Psychological Principles Of Operant Conditioning

The Social Learning Theory and the Outcome on Criminal Behavior Introduction I’ve chosen the social learning theory because I believe that juveniles committed crime due to associations which is the outcome of this theory. There are numerous reasons that could justify why juveniles commit crime or become delinquent, but I feel and believe that the social learning theory really explicate why juveniles do what they do. The social learning theory explains why people are motivated and are able to develop certain abilities to commit crime. This theory describes how crime is learnt and motivated from people who they are associated with such as significant others, family, and peers.

Our understanding of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning has allowed us to unlock many of the answers we sought to learn about human behavior. Classical conditioning is a technique of behavioral training, coined by Ivan Pavlov, which basically states that an organism learns through establishing associations between different events and stimuli. This helps us understand human behavior in an assortment of ways. It makes it clear that almost everything we do is based on patterns of stimulus and response. For example, if you were bitten aggressively by a dog as a child, you may be still scared of dogs today. That is because the dog caused you pain, which in turn caused you have anxiety towards dogs.

Combating recidivism and the continuously growing prison population has been an ongoing problem that has been steadily draining federal, state, and local budgets. In a vain attempt to reduce recidivism the criminal justice system made sentences harsher, which in turn lead to more prisons being built to house the booming prison population. For almost 30 years’ researchers have sought answers for why so many criminals return to crime within five years of being released. These

Re-arrest rates ranged from 33.8 percent of offenders in the lowest criminal history category to 80.1 percent of offenders in the highest criminal history category; An offender’s age at the time of release was also closely correlated with recidivism. Offenders released prior to age 21 had the highest re-arrest rate, at 67.6 percent, compared to 16.0 percent for those offenders over 60 years of age at the time of release; Other factors, including offense type and educational level, were also associated with differing rates of recidivism but less strongly than age and criminal history.

Skinner’s theory observes individuals from the point of view of the behavior that they demonstrate. The key weakness of this theory is its attempt to explain the behaviors of an individual solely through visible phenomena. Critics sometimes accuse behaviorists of denying that ideas and thoughts exist (Jensen & Burgess, 1997). The major opposition that behaviorists face is that behavior of a person cannot be understood without including the mental activity of the individual. Critics have accused behaviorists of focusing only on behavior and ignoring the role of physiology, neuroscience, and genetics (Weiss & Rosales-Ruiz, 2014). Sometimes the reactions that people demonstrate have are not related their experience and therefore they have another

Recidivism research, although complicated, shows that a person being released from confinement is more likely to repeat criminal behavior the more that person had prior arrests (Bohm & Haley, 2011). Recent studies showed that recidivism rates are quite steady (Bohm & Haley, 2011). The American Correctional Association revealed that recidivism rates might be declining (Bohm & Haley, 2011). “Regardless, the fact that more than three of every ten inmates are returned to prison within 4 years is nothing to celebrate” (Bohm & Haley, 2011, p. 425). Furthermore, research shows that many criminals prefer to serve prison time rather than receive probation (Bohm & Haley, 2011). Couple this with the fact most prisoners that adapt well to confinement,

The social learning theory says that people learn their behaviors from those they associate with, meaning if a person’s best friend is a “good” person, that behavior will rub off onto that person. According to social learning theory, people engage in crime because of their association with others who engage in crime (Crossman). Their criminal behavior is reinforced and they learn beliefs that are favorable to crime (Crossman). They essentially have criminal models that they associate with (Crossman). As a consequence, these individuals come to view crime as something that is desirable, or at least justifiable in certain situations (Crossman).

When I was in my psychology class in high school, we spent a month talking about classical conditioning and we did many interesting experiments involving it. We also touched on operant conditioning and social learning, so I have some background knowledge in this subject. Classical and operant conditioning, along with social learning, are all ways to teach animals or humans how to behave. These theories developed because psychologists wanted to understand why people behave the way they do and many famous experiments have been conducted to answer this question. It was very interesting to learn more about these theories and how they work, and relating them to my own personal experiences.

Behavioral conditioning is used in many studies to train lab animals to perform certain tasks, but studying the concept of behavioral conditioning in itself could be beneficial as well. Behavioral conditioning is known to have associations with dopamine in the brain's reward center, but the exact process is completely figured out. Studying dopamine and DA neuron activity in the brain can provide further clues as to how this process occurs, and allow for the implementation of these results in the future. Understanding the mechanics of behavioral conditioning can provide enough understanding to make training research animals more efficient and effective. On a much larger scale, by understanding the processes that occur when behavior is learned, this knowledge can be used to figure out what exactly should be targeted when figuring out the most effective methods of teaching.

This behavior is learned through close relations with others, it states that children are born good but learned to be bad. This theory states that all people have the potential to become criminals because modern society presents many opportunities for illegal activity but one has the choice to not engage. In addition the authors of an academic journal believe that the Social learning theory proposes that crime is a function of social factors, including differential association, modeling, differential reinforcement, and definitions (Fox, Nobles and

picked up the wallet and ran away, then Kevin is likely to see this as

Example of Operant conditioning, is when you decided to snooze the alarm in the morning after partying all night long. Finally you decide to get up to go to work you are running 15 min late. And decide to step on gas pedal. You are now driving 50 mph on a 35 mph road. You think you are fine and won 't get caught because everyone else is driving fast also. All of sudden a cop is hidden in between the trees and bushes. You try to brake, in order to slow down a bit, but it 's too late…. The cop has turn on the lights and tail-gating you already. You pull over and you try to convince him that you had a “tough night”… even though it 's a lie, and to let you off with a warning. The cop tells you he doesn 't care and you should know better. Therefore he gives you a speeding ticket of about two hundred dollars and a court date if you decide to fight it. In order to go to court you will have to miss work, which means you won 't get paid. Then you have to pay for all the additional court fees if you want to go to clear your record; your insurance will go up, have to pay for driving school and miss more work also. You will have to go through all this trouble, time and money. Just for being too lazy and “tired” to get up on time.

Operant conditioning is a type of learning which occurs through either receiving reinforcement or punishment for a behavior. This type of learning creates an association between a behavior and consequence for that behavior. The four types of operant conditioning are positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement, and negative punishment. If operant conditioning was used properly it could be used to solve a variety of social and resource dilemmas; especially in the case of the cattle ranchers and overgrazing.

Operant Conditioning – The response of the operant is modified by some type of influencing factor due to the aftereffects of the response.

The social learning theory states that criminal behavior is learned. Criminals learn their bad behaviors from close relationships they may have with criminal peers (Siegel & Worrall, 2016). Children look up to their parents; they want to be just like them. So, if children grow up surround by crime, they think that it is both normal and acceptable, and it is likely that they will participate in criminal behavior when they are older. As a result of learning this behavior, it is passed down through generations and is never broken. This can also be learned from friendships people may have with negative influences. Young adults and children want to fit in with their peers, so if they are surrounded with those who commit crimes, they are probably going to do the same because “everyone is doing it”.