation on Social Influences on Gender Development and Gender Roles and Mental Health.

What are the Social Influences on Gender Development?

Social Influences on Gender Development. Just as there are biological influences on gender development, there are also social influences on gender development. Observation is one of our most important survival skills as humans. Children watch and observes those around us from a very young age m and, eventually, try to mimic them. This phenomenon is called the "Social Learning Theory".The social environment has long been recognized as an important context for human development in general and gender development in particular. Children’s environments are replete with cues about gender appropriateness and models of gendered behavior. Children receive direct and indirect feedback about their gendered behavior such as the reward of social approval by peers or parents. As a result, gender role differences appear early, especially in domains where the environment is strongly gender-differentiated such as in the realm of play or children’s media. From early in life, boys and girls show gender-differentiated preferences for color, toys, and same-gender peers. There are various  contemporary theories of gender development with a focus on Social Cognitive Theory that have evolved with time in this regard. The five principles of social learning theory are observation (seeing a behaviour), attention (how much we notice the behaviour), retention (how well we remember the behaviour), reproduction (whether or not we repeat the behaviour), and motivation (our drive to imitate the behaviour).The "Social Learning Theory" argues that we learn gender roles from imitating people around us, which we call models. By imitating and receiving reinforcement, we internalise new behaviours and gender roles.Another theory of "Social Role Theory" argues that widely shared gender stereotypes develop from the gender division of labor that characterizes a society.

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