PSY-PC 2550 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Social Control Theory, Externalizing Disorders, Truancy
12 Dec 2018
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Chapter 13
Externalizing Problems
- Ex: Deviant behavior, aggression, truancy, lying, outbursts
- Comorbidity - more than one problem at the same time, happens a lot with externalizing
- Violent behavior accompanying lying, stealing, skipping school, drinking, etc
- Normally social problems do not occur in isolation
- Social control theory - those of us who do not struggle with externalizing problems are
doing so because we subscribe to the social institutions of the society
- Externalizing: Rebelling against the institution of society through external problems
so they detach from school and attach to others that do the same thing - connecting
with a social group that agrees with them or encourages their behavior
- Developmental progression of covert to overt antisocial behavior
- Covert - white lies, taking a pack of gum, arguments with mom and dad, everything needs to
be a fight, etc
- This gets worse overtime as the feeling grows and you eventually end up increasing scale
- Violence and aggression linked to: family, neighborhood, gender, prevalence of guns/violence
- Aggression often starts with violence within siblings
- If more acceptable in neighborhood, likely to grow into it
- Externalizing problems and aggression, esp in males may be linked to need for sense of
power - manifests differently based on SES - same desire for both high and low towards
power, manifestation is different because higher SES makes them want to be “THE BEST”
of something, whereas low SES leads to physical violence
- Violence may not be different as far as existing in more gun/violent neighborhood, but
manifestation more likely if there are guns or violence
- Children who experience violence in the house tend to use the same social
mechanisms in their social groups - yelling, abusing, etc
- Some are stopped, others find social groups that allow them to act in this way
- Family therefore has a huge influence in modeling and tolerating externalizing
behavior
- Causes of antisocial behavior
- Modeling from family, social groups
- Research says it could be influence of media, other says no real causation that we can find
- Prevention/treatment
- School intervention early
- Family therapy - rehabilitate the family as a unit so that they can help change the path of
behavior
- How we parent (authoritative - discussing consequences, holding accountable), schools and
extracurriculars or environment, teaching style
- Looking at bigger picture of violent behavior, figuring out why, and then approaching it
- Boys exhibit external more
Internalizing problems
- Comorbidity - depressed in more than one area usually, high comorbidity of depression and anxiety
- Negative emotionality
- Depression
- Physiology and environmental influences
Document Summary
Ex: deviant behavior, aggression, truancy, lying, outbursts. Comorbidity - more than one problem at the same time, happens a lot with externalizing. Violent behavior accompanying lying, stealing, skipping school, drinking, etc. Normally social problems do not occur in isolation. Social control theory - those of us who do not struggle with externalizing problems are doing so because we subscribe to the social institutions of the society. Externalizing: rebelling against the institution of society through external problems so they detach from school and attach to others that do the same thing - connecting with a social group that agrees with them or encourages their behavior. Developmental progression of covert to overt antisocial behavior. Covert - white lies, taking a pack of gum, arguments with mom and dad, everything needs to be a fight, etc. This gets worse overtime as the feeling grows and you eventually end up increasing scale. Violence and aggression linked to: family, neighborhood, gender, prevalence of guns/violence.
