The social approach is different to the biological approach. The social approach is an approach that emphasizes the role of learning either from others or from direct experience. This means that we are not born to behave that way but we have learnt or have been affected by others to be that way. This explanation is about the effects of people’s background on criminal behaviours such as parenting style, maternal deprivation and family’s background. The strength of the biological approach is that it gathers lots of quantitative data this is because it focuses on objective data.
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory suggests that acts of aggression are learnt through the observation of role models. His original “Bobo Doll” study showed that when exposed to aggressive behaviour small children copied this behaviour, not just by being physically aggressive but even copying the verbally aggressive behaviour. However this study focuses on children who are supposed to learn in this manner, this doesn’t demonstrate that this would also be true in older children or adults who already have a set moral compass that would interfere with copying aggressive behaviours. However Bandura’s later study showed that if children saw someone get punished for aggressive behaviour they were less likely to be aggressive themselves when they were allowed to play with the bobo doll but if they saw someone get rewarded for this aggressive behaviour then they were much more likely to act aggressively themselves, this shows that vicarious reinforcement is important to the learning of aggression through the social learning theory, as receiving direct positive reinforcement leads to people having high self efficacy making them very likely to repeat the aggressive behaviour that they were rewarded for. In terms of aggression this reward could come in many forms such as acceptance from a violent gang they want to be a part of or just attention from a parent or teacher.
Discuss one social psychological theory of aggression One social psychological explanation of aggression is the social learning theory which is the idea that we learn certain behaviours through observing others this has been proposed by Albert Bandura. He believes that there is a process we all go through before repeating a behaviour we have learned, this is when mental representation comes into play, whether the observer sees the behaviour as being right or wrong, if the behaviour is rewarded it is seen as vicarious reinforcement and enhances the chances of the behaviour being repeated however if the behaviour is punished the chances of it being repeated is slim. Bandura believes the modelling process consists of four stages that enhance the repetition of the observed behaviour, such as attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. The observer needs to have full attention on the behaviour being acted out if they do this they will be able to go through the stage of retention, allowing them to store the information and later being able to reproduce the behaviour being learned. If the behaviour concluded in positive reinforcement you are more likely to have the motivation to repeat it rather than suppress it.
Reinforcement is used to help increase the probability that a specific behavior will occur in the future by delivering a stimulus immediately after a response or behavior is exhibited Each category has benefits when appropriately used, but can easy turn into abuse or neglect. Three major types of reinforcement are physical, verbal, and resource driven, each can be manipulated into positive or negative. In today’s society is it frowned upon to physically discipline your children, either spanking or smacking. It is viewed as a barbaric action. However unpopular it is, distinct differences can be observed between children who have been physically negatively reinforced and those who have not.
Social Learning Theory Evaluation Evaluate Social Learning Theory with reference to research. Social Learning Theory, first proposed by Albert Bandura, suggests that people's behaviours are molded through observational learning, that their inherent characteristics have an effect on learning and behaviour, and that learning does not always constitute a change in behaviour. The theory has been extensively researched and explains common phenomena such as behaviour being passed down through generations or within cultures. Also, it can be applied to change people's behaviour positively. However, the theory has some weaknesses, as there are criticisms with the theory and its studies.
If there is any distraction on observer’s attention, it might cause negative effects on the observational learning. In a model fascinating or in a novel perspective to the circumstances the individual much more obligated to commit their full attention regarding taking in. Second is retention which is an important part of the learning process. This shows the ability of an individual to store information, to force up data later and follow up on it is basic to observational taking in despite the fact that maintenance could be influenced by various variables. (Cherry, 2014) Furthermore, follow up with the modeling process of reproduce.
Many people fear that these theories will make excuses for criminal acts and divorce. The nurture side of the argument has best been supported by studies of infant and child temperaments. John Watson showed how he could create a phobia in a young child with the Baby Alfred experiments and new studies are showing that a sense of humor is influenced by the environment rather than pre-determined by genes. To this day, one can be put at ease because genes may provide a template of who one becomes but cannot determine everything (Powell, 2009). Although both biology and the environment affect one’s behavior, the role the environment plays is more significant due to the lack of biological make-up in humans.
This is because children’s thinking, interaction with others, and creative expressions are dependent on toys because children spend most of their time playing. A number of research outline that gender specific toys benefits the growth of children. However, other studies imply that gender-specific toys have negative effects on children’s growth. According to Professor Judith Blakemore of psychology associate dean of arts and sciences, boys’ toys are associated with aggression while girls’ toys are related to appearance, nurturing, and domestic skill. Blakemore does not support the notion of providing children with gender-specific toys.
Sometimes I feel because of stereotypes that children are pressured to feel/ act a certain way and this could affect their gender development if they allow stereotypes to affect them. Stereotypes can cause people to not only treat and think of others with prejudice but can there is also the possibility of allowing the stereotype to affect oneself; this is known as stereotype threat. I feel it is important to address stereotype threat because it is a self-defeating problem and if not corrected can lead to a downward spiral in a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we can get a better idea of what gender development theory is most correct of combination thereof along with pressures stereotypes then we may be able to elevate the cause of Gender identity disorder. Gender identity disorder is a classified behavior disorder.
This assumption is further researched by the Bandura bobo doll experiment which studies if aggression behaviour is imitated by seeing a model being rewarded for being aggressive. Bandura found out that the children who had had observed an adult behaving aggressively behaved much more aggressively themselves than those who had observed non obsessive behaviour. They also found out that boys behaved more aggressively than girls and behaviour is most likely to be learned from a same sex model. The strengths of this experiment is that they used children because they are easier to influence so therefore it is easy for them t imitate behaviour. The limitations of this experiment is that the children did not know the models