Reciprocal determinism

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Albert Bandura's belief that a person's behavior is both influenced by and is influencing a person's personal factors and the environment. Bandura accepts the possibility of an individual's behavior being conditioned through the use of consequences. At the same time he recognizes that a person's behavior can impact the environment. The same is true of the relationship between personal factors such as cognitive skills or attitudes and behavior or the environment. Each can impact and be impacted by the other."

This can be illustated by the following graph: Image: http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/soccog/soccog1.gif An example of Bandura's reciprocal determinism is when a child is acting out in school. The child doesn't like going to school therefore he/she acts out in class. This results in teachers and administrators of the school to dislike having the child around. When confronted by the situation, the child admits he/she hates school and other peers don't like him/her. This results in the child acting inappropriately, forcing the administrators who dislike having him/her around, to create a more restrictive environment for children of this stature. Each behavioral and environmental factor coincides with the child and so forth resulting in a continuous battle on all three levels. Behavioral Genetics

Behavioral Genetics --History: (source: Joesph Mclnerney)
Behavioral genetics is a fairly new field of study. In fact, the term ‘genetics’ didn’t appear until 1909. This field attempts to make sense of both genetic and environmental contributions to individual variations in human behavior. Genes can be turned on and off. Multiple genes are factors in forming behavior traits.

--How genetics affect behavior in abused children: (source: CBS) According to statistics, boys who were abused in childhood tend to grow up to be violent or aggressive, not all though. There seems to be a gene activated by the mistreatment in children. This gene only affected a third of the men and young boys studied. MAOA, it plays a bug role in this case due to the fact that it breaks down the main neurotransmitters chemicals linked with mood, aggression, and pleasure.

Environment also plays a large role in influencing ones genes. During the study of boys, ones with a version of MAOA gene caused their brains to produce very little of the enzyme, causing them to be nine times more likely to become antisocial. So due to the terrible environment the child unfortunately grew up in, it caused a lower level of MAOA causing antisocial behavior and violent criminal behavior

--Behavioral issues and education Who's to blame for children who behave badly? Genes and environment play a huge part in child behaviors, but, who gets blamed for the children who act out in the education system? According to the gene MAOA, the side effects are antisocial behavior, persistent fighting, and bullying, lying, cheating, stealing, and disobeying rules during adolescence. And as adults they are aggressive, impulsive, and shows no remorse for their actions, those people can also be called career criminals. Influences in children’s lives like teachers and peer groups have a major influence on how a child acts and what they base their morals on, and what they set as their goals.

According to the “Nurture Assumption” by Judith B Harris, ‘teachers have power and responsibility because they are in control of an entire group of children, influencing their attitudes and behaviors, that they are likely to have long term effects’ A teacher can prevent a classroom of diverse students from falling apart into separate groups and turn the entire class into 'us' that sees it selves as scholars. A teachers job is to unite students by giving them a common goal. According to Wrights laws issue on 'the blame game', school psychologists are there to determine what the reasons for learning and behavior issues are. Here are the five reasons they gave. 1.) first the child may be misplaced in the curriculum or the curriculum may include faulty teaching routines. 2.) secondly, the teachers may not be implementing effective teaching and or behavioral management practices. 3.) third, the principal and other school administrators may not be implementing effective school management practices.. 4.) fourth, the parents may not be providing the home based support necessary for effective learning. 5.) fifth, the child may have physical or psychological problems that could be contributing to learning problems

The education system plays a major role in the acts in children’s behavior along with genes that we all inherit form our biological parents. when it comes to bad juvenile behavior, school systems bare some responsibility to the increase in the behavioral issues, according to the juvenile delinquency book. Education is the key to a job that will mark its holder as successful. Schools that can offer relevant courses with reasonable student teacher ratios will produce a more positive culture than those that ignore such cultural needs. Schools that do not maintain a positive school climate are at risk for producing a large number of cynical alienated students who report they neither like school nor care about there teachers opinions. The attachments to teachers help isolate high risk adolescents from delinquency.

Environment People think that if a child comes from a home with computers and dictionaries, they will do better. Many studies have been done on with siblings and twins. How blood related children reared in different homes turn out compared to adopted children being reared in the same home. Children have 50 percent of their biological parent’s genes, which play a role in adding to their personality...but how much? Environments like peer groups, home situations, school environment such as teachers and administrators affect children greatly. Family environment is a crucial part of a child’s up bringing, but how much does it really affect the outcome of their behavior? If there are problems in the home, the child is likely to suffer the consequences. Some family risk factors are poverty, education, parenting, and family structure. It has been shown through research that families with poor communication and weak family bonds produce an outcome of children with higher aggressive/criminal behaviors. Families who cannot provide a financially stable home, or who cannot constantly punish their children are at higher risk as well to have children who show signs of antisocial or aggressive behavior. Neglect and abuse also are factors in the family history of children who behave badly.

As adults, we have the ability to choose our environments, but children have little to no control over that decision. Adults can choose whether the environment that they are in may have a positive effect or a negative effect on their personality, children, have to deal with what environment their care takers provide for them, thus creating room for personality flaws such as aggressiveness or antisocial behavior. Little children can not distinguish a negative life, from a positive one if the negative one is all they really know and have been taught.

Children who show signs of aggression at a young age, like preschool, are often outcasts from the other children. Other children with similar behavior start to group together, and continue with that behavior throughout life, only getting worse. The peer group a child chooses to associate with has major influences on their behaviors. The need to fit in and be accepted is an intense feeling humans. Many kids will do an abundance of things to try to fit in and be liked by their peers, even if it means doing things that they normally wouldn’t do, behaving in ways that definitely make the parents wonder what is going wrong. Some children are acting out to gain attention from parents who neglect them, or are not closely involved with their child’s life.

Conclusion
So, genes have an affect on the behavior of the recipient, so does environment, and in turn, the behavior of the child, has an effect on its environment. So if children reared in an unloving, abusive home, turn out bad, and act out, the people that child is around outside the home is affected by the actions of the child, producing certain actions and behaviors of that certain person. It is a never ending cycle. Genes influence behavior. Environment influences behavior. Behavior influences the environment. Environment, after awhile will encode certain features in genes, passing on specific personality differences.