Week Nine - Behaviourism and Social Learning Theory

Question 1

When did Behaviourism and Social Learning Theory come to prevalence?

Answer 1

1920s onwards

Question 2

Freud vs. other theorists…

Answer 2

Whilst Freud proposed that our behavior is the result of tension and conflict between psychodynamic forces that cannot be seen, other theorists have proposed an alternative approach which focuses much more on observable behavior

Question 3

What does Behaviourism rely on?

Answer 3

Behaviorism relies on the fact that any behavior can be learned

Question 4

The behaviorist would posit that there is no such distinction as ‘us’ (non-criminals) and ‘them’ (criminals)…

Answer 4

The behaviorist would posit that there is no such distinction as ‘us’ (non-criminals) and ‘them’ (criminals).

Rather they would argue that as we develop and interact with out people, we learn, through trial and error, how to behave in different ways. Depending on how and what we learn, we either may or may not learn to behave in criminal or non-criminal ways

Question 5

Pavlov…

Answer 5

The underpinnings of behaviorism began at the turn of the century with the work of Ivan Pavlov who ideas of ‘classical conditioning’ or ‘learning by association’ had a huge impact on the development of psychology and criminology in the twentieth century

Pavlov’s first significant discovery came about by chance when he was studying the digestive systems of dogs. Whilst it is quite normal for dogs to start to salivate at the sight of good, he noted that the dogs would start to salivate at cues associated with the presence of food, such as the sound of being prepared. By ringing a bell before the dogs were fed, he noted that they would being to salivate even if he didn’t actually feed them

Question 6

What is the main idea of the Behaviourist approach?

Answer 6

The main idea of the approach was that people’s behavior could be explained not by forces inside a person but by the interaction between the person and their environment

Question 7

From 1930-1935 a researcher at Harvard developed the ideas of Pavlov further to provide a more comprehensive account of behavior acquisition… what was his name?

Answer 7

Burrhus Skinner

Question 8

What did Skinner formulate through experimental research?

Answer 8

Skinner formulated, through experimental research, the principles by which we can understand the relationships between behavior, the consequences of behavior and the learning of new patterns of behavior

Question 9

Skinner’s early work was conducted with animals but rather than focus on classical conditioning…

Answer 9

Skinner’s early work was conducted with animals but rather than focus on classical conditioning he look at what is known as operant behavior

Question 10

What is Operant Behaviour?

Answer 10

Operant behavior is the sort of behavior which operates on the environment to produce consequences

Question 11

What did he term the relationship between behaviour and its consequence?

Answer 11

The relationship between behavior and its consequences he termed a contingency

Question 12

He identified two types of contingency what were they?

Answer 12

Reinforcement

Punishment

Question 13

Edwin Sutherland was a member of the ‘Chicago School’ and had an interest in both…

Answer 13

Edwin Sutherland was a member of the ‘Chicago School’ and had an interest in both the social creation of crime but also the role of the individual in that process.

Question 14

What was Edwin Sutherland interested in?

Answer 14

He was interested in establishing how criminal behavior was transmitted through the generations, why some people would be drawn into crime when others would not and how criminal behavior can be learned

Question 15

Sutherland argued that crime is defined socially…

Answer 15

Sutherland argued that crime is defined socially and that those with power within society decide what is and what is not considered a criminal act. Therefore crime as a concept has both a social and a political dimension

Question 16

How does a person view crime, According to Sutherland?

Answer 16

According to Sutherland, the way a person views crime depends on the social forces in their life.

Some individuals will hold definitions that are favorable to crime and others will not

Therefore to understand a person’s criminal behavior we need to understand their history of individual learning experiences.

Question 17

How did Sutherland think learning took place?

Answer 17

• Sutherland argued that learning took place through association with other people, and that the learning might be about specific criminal techniques as well as about attitudes towards committing crimes

The important point is that each person is learning experience is different, depending on who they are exposed to, and so the theory was termed differential association

Question 18

What was Sutherlands Theory termed?

Answer 18

Differential Association

Question 19

What does Sutherland’s work not explain?

Answer 19

However, it doesn’t explain do some individuals in ‘similar circumstance chose to deviate and others don’t

Question 20

When did Social Learning Theory emerge?

Answer 20

Social Learning Theory emerged in the 1970s

Question 21

What two things are most important in Social Learning Theory?

Answer 21

In social learning theory observational learning and direct conditioning are important

Question 22

What is the most famous example of Social Learning Theory research? and what did this research suggest?

Answer 22

Bandura (1977) Bobo doll experiment - Group of infants watched a film showing an adult violently attack an inflatable rubber bobo doll. The group were then significantly more likely to repeat the aggressive behavoiur toward the doll than were the members of a control group not exposed to the film

This suggests that social learning takes place via film of cultural symbols and media role models (not just at familial and sub-cultural levels)

Question 23

However, take care….

Answer 23

Most research has been lab based

Question 24

What did Passer and Smith, 2001 conclude?

Answer 24

They concluded that there was a small effect with on-screen violence and this was greater if violence was justified