Social Learning Theory Applied to Mary's Case

This assignment analyzes the case of Mary, examining how social learning theory influences her personality development. It explores the concepts of observational learning, modeling, and reinforcement as they relate to Mary's upbringing. The essay argues that Mary's lack of positive role models during her childhood led to her developing a personality which was not received by her in her childhood.

Psychology of Crime

Psychology of Crime
Psychology is considered to be science of behaviour a mind. It has an inclusion of conscious
and sub conscious phenomena which helps in understanding the behavioural and mental
characteristics of an individual (Rotter, 2017). The essay deals in understanding the psychology
of Mary who have committed a crime. In order to understand each aspect of the case, social
learning theory will be applied to analyse her behavioural characteristics. It will help in assessing
that a direct influence of surroundings of an individual can be perceived on actions of a child.
People tend to learn through observation. Perceiving the attitude, behaviour and outcomes of
those behaviour stimulate them to perform a particular task in the similar manner. An individual
form an idea of how the new behaviour has actually been performed and the perceived
observation serves as a future guide for them which is used at the time of action. According to
Jennings and Henderson (2014), Social learning theory is a subpart of various psychological
theories which states that learning comes directly through observing social behaviour which can
further be acquired by imitating others. Furthermore, the theory states that learning is a cognitive
process that can purely initiate direct instruction of performing a task even if direct
reinforcement to the particular act is not present. However, in contrast to this, as per the views of
Taylor (2017), social learning theory gives the individual an opportunity to learn through the real
happenings of the world. It is not only related to observing the situation but the consequences
that resulted to something fruitful for the individual. The learners in this case is not a passive
recipient but have a mutual role of cognition, environment and behaviour.
A strong application of social learning theory has been noticed criminology where emerging
and maintaining deviant behaviour and aggression in a criminal. The probability of getting
involved in the criminalistics activity is higher if the social construction has been set in that
manner. The consequences of the situation can be achieved through social and non-social
situation that are being faced by an individual (Cochran and et.al., 2017). There are basically
four main stages of application of social learning theory. The first stage is, attention where
individual’s attention towards a particular situation ascertain its acceptance. A high dependence
can be found on various factors such as, prevalence, functional value, complexity, affective
valence and distinctiveness. Other characteristics of the individual affecting attention includes,
past reinforcement, arousal level, perceptual set and sensory capacities. The second stage of
social learning is retention which includes how much the situation have been remembered by the
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individual to which he / she paid attention (Social Learning theory, 2017). Common
characteristics of addressing retention includes, organization of cognitive behaviour, motor
rehearsal, symbolic rehearsal, mental images, symbolic coding, etc. The third stage is
reproduction where ability of reproducing images is assessed which includes, physical
capabilities and self-observation of reproduction. The last stage of social learning is motivation
where the reason of imitating the behaviour is analysed. There can be certain motives of the
criminal in the form of past, promised and vicarious activities (Siemens, 2014).
The case suggests that Mary is a 16-year-old girl who have been arrested on the charge of
murder of an international male tourist during attempt of robbery. Cops have found that she has
been involved in intake of paraphernalia and injected traces of tell-tale. The history of the girl
suggests that she ran away from her home. Her biological father abandoned her family who was
violent, involved in intake of heavy alcohol and drugs and used to beat his family members. He
was also prisoned for various property and violence offences. Mary’s step father was physically
abusive towards her. She was also physically abused by her father from the age of 14 years.
Analysing the behaviour of Mary, she herself was a rebellious and cranky child with
deteriorating behaviour over the number of years. She was not good in studies and used to skip
her school regularly. Her group of friends were also involved in delinquent behaviour. Other
characteristics of Mary includes, drinking regularly, shoplifting, experimenting with illegal
drugs, involving in petty theft, engaging in casual sex, etc. These were some of the methods she
used to escape from reality. Addressing her behaviour, it can be analysed that she has gone
through troublesome childhood memories which has encouraged her to get involved in these
activities with criminal nature.
Further, researcher have stated that a child observing violent behaviour tend to behave
violently towards other individuals as well. Children tend to have the tendency to observe people
residing in their surroundings. These individuals are called as models (Cheung, Liu, and Lee,
2015). Common influential models of children include, parents within the family, friends, peer
group, teachers in the schools etc. they try to observe their behaviour and imitate in the same
manner. Encoding their behaviour can assess that whether it is appropriate or not. Further, it also
ascertains that reproducing the same behaviour can be appropriate to the society or not.
Addressing the case of Mary where have been surrounded with people who are involved in
criminal activities. Her father was sexually abusive towards her which led her towards having a
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retaliating behaviour. Imitating that behaviour made her condition even worse. Further, she also
perceived certain behaviour from her friends and peer group as well which resulted in making
her a murderer. Another aspect of imitating behaviour is that, if an individual imitates his
model’s behaviour and if the consequences of the same are rewarding, there is high probability
that the person will continue performing that behaviour in regular intervals. The consequences
and rewards achieved from that act tends to reinforce that individual and motivate to act in a
certain manner regularly. Furthermore, Social learning theory is the combination of cognitive
learning theory and behavioural learning theory. Cognitive learning theory states that learning
has direct relation to and influenced by psychological factors. Behavioural learning theory
assumes that learning is based upon the responses to the environmental stimuli (Cochran and
et.al., 2016). Hence, in case of Mary both the factors cam be taken into consideration.
Another important thing that is taken into account by the individual is what happened to the
individual when similar decision or set of actions was made by the other individual. If the results
are affirmative, in that case, chances of imitation increases. Mary was already involved in small
criminal activities such as, shoplifting, theft etc. Successful attempts in these small crimes shows
that she got motivated indulge in actions like murder for robbery. Hence, the consequences of
one action is directly linked to future actions being taken by the individual. This type of
behaviour is called as vicarious reinforcement. The motivation being received by Mary after her
successful attempts of small crimes developed her base for criminal activities.
The researcher has stated that social learning theory helps in bridging the gap between
traditional learning theory which is behaviourism and cognitive approach. It shows that how
mental factors affects the thinking pattern of an individual before involving in performing any
activity (Matias, O’Connor, Futh and Scott, 2014). These mental factors ultimately affect
learning process and whether the person is going to perform those actions or not. Hence, it can
be said that the individual does not automatically imitate a behaviour but observe it to the core.
Relating the same to Mary’s situation. It can be ascertained that she had a troubled childhood
where she was constantly involved in sexual abuse, violence, etc. She also observed her father
getting involved in alcohol and drugs which motivated her to do the same. It can be assessed that
the environment of her family and friends acted as a driving factor for her to get involved in this
kind of behaviour where she ultimately murdered a tourist during robbery.
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Social learning theory helps in giving comprehensive overview of human learning
behaviour which is quite driven by imitation and mediation models process (Norman and Ford,
2015). Further, a strong influence of cognitive learning has also been addressed on individuals in
various cases of imitating behaviour. Social cognitive theory is also an important aspect of
human psychology which can be ascertained through observing others which is within the
context of experiences an individual has gone through in his life. Its direct influence has also
been seen on social interaction with family and friends. The theory also states that the individual
tends to retain a particular event in its memory which motivates his to take a particular action
which may or may not be right. Hence, it can be said that people do not tend to learn new
behaviour only be trying them and ascertaining its consequences, rather, heavy dependence have
been noticed on replication of particular set of actions whose consequences have already been
observed. However, it totally depends on the person whether he is satisfied with the
consequences and want to replicate them or not. Another aspect of this theory is that,
environmental factors also drive an individual towards criminalistics activities. Mary had a
troublesome childhood which motivated her for running from home and get involved in these
types of practices, such as, shoplifting, theft, alcohol and drugs. It helped her to make her live
better as the consequences were better than situations that she saw at her home.
A 16 year old individual is considered as a tender age where a child tend to possess all
the behaviour which he / she observes in her surroundings. If any individual is not aware of the
bad consequences in that case the chances of attempting the same behaviour is high. These
factors are highly influenced by the type of environment, the individual is dwelling in. Further,
the children can be exposed to aggressive or non-aggressive behaviour, either from the same sex
or opposite sex. In that case, children who are exposed to aggressive behaviour tends to have
even more aggressive action in comparison to the one whose family conditions and surroundings
are more of non-aggressive nature. Mary’s biological father was quite aggressive and she has
been watching aggressive nature of her parents since childhood. The researcher conducted this
study who called it as Bobo doll behaviour: A study of aggression. The same was imitated and
possessed by Mary. Further, case also stated that her elder sister ran from her house since, she
was sexually abused by her step father. Imitating these actions, Mary also took this step of
running from her house so as to run away from her current situation and lead a better life.
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In order to ascertain the results of a particular behaviour it is important for the individuals
to understand its potential outcomes if the behaviour is repeated again (Kalkstein and et.al.,
2016). Analysing the mindset of Mary, she was never caught earlier while performing small
crimes. Hence, she initialised bigger crimes with the hope and confidence that she will not be
caught again and she will be able to serve the purpose of robbery as well. The actual punishment
from the doings were not imagined by Mary with the hope of getting imitated outcomes of
counterfeit actions. The expectations have heavy dependence on the environment in which the
individual has grown in. parents and guardians near the individual help in ascertaining whether
the steps being taken by the individual is right or wrong. In Mary’s case, she did not get any
advice and assistance from the side of her parents and guardians. It resulted in getting involved
in activities like robbery and murder. A proper counselling session from the authorities and
keeping in a well-disciplined environment can help in moulding her thinking towards good
deeds.
Another important aspect of social learning theory is self-efficacy. It becomes easy for
the observer to segregate between what is right and what is wrong if the observer has gone
through a good deal of self-efficacy. It shows that the individual has the ability to master a
particular skill. Mastery of the skill can be performed in a good as well as bad situations (Chen,
Wang and Hung, 2015). An individual can be more effortful, highly motivated, active, pay
attention and learners in a particular task if a chain of success follows him. However, the
common determinants and motivating factors of particular set of activities are, affect of past
situations, surrounding, aggression etc (Gould and Taylor, 2017). Analysing the case of Mary,
her past experiences with her family made her a cranky and aggressive child. It also motivated
her to perform the activities that may not be appropriate enough. Self-efficacy in bad activities
can be the reason due to which the ultimate results had evil impact on her social and non social
well being. Chain of success in evil practices motivated her to indulge in robbery. Hence, a
personality of an individual can be made up of three components that are, environment,
behaviour and one’s psychological process. Based on it, a personality and behaviour of an
individual is framed (Ford and Ong, 2014).
The case suggested various unusual behaviour of Mary which made her prone to get
involved in criminal activities. It includes, regular beating from her father, sexual abuse by her
step father, indulged in alcohol and drugs at the age of 14, behaving as hard to handle child,
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rebellious nature etc. made her prone to become a criminal. It also affected her mind and health
at her growing and developing age. She treated robbery as an alternative way to earn money.
Moreover, she discussed and committed this crime with her a friend and a loose plan was
developed by them to commit this offence. It indicates that apart from indulging in small
criminal activities, she was not involved in any kind of robbery or killing earlier.
The counselling session being arranged for Mary denotes that she was behaving
uncooperative and was not aware of the intensity of the situation. Moreover, she was ready to go
to the institution as a punishment for the crime being committed by her. It reflects her rebellious
nature where she is ready to accept the crime being committed by her. However, she is not ready
to improve her mistake. It shows a direct influence of her behaviour on the current situation in
which she is dwelling in as well (Rosenthal and Zimmerman, 2014). It shows that complex
human behaviour underestimates the complexity of situation. It is more likely to be the
interaction between nature and nurture a child has received from environment.
It can be concluded from analysing the case that there is a direct relationship between
behaviour of an individual and the environment in which one is dwelling. Since, Mary has a
troubled childhood due to presence of constant beating and sexual abuse, she became a
rebellious, cranky and unstoppable child. It motivated her to get involved in criminal activities
like, robbery and murder. Application of social learning theory reflected that the core learning of
an individual is derived from the environment. Moreover, the role models such as, parents,
teachers and guardians play an important role in developing a personality which was not received
by Mary in her childhood. Hence, it can be concluded from the essay that social learning theory
have direct relation to the given case of Mary.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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customer information contribution behavior in online social shopping communities: a
social learning theory perspective. Journal of the Association for Information Science
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Cochran, J. K. & et.al. (2016). Does criminal propensity moderate the effects of social learning
theory variables on intimate partner violence?. Deviant behavior. 37(9). 965-976.
Cochran, J. K. & et.al. (2017). Using structural equations to model Akers’ social learning theory
with data on intimate partner violence. Crime & Delinquency. 63(1). 39-60.
Ford, J. A., & Ong, J. (2014). Non-medical use of prescription stimulants for academic purposes
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personality and social psychology. 110(1). 1.
Matias, C., O’Connor, T. G., Futh, A., & Scott, S. (2014). Observational attachment theory-
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Rosenthal, T. L., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2014). Social learning and cognition. Academic Press.
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Siemens, G. (2014). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age.
Taylor, E. W. (2017). Transformative learning theory. In Transformative Learning Meets
Bildung (pp. 17-29). SensePublishers, Rotterdam.
Online
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