Delinquency Theories/Psychological and Sociological Theories

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Cognitive theory:
This material is taken from the website: www.essaydirect.com "Cognitive psychologist tend to see second language acquisition as the building up of knowledge systems that can eventually be called on automatically for speaking and understanding. At first, learners have to pay attention to any aspect of the language which they are trying to understand or produce. Gradually, through experience and practice, learners become able to use certain parts of their knowledge so quickly and automatically that they are not even aware that they are doing it. "www.essaydirect.com"

This material is taken from the website: http://hsc.usf.edu/~kmbrown" Currently there exists a subset of theories that are based on social learning principles and place an emphasis on cognitive variables. Whereas strict behaviorism supports a direct and unidirectional pathway between stimulus and response, representing human behavior as a simple reaction to external stimuli, the SLT asserts that there is a mediator (human cognition) between stimulus and response, placing individual control over behavioral responses to stimuli. While there are several versions of the SLT to which researchers currently subscribe, they all share three basic tenets. Tenet 1: Response consequences (such as rewards or punishments) influence the likelihood that a person will perform a particular behavior again in a given situation. Note that this principle is also shared by classical behaviorists.

Tenet 2: Humans can learn by observing others, in addition to learning by participating in an act personally. Learning by observing others is called vicarious learning. The concept of vicarious learning is not one that would be subscribed to by classical behaviorists.

Tenet 3: Individuals are most likely to model behavior observed by others they identify with. Identification with others is a function of the degree to which a person is perceived to be similar to one's self, in addition to the degree of emotional attachment that is felt toward an individual. "http://hsc.usf.edu/~kmbrown
In case of shoplifting, the reward that a person gets from shoplifting by way of the goods that he/she lifts reign high. This is especially true if the shoplifter is not spotted and punished with incarceration. Following tenet 2 the shoplifter actually learns by observing others like friends or relatives do shoplifting. For example, a person accompanies her friend to a departmental store and watches the ...