Human Behavior and the Social Environment

What does the concept socialization mean?

The process by which children acquire knowledge about language, values, etiquette, rules, behaviors, social expectations and all information necessary to get along and thrive in a particular society.

What does the concept "blended family" mean?

Any nontraditional configuration of people including non biological or legal linkages, who live together, are committed to each other, and perform functions traditionally assumed by families.

Briefly define the following system theory concepts from :

System: A set of elements that form an orderly, interrelated, and functional whole.

Homeostasis: The tendency for a system to maintain a relatively stable, constant state of equilibrium or balance.

Subsystem: A secondary system. System within a system.

Boundaries: Repeatedly occurring patterns of behaviors that characterizes relationships in a system and give it a particular identity.

Input: The energy, information, or communication flow received from other systems.

Output: Energy, information, or communication emitted from a system to environment or other systems.

Feedback: A system's receipt of information from an outside source about it's performance or behavior.

Entropy: Natural tendency of a system to progress towards disorganization, depletion, and death.

Negative entropy: Process of a system moving toward growth and development.

Equifinality: The idea that there are many different means to the same end.

Differentiation: A systems tendency to move from a more simplified to a more complex existence.

Family therapy: Intervention by a social worker or other family therapist to improve communication and interaction in family and other changes and goals.

What is a learning theory:

A theoretical orientation that conceptualizes the social environment in terms of behavior, its preceding events, and its subsequent consequences.

Define the following terms as related to Learning theory

Respondent conditioning: Responses that develop when learned to respond to a new stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response.

Unconditioned stimulus: Naturally occurring. Stimulus that naturally results in a specific response.

Conditioned stimulus: Not naturally, but results in a response after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus that elicits the response naturally.

Systematic desensitization: A person with a phobia practices relaxation while imagining scenes of the stimulus. The intent is to decrease the fear.

Modeling: Learning behavior by observing others engaging in that behavior.

Operant conditioning: Behaviors are influenced by the consequences that follow.

ABC of behavior: Antecedents (events before behavior), Behavior, and Consequences

Reinforcement (Positive and Negative): Positive refers to events or consequences that follow a behavior and strengthens it.

Negative is the removal of a negative event or consequence that serves to increase the frequency of the behavior.

Punishment: Removal of positive reinforce, which results in less frequent behavior.

Extinction: reinforcement stops resulting in decrease or stopping of behavior.

Ethical Question 4.5: What type of parenting style do you think is best, and why? What style did your parents use? To what extent was it effective, and why? (page 185)

I believe that authoritative parenting is the best. I don't believe that parenting should be too strict nor too leniant. My parents were more on the leniant side. They let us do whatever we wanted and I believe that led us to make more mistakes that were impressed into our future. The decisions we made were more destructive than building our future.

On the topic of Influence of Television, research indicates that television does influence and increase children's violent behavior in three main ways:

a) Children model behaviors they see.

b) Violence is arousing, they're more likely to lose control and become violent.

c) Children see a lot of violence and start believing it and assume it happens everywhere.

President Clinton's made three pleas to the media after the Columbine High School massacre:

a) Stop showing guns in ads and previews that kids can see.

b) Asked for reinforcement of rules based on movie ratings

c) Reevaluate rating system to see if they are allowing gratuitous violence in movies approved for kids.

What does the American Academy of Pediatrics suggest about children under two years?

Children under the age of two years should not watch television.