Enculturation is the process of adopting or internalizing the behaviours and values of one’s culture - a process also known as socialization. Enculturation results in the development of cultural schema. One behaviour which is enculturated is gender roles.  There are several theories of how enculturation takes place.  One theory is that we learn through direct tuition. This is supported by a naturalistic observation carried out by Fagot (1978) and Wood (2002). Another explanation is that Social Cognitive theory - or observational learning - plays a key role, as shown in a study done by Kimball (1986). It is most likely, however, to be a combination of factors that leads to enculturation.

Enculturation may be the result of direct tuition in which children are rewarded for "gender appropriate" behaviour and punished for "gender inappropriate" behaviour.  Fagot studied parent-child interactions through naturalistic observations carried out in the homes of the families. The goal of this study was to observe the parents' reaction when children’s behaviour was (or was not) “gender appropriate." The researchers used a checklist of behaviours that were determined to be gender inappropriate/appropriate to standardize the observation process. The researchers found that parents rewarded their children performing gender consistent activities; they also discouraged or gave negative feedback to behaviour that did not fit into gender norms. Since this was a naturalistic observation, it has high ecological validity.  The researchers did not manipulate any variables and the environment in which it took place was familiar to the family.  The study most likely predicts how the family behaves on a day to day basis. However, as a result, the study has low internal validity.  There are no controls over the study and since no IV was manipulated, no cause and effect relationship can be determined. In addition, since the observation was overt,  the participants knew they were being observed. This could have resulted in demand characteristics where the parents behaved differently because they knew they were being watched; however, the parents did not know that the observers were recording gender-related activity. However, there was a risk of researcher bias, as the researchers could have paid more attention to behaviours that confirmed their own hypothesis.

A study done by Kimball in 1986 found that children may learn their gender roles as a result of observational learning - that is, by watching television.  The researchers carried out a natural experiment; they did not manipulate an independent variable.  In this case, television was made available to a remote region of McMurdo. The researchers assessed children’s gender stereotyping just before television was introduced and then repeated this assessment two years later. They found that children had developed more traditional thinking about gender roles. It appears that the children may have learned their gender roles by watching the behaviour of the people on television. The study was a natural experiment, so it had high ecological validity. The researcher was simply measuring an effect that was naturally occurring. However, the study also had low internal validity.  As there were no controls during the two year period, confounding variables could have affected children’s stereotyping, rather than just television. For example, peer groups or adults in their lives may have played a role. In other words, we cannot rule out that direct tuition also played a role in their enculturation into Canadian culture.  Finally, it is unclear how many hours the children actually watched television and what they watched. Although there was self-reported data, this may have not represented the child's actual behaviour and may have been subject to demand characteristics.

Studying how we are enculturated has many challenges. First, when looking at studies like Fagot's, we observe the parents behaviour, but not the children's actual development of gender roles.  The development of gender roles is then assumed to be related to this behaviour.  Woods' study in 2000 found similar findings with regard to parent toy-choice when playing with children, regardless if they were the parents or not.  Cross-sectional studies do not tell us about the long-term effects of parents and television on actual gender role development.  Longitudinal studies may show this but lack internal validity and cannot isolate variables. Another challenge is to overcome bias in investigating the question. Researcher triangulation should be used so that researchers can compare their observations and establish the reliability of their data, controlling for bias.  Lastly, enculturation is only one possible explanation of gender role development.  Biological factors, for example, may also play a role.

In conclusion, enculturation is the process of learning the behaviours of our own culture.  This may be done directly, through gatekeepers like our parents - or indirectly, by observational learning. Enculturation research is problematic as it is difficult to measure one's level of enculturation and controlled studies lack ecological validity.  Naturalistic studies lack internal validity.  But by putting the different research together, psychologists attempt to get a bigger understanding of the process.