Bandura’s experiment on children being exposed to aggressive behaviour and therefore imitating this behaviour is somehow evidence to show that on some occasions, behaviour can be learnt. There are many different ways people can learn criminal behaviours from other people, for example having a sibling that always steals, or having a aggressive father who uses physical harm in order to control people. Being exposed to behaviour like this in everyday life and when people you love or may respect, like your family are portraying this behaviour, then this may be seen as the norm for people and they may think it is okay to imitate this behaviour. There have been many different studies and theories into how upbringing can influence people into turning to crime. For example Farrington conducted an experiment into how disrupted families can affect how likely someone is to turn to crime, and they found that most participants defined as ‘chronic offenders’ shared the same or similar characteristics, for example convicted parents, delinquent siblings and young parents.
Perspective Taking and Moral Motivation of Children Involved In Bullying.’ They tested a hypothesis to see if bullies although socially competent are they lacking in perspective taking moral motivation? They wondered if it would explain the exploitation of social skills for manipulative and anti-social goals. To be even more precise they hypothesized to see if bullies displayed more advanced perspective taking skills than bully-victims. The hypothesis included children from different bullying perspectives including bullies, bully-victims, victims and children exhibiting pro-social behavior. In doing so, they could accurately measure the data creating specific results when comparing each group in moral intentions.
Studies suggest that younger children may be more vulnerable to the effects of witnessing domestic violence than older children (Johnson and Lieberman, 2007) so it is very disturbing to recognize that young children are more likely to witness incidents of violence than older children (Ybarra, Wilkens, & Lieberman, 2007). Witnessing these acts of violence has a detrimental effect on the cognitive development as well as emotion regulation and internalizing and externalizing behaviors in preschoolers (Lieberman, 2007; Ybarra, Wilkens, & Lieberman). Studies show that dysfunctional development can be deterred through a positive relationship with mother and child, and that resilience is possible if a nurturing relationship exists in which the mother is attuned to her
Outline and evaluate one or more social psychological theories of aggression? The social learning theory suggests that children learn aggressive behaviour from other significant individuals acting aggressively. A way in which children learn is called vicarious reinforcement and it’s when someone is rewarded for being aggressive. As a result they also act aggressively when reward follows however they will also learn not to act aggressively when punishment will be a consequence of their actions. In order for social learning to take place, the child must form a metal representation of the behaviour he/she observed.
Social learning theory (SLT) suggests that behaviour is learnt through observation and imitation of “models”. SLT explains gender role by saying children learn their gender role primarily through vicarious reinforcement. Children are positively reinforced for behaving in gender-appropriate ways (i.e. a girl playing with a doll) and are punished for behaving in gender-inappropriate ways (i.e. a boy playing with a doll).
1961 Bobo doll experiment: Conducted by Albert Bandura and colleagues in 1961, the study investigated whether children’s behaviours would be influenced by those they observed in an adult model. Bandura had a number of predictions/hypothesis’s about the outcomes of the Bobo Doll Experiment, fitting with his views on the theories of social learning; -Children witnessing an adult role model behaving in an overly aggressive manner would be likely to replicate similar behaviour themselves, even if the adult was not present. -Subjects who had observed a non-aggressive adult would be the least likely to show violent tendencies, even if the adult was not present. They would be even less likely to exhibit this type of aggression than the control group of children, who had seen no role model at all. -Children would be much more likely to copy the behaviour of a role model of the same sex.
Most children imitate what they see a person do or say so if someone is doing something bad they will most likely copy that as well. Observational learning, social learning theory focuses on behavior modeling, in which the child observes and then imitates the behavior of adults or other children around him or her (Wiesner, Capaldi, Patterson,2003, p.318). Social learning is one cause of juvenile delinquent behavior because; juveniles who are easily persuaded are most likely to imitate everything they can see. A good example is the violence that is portrayed on television it can have a huge negative impact on the behavior of some children. The next reason why juveniles commit delinquent acts is child abuse.
Behavioral theory states that people act aggressively because, as children, they modeled their behavior after the violent acts of adults. When they get older, they become antisocial. As a child when they were awarded for doing things, they thought it was good and it became habitual and the behavior that is punished becomes extinguished. A sub branch of behavioral theory is social learning theory. They act violently when people pick on them, threaten them, or they are exposed to direct pain.
Learning Theory 3 The social learning theory is the behavior theory most significant to criminology. Albert Bandura alleged aggression is erudite through a curse of action called behavior modeling. He believed that individuals do not actually inherit violent tendencies, but they modeled them (Bandura & Ribes, 1976). Albert Bandura and other theorist argued that individuals, especially children, learn aggressive responses from observing others, either personally or through the media and environments (Bandura, 1976). He stated that many individuals believed that aggression will fabricate reinforcements.
According to Graham Vaughn and Michael Hogg (2005) in social psychology 4th edition, desensitization is’ a serious reduction in a person’s responsiveness to material that usually evokes a strong emotional reaction, such as violence or sexuality’. This could mean the violence seen in the media becomes more acceptable to a person exposed to it and they could potentially think it isn’t a bad thing. Banduras bobo doll experiment (1961) supports this statement as it indicated that children didn’t have a problem inciting negative actions on the bobo dolls after watching violent media such as violent cartoons. The fact that children were able to hit the bobo doll with a mallet for example shows that media violence of course has a huge effect, especially on vulnerable people such as young children. This social learning theory indicates that aggression isn’t something that is genetically passed on but that it is learned and imitated.