Social Learning Theory Essay Example for Free

Social Learning Theory Essay Moral development is successfully achieved when it starts at the youngest learning stage. Vision, character and competence are the three prime elements that a young person needs to develop to achieve moral standards. Moral development of character is an organic process. The integration of an individual’s physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological well-being must be prioritized so that the young human being may be able to achieve moral standards set by his society. It is in this context where social learning theory is able to explain moral development. Learning can occur when a person integrates and relates to his wider social context. People learn from people by observing, imitating and modeling. The principles of social learning theory posit that; People learn while observing other people; Learning through observing social interactions may not necessarily create change in behavior; Social learning is highly cognitive. Observing the effects of behavior of people brings to the individual increased level of awareness on the consequences that behavior might lead to; Social learning has transitory abilities to bridge behaviorist learning theories and cognitive learning theories. Behavior is reinforced by the modeling process as a person adjusts his behavior according to the like and dislikes of the group he wants to be accepted into. By imitating the persons or group of people in the way they speak or the way they dress up, the individual will be successful in getting accepted to be part of the group. In this way, social learning helps the individual attain his desires to be one with the group of his choice. â€Å"Many behaviors can be learned, at least partly, through modeling. Examples that can be cited are, students can watch parents read, students can watch the demonstrations of mathematics problems, or seen someone acting bravely and a fearful situation. Aggression can be learned through models. Much research indicates that children become more aggressive when they observed aggressive or violent models. Moral thinking and moral behavior are influenced by observation and modeling. This includes moral judgments regarding right and wrong that can in part, develop through modeling.† (Ormrod, 1999) Social learning hastens moral development. As an individual observers the environment from which he learns from, his character may be able to imbibe behaviors that help develop moral ways such as engaging in morally relevant conduct or words, or refraining from certain conduct or words (Wynne Walberg, 1984). The individual can also acquire a complex set of relatively persistent qualities of the individual person, and generally, a positive connotation when used in discussions of moral education (Pritchard, 1988). Learning experiences can influence moral behavior development by direct tuition and by observational learning. Direct intuition uses reward and punishment in negating or reaffirming the behavior of an individual. Observational learning is more indirect in nature because the reward and punishment is observed by the individual rather than experienced first hand. When an individual sees his elders being punished for doing bad things such as stealing or murder, it will be engrained in his moral standards that stealing and murder is not morally accepted. Campbell and Bond (1982) propose the following as major factors in the moral development and behavior of youth in contemporary America: heredity, early childhood experience, modeling by important adults and older youth, peer influence, the general physical and social environment, the communications media, what is taught in the schools and other institutions, specific situations and roles that elicit corresponding behavior. And much of these elements are found in the social context therefore social learning theory is a very effective means of how an individual can acquire his or her moral standards just by observing, imitating and modeling his environment. To successfully model moral behavior, a person goes through four learning processes under social learning theory. Attention is the first important process that one has to render. Without the ability of a person to pay attention to himself, and his surroundings learning will be hard. Retention is the next process after attention is achieved. Remembering the observations is essential so that the learning can be further processed. A person who cannot remember his observations will render his social milieu unimportant. Reproducing the remembered observation is crucial in the learning process. Replicating the observed behavior will determine if the individual has truly learned and has truly understood and acquired the moral concept of the situation observed. And finally, there is need for motivation if an individual is bent on succeeding modeling the observed behavior. Motivation will be the key ingredient for the individual to project the learning he has achieved, successfully sharing his perception so that other may be able to observe his actions. With other people observing his actions, the learning process is replicated over and over again. With this replication through the social learning theory, moral development is achieved by the individual and by the whole group. Knowing how social learning can affect moral development, it is important therefore that young people are able to grow up in a moral environment from where they will use their observation skills and imitate or model the actions they see, hear and feel. Moral development starts at an early stage in a child and therefore, society must not be mindless of the moral and immoral actions found in and around the child’s environment. References: Campbell, V., Bond, R. (1982). Evaluation of a character education curriculum. In D. McClelland (ed.), Education for values. New York: Irvington Publishers. Huitt, W. (2004). Moral and character development. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved [November 17, 2006], from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/morchr/morchr.html Moshman, David. 2004.   Adolescent Psychological Development: Rationality, Morality, and Identity. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 2nd edition Ormrod, J.E. (1999). Human learning (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Pritchard, I. (1988). Character education: Research prospects and problems. American Journal of Education, 96(4), 469-495. Rotter, J. B. (1993). Expectancies. In C. E. Walker (Ed.), The history of clinical psychology in autobiography (vol. II) (pp. 273-284). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Wynne, E., Walberg, H. (Eds.). (1984). Developing character: Transmitting knowledge. Posen, IL: ARL.

America Does NOT Need Gun Control Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Es

America Does Not Need Gun Control    There are presently in excess of 200 million guns in the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms   Each year this number grows by 4 to 5 million. There are 60 to 65 million legal owners of one or more guns.1   There is a firearm on the premises of more than half the households in America.   Most gun owners keep guns for protection.   Others keep them for hunting, target shooting, collecting, and similar pursuits. In recent years nearly 35,000 people have been killed annually by guns in the United States.   These deaths include 15,000 murders, 18,000 suicides, and 1,500 accidents.2   It is because of these statistics that many would like to ban guns altogether. But is that really in your best interest?   Would it really benefit this country, or reduce the number of murders in this country? Consider the evidence   in this article and you will see that guns should not be outlawed and that less gun control in necessary to preserve what the founders of this country believed in. Guns are Beneficial Guns can help prevent crime.   This is a view held by many opponents to gun control.   The criminals themselves agree. As part of   a three - year study by the U. S. Department of Justice, criminals in prisons across the nation were interviewed.   Sixty percent feared being shot by an armed citizen more than being shot by the police.   fifty - three percent did not commit   a specific crime because they were afraid the victim was armed.  Ã‚   Fifty - seven percent of them were scared off by an armed victim who either brandished a gun or actually fired it.3   This alone shows that crime would drop if more citizens owned, carried and knew how to use guns. One   such case involved e... ...and less gun control in necessary to preserve the idea and philosophies set out in the constitution of the United States. Endnotes    1.   Ted Gottfried,   Gun Control and The Right to Bear Arms   (Brookfield, Ct.: Millbrook Press, 1993 ),   pg. 13 2.   Ibid   pg 17 3.   Ibid   pg. 48 4.   Neil Bernard,   Gun Control   ( San Diego, Ca., Lucent Books, 1991 )pg. 68    5.   Ibid   pg. 56 Bibliography Aitkens, Maggi.   Should   We Have Gun Control.   Minniapolis, Minn:   ., Lerner Publications. 1992. Bernard, Neil.   Gun Control.   San Diego, Ca.:   Lucent Books.   1991. Gottfried, Ted.,   Gun   Control and The Right to Bear Arms.   Brookfield, Ct.: The Millbrook Press.,   1993 Gottlieb, Alan. Gun Rights Fact Book   Bellevue, Washington:   Merril Press,   1988. Robers, Joseph Jr.The Armed Citizen.   Washington D.C. :   The Nation Rifile Association of America. 1989.

Lincoln’s Efforts to Preserve the Union Essay

To what extent did Lincoln’s economic, military, and political policies from 1861 to 1865 contribute to the preservation of the Union? Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860. As a president of the United States, Lincoln’s goal was to keep the Union together. The problem of slavery and the secession by the South are mainly the two issues that lead to the dissolve of the Union, in which Lincoln put all his efforts to deal with during his presidency. â€Å"He believes this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. He does not expect the Union to be dissolved; He does not expect the house to fall; but he does expect it will cease to be divided.† Lincoln claimed that it is either all free or all slaves in the Union, the Union cannot tolerate half free and half slaves. Lincoln viewed slavery as â€Å"a moral, social, and political wrong†. He â€Å"does not believe it is a constitutional right to hold slaves in a territory of the United St ates† (Paul Boyer 360). Lincoln’s dream was to free all the slaves, but this dream can only go by gradually, he cannot end slavery immediately because it will further the dissolve of the Union. However, Southerners viewed his victory of being a president of the United States as a victory for abolition. Here the problem raised, southern states decided to begin the process of secession from the Union. Lincoln’s hard time began from now on. How was he going to solve this problem? Lincoln help preserved the Union in three different aspects which are economic, military and political policies. His economic strategy was to use capital, weapon and trade; his military strategy was the war of attrition and the three-part strategy to take over the control of Mississippi River and Richmond; his political strategy was to promise he will not end slavery immediately but gradually and establish the Emancipation of Proclamation to claim that every slaves in South will be free so that they will give up to fight against the Union. Since the process of secession is inevitable, the southern states were joining together to form a new nation called the Confederacy. This new formation indic ated that Lincoln was losing part of the Union. As a president, Lincoln was trying his best to help preserve the Union. At the beginning of the Civil War, Lincoln applies the northern advantages to help strengthen the military. First, the North had a huge population advantage, so that the North were able to recruit more soldiers and volunteers to help fight for the war. Second, â€Å"the North controlled more than 85 percent of the nation’s industry and significant material resources. These advantages enabled the North to produce military supplies and replace lost or damaged equipment more rapidly than the Confederacy† (Boyer 371). With these economic advantages, Lincoln was able to supply the army with better foods, shelters and clothing. The soldiers did not need to suffer as more as the Confederate. Even if the Union was out of supplies during the war, it would be more fasten to resupply it. â€Å"In addition, since most of the nation’s railroad lines were located in the Northeast and Midwest, the Union co uld move troops and supplies with ease† (Boyer 371). The economic and transportation advantages also helped fasten the process of resupply and aiding the army. The percentage for the Union to win the war was higher since the North was having better economic advantages than the South. During the Civil War, Lincoln’s military strategies was mainly to divide the south geographically, so that southern states are finding difficult to connect with each other. Lincoln used a three part strategy, first, he plan to take over the control of the capital of the Confederate which is Richmond. Second, Lincoln plan to gain control of the Mississippi River, this â€Å"allowed north to penetrate deep into the south, and prevent the Confederacy from using the waterway to resupply its forces† (Boyer 375). To take over the control of the Mississippi River, North needed to control the largest city in the south which is New Orleans. â€Å"New Orleans is a central port for supplying troops along and west of the river, capturing New Orleans would allow the Union to cut off supplies to western confederate forces and to move troops up the Mississippi River† (Boyer 383). Third, Lincoln used the Anaconda Plan to institute a naval blockade of the south to slowly squeeze the life out of the South like anaconda snake. This hurts the south economy by stopping the south from trading with foreign countries. This three part strategy helped weaken the forces of the Confederacy and further the process to win the war. Lincoln’s another military strategy was to trap the Confederacy army force inside Vicksburg until they are died by starving. In this way, they can force the Confederate to surrender without wasting any manpower and using any violence. In addition, Lincoln used â€Å"the war of attrition† to continue to fight until the South ran out of men, supplies, and the will to fight (Boyer 392). Also, Lincoln used the strategy called the â€Å"total war† to strike at the Confederate economic resources by taking away what supplies they could use and destroying anything that might be helpful to the Confederate, burning farmhouses, slaughtering livestock, and tear up railroad tracks (Boyer 394). These military strategies gave the Confederate a hard time in both economic and war. Near the end of the Civil War, Lincoln was forced to change the purpose of the war from preserving the Union to abolish slavery by abolitionists. Frederick Douglass said it did not worth if the war was only fight for saving the Union without ending slavery. â€Å"A house divided against itself cannot stand† means that the United States cannot always divided into two parts, one is the Union who opposed slavery, and another is the Confederacy who supported slavery. As Lincoln said in his speech â€Å"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so† (Abraham Lincoln) to claim that slavery should be abolished gradually, not immediately, because it would upset the South. And it is wrong to allowed slavery to spread to every other part of the wide world. Lincoln helped preserve the Union politically by making the Emancipation of Proclamation to free all slaves living in areas still rebelling against the United States. He assured it would apply only to the Confederate states to peace the conflict in the Border States. â€Å"Lincoln hoped that if slaves learned that the North was fighting to free them, they would desert their masters, thereby weakening the South’s economy† (Boyer 385). Lincoln’s political strategy to free slaves in the Confederacy help preserve the Union by weakening the Confederacy’s economy and making them cannot stand by oneself and was forced to unite with the Union. Abraham Lincoln was a great leader and president of the United States. Although, he was having a hard time during his presidency, he never planned to stop helping the Union. Instead, he helped save the Union in three different aspects: economic, military and political strategies to gain back the territories from the Confederacy and united them to develop the United States of America. Without the help of Lincoln, the United States would be dividing into two parts and slavery would still exist. Without the help of Lincoln, the United States would not be able to reunite together as a complete nation. Lincoln’ efforts to help preserve the Union will always stay in every Americans’ mind. Works Cited 1. Boyer, Paul S. â€Å"Chapter 12 The Civil War 1861-1865.† Holt American nation. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2005. 360, 368,-372,375,382-387,390-395. Print. 2. Abraham, Lincoln. â€Å"From Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address.† The Cooper Union Speech. Library of America. Cooper Union, New York City. 27 Feb. 1860. Address. 3. â€Å"Abraham Lincoln’s Speech at Peoria, Illinois.† Editorial. The OAH Magazine of History Oct. 2007: 35. Print. 4. â€Å"Abraham Lincoln: First Inaugural Address. U.S. Inaugural Addresses. 1989.† Bartleby.com: Great Books Online — Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and hundreds more. 02 Feb. 2013 .

Communism Its Origins and World Impact Essay - 1025 Words

Communism, a Basic Human Perspective! To this day people who were ruled by communist government still feel the pain and results from it. Communism can be seen as a theory and a system of both political and social organization that has had a great impact on the world through most of the twentieth century. Let us begin by defining what communism is, where it all began, who were some of the key people that played a major role in communism, and when it fell apart. There are many different definitions of communism. Miskelly and Noce defined it as A political, economic and social theory that promotes common ownership of property for the use of all citizens, all profits are to be equally distributed and prices on goods and services are†¦show more content†¦It all began with Plato (369 to 421 BC), who introduced the concept of an ideal city in his republic. People would not be corrupted by money and power but would prevail in wisdom, reason and justice. At the time Plato brought about his ideal city, he was rejecting the foundation of Athenian democracy that existed in his day. (Melchert 151) Plato believed that there were only a few who were fit to rule but everyone is fit to govern. He also believed that there existed a parallel between the internal structures of the soul and the structure of the community. Plato believed that men and women differed in their capacities and abilities. He grouped them into three different classes. The fir st class was the laborers, carpenters, merchants and the farmers, who were sought to be the productive part of the community. The second class consisted of those who were adventurous, strong, and brave and in love with danger; Plato believed that they were suited to serve in the army and navy. In the third class it was those who were intelligent, rational, self-controlled, and in love with wisdom. This group was seen as those who were best fit to make the decisions for the community. (Melchert 151) Although Plato was one of the first who brought about communism the ideal of no one owning any private property continued into the 18th century. It was Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that began the theoretical foundation for the communist revolutions of the 20thShow MoreRelatedThe Soviet Union During The Cold War999 Words   |  4 PagesThe emergence of the Cold War with the Soviet Union had far reaching impacts on American society, including hindering the pace of social reform in the United States. While some aspects of the Cold War may have helped promote certain social reforms, the net impact, deterred inevitable social reforms. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War induced a fear of communism in Americans that had numerous effects on American policies. McCarthyism, a period of controversialRead MoreRemembering A Forgotten War By Donald R. Essay1357 Words   |  6 Pagestraining of their militia or even administration†. 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