Topic 3: Individualistic Theories of Crime Flashcards
What do learning theories suggest about crime?
That individuals learn through social interaction
What is the main idea of social learning theory?
That individuals learn through observation and imitation
What is ‘vicarious reinforcement’?
The idea that people can also learn through observing others being punished
What was Bandura’s aim of social learning theory?
To investigate the extent to which children would imitate the aggressive behaviour of adults
What was the aim of the bobo doll experiment?
To see whether or not there was a correlation between observing and carrying out violent behaviour
What was the closest imitation of the bobo doll experiment?
When a child observed an adult of the same sex
What were the key results of the bobo doll experiment?
Children who were exposed to violent behaviour played violently, children who were exposed to gentle behaviour played gently– the experiment demonstrated that children are able to learn through social behaviour such as aggression (observation and imitation), supporting Bandura’s theory
Give 2 advantages of the bobo doll experiment
- Carried out in a lab, therefore reducing the risk of outside factors, so they won’t influence the outcome
- Controlled group so everything is fair
Give 2 disadvantages of the bobo doll experiment
- Ethical issue (wrong to use children– risk of trauma)
- No long term evidence to back it up
How can social learning theory explain why people commit crime?
Criminals are conditioned to believe violent behaviour is normal and therefore if children see violent behaviour happening around them, then they may do the same because they believe its normal
How can social learning theory be applied to the Fred and Rose West case?
Both individuals grew up in physically and sexually abusive households from young ages, perhaps they grew up believing that these types of behaviour are normal
Summarise Sutherland’s theory of differential association
Sutherland stated that individuals learn criminal behaviour through peer/family influence and that people commit crime when they have learned more attitudes that favour criminal behaviour than those that oppose it
-Essentially people are more likely to be criminal if they have grown up around criminal behaviour
Summarise Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning
Comes from the idea of behaviourism, which suggests that behaviours can be conditioned through the use of reward and punishment, individuals learn that if they engage it good behaviour it will be rewarded and so will repeat the behaviour, and bad behaviour will result in punishment and therefore be less likely to repeat the behaviour
What is meant by the ‘iceberg’ analogy?
Freud says that the mind is like an iceberg in which the tip can only be seen, the part that can be seen is the conscious mind (the smaller part) and the part that cannot be seen is the unconscious mind (the bigger part)
According to Freud, what are the 3 parts of the mind?
The id, the ego and the superego
Describe the id
Represents the earliest desires, impulses and the need for gratification– the pleasure principle (like the devil on your shoulder)
Describe the ego
Represents reality and the ability to delay gratification (controlled/rational decisions), meditates the id and the superego– reality principle
Describe the superego
Represents moral and social constraints and controls the id’s impulses, it is the moral conscience that believes society determines how we behave (the angel on our shoulder)
