Smoking Experience
I started smoking at a young age, and this experience seemed natural until I found out that it was a habit that brought us closer to death. It was simple to start smoking, but quitting at an adult age was exceptionally complex. I want to analyze my smoking experience using social learning and systems theories for this essay.
The social learning theory suggests that my habit was developed from the behavior of others (my parents). In contrast, system theory explains my behavior as an effect of complex influences on my development. The latter theory could be a more realistic explanation for the development of smoking in my youth since it captures the influence of various factors. Smoking was a habit that evoked negative feelings from friends due to the thick stench it caused. Therefore, I decided to quit smoking in favor of a healthier lifestyle.
Social Learning
Social learning theory suggests that behaviors are learned from the environment through a technique referred to as observational learning. The idea is that people, especially children, observe other adults or children around them and begin to act out those behaviors they have witnessed. Social learning theory emphasizes the facilitating effect on youth smoking of exposure to smokers who serve as role models (Ennett et al., 2010). The theory posits that adolescent smoking is a learned behavior acquired through social interactions and reinforcement (Ennett et al., 2010).
My relationship with my parents was a positive one. As a child, I admired my parents’ tenacity and wisdom, which contributed to my perception of them as role models. However, my parents were smokers for as long as I can remember, and their smoking habits persisted. I may assume that exposure to such behavior led me to acquire the same habit.
Nevertheless, it is possible that my parents played only a partial role in developing the smoking habit since I was exposed to this behavior outside of the home. The research by Ennett et al. (2010) indicated that the embeddedness of young people’s social surroundings raises the possibility of additional, stronger, opposing, and distinctive cultural influences on young people’s smoking. Focusing on only one social setting for young people runs the risk of overestimating that context’s influence on teenage smoking due to the interrelationships between those contexts.
System Theory
The system theory would be a more comprehensive approach to analyzing my smoking experience. According to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, a child’s development could be seen as a complex system of relationships influenced by various environmental factors (Guy-Evans, 2020). These factors range from the child’s immediate home and school environments to general cultural values, regulations, and practices (Guy-Evans, 2020). The microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem are the five systems that Bronfenbrenner used to categorize an individual environment.
In analyzing my behavior, it is possible to elicit the microsystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. The microsystem is the most critical level as it represents the immediate environment, including family and school relationships (Guy-Evans, 2020). In the exosystem, it is possible to indicate that during my school years, our family had an unstable financial position, which could have deteriorated my perception of reality in a way that inclined me toward negative attitudes.
In combination with the macrosystemic influence of the economic crisis of 2008, my perception of reality led me to a minor depressed state that inclined me towards a negative coping mechanism – smoking. As a result, during my puberty, I started to smoke as a way to negate my negative feelings. I believe this theory to be the most adequate in the explanation of my smoking habit.
Consequences of Smoking
Since this habit started to deteriorate my relationship with people who are non-smokers, I wanted to quit this habit. However, the process was shockingly draining as the first days felt like a month and were difficult to follow. I persisted in throwing away any cigarettes in my sight and continued to live without them.
However, with each passing day, there was a difficult-to-overcome desire to smoke. It might have taken me more time if I had gradually decreased the smoking dosage before ceasing the action altogether. Still, my approach made me feel better immediately after the first two weeks. Therefore, I believe it to be the most effective solution to smoking.
References
Ennett, S. T., Foshee, V. A., Bauman, K. E., Hussong, A., Faris, R., Hipp, J. R., & Cai, L. (2010). A social contextual analysis of Youth Cigarette Smoking Development. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 12(9), 950–962. Web.
Guy-Evans, O. (2020). Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. Simply Psychology. Web.