Social Learning Theory

When males are 20-25 years old, the highest category for committing a crime, they have no other ways to show females how manly they are other then fighting and committing crimes. I think the reason why older males don’t commit more crimes compared to the younger generation is because older folk have other ways to show their manliness like their job, how much money they have, or the kind of car that they drive. That being said crime has nothing to do with biology, but it comes down to men trying to show how powerful they are in an attempt to “woo” a female. Concerning the fact that males and females sharing the same environment but males being “more violent”, I think the reason is because males aren’t as protected as females are. During high school kids always hear about fathers or brothers who will protect their child or sibling from anyone that hurts them in any way. You never hear a sister or a mother saying that about their

Throughout this course, we have explored a vast amount of theories, however, Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (SLT) has been the one that intrigued me the most. Bandura’s SLT “strongly emphasized the importance of observational learning and cognitive variables in explaining human behavior (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk 2017).” According to our readings Bandura agrees with the behaviorist learning theories of classical and operant conditioning, he proposes that the SLT is a result of both person and situation, which does not have the same effect from either component on their own (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk 2017). One of his most well-known studies involves a bobo doll. In which Bandura demonstrates that when someone observes violent behavior it increases the chances of violence of the spectator, and

Aggression is a natural part of human behavior, and can even be adaptive in certain situations. However, when aggression manifests itself in violent behaviors, it becomes problematic. Patterns of aggression change throughout childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, and these changes usually differ between males and females (Loeber, 1997). Physical aggression is typically greatest early in life and decreases during adolescence, whereas more serious violence tends to increase with age, particularly during adolescence (Loeber, 1997). Despite the changes that occur in aggressive tendencies throughout childhood and adolescence, aggression is seen as a very stable trait, almost as stable as

Social learning theory, developed by Bandura, discusses how people learn from one another through observation, modeling, and imitation bridging an individual’s attention, memory and motivation. Social learning theory identifies the importance of cognition, observable behavior, individual self-efficacy, and the extent of how the events surrounding an individual affect them; their locus of control. Social learning theory also looks at individual problem behavior being influenced by positive or negative reinforcement (Ashford & LeCroy, 2012).

As mentioned before and regarding gender, women are far more likely than men to be victims of domestic violence (Kimmel and Holler, 2011, 375). Sev’er (2002) suggests an interesting finding regarding men and women who have fallen victim or have witnessed domestic abuse in their childhood. In her findings, Sev’er concluded that in comparison to non-violent men, violent men were three times more likely to have witnessed violence as a child, meanwhile, women who were raised in violent homes were twice as likely to fall victim to a form of domestic violence as opposed to women who were not raised in non-violent homes (109). As a child, if their role models, such as their fathers, got away with violence, they would assume that violent behaviour was acceptable (Sev’er, 2002, 109)

Aggression is an emotion Im sure that everyone has experienced in their lifetime, some more often then others. However through readings and case studies, it has been proven that males tend to be more aggressive in nature than a femle. One reason for this conclusion is do to the evolutionary perpsective. According to Baron &

Akers and Sellers (2013) has stated that social learning theory is an expanded theory of differential association processes and improves it with differential reinforcement and other principles of the behavior theory. They added classical conditioning (the sharpening of involuntary reflex behavior); discriminative stimuli (internal stimuli that lead to signals for behavior); schedules of reinforcement (rewards and punishment ratio following behavioral feedback); and other theories of behavior (Akers & Sellers, 2013).

In today’s society gender roles are very prevalent. Many people rely on gender on roles to tell them what they are supposed to do. From how they dress, what they eat, who they date, and how they interact with the world. Parents and other family members play a huge role in the gender roles of children. Many young boys are learning to be aggressive at an early age. Their parents are teaching them the basic gender roles of men, and aggression is one of them. “Boys and girls are dressed differently, receive different toys to play with, and sleep in bedrooms that are furnished differently. The world says that males should be strong, aggressive, and dominant. Then the world says that females should be nurturing, submissive, and supportive. Many people learn gender roles at an early age. For most people, the gender roles follow them into adulthood. Especially in men. Men tend to have more pressure forced upon them to live up to their gender roles. There is way more pressure on boys to be masculine. Most of the pressure comes from their parents. For females people tend to be more lenient if they do not follow the typical role as a woman. Many women began to mimic the male role because it presents power and respect. As stated previously males are typically labeled to be more aggressive than females. Aggression is any behavior intended to harm another individual. It is even presented in all kind of ways. Boys are taught to be like their fathers and be very masculine, unlike girls.

Most of the time, aggression is acquired through modelling the violence that we observe in our everyday life (Bandura & Walters, 1959). Albert Bandura showed that children learned new aggressive behaviours by observing aggressive models (Bandura, 1973) and that they do not just imitate the specific behaviours that they see, but viewing aggression changes their schemas and their attitudes about aggression. A child witnessing their parent acting aggressively towards another person will not only increase their probability of developing aggressive tendencies but may also give them the impression that that such viciousness and hostility are socially acceptable. In Malaysia, violent families are not uncommon. This is particularly problematic for children growing in such an environment because not only are they the victims of aggression, they also witness violence and pain inflicted upon their

Physical assault and aggression is the second leading cause of death among 14 to 17 year olds, next to vehicular accidents (Loeber). But why are humans so aggressive in the first place? There are two sides of the debate: Nature, and Nurture. Some say that it’s human nature, genetics that cause most behaviors, while others say that we act as we learned during childhood. This argument applies to aggression as well. Aggression is mainly caused by things during childhood and adolescence where people learn from various sources about aggression, although, human psychology plays a slight factor.

The roles we live out each day are connected with the way we think about aggression. It may also be that parents are responsible for these roles by giving the messages they send to their children. "Parents respond to males and females differently,

Because males tend to value influential goals such as status among peers, they will typically use overt forms of aggression and gradually incorporate relational forms (Grotpeter & Crick, 1996). The choice of aggression could be linked to the social roles of males and females, the verbal maturity, or the social dynamics in peer relationships.

The nature versus nurture debate is an ongoing debate among social scientists relating to whether ones personality/personal characteristics are the result of his/her inherited genetic traits or the result of environmental factors such as upbringing, social status, financial stability, and more. One of the topics that are discussed among psychologists is the study of violent behavior among people as a whole, and in particular, individuals. Social scientists try to explain why people commit acts of violence through explanation of either side of the nature or nurture schools of thought. However, the overwhelming amount of research done into the relation of violent behavior and the nature versus nurture debate indicated that nurture is the primary explanation to explaining violent behavior because violent traits are learned from adults, someone’s social upbringing is a major factor to why some people are more violent than others, and finally influences from news media, movies, and video games enhance the chance for someone to exhibit violent behavior. In conclusion, violent behavior is a complex issue without a clear explanation that is overwhelmingly supported by the nurture side of the debate.

Children learn very early about right and wrong. The exposure to violence at a young age can have an effect on a person’s development and behavior as an adult. Children who witness violence often are more aggressive. Those rejected by their parents are more likely to experience PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and problems with social information processing, which can lead to violence toward their intimate partners. A violent upbringing and a lack of early positive experiences, increases a child’s tendency to become violent in the future.

Let’s shift our focus to what Albert Bandura mainly studied, aggression. Specifically, females. The article Girls and physical aggression: Causes, trends, and intervention guided by Social Learning Theory explores females becoming the perpetrators of physical aggression (Snethen, & Puymbroeck 2008). They apply the “Social Learning Theory of Aggression” as their basis to examine the growing occurrences of violence in females, society and popular culture. They propose that females taking part in physical aggression is becoming very common, they claim it may be due to environmental changes (Snethen, & Puymbroeck 2008). Females are defenseless from a variety of sources, such as the media, family and the community. Nonetheless, according to Bandura’s SLT exposure only provides the knowledge and increased acceptance of physical aggression (Snethen, & Puymbroeck 2008). For the aggressiveness to be triggered the individual must get emotionally affected, which leads them to want to gain status and power. Hence, aggression will only be ongoing if there is a reinforcement (Snethen, & Puymbroeck 2008). The three main types of reinforcements are direct, vicarious, and self-reinforcement. To effectively help females, the researchers came up with two solutions, one being that the entire community should help prevent aggressive behavior in females. Secondly, since prevention will not aid those now affected girls they suggest planning an implementation of treatment specifically for