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Learning Theory
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Theory:

Bandura believes that people learn by watching the behaviour of others
...

Aggression can be learned from watching others behave in an aggressive
manner
...

: Learned aggressive skills
...

Vicarious reinforcement- reinforcement that is
experienced through watching another person
being rewarded or punished for a behaviour
...


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Supporting
research:

Bandura carried out a series of tests involving a Bobo doll
...

In the aggressive model, adults were seen to kick and pummel the doll and
also hit it with a mallet and throw it in the air
...


How does this
theory explain
criminal
behaviour?

Children in the aggressive condition were much more likely to play aggressively with
the Bobo doll than both of the other two groups of children
...

Bandura concluded that aggression can be learnt through imitation, by observing
aggressive models
...

Observational learning: this is where viewers learn behaviour from, watching others by seeing
them rewarded or punished
...


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Evaluation of Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
A strength of Bandura’s study is that the experiment and variables, such as the
gender and actions of the model, were well balanced thus allowing greater
reliability
...
To that
effect, the study has been replicated with slight changes and similar results
have been found
...

A strength of Bandura’s social learning theory is that there is research
evidence to support
...

Therefore such supporting research provides an element of validity to the
theory and shows how observational learning can explain criminality
...
The concept that a
complete behaviour such as criminality can be reduced down to being
explained by observational learning could be breaking criminal behaviour
down too much, resulting in other relevant and applicable explanations not
being considered, therefore a more holistic approach in which serval factors
are considered may provide a more in depth, useful explanation
...
The children are exposed to aggression which
could have resulted in psychological harm therefore this limits the credibility
of the theory as an explanation of criminal behaviour
...

When developing the superego, the child will internalise their same sex parent
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There are three main ways in which this could happen (the 3 superegos)
...
So they would act in a way that gratifies
their ID regardless of social constraints so they commit impulsive crimes like assault
...

Strong superego: Two ways a strong superego could develop: 1
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This means the individual is unconsciously driven to
commit punishable acts to satisfy the superegos need to punish
...
A strong superego
might prevent the person from expressing any of the antisocial impulses that build up
in their unconscious
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Supporting
research:

How does this
theory explain
criminal
behaviour?
Parts of mind
...

Of the delinquents, 39% had experienced complete separation from their mothers for
six months or more during the first five years of their lives, compared with 5% of the
control group
...


Your EGO: the works on the reality principle and has the ability to delay
gratification for more realistic goals, develops at 3 years old
...

Your ID: this controls primitive desires and the need for gratification, operating on
the pleasure principle, the ID is innate meaning you born with it
...

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Your SUPEREGO: this is responsible for your model and social constraints it is the
‘ideal’ force telling you how you should behave to be a better person, develops
at 5 years old
...


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Evaluation of Freud’s Theory of the Psyche
P: One strength of the psychodynamic theory of criminality is that there is
research evidence to support
...

E: Therefore, this demonstrates criminality can be explained by early childhood
separation from parents, which Freud suggested could lead to a weak superego
which would be responsible for impulsive crimes such as theft
...

E: For example, if we are aware that there was criminal behaviour in a
household with many young children, interventions could be placed within the
home to prevent that behaviour occurring in the child due to a undeveloped
superego
...

P: It has been shown that psychodynamic therapies to treat offending have
not been very effective
...
Such treatments also disregard the importance of a
biological component e
...
genes, as they are mainly utilising talking therapies
such as psychoanalysis
...

P: A weakness of Freud’s theory is that it is highly unscientific and lacks
objective evidence due to the difficulty of testing concepts such as the
unconscious mind
...

E: Therefore, psychodynamic theories of offending lack credibility in explaining
the causes of criminal behaviour
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Traits are characteristics that define who you are
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At the top of the hierarchy are broad characteristics, higher-order traits
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You may not have all of those behaviours, but you will exhibit most of them if you
have that personality trait
...
These traits are based on the innate and inherited
structure and functioning of our brain
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g a criminal
type could go joy riding
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g a criminal type could be a stalker
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g a criminal type could commit murder
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On measures of E, N and P, prisoners
recorded higher scores than the control
group which accords with the prediction of
the theory
...


The criminal personality is the neurotic-extravert
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This is because it is difficult for them to learn to control their immature
impulses
...
So, they do not easily learn to respond to antisocial
impulses with anxiety
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Extraversion
Neuroticism
Psychoticism
...

E: Eysenck assessed 2070 male prisoners who were compared to a control group of
2422 males on measures of E, N, P, prisoners recorded higher score than the control
group which accords to the prediction of the theory
...


P: On strength of Eysenck’s personality theory is that it has useful applications
...

E: Therefore this theory could be used to identify potential criminals by analysing
personality traits and behaviour modification programmes introduced to stop
offenders
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E: However, it has been suggested that a personality does not stabilise until 27-30
years of age, and also it is very common to change personality when with different
people
...

P: One weakness of Eysenck’s theory is that the theory is based on self
report, data collected by self reports is often considered to be low in validity
...

E: Therefore by using their method it lowers the validity of the theory as an
explanation for criminality

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