3.1.3 Social exp. 1: Differential Association Theory Evaluation Flashcards
1
Q
1 Major contributions
A
- helped to bring about a shift from ‘blaming’ individual factors to pointing to the influence of social factors
- Beforehand, criminal behaviour was mostly considered a product of abnormal personality
2
Q
Supporting evidence #1
Sutherland (1939)
A
- helped to raise awareness of crimes that were often very difficult to explain
e.g white collar crimes
3
Q
supporting evidence #2
Osborn & West (1979)
A
- They found that, where there is a father with a criminal conviction, 40% of the sons had committed a crime by age 18 compared to 13% of sons of non-criminal fathers
4
Q
supporting evidence #3
Akers et al. (1979)
A
Akers et al. (1979)
- Completed a study surveying 2,500 male and female adolescents in US to investigate drinking and drug behaviour
5
Q
Findings of Akers et al. (1979)
A
- found the most important influence on this form of deviant behaviour was from peers
- found that differential association, differential reinforcement and imitation combined to account for 68% of the variance in marijuana and 55% of alcohol use
6
Q
evaluation points
A
- it is purely based on a survey
> social desirability issues - Only looks at 2 crimes
> not applicable or generalisable to all crimes - cultural bias
- population validity
- very large sample
7
Q
methodological issues #1
A
- data collection was correlational
> no cause and effect
8
Q
methodological issues #2
A
Cox et al. (2014)
- theory is not testable
- issue is about how one measures the effect of numbers and strength of association on subsequent attitudes
9
Q
Limited explanation
A
- does not account for more serious crimes
10
Q
conclusion:
A
- positive implications of suggesting crime is a product of socialisation
- lack of scientific evidence
> important in psych so theories can be valuable and falsifiable
