• When was the last time you were violent?
• Why?
• What was the result?
Violence
What is it?
• Violence: the intentional use of physical force
or power, threatened or actual, against
oneself, another person, or against a group or
community that either results in or has a high
likelihood of resulting in injury, death,
psychological harm, maladaptive
development, or deprivation.
• Examples of violence: suicide, terrorism, child
abuse, rape, and bullying.
Violence…..why?
Evaluate sociocultural explanations
of the origins of violence
Social Learning Theory and Violence
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Maybe its Social Learning Theory?
• Bandura (1977) suggests
that people learn to
behave violently
(including violent
attitudes and norms)
through direct
experiences and through
observing models.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
• Social learning theory focuses on
observational learning and
modeling.
• The theory proposes that children
learn to be violent due to
exposure to violent models and
because violent behavior is
rewarded.
• The support for this proposition
comes from the results of the
classic Bobo doll experiment
(Bandura et al., 1961) showing
that children who watched an
aggressive model being rewarded
for aggression were likely to
imitate the aggression later.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
• Social learning theory (SLT)
has been applied to explain
the development of
aggression and
intergenerational
transmission of violence
through socialization.
• Children are influenced by
socialization factors such as
the family, the immediate
environment (including
peers), and the media.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
• Social learning can be direct via
instructions or indirect (e.g. role
models and no direct
instructions).
• Children who grow up in violent
families and neighborhoods
where they watch models use
violence and obtain benefits
from it (e.g. power) may be likely
to see violence as a legitimate
means to get what they want or
exert power over other people.
• They may even justify the use of
violence.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Qualitative study on girlfriend abuse among violent
marginal male youth in Canada
Totten (2003)
Aim:
• To explore how young
girlfriend abusers used
violence to construct
their masculinity.
• The study focused on how
families and peer groups
contributed to learning
and identification with
violent norms as part of
establishing a masculine
gender role.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Qualitative study on girlfriend abuse among violent marginal
male youth in Canada
Totten (2003)
Procedure:
• A purposive sample of 30
abusive adolescent males
from a large city in
Canada participated in
the study.
• They all had pro-abusive
beliefs, masculine ideals,
and admitted to using
violence towards their
girlfriends.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Qualitative study on girlfriend abuse among violent marginal
male youth in Canada
Totten (2003)
• The mean age of the boys
was 15.6 years, six
belonged to an ethnic
minority and the rest
were white.
• Many were gang
members and most had
dropped out of school
early.
• The researchers used
semi-structured
interviews to collect data.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Qualitative study on girlfriend abuse among violent marginal
male youth in Canada
Totten (2003)
Results:
• The adolescents’ background
had similar features.
• They had all been exposed to
violent behavior in the family
and they saw this as justified
and even necessary.
• The fathers all had rigid
authoritarian beliefs (e.g. rigid
gender roles).
• The fathers all used violence
to control family members or
to defend their honor.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Qualitative study on girlfriend abuse among violent marginal
male youth in Canada
Totten (2003)
• Out of 30 adolescents, 21
had adopted violent
behavior.
• They were all abusive and
used physical and sexual
violence for the same
reasons as the fathers.
• The boys said that they had
the right to use violence if
girlfriends did not behave.
• In some cases the fathers
had given them instructions
on how to abuse women in
particular situations.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Qualitative study on girlfriend abuse among violent marginal
male youth in Canada
Totten (2003)
Evaluation:
• The study used a small and
purposive sample so it is not
possible to generalize.
• The qualitative data gave an indepth insight into how the
violent adolescents experienced
the use of violence themselves.
• This could be used as a starting
point to design interventions to
prevent violence, such as by
providing positive role models
(mentoring) as well as education
and job opportunities.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
SLT and Violence
Strengths of SLT in relation to violent
behavior
Limitations of SLT in relation to violent
behavior
• Social norms of violence can
be transmitted from parents
to children as predicted by
SLT.
• SLT can also explain that
adolescents use violence in
marginalized social peer
groups because it pays off in
the form of status
(reinforcement).
• SLT cannot explain how
structural factors such as
poverty contribute to
establishing the social norms of
male superiority.
• The theory does not take
individual factors such as
intelligence and personality into
account.
• Some people may be more
prone to violence (e.g. due to
brain damage as a result of
childhood abuse).
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Subculture of violence theory
(Wolfgang and Ferracuti, 1967)
• According to the theory
violent behavior results
from a commitment to sub
cultural norms and values.
• Individual violent values
lead to violent behavior
because sub cultural
values act as a mechanism
of social control among
group members.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Subculture of violence theory
(Wolfgang and Ferracuti, 1967)
• Violence is used as a
means to defend honor
and maintain status (e.g.
within the group, in the
family, or in relation to
other groups).
• If members of
subcultures perceive
threats to reputation or
honor they will defend
their honor with violence
if necessary, even if it
threatens their life.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Subculture of violence theory
(Wolfgang and Ferracuti, 1967)
• The theory was
developed based on work
in an inner-city AfricanAmerican neighborhood
in Philadelphia.
• It was suggested that the
subculture of violence
phenomenon was a
lower-class masculine
phenomenon related to
race.
• This is now contested.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
So is it true?
Subculture of violence influences aggressive behavior
Berburg and Thorlindsson (2005)
Aim
• This was a large-scale
survey of adolescent boys
and girls at public schools
in Iceland.
• The research was carried
out to investigate
whether pro-violent
values influenced group
conduct norms as
predicted by the
subculture of violence
theory.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Subculture of violence influences aggressive behavior
Berburg and Thorlindsson (2005)
Procedure:
• Data was collected in a largescale survey in Iceland with
adolescent boys and girls in 49
public schools.
• Participants were between 15
and 16 years old.
• The sample was a racially
homogenous group.
• Participants answered
questions on how often they
engaged in various threatening
and physically violent acts
(e.g.fighting, kicking,
punching).
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Subculture of violence influences aggressive behavior
Berburg and Thorlindsson (2005)
Results:
• Results showed a
significant impact of
conduct norms on
aggressive behavior.
• The most violent students
said they conformed to
group conduct norms.
• Boys were more likely to
behave aggressively than
girls.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Subculture of violence influences aggressive behavior
Berburg and Thorlindsson (2005)
The conclusion was that
group adherence to
values and norms
encourage aggressive
behavior through:
1. internalization of values
encouraging violence
2. social control processes
ensure adherence to
conduct norms (i.e.
conformity).
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Subculture of violence influences aggressive behavior
Berburg and Thorlindsson (2005)
Evaluation:
• The survey was based on
a large sample of
adolescents from Iceland
so the findings could be
generalized to similar age
groups in Iceland.
• An equal number of boys
and girls participated so
there was no gender bias.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Subculture of violence influences aggressive behavior
Berburg and Thorlindsson (2005)
• The data was collected
through self-reports so
there may be a bias.
• People do not always
tell the truth, especially
in a socially sensitive
study like this one.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Evaluation of the theory of subculture of violence
• The theory can explain how
violence may be used to
establish and maintain
power within a social group
(i.e. to establish social
hierarchies).
• Dominance and power
could also be one
explanation of school
bullying (e.g. Gest et al.,
2003, found that bullies are
seen as popular and “cool”).
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence
Could biological factors cause violence?
• Testosterone and
violence
• Testosterone has been
linked to aggression and
dominance behavior
because castration of a
male usually has a
pacifying effect on
aggressive behavior in
males.
Evaluate sociocultural explanations of the
origins of violence