Ch 4 Crim Behavior: Learning & Situational Factors Flashcards
Behaviorism (Ivan Pavlov)
A perspective that focuses on observable, measurable behavior and argues that the social environment and learning are the key determinants of human behavior.
-“Conditioned Learning”-Classical Conditioning
He found what stimulated the brain according to what the person expected
EX: I see puzza, my mouth gets watery
Cognitive processes
Internal mental processes that enable humans to imagine, gain knowledge, reason, and evaluate information.
Classical conditioning/ Pavlovian conditioning
The process of learning to respond to a formerly neutral stimulus that has been paired with another stimulus that already elicits a response. Also called Pavlovian conditioning.
Stimulus
A person, object, or event that elicits behavior.
Independent variable
The measure whose effect is being studied, and, in most scientific investigations, that is manipulated by the experimenter in a controlled fashion.
Dependent variables
The variables that are measured to see how they are changed by manipulations of the independent variables.
Variable
Any entity that can be measured.
Situationism
A theoretical perspective that argues that environmental stimuli control behavior.
Reductionism
A research approach that argues that in order to understand highly complex events or phenomenon, one must start examining the simplest parts first.
Operant conditioning
A form of learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or diminished by its consequences. Also called instrumental learning.
Reinforcement
Anything that increases the probability of responding.
Positive reinforcement
The acquisition of something desired as a result of one’s behavior.
Negative reinforcement
The reward received for avoiding a painful or aversive condition, or stimuli.
Punishment
An event by which a person receives a noxious, painful, or aversive stimulus, usually as a consequence of behavior.
Extinction
The decline and eventual disappearance of a conditioned or learned response when it is no longer reinforced.
Social learning theory
A theory of human behavior based on learning from watching others in the social environment. This leads to an individual’s development of his or her own perceptions, thoughts, expectancies, competencies, and values.
Expectancy theory
A theory of motivation that takes into account both the expectancy of achieving a particular goal and the value placed on it.
Observational learning (modeling)
The process by which individuals learn patterns of behavior by observing another person performing the action.
Models
Individuals or groups of individuals in the environment whose behavior is observed and imitated.
Differential association-reinforcement (DAR) theory
A theory of deviance developed by Akers that combines Skinner’s behaviorism and Sutherland’s differential association theory. The theory states that people learn deviant behavior through the reinforcements they receive from the social environment.
Discriminative stimuli
Social signals or gestures transmitted by subcultural or peer groups to indicate whether certain kinds of behavior will be rewarded or punished within a particular social context.
Frustration
An aversive internal state of arousal that occurs when one is prevented from responding in a way that previously produced rewards (or that one believes would produce rewards).
Socialized offender
A person who violates the law consistently because of learning the behavioral patterns from his or her social environment.
Individual offender
In Berkowitz’s theory, the person who offends after a series of frustrations and unmet needs.
Fundamental attribution error
A tendency to underestimate the importance of situational determinates and to overestimate the importance of personality or dispositional factors in identifying the causes of human behavior.
Self-serving bias
A tendency to attribute positive things that happen to us to our abilities and personalities, and to attribute negative events to some cause outside ourselves or beyond our control.
Crimes of obedience
Illegal acts that are committed under the order of someone in authority.
Deindividuation
A process by which individuals feel they cannot be identified, primarily because they are disguised or are subsumed within a group.
Cognitive learning
The acquisition and retention of a mental representation of information and the use of this representation as the basis of behavior
EX: The experiment with the baby and the rabbit. Baby anticipated to be scared when they put the rabbit in front of him.
Stanford Prison Experiment
Classic study by Zimbardo demonstrating the power of the situation and role of deindividuation in human behavior.
Moral disengagement
The process of freeing oneself from one’s own moral standards in order to act against those standards. The unacceptable conduct is usually undertaken under orders from someone higher in authority or under high social pressure.
“ROTE LEARNING”
I tell you how to do something, I show you, then you learn.”
Ex: He can show you how to change a tire, and then you learn
“Conditioned Learning”-Classical Conditioning by Ivan Pavlov
He experimented with how/what makes a human salivate.He found the stimuli in the brain that made the stimuli active when there was a neutral stimuli.
Ex: Dogs expect to get food ina. room, therefore they salivated
Who is Skinner?
He developed Operant Conditioning.
Independent & Dependant Variables
Focused on prediction and control of behavior.
* Developed the concept of operant conditioning:
* Operant means “a given behavior”, the manifestation of operation.
* Behaviors are strengthened or weakened by the consequences that
follow them.
Environmental or external stimuli determine all behavior,
whether human or animal
* Independent variable (cf. cause)
* Environmental stimuli
* Dependent variable (cf. effect)
* Behaviors elicited by environmental stimuli
Situational & Reductionism
Humans differ only in degree from their animal ancestry
* Situationism – Behavior is driven overwhelmingly by
environmental conditions.
* Reductionism – Behavior, while appearing complex, is
a series of basic stimulus-responses
Classical Condition: A
Complete Accident
- It all started with Ivan Pavlov,
and a coincidental discovery in
1897
Operant Conditioning
Fundamental learning process that is acquired or
eliminated by the consequences that follow the behavior
Operant Conditioning: Reinforcement
Reinforcement
* Pleasant or desirable stimuli as a consequence of
behavior
* Can be additive (positive) or subtractive (negative)
PASTE FLASHCARD CHART
Operant Conditioning:: Punishment
Punishment
* Noxious or painful stimuli as a consequence
behavior
* Positive and negative here too
PASTE FLASHCARD CHART
Operant Conditioning:: Extinction
Extinction
* Neither reinforcement nor punishment for
behavior PASTE FLASHCARD CHART
Positive reinforcmnt goal:
increases behavior, intro to pleasant stimuli by doing the behavior
Operant Learning and Criminal
Behavior
- Criminal behavior is learned and strengthened because of the
reinforcements it brings - Humans born neutral—Stimulation shapes both desire and preference.
- Culture, society, and the environment shape behavior by fundamentally
dictating: - The stimuli that is available
- The consequence of experiencing any given stimulus
EX: JEFFREY DAHMER
Situational Instigators and
Regulators of Criminal
Behavior
Fundamental Attribution
Error
• The tendency to discount
the influence of the
situation and explain
behavior by referring to
the personality of the
actor instead
Situational Instigators and
Regulators of Criminal Behavior
Self-serving Biases
The tendency to attribute good things about
ourselves to dispositional factors and bad
things to events and forces outside ourselves
• Related to locus of control
• A perspective decision made to assume a
cause-effect relationship
Behaviorism:
Modern Behaviorism
• Behavioristic orientation toward the
scientific study of behavior, but moving
beyond “the black box”
• Additional factors must be introduced to
explain human behavior
• Social learning
• Expectancy theory
• Differential association-
reinforcement
Social Learning
Theory
• In order to understand criminal
behavior we must examine
perceptions, thoughts,
expectancies, competencies, and
values
• Each person has his or her own
version of the world and lives by that
version
• Cognitive processes
Rotter’s Expectancy Theory
• Performance is based on the
performer’s expectation that
specific behavior will lead to a
specific outcome. It is equation-like:
• Expectancy
• Instrumentality
• Valence
• Motivation
• Locus of control is also key here
• The belief a person has about their
degree of control over their own life
and outcomes.
Rotter’s Expectancy Theory
Expectancy
• Instrumentality
• Valence
• Motivation
Rotter’S expectancy theory What is locus of control?
• Locus of control is also key here
• The belief a person has about their
degree of control over their own life
and outcomes.
Differential Association-
Reinforcement Theory (DAR)
• People learn to commit deviant acts through
interpersonal interactions within their social
environment; that involve important others; and are
reinforced operantly.
• This is a hybrid theory that relies on:
• Differential Association Theory (Sutherland)
• Operant Conditioning (Skinner)
• Social Learning Theory (Bandura)
Frustration-Induced Criminality;
Frustration-Aggression Theory
• Leonard Berkowitz established a more psychologically
grounded “strain” theory
• Basically: The more intense and frequent the frustrations in a
person’s life, the more susceptible and sensitive the person is
to subsequent frustration.
• Frustration: Being blocked from achieving goals.
• Expectation: The higher the expectation of achieving the
goal the greater the frustration when failing to do so.
• Catharsis: Non-harmful aggressive behaviors that release
frustration, and therefore prevent harmful expression.
• Displacement: Targeting anything other than the source
of frustration to express aggression
What is frustration? Frustration-aggression theory
.
• Frustration: Being blocked from achieving goals.
Expectation = frustration _ aggression theory
Expectation
The higher the expectation of achieving the
goal the greater the frustration when failing to do so.
Catharsis = frustration aggression theory
• Catharsis: Non-harmful aggressive behaviors that release
frustration, and therefore prevent harmful expression.
Displacement: frustration aggression theory
Displacement
•: Targeting anything other than the source
of frustration to express aggression
Frustration-Induced Criminality
Two Types of Offenders
• Socialized offender
• Product of learning, conditioning,
and modeling
• Have learned to expect rewards as
a result of their interactions with
the social environment
• Individual offender
• Product of a long, possibly intense
series of frustrations resulting
from unmet needs
Frustration-
Induced
Criminality: Frustration-Induced Riots
• May help explain the behavior of looters during unexpected events like
floods, fires, urban riots, or electrical blackouts
• Individuals have materialistic goals which were blocked by society. These
individuals become impatient and frustrated. When opportunity to loot
arises, they take it
Authority as an Instigator
of Criminal Behavior
Crimes of Obedience
• “A crime of obedience is an act performed in
response to orders from authority that is considered
illegal or immoral by the larger community” (Kelman
& Hamilton, 1989, p. 46)
• Milgram’s Experiment
Authority as an
Instigator of
Criminal Behavior
Deindividuation
• Complex chain of events
• Feelings of anonymity
• Loss of identity, part of group
• Lack of responsibility/accountability for behavior
• Loss of self-awareness and concern over others’ opinion
• Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment
Authority as an Instigator
of Criminal Behavior
Moral Disengagement
• Bandura
• Individuals internalize moral
principles through social learning
• Self worth when maintained
• Self condemnation when
violated
