Active Theory of Television Viewing

Television is one of the most widely used forms of communication today; it is used for broadcast purposes on entertainment, education, and information to people from all around the world. There are a number of different genres a person can choose to watch on television, all without taking a step out of their front door. Criminal television shows classify as one of these genres and are one of the most popular. Most of the time, the production of a criminal television show is where an author examines an actual past crime and then uses re-enactments to help draw in their audience; some common ones that are usually heard of, in the United States specifically, are CSI, Law & Order, Criminal Minds, NCIS, etc. As incorporated in the title, Criminal

When it comes to family and television shows, there are a lot of different theories that could be used in showing the theoretical point of view of the family. A healthy family would need to sustain and create environment which endorses physical and emotional health and psychological happiness for its members. To achieve this purpose, families will need to recognize how to support, nurture, encourage, protect, connect, generate structure and boundaries, have fun and work together as a group. Does a family have to have a certain look and to the television shows depict this certain look? The response to that could be as diverse as there are families; nevertheless there are shared features that can be originated in various types of families. With said, this essay will discuss four different shows the depict a family.

Most humans learn by simply watching, and then imitating the action rather than trial and error or direct experiences of the consequences of our actions (this is not to say that watching and imitating is the only way of learning). This method of learning is called observational learning. The highly recognized psychologist with observational learning is Albert Bandura. Bandura’s theory states that observational learning

The theory of Cognitive development was in response to the belief that thinking was either intrinsic or extrinsic, when Piaget thought that neither offered an explanation. “The basic premise of cognitive theory is that thinking and learning are processes of interaction between a person and the environment. (Gordon and Browne, 2016, p.103) Maturational and environmental factors are part of the theory in which a set out sequence of cognitive stages by heredity, the environmental factor comes in through the experiences the children have directly influence how they develop. This influenced my philosophy in making me realize that a student’s environment (home life being a big one) and influence their development greatly. With wanting to work in lower income areas, student home life is not the greatest and neither is their development. Most students are developmentally behind and it makes since that their home life and environmental factors have an effect on that.

Learning can be defined as a process by which our behavior, knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes lead to a potential change or a permanent change in how we perceive, interpret and understand our environment or incoming stimuli. As a way to explain how this learning process takes place, numerous theories about learning have been and continue to be developed as a way to further define this process. A theory, though defined many ways, can be understood simply as

The Learning Theory influences everyone’s culture, ethnicity, gender, and social status, by being from different geographical location and religious background everyone has a unique characteristic, when it comes to learning or problem solving. One of the most important events in a human’s life is the “Learning Theory”.

Much of what a viewer learns from television is incidental learning. Incidental learning is defined as, "learning that takes place when a viewer goes to television for entertainment and stores up certain items of information without seeking them" (Lowery & DeFleur, 1995, p. 252). Incidental learning suggests, "that constant exposures to a specific image of an object can lead to distorted beliefs about the object" (Gerbner, 1980, p. 15).

Albert Bandura Born 1925 social learning theorist accepts the principle of conditioning but believe there are other ways of learning such as learning by watching. Social learning theorists think that people also learn by observing others. This is called ‘observational learning’. Early years workers have seen children copy other children or adults. This is spontaneous children will naturally learn by copying rather than someone showing or teaching them. Research shows that children and young people can only copy something but not others. Cognition seems to play an important part in this as children need to be able to notice the activity and also be able to remember it fully. Bandura calls this ‘social cognitive theory’

The boy first saw the other boy whom we can assume was his brother or friend doing this behavior and then initiated the same behavior. Besides this, the young boy also showed characteristics of this theory in the beginning when he pointed at the carousel and said “horsee,” shortly after it was said after the other boy. Bandura’s theory stressed that one can acquire a wide range of behaviors and thoughts through observing others behaviors. In this case, one boy observed the other boy point at the carousel, say “horsee,” and repeated the same behavior. Similarly, while riding the carousel, the boy observed the other boy making clicking noises with his tongue and saying “neigh, neigh,” and repeated the same behavior. This can be classified as cognitive, observational learning. Bandura’s most recent model of learning and development, highlights three elements; behavior, the person/cognition, and the environment. An individual’s confidence, the fact that he can control his success is an example of the person factor. The strategies he uses are examples of cognitive factors. Behavior, cognitive and environmental factors are interactive. Behavior can influence cognitive and environmental factors and vice versa. In this observation, there is a link between person and cognitive

In Steve Johnsons’ article, “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” he analyzes the shift in pop culture television over the time and how that transformation has affected the way viewers absorb what is on screen. He came to the conclusion that, contrary to popular belief; culture has grown to be more complex and mentally challenging throughout the years.

Albert Bandura, a 20th century American pszchologist, proposed a very important and probably the most influential theory of development and learning. He believed that: “Most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions

TV today has a great deal of constructive outcomes and impacts on our public and American culture. TV gives us supportive data, different types of instruction and diversion, which can provide some beneficial outcomes on the public. On an everyday premise, TV keeps us educated with a lot of supportive data. However, viewer must watch with wisdom. Viewers must remember the television is a tool to stimulate our thoughts, ideas, and creativity. It should not a be used as manual to shape an individual’s identity or ideas. TV has dependably been a wellspring of contention in the United States. How it influences our public and the general population have sparked inquiries that individuals have been mulling over as far back as televisions creation.

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory is a theory that includes development theories in order to understand how children learn. Bandura’s theory is based on how people can learn by observing others, how internal mental states influence people, and how learning something does not change one’s behavior every time. Bandura was able to find out that people learn by three observational models. The first model is the live model which includes observing how someone demonstrates the behavior, the verbal instruction model which learning occurs through auditory directions, and the symbolic model where modeling occurs through media sources such as internet, movies, and books.

Learning is the relatively permanent change in behavior (Burns, 1995), and can come in the form of observable activities and internal processes. Explanations of what happens when these actions occur are known as learning theories. These theories include behaviorist, cognitivist, humanist, social learning and constructivist. In this essay behaviorist and cognitivists will be described, compared and contrasted in order to truly understand their approache.

This essay will compare and contrast three key theories of learning; Behaviourism, Cognitive Learning Theory and Constructivism.