Exam (elaborations)
Albert Bandura Exam Questions and Answers
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- WJEC
In this document, I have answered 2 questions on Bandura, with reference to a scenario. Taken from a past paper
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Students1. Paul, an unemployed local man, has been convicted of murder. He was convicted after
getting into a fight with Ian over an allegation of theft of money. Paul also has numerous
previous convictions for drug dealing and theft. He has been in care since the age of 7 after
his parents were given long custodial sentences. Ian’s father, a local barrister, has started a
campaign to bring back capital punishment for crimes of murder. His campaign has attracted
the attention of local media and politicians.
Describe 1 individualistic theory of criminality (5)
One individualistic theory which is the most popular in the world of criminality is Albert Bandura’s
social learning theory; Bandura states that an individual may go into a world of crime due to
imitation and watching their elders, a child trusts that their elders will teach them the right thing,
and since at a young age their brain’s haven’t properly developed meaning that they don’t know the
proper difference between right and wrong, they will believe anything that their parents say is right.
Bandura is the criminologist who conducted the bobo doll experiment in order to provide evidence
for his theory, within the bobo doll experiment, he separated young children into 3 groups. 1 group
witnessed a model being abusive and very aggressive towards a bobo doll, the second group
watched a model be nice & kind towards the bobo doll, and the third group witnessed a model doing
nothing to the bobo doll. After these tests were conducted, the children from all 3 groups were
given a chance to ‘play’ with the bobo doll and do whatever they want to it, the evidence showed
that most children from the first group exhibited very aggressive behaviour, they were even coming
up with new ways to hurt the doll and torture it, it was even stated that these same children
displayed this aggressive behaviour 6 months after the initial conducting of the experiment, proving
that the social learning theory is in-fact quite accurate, with the children displaying aggressive
behaviour due to what they witnessed at a young age.
Analyse how the theory described above can be applied to Paul’s situation (5)
As mentioned in the answer above, Bandura’s theory refers to what an individual witnesses during
their childhood, the models that they live with and how that can impact them. This is the case with
Paul in explaining his criminality, it is stated in Paul’s case that he had been put into care at the age
of 7 due to his parents being given prison sentences, it is important to consider that Paul was put
into care at the age of 7, meaning that for 7 years he could have witnessed both of his parents doing
many crimes, as a child, we believe that what our elders do is right and therefore his parents being
criminals can be sufficient evidence to suggest that Paul entered the world of criminality due to his
models, but also because both of his parents were criminals, therefore he didn’t have any
responsible adults to guide him and to educate him on the differences between what’s right and
wrong, he didn’t have a role model and someone to look up to, he didn’t have those standard bonds
which links to Travis Hirschi’s social bonding theory in that if an individual grows bonds with their
family, they will be steered away from the life of crime due to the love that they’re receiving and the
morals that they are learning but they will also feel like they have a shoulder to lean on. It is also
important to consider the models that Paul may have witnessed in care, this isn’t necessarily to do
with adults but more-so the children (his peers), statistically it is shown that many children behave
badly when they are in care due to their reason for being in care and their situation, Paul could have
been within a peer group at care that taught him bad things and no morals, and due to this he may
have gone into a life of crime, he was only 7 years old at the time and there would have been many
Students
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