Transcript Strain Theories continued - Washington State University

1.
Part II
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Final examinations are scheduled according
to when the lecture meets
http://www.registrar.wsu.edu/Registrar/Cont
ent/FinalExams20111.pdf
MAY 6 (8:00am-10:00am)
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Alan Francis
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Interview (design questions)
Consent form
How to conduct an interview
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General strain theory (GST)
Agnew postulated that strain does not
need to be specifically tied to economic
status because it is actually a
psychological reaction to any perceived
negative aspect of one's social
environment
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Hypothetically, individuals from all social
classes could engage in criminal behavior
because they could all experience negative
emotions arising from strain
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Anger has a significant impact on all
measures of crime and deviance
Strain
ANGER
Criminal
Behavior
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Strains refer to events or conditions that
are disliked by most individuals
Failure to achieve positively valued
goals
 Loss of positive stimuli
 Presentation of negative stimuli
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Gap between expectations and
actual achievements (not always
long-term)
Moving to a new city/school
 Parental divorce
 Death of a relative/close friend
 Break Up
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Peer pressure
Physical /emotional abuse)
Stress, bullying and depression ranked one,
two and three respectively in a list of
incidents as reported by elementary, middle
and high school students.
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Used mail and Web surveys with a randomly
selected national sample of 480 teenagers in
The Gallup Panel of households, aged 13 to
17
%
Drugs/smoking/alcohol
31
Peer pressure/fitting in/looks/popularity
17
Sexual issues (teen pregnancy/abortion/STDs)
14
Education
14
Ignorance/lacking of youth caring/getting involved
10
Career/employment/economy/money/future
10
Morals/attitude
8
Lack of respect/treatment from society
7
Violence/gangs
6
World politics
5
Parents
4
Negative effects on media on youth
3
War/draft/terrorism
3
Stress
2
People don't listen to us
2
Health/medical care/coverage
2
Social Security
2
Safety
1
Other
5
No opinion
2
Boys
Girls
%
%
Drugs/smoking/alcohol
32
31
Peer pressure/fitting in/looks/popularity
14
21
Sexual issues (teen pregnancy/abortion/STDs)
11
16
Education
15
13
Ignorance/lacking of youth caring/getting involved
11
10
Career/employment/economy/money/future
11
9
Morals/attitude
10
7
Lack of respect/treatment from society
4
9
Violence/gangs
6
6
World politics
7
3
Parents
1
6
Negative effects on media on youth
3
4
War/draft/terrorism
3
2
Stress
1
3
People don't listen to us
2
2
Health/medical care/coverage
1
3
Social Security
2
1
Safety
1
1
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While GST posited that each type of strain
ultimately lead to deviance for slightly
different reasons, all three types were
thought to increase the likelihood that an
individual would experience negative
emotions in proportion to the magnitude,
duration, and recency of the stress
Factors affecting
disposition to delinquency
Strain
ANGER
Constraints to delinquent
behavior
Criminal Behavior
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Anger was found to incite a person to
action, and create a desire for revenge
Crime allows individuals to obtain revenge
against those who have wronged them
Crime may allow individuals to alleviate
their negative emotions
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Why are some people more likely than
other to cope with strains through crime?
Bad temper
 Low self-control
 Previous delinquent behavior
 Delinquent friends
 If the initial goals are high and they have few
alternative goals to fall back on, then the
person may be more prone to committing
delinquent acts
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A.
B.
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Crime is not the only way that people
will respond to strain
There are three different types of
coping strategies that enable the
individual to deal with the strain in
their life through legitimate means
Cognitive
Emotional
Behavioral
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Enable the individual to rationalize the
stressors in three ways (Agnew, 1992)
Minimize the importance of the strain by
placing less importance on a particular goal
Maximizing the positive while minimizing the
negative outcomes of an event. This is an
attempt to ignore the fact that there has been
a negative event
Accept the outcomes of the negative
outcomes as fair
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Individuals may actively seek out positive
stimuli (social support from friends and
relatives)
Try to escape negative stimuli
In addition, individuals may actively seek
out revenge in a non-delinquent manner
(Agnew, 1992:69)
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Relaxation methods
Sport
Meditation
1)
2)
3)
The levels and types of strain could be
different for girls and for boys
Boys and girls may have different
responses to the same strain
Gender variation in conditioning effects
(gender differences in dealing/coping
with strain)
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Boys are more likely than are girls to
experience strain because of negative
peer relations that are marked by conflict,
competition, jealousy, and imbalance
Girls are especially susceptible to strain
caused by problems in forming and
maintaining positive relationships with
family and friends
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Consistent with gender socialization, when
facing stressors, males would be more
likely to behave aggressively
Females would be more likely to engage in
more passive and self-destructive forms of
delinquency, such as running away form
home, alcohol use, etc.
Female
Male
More likely to respond with
depression and anger
Anger is accompanied by
fear, guilt, and shame
More likely to respond with
anger
Anger is followed by moral
outrage
More likely to blame
themselves and worry
about the affects of their
anger
Quick to blame others and
are less concerned about
hurting others
Depression and guilt may
lead to self-destructive
behaviors (i.e. eating
disorders)
Moral outrage may lead to
property and violent crime
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Females use aggression as often as
adolescent males
Different events produce aggression
Females’ aggression manifests in different
behaviors
Unlike boys, girls typically shun physical
aggression, but they use gossip, ridicule,
exclusion and other forms of relational
aggression, particularly toward other
females
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“Mean Girls”
“Thirteen”
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Females employ escape and avoidance
methods to relieve the strain
Females have stronger relational ties that
might help to reduce strain (social support)
Males are lower in social control, and they
socialize in large, hierarchical peer groups
where they need to maintain their status
Therefore, males are more likely to respond
to strain with crime (Agnew 1997).
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Females have more intimate friendships
Most of the friends females describe are
other girls
Females consistently report that…
• they spend more time with friends;
• expect and receive more kindness, commitment,
and empathy from them;
• have more open, intimate, and disclosing
relationships
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Significantly more females than males favor
activities that involve intimate discussions
Similarly, a significantly larger proportion of males
described a close male friend as someone who did
not express his true feelings to them and from
whom they hid their feelings
Other research suggests that adolescent males may
regret the lack of intimacy in their same-sex
friendships but accept it as the norm (Way, 1996).
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Multiple strains: poverty, disruptive families,
compromised parenting, deficient schooling,
discrimination, injustice, victimization,
violence
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Numerous tests of GST had also
examined the relationship between strain
and negative emotion, yielding mixed
results
Several studies had found strain-induced
anger to be the primary negative emotion
to exert a significant effect on deviance
(Broidy, 2001 and Piquero and Sealock,
2000).
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Agnew proposed several different
programs to reduce delinquency
which have shown success after
being implemented
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Family-based programs are designed to
teach the members how to solve problems
in a constructive manner, and parents are
taught how to effectively discipline their
children (Agnew, 1995)
This will reduce the amount of negative
emotions that result from conflict in the
family and will decrease the amount of
strain in the home
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School-based programs seek to improve
relations in and between schools
Peer based programs seek to reduce the
amount of strain that an adolescent feels
as a result of relationships with peers
Relationships with peers can be negative
when the peers are delinquent or when
they are physically or verbally abusive
toward other peers