Instead, he suggested, we should look only at the external, observable causes of human behavior. Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences". In other words, Skinner's theory explained how we acquire the range of learned behaviors we exhibit each and every day. Bandura – Social Learning Theory The social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura has become perhaps the most influential theory of learning and development. While rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional learning theory, Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning.
In 1941 N.E Miller and associate J. Dollard proposed that one could learn a behavior by observing that behavior in others. They called this theory social learning. The social learning theory of Miller and Dollard also stated that “by imitating these observed actions the individual observer would solidify that learned action and would be rewarded with positive reinforcement.”(Green) Loosely translated this means that if we ape the actions of those around us they will reward us for such actions. In 1954 Julian Rotter broke away from the then popular instinct based psychoanalysis and drive based behaviorism theories. Rotter believed that a psychological theory should have a psychological motivational principal, and that people were motivated to seek out positive reinforcement or stimulus and to avoid the negative of either.
Outline and evaluate one or more social psychological theory of aggression Social psychological theories, such as social learning theory and deindividuation, propose that the causes of aggression comes from our interactions with others. According to social learning theory, aggressive behaviour is learned either through direct experience or by vicarious experience. Learning by direct experience is derived from Skinner's principles of operant conditioning. It is when you act in an aggressive manor and, as a result, get rewarded for it. The reward acts as reinforcement, therefore you are more likely to act like this again in a similar situation.
Psychologists have many different theories to explain attachment, one being the Learning Theory. Before attachment is learned, the child gains pleasure through being fed.Learning theory sees attachments as developing through conditioning processes. This theory is based on behaviourists theory and suggests that all behaviour is learnt rather than innate. Learning theory explains all behaviours acquired through experience via the process of association. Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus becomes associated with a response while operant conditioning involves learning behaviour due to its consequences via the use of reinforcement.
As explained in item a, the labelling theory explains how actions become labelled as criminal or deviant. The labelling theory explains how crime and deviance is a social construct as the laws and norms are constructed by society. The theory can be seen as useful in explaining crime and deviance yet this can be disputed. First of all, the labelling theory aims to answer the question, why and how people get labelled. One researcher found that police made decisions on whether to arrest youth based on their physical cues.
In 2002 scientists found evidence that a particular gene predisposed children towards bad behaviour and they concluded that children who were abused and had the gene were more likely to go on to abuse others. Clarence Darrow defended two boys who had committed murder by claiming that they were a product of their upbringing. Instead of facing the death penalty the boys were sentenced to life imprisonment. Soft determinism holds that only some aspects of
Especially the points about childhood stereotyping, how we try to make sense of the world, and what we should try to do to prevent ourselves from stereotyping so much. Heilbroner writes, “We begin to type-cast people in our early childhood.” This statement is true. Not only do we begin to typecast at an early age, our peers greatly influence how we are to typecast another peer. Kids can be cruel and hurtful even when it comes to a simple kickball game. When is comes to choosing teams, stereotyping is sometimes used.
Social learning theory suggests that aggression is learnt, by observing others acting aggressively. For the social learning theory an individual would observe a model and try to recreate the models behavior who has repeatedly been reinforced. Before the individual can reinact the aggressive behavior they must form mental representations of it in their mind and commit these to memory. The individual will learn what acts would be rewarded and what acts would be punished and commit this to memory. They must then enable how they will enact these behaviours in their mind and believe that they have a similar ability to the model to be able to have the same effect as the model.
Outline and evaluate two social-psychological theories of aggression (24 marks). Aggression is a term which is used to refer to behaviour between members of the same species which is intended to cause harm or pain. It can be verbal, mental and physical. Two arguments arise from explaining aggression, some focus on the biological issues like hormones and some on the social approach like whether the behaviour comes from our interactions with the world. Bandura believed that the potential for aggression may be biological, but the expression of aggression is learned.
Discussion: Proposition 1: Criminal behaviour is learnt. Differential Association theory believes that the behaviour of an individual is influenced and shaped by other individuals they associate with. The primary reference group is that of the nuclear family, which the individual lives and grows up with. It is believed that these interactions formulate the individuals understanding of societal norms and values. It is then assumed that if the individual is capable of learning what is acceptable in society, they are also not capable of learning what is considered unacceptable.