Individualistic Theories Flashcards
what are individualistic theories?
focus on something about the individual as an explanation for criminal behaviour e.g personality
what do behaviourists believe in the learning theory of criminal behaviour?
all behaviour apart from a few basic instincts are learnt from our environment in some way
what does the social learning theory suggest?
human behaviour is learnt through the imitation of role models
what is vicarious reinforcement?
involves learning from observation of the consequences of someone else’s actions, such as rewards
where did Bandura do his experiment and what was included?
- bobo doll
- 3-5 year old sample
- Stanford Bing University nursery
- children given juice and stickers if they imitate the behaviour
what were the three conditions that were seen in the three videos?
conditon 1- male model verbally praised for ‘superb aggressive behaviour’ and given sweets
condition 2- verbally criticised as big bully, hit with rolled-up newspaper
condition 3- no comment on model’s behaviour
Bandura’s results:
children who saw the model being punished showed lower levels of aggressive behaviour than other two conditions
- Once children were told about juice and stickers as rewards, there was little change in the number of aggressive acts from the children
What did Bandura’s results show?
aggressive behaviour being punished acts as a deterrent, seeing it rewarded isn’t necessary for behaviour to be imitated
children who saw the model punished decided not to imitate the aggressive behaviour even for a reward because it was punished before.
what issue does Bandura’s results show?
If children don’t see crime punished in some way, they’re much more likely to imitate, which can be an issue when films glamorise crime.
what does the differential association theory say?
That criminal activity is learned from our environment e.g family, peer group, work environment etc.
You’re more likely to be influenced by the people around you.
who theorised the differential association theory?
Sutherland
what are the two factors Sutherland sees that influence criminal behaviour?
imitation and learned attitudes
What are learned attitudes?
shared values and attitudes about the law amongst the people we associate with
- if someone’s group has unfavourable attitudes towards the law, these attitudes may be internalised and increase likelihood of criminal behaviour
evaluation of learning theories- STRENGTHS
tend to be controlled laboratory experiments that make it easier to establish the cause of a behaviour
replicated many times, finding similar results
EV- weakness- what did Cumberbatch find?
Children who had not played with a bobo doll before were 5 times more likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour of the model than those familiar with it.
