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Social Learning Theories

Decent Essays

Domestic violence can be defined as the type of behavior that is aggressive or violent and usually occurs within the home, it usually involves two or more people of an intimate relationship. There are different reasons as to why people commit acts of domestic violence, even though many may think that abusive behaviors are inherited, this is not the case. Violent and abusive behaviors are learned rather than inherited, and Social Learning Theories best explains how people are more prone to being violent. Social learning theory is the idea that people learn by observing and imitating someone else’s behavior and attitude. The social learning theory states that people are not born with violent or abusive behaviors, but that these things are learned …show more content…

For example a father might tell the mother that he is beating her because she did not pick up all of the items from the store that he told her to get. Or a mother might tell the child that they are being spanked because he/she did not clean their room when they were told. These examples provide reasoning as to why and how children may learn to justify their violent behaviors. Some other examples could be children watch a bully pick on another little kid and because the bully is getting attentions and may look cool, other children may try to imitate these actions in order to get the same response. Or if a child see’s someone bust a car window, and they decide to do the same thing in order to fit …show more content…

Children imitate behavior because they believe that what they are doing will be rewarded, and because of this they will continue to commit these acts. Because children desire to be approved they will do what it takes in order to receive the approval of their family and peers. Reinforcement can be both positive and negative, but most importantly the fact of the matter is that reinforcement can lead to the change of a person’s behavior if the reinforcement does not match the person’s needs (McLeod,

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