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Example research essay topic: Social Learning Theory Aggressive Behaviors - 1,623 words

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Social Psychology Paper In my paper I will compare and contrast the socio-psychological articles: Violent, Delinquent, and Aggressive Behaviors of Rural High School Athletes and Non-Athletes and The Role of Behavioral Under control in the Relation between Alcohol Use and Partner Aggression, discuss research methods used for each of them. Also, I will state the main hypothesis of each article and mention the main results of achieved by the researchers. While discussing the topics of the articles, I will apply such socio-psychological concepts as: aggression, social learning theory, frustration and norms. Finally, I will make conclusions and thus suggest my own way of interpretation and understanding of the socio-psychological issues examined by the authors of the articles. The purpose of the research entitled Violent, Delinquent, and Aggressive Behaviors of Rural High School Athletes and Non-Athletes written by Rhea, D. J.

and Lantz, C. D. (2004) was to investigate the relationship between participation in sports and aggressive, violent, and delinquent behaviors self-reported by students of rural high school (Rhea and Lantz (2004) ). In order to achieve this purpose, the authors used demographic questions, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBSS) and Conflict Behavior Scale as the measures for their research method (Rhea and Lantz (2004) ). The article states that the participants of the research method comprised 234 athletes of high school (the ratio was: 137 males and 97 females) and 104 non-athlete students (the ratio was: 64 males and 40 females) (Rhea and Lantz (2004) ). The authors of the article did not take into consideration the ethnic make-up of the rural sample because of the low representation of Native American, Hispanic, African-American, and Asian young people in it.

Also, it was decided to keep together athletes of contact and non-contact sports as the major part of the participants were engaged both in contact and non-contact kinds of sport activity (Rhea and Lantz (2004) ). All in all, students sport participation was measured by their answers (yes / no ) to their involvement in organized sports conducted by the schools they studied in the period of the previous two years. The rate of delinquent behaviors was measured by asking six questions, which concerned separate aspects of problem behaviors (for instance, trouble with police, drinking while driving, trouble at school etc. ). One question in the survey measured violent behavior: the participants were asked about the number of physical assaults which were performed in antagonistic and offensive manner.

Thus, the researchers used the aggressive subscale, which included five standardized items to assess direct aggression among the students. (Rhea and Lantz (2004) ). The hypothesis of the article was that the escalating rates of rural high school aggression were influenced by specific sports (Rhea and Lantz (2004) ). In order to prove or to contradict the hypothesis, the research analyzed the difference in consumption of alcohol and drugs among male and female athletes living in urban and suburban areas and those who were rural residents. Alcohol and drug use was taken into consideration by the authors as one of the possible driving forces of delinquent, violent and aggressive behaviors.

Also, in order to study socio-psychological causes of aggression, the authors applied the knowledge of social learning theory. According to this theory, adolescents can see, imitate, and learn aggressive behaviors of their counterparts. Maybe, the hypothesis was based on the idea that students could learn to obtain goals, win or benefit from a particular situation by applying physical force and showing aggression. Here, I think, the difference between contact and non-contact should be important to estimate the rate of aggression in sport. Another factor, which may favor aggression among adolescents, is the need of social acceptance (Rhea and Lantz (2004) ) among teenagers and stating their social status. For instance, acting tough and demonstrating physical aggression can help a male teenager to posses a higher social status in the group.

But, if an adolescent is making attempts to self-assert in the group and fails, he / she becomes frustrated. Frustration is also one of the causes of aggression. In addition, sport is a challenging activity and it is full of stress situations and possible breakdowns. On the whole, the hypothesis of the article can be supported by social learning theory, and the socio-psychological causes of aggression, which relate to psychological development of teenagers and the main features of sport activity (participation in groups, competition, contact and non-contact sports). The authors of the research reported the following results (Rhea and Lantz (2004) ): The rate of violent and delinquent behaviors of males is similar for rural, urban and suburban areas; The rate of assaults, drinking while driving, trouble at school, marijuana use, trouble with police of male non-athletes is higher than that of male athletes; According to the CBS, female athletes have less aggressive behaviors than their non-athlete counterparts, while male athletes reported more aggressive behaviors in comparison with non-athlete ones. The results indicated above allowed the researchers Rhea, D.

J. and Lantz, C. D to conclude that the problem of violent, aggressive and delinquent behaviors exists in rural high school and sports participation does not necessarily increase the rate of adolescent aggression. (Rhea and Lantz (2004) ). In particular, the research found that students of rural settings did not have to drink alcohol in order to be accepted in their groups. Additionally, rural athletes had to submit to strict rules (norms) of behavior, which were imposed by their coaches and aimed at decreasing students delinquent behaviors. (Rhea and Lantz (2004) ).

On the other hand, the article, which goes under the title: The Role of Behavioral Under control in the Relation between Alcohol Use and Partner Aggression authored by Grekin, E. R. , Sher, K. J. , Larkins, J. M (2004), offers another approach to study aggressive behaviors of adolescents. The researchers included pre-existing personality traits and studied their relationship with alcohol consumption and aggressive behaviors. (Grekin, Sher, and Larkins (2004) ). The hypothesis introduced in the article suggested that the individuals who possess pre-existing personality traits may demonstrate a stronger alcohol / aggression relationship (Grekin, et al. (2004) ).

Specifically, the researchers hypothesized that behavioral under control, alcohol use and the interaction between behavioral under control and alcohol use estimated at Year 7 can predict aggressive behavior at Year 11 (Grekin, et al. (2004) ). The research method was based on 11 -year longitudinal study (Grekin, et al. (2004) ). The authors of the article recruited participants taking into consideration their family history of alcohol use (Grekin, et al. (2004) ). Participants had to complete a series of questionnaires and diagnostic interviews when they were at the ages of 2, 3, 4, 7 and 11 years old (Grekin, et al. (2004) ). Thus, the variable of alcohol use was based on frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption per week during the period of the past year. Behavioral under control was measured by summing standardized scores on some related personality measures (Grekin, et al. (2004) ).

Relationship aggression was estimated with the help of the Conflict tactics Scale. (Grekin, et al. (2004) ). This scale calculated the amount of physically and verbally aggressive responses taking place in conflict situations. Covariate of marital satisfaction was also included into the study because it is associated with heavy drinking and relationship aggression (Grekin, et al. (2004) ). Another covariate, family history, demonstrated the history of alcohol problems and family alcohol misuse of the participants (Grekin, et al. (2004) ). All these measure were aimed at finding out the stability of relationship and correlation between marital satisfaction, alcohol misuse and behavioral under control. The authors of the article reported the following results of their study (Grekin, et al. (2004) ): Relationship aggression at the years of 7 and 11 has a positive correlation with behavioral under control; Relationship aggression at the years of 7 and 11 has a negative correlation with marital satisfaction; The rate of behavioral under control is closely connected with the rate of alcohol consumption.

In other words, high-agreeable participants reported lower levels of aggression in comparison with higher levels of aggression found in the responds of low-agreeable participants (Grekin, et al. (2004) ). Counter to the hypothesis stated in the article, the researchers did not find out cross-sectional or longitudinal proofs that behavioral under control associated with heavy drinking predict aggressive behavior (Grekin, et al. (2004) ). Though, the authors of the article stated that the results of the study was consistent with the previous findings and supported the idea that personality traits can moderate the relationships between alcohol use and aggression (Grekin, et al. (2004) ). In conclusion I would like to say that in comparison with the article Violent, Delinquent, and Aggressive Behaviors of Rural High School Athletes and Non-Athletes mentioned above, the research conducted by Grekin, E.

R. , Sher, K. J. , Larkins, J. M included more variables and attempted to make a cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. But, at the same time, Grekin, E. R and associates assumed that the results of their study were nonsignificant because their data was constructed on retrospective reporting. The results obtained by Rhea and Lantz can be considered to be more reliable, though the researchers failed to include racial and geographic factors into their calculations and did not count the influence of contact and non-contact sports on the outcomes.

Bibliography: Grekin, E. R. , Sher, K. J. , & Larkins, J. M. (2004). The role of behavioral under control in the relation between alcohol use and partner aggression. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 65 (5), 658 - 662.

Rhea, D. J. & Lantz, C. D. (2004). Violent, delinquent, and aggressive behaviors of rural high school athletes and non-athletes. The Physical Educator, 61 (4), 170 - 176.


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Research essay sample on Social Learning Theory Aggressive Behaviors

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