Gender Theory, Social Learning Theory and Cognitive Development Theory - Outline Example

Some cultures define a woman as a person bearing children; while, others will define a woman as individuals with delicate stature. These are all the gender roles. Social learning theory describes how individuals copy and acquire the behaviors, values, and standards of those who surround them. An individual learns by observation. The theory emphasizes the influence of environmental and cognitive factors on the personality development of an individual. These factors combine to foster learning. Individuals learn to modify their already acquired behaviors and adopt new ones, by observing the attitudes and lifestyles of others around them.

Hence, social cognitive theory combines the aspects of both the behaviorist and cognitive aspects. Cognitive development theory focuses on the way people get hold of, store, and retrieve information in their brains. It helps us study the internal mental states of an individual. It helps in cognitive research regarding enhancing memory, improving decision-making capability, and designing such educational curricula that help enhance the learning process. Cognitive development theorists keep track of how much information humans can store in memory simultaneously; how different sensory inputs are mixed together to generate high-end inferences; and, how knowledge is represented in human brains.