The roles and expectations associated with being male or female.

• A. Gender
• B. Sanctions
• C. Rewards
• D. Social control

Answer: (A)

The idea being tested is gender. Gender refers to the roles, behaviors, and expectations a society assigns to being male or female, and these are learned through socialization rather than determined only by biology. This concept fits the prompt because it focuses on what people are expected to do or how they should behave because of their gender (for example, expectations about attire, behavior, or careers). Sanctions describe penalties for not conforming to norms, rewards are incentives for conformity, and social control is the broader mechanism by which a society enforces norms; none of these capture the content of the roles and expectations themselves as directly as gender does.