history of social thought article
Upon October twenty-seven, 1994, Leslie Smith observed her burgundy Mazda
Protege roll in the watery depths of John D. Long Lake holding
her two sons, Michael jordan, 3, fantastic 14-month-old close friend, Alexander
Henderson and Domains 1995). It is open to question what could have
caused a mother to intentionally killing her two beautiful baby
boys. The motive looked like there was that Susan Smiths rich
boyfriend did not want the children. She also set by her
written by hand confession that she recognized he would hardly ever love her
(Smith 1994). I can only speculate that she designed he would never
love her as long as the lady had kids. However , I really believe that
Leslie must have been deeply disrupted to devote such a horrible
In order to better understand this unthinkable act, I chose
to use the psychoanalytic theory from the emotional
perspective. I think this theory can illustrate Susans habit
better than the cognitive regularity theory since the id, ego
and super-ego seem to notice mental techniques more than the
cognitive consistency theory does. Using the cognitive
persistence theory will make it harder to observe the
mental processes of Susan Jones that I consider are necessary to
understand this criminal offense (Lecture paperwork, psychological perspective
cognitive consistency theory). I will also use the social
learning theory underneath the behavioral perspective because I really believe
positive and negative support can make it more clear regarding
why Leslie Smith murdered her children. I chose to not use the
cultural exchange theory because, in cases like this, Susan Smith is not
negotiating anything while social exchange theory explains. It also
is usually a hedonistic view with the human (Lecture notes
behavioral perspective, sociable exchange theory, 2000). The final
theory that is to be discussed from the sociological point of view is
the role theory. I believe that it is a most obvious idea that
Leslie Smith defyed her status and part of being a mother that our
society accepts. Role theory will be more beneficial than representational
interaction theory because I believe that Leslie Smith a new great
deal of position conflict among being a mom and a girlfriend.
Symbolic discussion theory would not deal with functions, and concentrates
more on symbolic marketing communications (Lecture remarks, sociological
perspective, symbolic discussion theory, 2000).
The psychoanalytic theory helps us to higher understand
personality development of people. According to Freud, we
have a bio-sexual source of personality that consists of two
elements. The first is named the Ardor, and it is each of our life
instinct. It is our will to stay alive for any reason.
The second component is a Thenatos which is our loss of life instinct.
These are motivators for our social habit (Lecture remarks
psychological perspective, psychoanalytic theory, 2000). Susan
Smith explained that she wanted to roll into the river along with her
twins, but she decided against it (Smith). Perhaps her
Eros was much more powerful than her Thenatos, or she would include
followed her death behavioral instinct and murdered herself also. The psychoanalytic theory likewise states that we get three components
that make up the personality. Initially, there is the identification which
contains our drives, wants, and needs that individuals are born with
(Lecture notes, emotional perspective, psychoanalytic theory
2000). The id is sometimes thought of as our unconscious thoughts
that we are unaware of. The 2nd aspect towards the personality is definitely
called the super-ego which usually holds each of our moral morals and norms that
will be developed through parental socialization (Lecture paperwork
psychological perspective, psychoanalytic theory, 2000). Consist of
words, the super-ego is not some thing we are born with, but it really
contains probe and principles that are taught to all of us by our parents.
The third element to the personality is the ego. This is maybe
the most important part of the personality because it attempts to
satisfy the ids desires. This can be a neutral system that could be
regarded as the conscious decisions all of us make on a daily basis
(Lecture remarks, psychological point of view, psychoanalytic theory
2000). For example, Susan Smiths id planned to be with her
wealthy partner. This was her main desire that the lady was
interested in. She knew that he did not want children. Her
super-ego realized that eradicating her kids was very wrong.
Therefore , her ego tried to help out her desire to be with her
sweetheart, and her id overtook her persona because the lady
eliminated her children from the picture. Therefore, Susans super-ego
Social learning theory features operant health and fitness aspects to it
that looks to behavior being determined by rewards and punishments.
That states our behaviors happen to be motivated to avoid punishments
and optimize returns. We in theory do this to find positive
and negative reinforcement (Lecture notes, behavioral perspective
interpersonal learning theory, 2000). Positive reinforcement can be any
enjoyable event that people receive by simply performing some behavior.
On the other hand, negative reinforcement involves receiving
a reward by associated with an aversive stimulus (Lecture notes
behavioral perspective, cultural learning theory, 2000). We all learn
what behaviors elicit rewards and punishments by our own
actions. Susan Cruz learned that taking away her kids from
her life became negative reinforcement. She believed she would
gain positive encouragement which could be the love of her
boyfriend. However , along with encouragement, there usually comes
treatment. Positive abuse consists of applying unwanted
stimuli, and negative punishment can be defined as the removal of
wanted stimuli (Lecture notes, behavioral perspective, social
learning theory, 2000). Leslie Smiths consequence began as soon as
she understood what the girl had performed. Her croyance clearly declares how
the lady was very guilt-ridden and had felt gloomy about eliminating
her children (Smith 1994). This could be a kind of negative
abuse because her children were permanently removed from her
lifestyle forever. Following her admission, she was sentenced to life in
jail. This can plainly be seen because positive abuse because
her freedom was taken away coming from her permanently.
Role theory is a theory that helps us to better understand
our interpersonal behaviors. Many of us have functions and statuses in our
everyday lives that apply to how we live on a daily basis.
Yet , some people will not follow socially accepted tasks and
norms. Among the list of roles that we have in life, generally there can also be
position conflict. Function conflict can be when various roles are certainly not
compatible with the other person because of the diverse statuses that
a person occupies (Lecture notes, sociological perspective, function
theory, 2000). Susan Smith obviously acquired great turmoil among her
status like a mother, and her position as a sweetheart. She became
caught up to make a choice as a mother or maybe a girlfriend. She
most definitely manufactured the wrong decision, one that she’ll have to
experience forever. Statuses are what we should are in every area of your life, and functions
are what we do in life (Lecture notes, sociological perspective
part theory). For instance, one of Susan Smiths statuses was
as being a mother. What exactly mother? A mother is supposed to love
proper care, and guard her children before anything else in her life.
Susan Smiths role as a mother was definitely not normal. Perhaps
she was confused about what her role as a mother should be. Your woman
deviated by her function as a mom so dramatically, and it is
nearly impossible to understand what sort of mother could watch her
children expire. I believe that she knew perfectly well what her
role as a mother should be, nevertheless she made a decision to be really selfish.
There are two sorts of statuses that accompany role theory.
Attributed statuses will be those that get to all of us without a choice
and attained statuses will be those that we choose or obtain (Lecture
paperwork, sociological point of view, role theory, 2000). Since being
a mother is usually an obtained status, it really is even more difficult to know why Leslie Smith transformed her mind about this position that
was achieved and killed her children. It is hard to believe that a
mother would choose a guy over her own kids permanently.
All three in the theories discussed previously have been
successful in analyzing Susan Smiths horrible crime. Yet , I
assume that the sociable learning theory can best explain this
heinous occurrence because it seems that Susan Jones was just
concerned with customizing her rewards. This theory works better
than the others because the other theories were not as clear on
what motivated Susan to commit this kind of a crime. The lady was and so motivated
to get her men approval and love that she taken out her
important children by her lifestyle. In the end, the lady only received
horrible punishments. Punishments that is neverending. Not
only will certainly she under no circumstances be free again, although she is resented among nearly
everyone that has heard this horrific story. I believe that Susan
features definitely learned a great lesson by being punished to life in
prison. The lady did not get any rewards by eradicating her children.
This can be a story that will make ones stomach turn, every
loving mom embrace the youngster. I don’t think any individual will ever
really know what Susan Smith was really pondering as your woman watched her
children gradually immerse in to the murky seas of John D. Extended Lake
that autumn day. It seems also difficult to try to understand why
a mother might kill her own children. Hopefully someday we can
completely understand the nature of this kind of crime, and crimes related to
it, to ensure that we may put a permanent end to innocent children staying
murdered by person that should protect them one of the most.
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