Discussion

Social Cognitive Theory Affiliation: How does the Social Cognitive Theory explain the origins of youth violence?
The social cognition theory explains that learning in individuals happens through observing others. The observed behavior then changes the thinking of an individual and affects one’s personality. It also asserts that all this behavioral and cognitive changes also are affected by the environment one is in (Sigelman and Rider, 2011). Youth violence has been on the increase in the recent past and this can be attributed to the observation and the environment they are growing up in.
Research indicates that the youth gain their violent behavior from observing violent programs in the television or computer in video games. The television and movies as well as the violent video games make the youth learn how to become violent by fighting or even verbal violence where they abuse others as they have observed. The actions observed are not reprimanded in the movies and television and hence reprimanding them is not a viable option for them. They integrate this behavior in their personality and they end up very aggressive and violent children and teenagers engaging in fights every chance they get.
The other way the youth begin violence is through the environment they grow up in. Some of these youth grow up in homes where the parents are violent or in violent neighborhoods and they adopt similar behavior. They grow up experiencing violence until they begin to think it is normal and okay for them to be violent as well towards each other and more so towards the opposite sex which is mostly the girls and women (Durrant, 2013).
References
Durrant, R. (2013). An Introduction to Criminal Psychology. New York: Routledge.
Sigelman, C. and Rider, E. (2011). Life-Span Human Development. New York: Cengage Learning.