Tutor profile: Cayla R.

What is Social Control Theory?

Social Control Theory was formulated by Travis Hirschi. Hirschi focused on juvenile delinquency. He used self-reported data to help him formulate his theory. He was not like other theorists and asked the question of why some people are criminals. He instead asked the question of why some people are law-abiding. This led to the answer of the bond. Children who have a strong social bond to society will become law-abiding. Hirschi gave four elements to having a strong bond. The first element is the attachment to the conventional others. This means that there are strong conventional ties to those who are law-abiding. Those who are law-abiding could be parents, teachers, or friends. The second element is the commitment to conventional goals. This just means that the child has a strong commitment to a goal. These goals could be the yearning to be a professional football player or a professor at an elite university. The third element is the involvement in conventional activities. The saying Hirschi uses for this element is “idle hands is the devil’s workshop”. This means that children need to be busy to stay law-abiding. The last element is beliefs. Now, this could mean either religious beliefs or high moral principles. The high moral principles are things like fairness, fair play, honestly, justice, and more.

Having an understanding that things continue to exist even when they are not within view is called what?

This is called object permanence.

Pertaining to the novel, The Great Gatsby, when Nick told Gatsby that "you can't repeat the past", Gatsby replied, "Why of course you can!" Do you agree with Nick or Gatsby?

Gatsby makes a valid point that you can repeat the past. I would have to agree with Gatsby on his statement because individuals can repeat the past over and over again if they have not learned from the events that occurred. Repeating the past is simple and easy when one already knows what the outcomes will be or when they are not conscious of the decisions that they have previously made that keep occurring. People tend to repeat the past when the past did not have outcomes that were most desired and they are expecting different outcomes to occur.