SOCY 275 Chapter Notes -Differential Association, Lesson Learned, Reference Group

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Social Sci, Edu and Soc Work - Sociology
• Course: SOCY 275
• Professor: Vincent F Sacco

Document Summary

Consistent with other theories rooted in symbolic interaction principles, Sutherland argued that behaviour is not fixed, but malleable. Lessons about how to act can focus on normal behaviour or criminal behaviour. Making learning the first principle was a deliberate choice that signifies it to be the prime causal mechanism shaping all behaviour. It represents a less rigid assumption than that found in theories assuming the presence of a powerful social structure. Behaviour is never taken for granted nor assumed to be automatically transmitted through socialization or internalizationit is shaped in a process and may result in different outcomes. 2 - criminal behaviour is learned in interaction with others in a process of communication. Everyone acquires messages about social norms and behaviour through communication with others. From the moment of birth, everyone is exposed to social norms. Interaction and observation go hand in glove, and this represents the communication through which everyone learns how to actnormally or criminally.