Social Work Practice- Alcohol Misuse in Young People of Ages of 16-19 Essay

Social Work Practice- Alcohol Misuse in Young People of Ages of 16-19 Years - Essay Example Psychological theories play a very important role in the social work practice on alcohol abuse among the young people. According to the Social Learning theory by Albert Bandura, people are not born with specific types of behavior (Monti, 2002; pp. 3-6). This is to mean that people learn behaviors from different contexts such as the environment in which the individuals live in. The theorist continues to indicate that the response patterns that individuals acquire are either acquire through direct experience or through observation of concepts they see in their environment (Monti, 2002; pp. 3-6). On the grounds of this theory, it is validated to indicate that the environment is the major source of learning and the main source of observable behavior. In the context of the young adults aged 16-19 years, the theory explains that they learn new behaviors through modeling. Additionally, Bandura argues that the social behaviors are learned through watching as well as performing the actions learned. For instance, a young teenager who sees his/her peers using alcohol as a form of recreation, they are likely to learn this behavior and even adopt the same as part of their lifestyle (Monti, 2002; pp. 3-6). Despite numerous criticisms that the social learning theory simply takes the individuals as mere unreceptive recipients of the stimuli in the environment as Bingham & Conner argue (2010; pp.10), this theory is relevant in the study of alcohol misuse, as the misuse of alcohol can be termed as a social practice as the misusers of the alcohol simply learn the habit as a result of mere interactions with the various actors in the environment. The biopsychosocial model of addiction explains that alcohol misuse has a link with the psychological and social factors  (Miller, 2011; pp.12). Biologically, individuals may have the genetic inheritance of alcohol syndrome while psychosocially, the environment may influence an individual to alcohol misuse.