At the beginning of the course, I was very excited and enthused to learn about social psychology, specifically because of its relevance to our everyday life. After reading the course material in that first week, I was drawn to both the social learning perspective and the sociocultural perspective. So for the final discussion post of this course, I decided to write about the perspective that I align with most and how it has developed over these past eight weeks. After doing a lot of reading and studying, I found that I most aligned with the social learning perspective. The social learning perspective focuses on a system of rewards and punishments; whereas individuals learn appropriate and inappropriate social behaviors through being either rewarded for socially acceptable behavior or punished for socially unacceptable behaviors (Kenrick, Neuberg, & Cialdini, 2015). Early on in one’s childhood, he is taught values, morals, and life lessons that seek to produce a good, law-abiding, compassionate citizen of the world. …show more content…
According to Tittle, Antonaccio, and Botchkovar (2012), ““Whether individuals will refrain from or initiate, continue committing or desist from criminal and deviant acts depends on the relative frequency, amount and probability of past, present and anticipated rewards and punishments perceived to be attached to the behavior(Akers 1998:66)” (Tittle, Antonaccio, & Botchkovar, 2012, p. 864). Therefore, criminal misconduct is increased when combined with those factors, including the type and anticipated reward or punishment for the criminal behavior. Therefore, not all individuals view punished or inappropriate behavior negatively. This is may be the case with those labeled with sociopathic behavior, which has been shown to have both physiological and social learning influences (Shoemaker,
An additional aspect connected with psychopathy is the incomplete repressed capability to make the dissimilarity among ethical and conventional offenses. An ethical offense could be explained as one that is distinct due to its punishments relevant to the privileges and welfare of individuals. A conventional offense could be explained by its punishments relevant for the good of the social order. In the instance of those with psychopathy, individuals make a reduced amount of association to the victims that were part of the situation, and additionally appear to have a time that is more complex trying distinguishing between ethical and conventional offenses mentioned during the situation. ("Psychopathy: A Misunderstood Personality Disorder", 2011). Therefore, if there is nothing eliminating the action or offense, adults as well as children with psychopathy, will most likely illustrate a diminished capacity to differentiate between the two types of offenses.
Psychology plays a very important role in the field of criminal justice. It is needed to help assess individuals who commit crimes, as well as, help to be a predictor of criminal behavior. Utilizing theories such behaviorism and operant conditioning, individual behavior is able to be assessed by the response to learning what actions result in rewards and what actions result in punishment. As a result of how individuals respond to rewards and punishment, learned behaviors have the possibility to be deterred or corrected.
Psychological factors also play a role in these disorders. According to Rosenberg and Kosslyn (2011), classical and operant conditioning do not seem to have the same effects for persons with psychopathic traits. If one is unable to learn from
Psychology is one of the newest sciences. Because it is the science of the mind and behavior, it is also less concrete than some of the other sciences. Over the years, social scientists have developed theories or perspectives based off of their observations, research, and the perspectives of other scientists. Although there is some overlap, each of the major perspectives of psychology is unique. As a result, they each have strengths and weaknesses and explain psychology in a different way. One theory, the sociocultural perspective, is exactly what its name suggests. It’s the idea that the society and groups that an individual belongs to are what influences development, thoughts, and behavior. The sociocultural perspective was
Psychopathy, in both the mental health and criminal justice systems, has emerged as one of the most important clinical constructs of the 21st century (Hare, Clark, Grann, & Thornton, 2000, p. 623). Where clinically, psychopathy is traditionally described as a combination of inferred socially deviant behaviors and personality traits. Some traits and behaviors a psychopath is seen to possess are commonly known, for example, to being impulsive, selfish, aggressive, lacking remorse, shame, feeling for others, pathologically lying, and having asocial or antisocial behaviors (Hare, & Neumann, 2006, p. 59-60). One of the reasons as to why psychopathy has come to see an increase in the development of its theoretical and applied interest is the
Strengths of social learning theory include the ease of implementing an optimistic and appropriate behavior modification to counter maladaptive behaviors in place, it is applicable to various behaviors, it is easy to understand, and it integrates social and cognitive skills through observation and practice. This theory is considered empowering as it helps individuals identify for themselves appropriate behaviors through observation and practicing the desired behavior. Weaknesses of this theory are that it does not take into account individual interpretations of situations, it does not relate to all behavioral differences, and it focuses more on what is happening in the situation rather than explaining why the situation is occurring.
Andrews, D. A., & Bonta, J. (2006). The psychology of criminal conduct (4th ed.). Cincinnati: Anderson.
To me, the opening section is what stood out when first reading the syllabus. Before coming to college attending students usually, will tell you how difficult classes are and how professors don’t care about your problems or what you're dealing with personally. They’ll say something like the professor comes into the classroom takes homework, lectures, gives test and grades. However, after I read just the opening section of the syllabus I could tell that this course would be of a course I’ve never taken before.
The principles and theories of Social Psychology are important and useful in assessing behaviors in situations. These social psychological principles and their applications can be seen in fictional films which can also be attributed to everyday life. One such film that holds certain social psychological perspectives is Will Gluck’s 2010 production of Easy A. A film about high school student Olive Penderghast and how a sudden change in popularity and financial status, after an unintentional rumor about how she supposedly lost her virginity to a college guy spread through the entire her school. The film draws on the behavioral connections of pronounced hussy Olive Penderghast and her English class’s assigned reading of The Scarlet Letter.
When looking at criminal activity and the direct connection to the criminal behavior we see that there have been many research trials that have taken place over the history of humankind (Mishra & Lalumiere, 2008). Two of these research areas that have been developed to attempt to understand the causes of criminal behavior are known as biological and psychological perspectives of crime causation. These two sectors have their principles that are held in their theories as a standard scientific understanding of the basics that each evaluation of criminal behavior is built on (Dretske, 2004).
Throughout this course, we have been asked "What is humanities"? Humanities is the study of human beings by culture, the arts including theater, dance, and music. Within the humanities there are different eras that are represented such as the information age. The Information Age is a time period in our history where the traditional industry shifted to the Industrial Revolution. The Information Age is a great example of how progressively advanced a country can be in with-in a time period. This advancement in the Information Age has a discrepancy; such as the commencement of technology and the definition of digital, new methods of interaction between different people and devices. The physical component of the Information Age is a very important
Social Learning Theory impacted my life in that who I am is mostly influenced by my family, and ingrained by the amount of years that I spent being exposed to a certain set of morals and values. My family is Baptist, so I have a strong belief in God, and have a tendency to follow the word of God to guild my life, and raise my children. I believe that people should be honest hard working, and positively contribute to society. I believe that laws should be followed, and if they are broken, should be punished in accordance with the severity of the law. My parents taught me that the correct behavior would be rewarded. Conversely, bad behavior would be punished. If, I told the truth, about something bad that I had done, I would still be punished, but it would be a lesser punishment then if, I had done something bad, and lied about
One researcher studied a theory relating to sociopaths and their antisocial behavior. This specific study proposed a theory that a primary sociopath is lacking in moral development and does not feel socially responsible for their actions. This type of sociopath is a product of the individual's personality, physiotype, and genotype, which supports the theory that a person’s genotype is the significant factor in the development of criminality. There is a secondary sociopath that develops in response to his or her environment because of how and where they were raised. Living in an urban residence, having a low socioeconomic status, or poor social skills can lead an individual to being unsuccessful in reaching their needs in a socially desirable way, which can turn into antisocial or criminal behavior. This supports the theory that the environment is the significant factor in the development of criminality. With these studies, it shows that both the genetic make-up of an individual as well as the environment play an important role with what kind of person they are going to be as an adult.
Sociology and psychology is the study of the mind and the environment around us which makes us who we are. These theories assist us to understand behaviour from individual and societal levels.
I’ve learned a lot of useful tips from this semester in ENG 201. English has never been my strong suit nor has it been my favorite class. However this college course has changed my point of view of the subject. Prior coming into college I viewed English as a useless class because I’ve already knew the basics: how to talk, read and write essays. Today I view English as an important class. It helped me in other courses that involved writing, such as World Civilization and Communications, because it allowed me to practice my skills. In my world civilization exams I had to write essays. This course helped me write an impactful essay. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that almost all of my exam scores were in the 90s, usually I do poorly in the