Pro-Social Behavior, Aggression, and Prejudice Concepts in Children of Men
I watched the movie Children of Men for my paper. This is a movie about an infertile world and the United Kingdom’s police state during the year 2027. The movie starts off with a news station playing in the United Kingdom, the last place where there is any type of functioning government at this point. Everyone watches and listens in despair about the death of the world’s youngest man, “Baby Diego” Diego Ricardo who was “18 years, 4 months, 20 days, 16 hours, and 18 minutes old.” In this world the people are living in is in a state of complete chaos. The government has made it law that every woman is subject to tests for fertility as no one is able to have children
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Social learning theory is the idea that we learn attitudes, values, and in this case behaviors such as aggression by seeing other people act a particular way in a social situation. Frustration-Aggression Theory is the idea that frustration increases the probability of aggression. Throughout the entire story we see social learning theory taking place. In the beginning we see everyone crying over the world’s youngest man dying, something that is unanimously valued due to societies current state of infertility. In the bulk of the movie there is emphasis on the attitude towards immigrants, again this is something that has clearly occurred due to the state of their environment and the way people around individuals are acting. What struck me as interesting was the extent of aggression that occurs surrounding something so innocent as a child being born. It is made clear that the world is in turmoil, there is Theo’s kidnapping, explosions happening, and constant gunfire in the background of most scenes. The individuals and groups in this movie have learned through social learning theory that since the government is using violence against the people they govern, that the most effective way to fight back is to fight fire with fire, aggression is met with more aggression. The most interesting part to me was how increasingly aggressive everyone became when their goals were threatened, which is the frustration-aggression theory at work. The more difficult it became for the Fishes to obtain Kee’s baby for their movement the harsher they became towards the source of their frustration, which in this case was Theo. This is also seen in the same scene as mentioned above. In the middle of taking Kee and her newborn from Theo, gunfire breaks out all
Social behavior responds to a complicated network of rewards and punishments. The more a behavior is rewarded, the more likely it is to continue. On the flip side of this, the more a behavior is met with negative consequences, the more it is likely to stop. In any given social situation, whether someone commits a crime is largely dependent on his past behavior, or whether someone has received a positive reinforcement to a that crime. According to Social Learning Theory, crime is a direct response to this reinforcement. So in other words, if rewards are greater than punishments, the crime will be committed. Social Learning Theory is meant to operate as a general theory of crime.
Society influences the socioeconomic inequalities between people, which usually results in differing social and cultural norms surrounding violence. These norms might include male dominance over women, while certain cultural norms might support violence and claim it to be a reasonable method to resolve conflicts in neighborhoods. We see this shown in the film because they talk about how violence is a two step process. The first part is the thought that, ‘I have a grievance with someone’, and the second part is that the grievance justifies violence (James et al.,
Internationally, issues revolving around the female body and reproduction are extremely controversial. For a woman, her body is a very private matter. At the same time, however, a woman's body and her reproduction rights are the center of attention in many public debates. Several questions regarding women's reproductive rights remain unanswered. How much control do women have over their bodies? What kind of rules can be morally imposed upon women? And who controls the bodies of women? Although the public continues to debate these topics, certain conclusions can been made concerning women and their reproductive rights. An undeniable fact is that government has a large degree of control over female reproductive organs. All around the world, time and time again, several national governments have implemented policies, enacted laws, and denied women control over their reproductive organs. Several governments have crossed the border between intimate and public matters concerning women's reproductive organs, by making laws about contraceptives, abortion, and family planning programs.
Standing up for what one believes in is not always easy. The book Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose should be taught in schools for many reasons. The book is about the trial of a sixteen year old boy accused of killing his father. The boy’s fate is determined by the decision reached by twelve jurors in a New York jury room. Twelve Angry Men displays the effects that one person can have on a group, it teaches the value of being part of a jury, and it explores how stereotypes and prejudices can have an effect on someone’s decision or beliefs.
People tend to base characteristics and personalities of people pretty quickly. Most people base their opinions on stereotypes. Reginald Rose and his play “12 Angry Men” demonstrate how people are quick to judge other people based on looks. In the movie all twelve jurors must decide if a young boy is guilty or innocent. At the beginning of the movie/play-write, only one juror, juror eight, decides the boy is innocent. Based on the evidence gathered from the case everyone agrees the boy is innocent except one man, juror three. He eventually breaks down and tells the truth. The viewers can tell that this movie/play is full of emotions. Each of these emotions can be described as something more than what comes to the eye.
In my opinion, the social learning theory adequately explains the examples of criminal behavior portrayed in the CNN documentary. Social learning theory was shown through
This is most evident in the last scene of the novel when a naval officer expresses his surprise that the boys were acting irrationally and attempting to kill one another. A specific moment of realization is noteworthy: "The officer, surrounded by these noises, was moved and a little embarrassed. He turned away to give them time to pull themselves together; and waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance" (202). At this specific instant, the officer realized that the boys were not the only ones acting irrationally and brutally towards each other. The officer himself was in the navy, and had probably taken many lives himself. As a generalization, humans are made out to be judgmental, which is not always the case. Having this view taught in a school system is not something praiseworthy and is most definitely a source of
Through Social Learning Theory, an individual can be studied based on the behavior acquired by a role model. Verbal conditioning procedures and observation influences the response to an individual’s personality. Environment factors contribute to the Social Learning Theory. Antisocial model is a major contribute to crime, which influences negative characteristics. The Social Leaning Theory has three core social concepts the must be followed: observational learning, intrinsic reinforcement and modeling process.
Many thoughts come into the mind when hearing the word stereotype. The society has been exposed to too many stereotypes. These stereotypes result in controversial issues, which in turn, affect adults and children. The TV shows, internet, and social media are sources that expose children, as well as the adults, to stereotypes. Examples of those stereotypes are religion, sexism, and race. As children grow up by, the age of four they are able to pick up many stereotypes through those sources and without the perception and knowledge these children carry these stereotypes along with them in their long term memory. Moreover, children are not able to know or distinguish whether those thoughts are negative or positive stereotypes, which in turn, cause
The entire theory and sub theories focus on how the social conflict between the upper and lower class has given rise to crime. Meanwhile the Developmental theory is multidimensional since it has more layers and depth to it. The Developmental theory looks at the onset, the continuity, and the termination of a criminal career. The Developmental theory also resembles the game snakes and ladders in that both represent a life journey where the upward progression is complicated by ladders (virtues) and snakes (vices). All in all the morality of the game and that of the Developmental theory is that snakes and ladders rob a player of the chance to take their time and enjoy the game (journey). Another difference aside from the focus is the attitude that both theories undertake. With the Social Conflict theory you get a pessimistic and resign feeling, which makes things seem either black or white with nothing in-between. Individuals either belong to the wealthy or poor. And have to ultimately acknowledge that, “those who hold power will create laws that benefit themselves and keep rivals in check” (p.200). That is why Social Conflict theorist argue that “true crime” is the one done by those in power not by helpless whose crimes receive harsher sanctions. Meanwhile the Developmental theory gives an uncertain attitude in that the propensity for crimes remains fairly constant while the opportunity to commit crimes
Social learning theory is the theory that people learn from other people. That people will learn by what they see, imitate, and model after. For example, if a person who sees drug dealers their entire life will more than likely be a drug dealer themselves. Labeling theory differs in that people are labeled or stereotyped as a deviant person and therefore engage
...t does not take into account how conflicts can arise. The realistic conflict theory explains how intergroup conflicts can arise as a result of conflicting goals and competition over limited resources, this can account for prejudices and discrimination (Duff & Peace, 2012). The difference between social learning theory and realistic conflict theory it suggests that it is not the creation of two groups that leads to prejudice, but that they need to have a goal for conflict or prejudice to develop. A disadvantage of social learning theory it does not take into account other factors that could be creating conflict between two groups.
In 2000 the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) defined reproductive rights as "the basic rights of couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children; to have the information and means to do so; and to have the right to make decisions concerning reproduction, free of discrimination, coercion or violence."[1] Traditionally society defines reproductive rights in the context of one's being able to make decisions about his or her own reproduction; other individuals, unrelated to that person, were not considered as being involved in the decision. With the onset of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1978, reproductive processes have become more complicated. For example, in gestational surrogacy a surrogate mother, not genetically related to the embryo, is brought into the process of reproduction. This technique allows infertile couples to carry a child or children in the womb of a carrier, rather than in the womb of the biological mother.[2] As a result of this ethically controversial technology, society must modify its reproductive rights. In vitro fertilization (IVF) alone will not solve people's reproductive problems and protect everybody's rights. Society, therefore, must distinguish whose rights-the rights of biological parents or those of the surrogate mothers-should be protected.
If we try to categorize human by the term “gender”, people will be divided into two groups, males and females. Using this kind of categorization, it is considering people who belong in the same group are similar, and these two groups are very different from each other. However in real life, men and women’s characteristics tend to overlap (Crespi) . Even people who are in the same group may have different characteristics and personalities which are formed influencing by the environment and experiences.
However, the wish of having multiple children, especially boys, was challenged by the strict One Child policy in 1979. The One Child policy, also known as Family Planning policy, was implemented across the country as one of fundamental national policies under the administration of Population and Family Planning Commission. Based on the purpose of lowering fertility rates to ease social pressure and improve living standard, a married couple is only allowed to have one child with some exceptions made for some ethnic minorities and rural families. The majority of citizens are classified by ethnics and occupations to fit the specific regulations of compensations and punishments to prevent them from having a second child (Li, J., & Cooney, R, S. 1993).