Ted Bundy was an American sociopath and serial killer who raped, murdered and mutilated his victims’ bodies even way after their death. From the life and experiences of Ted Bundy, we will examine his life in relation to the seven postulates of Burgess and Askers Differential-Reinforcement Theory. This paper therefore seeks to assert whether the seven postulates can be applied to Ted Bundy`s life.
According to Burgess and Askers, criminal behavior is learned according to the principles of operant conditioning. This postulate is applicable in the life of Ted Bundy, who seems to have had an inherent desire for sadism, which only bloomed later on in his life. During his early life, Theodore Robert Cowell, was known as a bright and lovable person to the general community. It is only from the cold reception he received in school and college from his peers that seemed to trigger his sadistic instincts.
The other postulate states that criminal behavior is learned both in nonsocial situations that are reinforcing or discriminative, and through social interaction in which the behavior of other persons is reinforcing or discriminative for criminal behavior. This applies to the life of Ted Bundy. In his college life, he is described as a shy boy, who was not social and considered somewhat weird by his peers. From the discriminative behavior received from his peers, Ted Bundy recoiled in his own world and developed criminal behavior.
The third postulate states that learning of criminal behavior occurs in those groups which compromise the individual`s major source of reinforcements. This does not reflect in Ted`s life as we have no insight of his association with any criminal groups or people that encouraged the same.
‘Criminal behavior, including specific techniques, attitudes, and avoidance procedures, is a function of the effective and available reinforcers, and the existing reinforcement contingencies. This appears to be the case in Ted`s criminal life. Ted seems to be selecting female victims who are similar in appearance to his ex-girlfriend (Michaud, Ayneswortg & Bundy, 2000). It is therefore imperative to state that Ted was in his mind punishing his ex-girlfriend.
The specific class of behaviors which are learned and their frequency of occurrence are function of the reinforces which are effective and available, and the rules or norms by which these reinforcers are applied. This postulate is true in the case of Ted. After Ted`s first crime, he seemed to derive pleasure from this heinous act, and committed this crime frequently thereafter.
Criminal behavior is a function of norms which are discriminative for criminal behavior, the learning of which takes place when such behavior is more highly reinforced than noncriminal behavior. Ted`s crime gave him more internal gratitude and satisfaction from noncriminal behavior. Ted did not seem to fit among his peers and therefore sought criminal behavior which he immensely drew satisfaction from.
The seventh postulate, ‘Strength of criminal behavior is a direct function of the amount, frequency, and probability of its reinforcement,’ is applicable to Ted Bundy`s criminal life. The more Ted performed his sadistic acts on his victims, the more internal gratification he received, and as a result he performed his criminal acts more frequently.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STc3syxG7hY
Michaud, S. G., Aynesworth, H., & Bundy, T. (2000). Ted Bundy: Conversations with a killer. Irving, TX: Authorlink Press.
