Peer Rejection Connection to Antisocial Behavior, Essay Example

Psychological effects of rejection

Essentially, peer rejection takes place when a person is deliberately excluded from a social interaction or a social relationship. An individual can either be rejected by a group or an individual. Passive and active rejection is the two types of peer rejection. Passive rejection is, typically, by ignoring an individual or by giving an individual a silent treatment whereas active rejection is through bullying or by ridiculing. Peer rejection not only affects teenagers but also youths and some adults. Teenagers tend to play alongside other children. There is always a sense of social fulfillment in being part of a group, however, isolation accrued through rejection often results in several different psychological impacts such as reduced self-esteem, loneliness, depression and even aggression. Furthermore, it can also result into feelings of heightened sensitivity and insecurity to future rejection.

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It has been determined that there is a strong correlation between peer rejection and growth in antisocial behavior. Humans are essentially social beings, and instances of rejection is always emotionally and psychologically traumatizing. Peer rejection is an interpersonal stressor and a life event that might intrigue a longer lasting effect on a child’s development. Relationships are essential to a child as it helps in building their social learning. However, problematic relationships can limit a child from gaining or learning social skills, instead the child is more likely to learn and develop negative perceptions and expectations for future relationships. When a child grows under peer rejection, they are most likely to stick most of the time on their own, because they fear that if they interact with other peers they are likely to be rejected. They prefer to remain conservative to themselves. When such behaviors persist they become antisocial even later in life. The antisocial behavior is as a result of a feeling of inferiority complex in which the individual has extremely low-esteem. Moreover, without social interaction from childhood, means that they lack social skills and thus they do not know how to communicate with others.

Children who have grown through an experience of peer rejection as highlighted tend to have lower self-esteem which often results in depression. Children react differently to peer rejection; some externalize their problems by being aggressive while other tends to internalize their problems (Bartol & Bartol 2011). Some of the antisocial behaviors they indulge in include resorting to drug abuse or developing disruptive behaviors. Furthermore, they exhibit low rates of prosocial behaviors such as sharing and taking turns or engaging in group or team work. They also develop high rates of social anxiety and high rates of immature, inattentive and impulsive behaviors. It is therefore evitable that peer rejection has adverse consequences on a child’s development which ripple down to antisocial behaviors such as aggression, disruptive behaviors, reduced prosocial behaviors and increased social anxiety.

Types of criminology

Sociological criminology looks into the society as a whole, for instance, what societal factors contributes to increasing the levels of crime. On the other hand, psychological criminology focuses on an individual, that is, what gears human beings. From the definition of the above two types of criminology, it is clear that psychological criminology concentrates about the behavior of someone. It looks into the personal motives that drive someone towards committing a particular crime. There are internal forces or group reasoning that can compel an individual to commit a given crime. Sociology criminology on the other side looks into what exists in the society that can compel an individual to commit some crime. It tries to explain the nature of a society or the type of an environment that can shape someone to become a criminal.

Some of the causes of sociology criminology are poverty, community disorganization, racial/gender discrimination, unemployment rate and home ownership. These causes focus on the collective social factors that stimulate the crime rate. Therefore, where there is a group of people into larger units such as census tracts, countries, cities or neighborhoods, there is a higher chance of sociology criminology. Some of these societal factors such as poverty and unemployment rate can make one to commit the crime to earn a living. Such situations are characterized by hardships. Hardships coupled together with unemployment become a hell. To stop such kind of crimes, the government must come in place to ensure that job opportunity is created to the jobless and the youths are given talks on how they can make their lives without engaging in social crimes.

Psychological Criminology is caused by factors such as childhood abuse, personality, substance abuse, mental illness, IQ and cognitive skills, childhood conduct, prior criminal history or peer relations. It, therefore, becomes evitable that the causes of psychological criminology are caused by factors that are linked with variability in criminal conduct. Psychological Criminology emphasizes that individual inconsistency in criminal behavior outcomes in part from a host of inter and intrapersonal factors. Therefore, this level of crime is the primary focus of most of the current interventions relating to offenders. A feeling of rejection or child abuse may make one to act out of hunger. Such feelings may make an individual to commit a crime with the intentions of hurting back those who have wronged him I the past. The most effective way that can be applied to help solve these kinds of crimes is by targeting these need areas. However, this does not stop the essence of broader sociological factors as well as the value of our society to look at how issues such as poverty, inequality, and racism can be addressed as they can also lead to higher crime rates.

Genetics and criminal behavior

Behavior genetics refers to the variation that exists among people and can be distinguished into environmental components versus genetic components. The best ways that have been used to understand behavior genetics are adoption studies, family studies ad twin studies. An environment that someone lives in has a lot to dictate how the individual will be. It has a lot in determining how the given person will interact with others and behave. Studies show that individuals who grow in slums usually have a bad influence on others and may turn out to be criminals if they are not given the proper guidance and counseling during their growing up.

Human beings tend to be influenced behavioral genetics unknowingly. Biologically people tend to inherit most traits from their parents. Behavioral behaviors are one of the traits that are inherited. Therefore, a child is more likely to be an extrovert when the parents are extroverts and the vice versa is true. However, these behaviors can change depending on other factors such as environment factors among other factors. Therefore, human beings are influenced by both nature and nurture.

Reference

Bartol, C. R., & Bartol, A. M. (2011). Criminal behavior: A psychological approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Prentice Hall.