SOCY 275 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Operant Conditioning, Xyy Syndrome, Chromosome
15 Jun 2018
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Social learning theory
- Criminal behaviour is learned according to the principles of operant conditioning
- Criminal behaviour is learned in both social and non-social situations that are reinforcing
or discriminating and through interaction in which the behaviour of other persons is
reinforcing or discriminating for such behaviour
- The principle part of learning of criminal behaviours occurs within those groups that
compromise or control the individual’s major source of reinforcements
- The learning of criminal behaviour including specific techniques, attitudes, and
avoidance procedures, is a function of the effective and available reinforcers and the
existing reinforcement contingencies
- The specific class of behaviour learned and its frequency of occurrence are a function of
the effective and available reinforcers and the deviant or nondeviant direction of the
norms, rules, and definitions which in the past have accompanied reinforcement
- The probability that a person will commit deviant behaviour is increased in the presence
of normative statements, definitions, and verbalizations which, in the process of
differential reinforcement of such behaviour, have acquired discriminative function
- The strength of deviant behaviour is a direct function of the amount, frequency, and
probability of its reinforcement. The modalities of the association (who I spend time
with) with deviant patterns are important insofar as they affect the source, amount, and
scheduling of reinforcement
Theories related to physical appearance
- Phrenology (Gall and Spurzheim)
o Look at skulls and the brain regions within it
o The brain is going to conform to the shape of the skull
o One part has the intellectual capacities
o One part has moral sentiments
o One part has active propensities
o Figured that we would have bumps on the skulls, which would show if people
were involved in deviant crime (lower area around the ear)
o This did not help to deduce if people would be involved in crime – people didn’t
like the determinism in this
- Lombroso: the born criminal
o Atavism
▪ Criminals are going to be lower on the evolutionary scale than non-
criminals
▪ The physical characteristics will indicate degeneracy
▪ Figured that criminals would look like our ancient ancestors
o Fell out of favour because there wasn’t a lot of empirical support for it
- Body type theory (Sheldon)
o Body type: endormorphic
▪ The endoderm gives rise to our digestive system
Document Summary
Criminal behaviour is learned according to the principles of operant conditioning. Criminal behaviour is learned in both social and non-social situations that are reinforcing or discriminating and through interaction in which the behaviour of other persons is reinforcing or discriminating for such behaviour. The principle part of learning of criminal behaviours occurs within those groups that compromise or control the individual"s major source of reinforcements. The learning of criminal behaviour including specific techniques, attitudes, and avoidance procedures, is a function of the effective and available reinforcers and the existing reinforcement contingencies. The probability that a person will commit deviant behaviour is increased in the presence of normative statements, definitions, and verbalizations which, in the process of differential reinforcement of such behaviour, have acquired discriminative function. The strength of deviant behaviour is a direct function of the amount, frequency, and probability of its reinforcement.
