The Biosocial Approach to Gender

The answer to the question 'nature or nurture?' is almost always 'both', but this poses another important question; 'how exactly do the two interact?' The Biosocial approach essentially says that the main factors shaping our gender behaviour are the 'nurture' processes of the Social Learning approach (see previous post), but that biological differences need to be taken into account. These lead to children being labelled as male or female, and society 'interprets' these differences and 'constructs' (this kind of approach is called 'social constructionist') ideas about gender. These then lead parents / peers / the media / schools to reinforce and model appropriate behaviours.

Here is the presentation from the lesson.