Drunk Driving Theories

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Drunk driving is a large cause of fatalities in our country. In 2015, over ten thousand individuals of all ages died in an alcohol-related car crash (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). This is a problem in our nation that can be easily prevented by simply making the decision not to get into a drivers seat if you are intoxicated. Sometimes we must take a deeper look into a problem like this so research has been conducted on different theories and how they contribute to drinking and driving. There are things that we can do to help your students stop the behavior of drinking and driving. In this essay, you will read about three theories: Skinner’s operant conditioning, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, and the social learning …show more content…

Social learning is both shown through personal experience of different reinforcement types and by the modeling of our peers (Leonard & Blane, 1999). Individuals emotions are influenced by the physical and social environment. According to this theory, we do not need to experience punishment or reinforcement to elicit a behavior. We elicit the behavior due to our own emotions and how a consequence will play out. This theory shows the behaviors of all humans at different ages. Bandura says that this theory is continuous and we always continue learning new behaviors (Kuther, 2017). When looking at teens and drunk driving behaviors, it is known that teens are emotional and they tend to do things out of an urge to be cool or …show more content…

This is the social part of the theory. Teens drive intoxicated because everyone else is doing it, which is sad and we need to strive for more leaders and less followers in this society. Teens do not want to feel left out from their friends or be unincluded just because they do not partake in an action, and therefore they do the action which in this case is drink and drive. This theory relates very well to teenagers because teenagers are social and everything that they do is to raise their social status or make them look better. This theory provides a context that shows us why teens behavior is dependent on the social environment compared to the other

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