Which theory do you think does the best job of explaining criminal behavior? I believe that the theory that does the best job of explaining criminal behavior is the differential reinforcement theory. This is a theory of criminal behavior that emphasize various types of social learning, specifically classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and imitation or modeling.
Explain in detail why you think this theory does the best job of explaining criminal behavior. To understand why I believe that this theory does the best job of explaining criminal behavior, you must first understand the intricacies that make up the differential reinforcement theory. Burgess and Akers presented seven propositions to summarize this …show more content…
Bandura conducted a series of theoretical and experimental studies; throughout these studies he discovered that a large amount of learning takes place without any form of conditioning. He believed that people learn their attitudes and behavior by simply observing others, in other words mimicking. To further support his theory, he conducted an experiment to measure aggression of Bo-Bo dolls. Bandura had an experimental group in which we had children watch a video of adults aggressively beating a Bo-Bo doll, while the control group did not see the video. When the two groups were put into a room with Bo-Bo dolls, the children who had seen the video began to mimic the behavior that they saw. While, the children who had not seen the video were not aggressive to the dolls. Bandura’s theory of modeling and imitation relates to criminal behavior due to the implications that it has on the things that we see, including: television, movies, video games, and so …show more content…
It began with Reed Adams who criticized the theory for incorrectly and incompletely applying the principles of operant conditioning. He believed that the theory did not address “nonsocial reinforcement”, which is also known as self-reinforcement. Another criticism is that the differential reinforcement theory is that it appears tautological, which means that the variables and measures used to test its validity are true by definition. The studies that have been used to test this criticism have been divided into four groups of factors: associations, reinforcements, definitions, and modeling. Critics believe that individuals who report that they associate with those who offend, are rewarded for offending, believe offending is good are much more likely to
Explain in detail why you think this theory does the best job of explaining criminal behavior. To understand why I believe that this theory does the best job of explaining criminal behavior, you must first understand the intricacies that make up the differential reinforcement theory. Burgess and Akers presented seven propositions to summarize this …show more content…
Bandura conducted a series of theoretical and experimental studies; throughout these studies he discovered that a large amount of learning takes place without any form of conditioning. He believed that people learn their attitudes and behavior by simply observing others, in other words mimicking. To further support his theory, he conducted an experiment to measure aggression of Bo-Bo dolls. Bandura had an experimental group in which we had children watch a video of adults aggressively beating a Bo-Bo doll, while the control group did not see the video. When the two groups were put into a room with Bo-Bo dolls, the children who had seen the video began to mimic the behavior that they saw. While, the children who had not seen the video were not aggressive to the dolls. Bandura’s theory of modeling and imitation relates to criminal behavior due to the implications that it has on the things that we see, including: television, movies, video games, and so …show more content…
It began with Reed Adams who criticized the theory for incorrectly and incompletely applying the principles of operant conditioning. He believed that the theory did not address “nonsocial reinforcement”, which is also known as self-reinforcement. Another criticism is that the differential reinforcement theory is that it appears tautological, which means that the variables and measures used to test its validity are true by definition. The studies that have been used to test this criticism have been divided into four groups of factors: associations, reinforcements, definitions, and modeling. Critics believe that individuals who report that they associate with those who offend, are rewarded for offending, believe offending is good are much more likely to