Psychosocial Problems hdfs 239

Aggression is determined by both situational and personality factors Characteristics where aggression is expressed: Exercise Common characteristics Patterson & Oregon Social Learning lab Basic concepts in learning theory: Reinforcement: Anything that leads to a change in behavior (in either direction) Reward: Anything that increases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated in the future Punishment: Anything that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated in the future Negative reinforcement (escape conditioning): Being rewarded by removing punishment Example: picking up a crying baby Application Coercive pattern of parent:child interaction Example Pattern in preschool results in child who: Has learned to escalate bad and aggressive behavior to effect removal of demands Has failed to learn pro-social skills When the child enters school, he or she . . . Responds to the teacher as they do to the parent, resulting in school failure Is rejected by normal peers In late childhood, the child becomes committed to deviant peers Deviant peers reinforcement deviance and punish prosocial statements Summary: Same point as in the tracking example: Small differences in behavior early on, are magnified over time so they result in late consequences