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Essay on Theories help explain drunk driving

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Theories Help Explain Drunk Driving
Taylor Forté
February 5, 2014
HDFS 2400
University of Missouri
Fall 2013
ID: 333795 and Keycode: 2476

Theories Help Explain Drunk Driving Driving while intoxicated persists to be a major problem amongst teenage drivers. Although there are many precautions taken in order to prevent this type of activity, whether by the school, media or parents’, teens proceed to place themselves into these very high risk situations. These persistent behaviors drive us to look further into why teens partake in this type of activity or better yet what and who is influencing this age group. As asked by the principal I will attempt to explain this behavior using several theories …show more content…

And the idea of self-efficacy through experience is a factor of the social cognitive learning theory that contributes to ideas as to explain this behavior. Self-efficacy is defined as “people’s beliefs about their own abilities and talents,” according to Kail and Cavanaugh (p. 14). The bottom line is that many of the activities people around you are taking part in you are just as likely to take part in as well. if the behavior of those who stand out in the population is the most observed then what can we do to sort of mediate certain behavior? Well, it’s hard to say because once behaviors have become habitual they are hard to let go of.
Operant Conditioning According to Kail and Cavanaugh the theory established by Skinner known as operant conditioning is a “learning paradigm in which the consequences of a behavior determine whether a behavior is repeated in the future” (p. 13). This theory to an extent, parallels the previous theory of operant conditioning but is also important in trying to understand why one makes the decisions they do as well as how often they partake in certain behaviors. Through his theory Skinner displayed that there are two types of consequences, reinforcement and punishment, in which one increases the chances of repeated behavior and the other vice versa. Reinforcement is the component that increases the likeliness of repeated behavior and includes two divisions, negative and positive. Negative reinforcement is that in which a person’s

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