Remote Session (due 6/8/06) Families and Developmental Theories
This blog is part of your remote assignment for Thursday, 6/8/06. It is due by Thursday morning at 11:00.
In this blog, you will be making the connection between information in chapter 7 about families and information in chapter 5 about developmental theories. In other words, you will be explaining how family functioning would be important to a any developmental theorist.
1. Summarize a specific developmental theory that mentions family functioning or relationships from chapter 5. Be sure to mention the important parts of the theory.
2. Highlight (explain the importance) of the role of family function in that theory.
posted by ProfessorQuinnCCP @ 10:12 PM
9 Comments:
1) One develpomental theory that I will summarize is the Latent Trait Theory. The latent trait theory is a stable feature such as impulsive personality disorder that may link a person to delinquency. The General Theory of Crime is in relation to this theory. It includes all concepts such as biosocial theories, routine activities, rational choice theories, and biological theories.This theory can be found in chapter five under the title latent trait theories.
2) The latent trait theory relates to the family function because if the father has an impulsive personality and the child soon develpos this disorder later on in his childhood, that may be a problem if he sees that his father handles his anger through aggression and violence. This may play a role for the child when it comes to school and relationships with friends. This may cause a family conflict if the mother does not know how to control her sons impulsive personality and later on it can cause the family to breakup their marriage. The impact of delinquency dealing with family life can be found in chapter seven entitled Family and Delinquency.
The life course and the interactional theory are in strong comparision to each other. Both theories equally describe how one's
action could change over a period of time in a person's life. To go deeper in depth, the interactional theory takes it a step further by giving examples in stages: the family in the early adolescent stage, school and friends during midadolescence, and social peers during adulthood.
The significance of the family behind these theories are on the basis of connection and attachment. The theories combined discuss that through these stages, the adolescence of a person changes. Depending on the relationships between the family determines the probability of committing a delinquent crime. The relationships between peers are essential points dealing with delinquency. The stronger the bond within the friendship, the delinquent is less prone to perform the actions. It is not unusual for a teenager to perform delinquent actions, but the reasons behind the act fall back on the negative bonds at home.
The theory that I will summerize would be the Life-Course theory, which states "that delinquent behavior is a dynamic process, influenced by individual characterics as well as social experiences, and that the factors that cause anti-social behaviors change dramatically over a person's life span"(144).
I believe that the Life-Course theory is connected to family function because family tends to have a strong impact on a person life long goals. So I feel that if a family shows a former delinquent some family values that they then would seek those values for their own family.The Life Course theory is important to me because I feel that it gives people the benifit of the doubt by letting them know that they have time to change from their delinquent behaviors.
1) Children grew up within environment the environment teaches them how to live in our society. Furthermore, this friendly, environment also kept them away from delinquency and antisocial behavior. All children can become delinquencts, but children who live in poor neigborhoods have more possibilities getting involved in undesirable behavior. Also, going to bad schools make them more prone to become delinquents.
2) Finally, parents can teach their children about the consequences of crime and how to avoided it.
1. In my view, no theory best explains the relationship between family functioning and deliquency than Thornberry's Interactional theory.This theory traces the evolution of deliquency from the lack of strong social bonds between adolescents and their parents.In the absence of this parental bond, adolescents become vulnerable to other negatives elements that influence their behavior. Such elements could be peer groups and gangs.The major component of this theory is the fact that deliquency is evolutionary from stage to stage and changes in time and circumstance.The family, the school, the community and peer groups all contribute to the making and unmaking of a deliquent child but the degree of bonding and attachement is critical to shaping the life of the adolescent.
2. The family function is the most important part of this theory(Interactional theory). The family is the fisrt stop sign. It is the first port of call, whatever negative or bad behavior is attained at the family level goes on to shape the future of the adolescent. With an excellent family relationship and bonding based on positive reinforcements and modeling, the child and/or adolescent is best prepared to face the challeges of the world. The family is therefore an inevitable part of the success of the child. In the United States, for example, the rate of crime has been constantly linked to poor family relationships and upbringing. The homes where kids grow up and model after their decent parents, the children are less likely to be deliquent but in broken homes controlled by single parents, the children are most likely to be deliquent. The importance of the family to the development of the adolescent could not be overemphasized.
1) One developmental theory that has to do with family and relationships is Social Development Model -aka- SDM. This theory states that a childs behavior can be affected by the attachment or lack of attachments to his parents. This theories study shows that youth who have formed prosocial bonds with their parents are less likely to become delinquent. This relationship with the parents can help in determining which direction a youth will go. For instance, parents who are involved in their childs schooling and praises their sucesses are helping to make not only make school a valuable experience but they are also helping to keep him from delinquency.
2)The importance of these family functions is that in order to keep a youth from delinquency acts or antisocial behavior he must develop and maintain these prosocial bonds. Also,these attachements affect a youths behavior for the rest of his life.
1. A specific developmental theory that mentions family or relationships from chapter 5 is the interactional theory. The interactional theory is defined as a developmental theory that attributes delinquent trajectories to mutual reinforcement between delinquents and significant others over the life course- family in early adolescence, school and friends in midadolescence, and social peers and one’s own nuclear family in adulthood. The important part of this theory is the significance of positive relationships with family and close friends.
2. Children who are raised having positive social bonding relationships with close family are less likely to be involved with delinquency, then children who develop negative abusive social relationships with their family. If family members are involved in criminal activity, the risk is higher for the children in that family to be drawn into delinquency. Family breakups or parental divorcees create risks for children to engage themselves in deviant behavior, due to the absence of one parent and the lack of supervision. Family is the foundation for a child which helps develop them into independent, respectable, and responsible adults.
The one theory that I associate together is the social learning theory and the cognitive theory. First children can learn from parents who are in direct contact with them. Absent parenting can be a sure way of deliquency. Children are like sponges. The more they see the more they act out.Developemental skills are mostly the parents job to make sure the child receives an adequate amount of protection and care.Cognitivre is a mental process where a child can be fully devoloped or severely deprived. Most children that are deprived act out in aggression.Children learn more by what is seen and not taught. Devolopementalist has a good point as far as children's behavior is acted out to what they soak in from previous learning.When violence is watched children tend to hold that agression in themselves. Sometimes it come out in Adulthoood.Juvenile delinquence is really a lack of mental processing.Youth seem to have a shorter perspective on what the outcome will be not weighing the options. Devolpement is in a lot of areas.Character, ability to perform and comprehension. Dysfunctional familes tend to lack devolopemental skills when children have no direction or guidance.Cognitive theories [Jean Piaget] says the mental capacity starts at birth and continues on until later in life.Most scholars say that morlas values are completed in steps.Children that are stunted by developement are more likely to be a juvenile delinquent.
I will be explaining the Interactional Theory that was developed by Terence Thornberry. Interactional Theory is developed in delinquent because of social bond that was weakened by not having attachment to parents, commitment to school ans belief in conventional values.
During youth adolescence, a close relationship with family plays an important role in determining whether a youth will adjust to society or become delinquent. Weak bonds with family and friends lead children to develop friendships with deviant peers. Kids who go through stressful events in their life, are more likely later to get involved in
antisocial behaviors. Delinquents who are always in trouble with the law find it difficult to later establish social bonds and social relationship.Interactional Theory also explains that delinquent fathers produce delinquent sons and maybe delinquent grandsons.
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