Ben Little Professor Davies UCO 1200-155 November 25, 2013 The US culture is always changing.

It does not matter how it does, it always is. The US culture changes when a celebrity starts to wear something different or they start to act or talk a certain way, or when a professional athlete starts wears a shoe or glove, or when a politician starts to have certain views and they are in power. That is how this culture is; it is based off of what others do and how the rest of the population mimics those certain individuals. With all that said, I believe that the best social theory that describes the US culture is the Social Learning Theory. The Social Learning Theory is a social theory that explains why people behave how they do (Bandura 1972). Prior to the class, I learned everything from my parents, my brothers, my parents friends, and my own friends. Now my current perspective is the same because I have learned how to act in college from my friends and brothers. The reason why I have not changed my perspective is because I have realized that I have learned from my surroundings. The same way I believe the US culture learns. You also learn through the behavior of others (Rotter 1982). If at a young age, you see someone who is very disrespectful and that person is of influence of you, then you more than likely will do the same thing when you are in the situation that caused the disrespecting to happen. It is mimicking more than anything. As young as you would be, you wouldnt know the difference between good and bad. So if you see something that you think is good, you will do the exact same thing. If a little child has no reinforcement for imitation, then the child is less likely to do that imitation (Bandura 1969), whereas if the child has reinforcement for the imitation such as a reward, they are more likely to do that imitation (Bandura 1969). The strength of this theory is that you can see it in everyday life. If a celebrity, professional athlete, or person of high influence decides to wear something, then people are going to mimic that person and buy it. If LeBron James decides to wear a shooting sleeve in a game, young children who watch him learn that good players wear shooting sleeves. The kids learn that because LeBron is considered the best player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The weakness of this theory is that people may not listen to the people who they are around which would neglect them learning from society, which is a key factor of the Social Learning Theory. Three topics that show how the Social Learning Theory is the best theory for the US culture are social roles/responsibilities, the book American Dervish, and the roles of sports in the US Culture. If a student that wants to become a doctor has no idea what to do in certain situations, then how are they supposed to learn? The best way would for them to shadow or follow a doctor around for a day or a few weeks or a few years. They would be learning from

someone who is of great influence of them. Everything I have learned is from people of great influence to me. I played baseball for 13 years and I was influence by multiple coaches over those years. I learned from all of them which can be said for the working world as well. If you work at an office for a few years and then you go on to work somewhere else but you have prior knowledge of that profession, then you have learned from society and you are about to learn even more. The culture in American Dervish is based off in my opinion a type of the Social Learning Theory. The reason why I say this is because the women in this culture learn from an early age how they are to act at all points throughout their lives (Akhtar 2012). The women in the Pakistani culture are taught everything they know from an early age and they are to abide by what they learn for the rest of their lives. They are impacted by society and are taught by society. They are not doing something that has not already been done by every other woman that has come before them. The role of sports in the US culture shows that people with superstardom have great influence on the US culture. One player can influence young athletes how to throw a ball, how to look while they are playing and how to act. Whenever Cam Newton scores a running touchdown, he does his Superman celebration. All he does is simply impersonate Clark Kent opening his work suit to expose the Superman outfit. Little kids are now mimicking Cam whenever they score a touchdown or even do something impressive in their sport. When the Charlotte Bobcats played the Miami Heat in 2012, Cam Newton was in attendance. The Bobcats ended up losing the game off of a Dwayne Wade jump shot. Dwayne Wade then as he walked down the court impersonated Cams touchdown celebration and did the Superman celebration. Cam influenced another superstar athlete. Athletes can influence society whether they want to or not. If a celebrity is seen smoking a cigarette and they say its good for you, and then a young child that knows no better will believe that smoking a cigarette is good. It is another example of someone who has high influence on society involuntarily teaching members of society (Akers, Lee 1996). As I have already stated, the US culture is always changing. It changings whether it is meant to change or if it just changes on its own. The US culture can change over the smallest things or can change over the biggest things. It all depends on how society accepts these things. If society accepts the changes, it does not matter how big or small the changes are, it has been changed. The reason why society changes is because we as members of society see athletes, celebrities, and people of higher influence do something or act a certain way and we mimic them to try and achieve the same status that they are in in society. The Social Learning Theory is the best theory to describe the US culture. The reasons are that every day we, as a society, either learn something from someone of greater influence than ourselves or we teach someone something whether we meant for it to happen or if they taught it on accident. Athletes can influence the US culture just by what they wear and by how they act in public along with on the field of play. The book, American Dervish, is a good example of the Social Learning Theory because the women are told what to do. From that they learn what is acceptable in society and what is not acceptable in society. Also, social roles are learned through this social theory. If a father teaches his son that they are farmers and nothing else. That kid is only going to focus on

being a farmer and thats it. That is why I think the Social Learning Theory is the best theory to describe the US culture.

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