The Effect Of Television Exposure On The Behavior Of Infants Or Children

Television is the mainstream of our culture. Violence on television has been a topic of conflict since before 1950. There have been repeated debates on how to protect children from the harmful effects of violence on television. Television is one form of modern media that influences the everyday lives of people. Televised violence has a major effect on how children perceive the world and how they behave. "American television has become the most violent in the world. It is for this reason why researchers have focused their attention toward television violence" (Cantor & Hoffner 424-4-25). Children enjoy watching television and now with the increased technology of cable and movie

Does violence on television have a negative effect on children and teenagers? The violence seen on television has had surprising negative effect. Violence shown on television causes children and teenagers to develop behavioral problems and learning disabilities. Such behavioral and learning problems include; language development, school performance / learning, cognitive development and their general behavior to others (Kinnear 27). In a study on the correlation between violence and television done with 1,565 teenage boys over a six-year period in London, William Belson, a British psychologist, found that every time a child saw someone being shot or killed on television they became less caring towards other people. William Belson also

By watching the video about Dr. Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment, it is clear that his hypothesis was that children who see aggressive behavior tend to be aggressive, while children who do not see aggressive behavior will probably not show an aggressive behavior (Research Methods Presentation). Bandura’s hypothesis was that “children can learn about aggressive behaviors by observing the action of others” (Durkin, 1995, pp. 405-406).

Over the years, researchers have studied the effects that television has had on children. When children are taught to tie their shoes, it is because their parents taught them. When children are taught to ride their bikes, it is because someone showed them. In many instances, children learn by watching and observing things they see others do. This leads researchers to believe that violent television in terms, makes children more aggressive.

Violent media has been proven time and time again over the past 60 years to cause increased aggression in children and young adults. The long term and short term exposure to violent media has been shown to cause “increased feelings of hostility, expectations that others will behave aggressively, desensitization to the pain of others, and increased likelihood of interacting and responding to others with violence” (Committee on Public Education). One of the most famous experiments done on the subject was done in 1961 by the psychologist Albert Bandura at Stanford University. In this experiment children between the ages of three and six were put in a playroom containing a many activities and toys (Cherry). One of those toys was a bobo doll; a 5 foot tall inflatable doll. An adult would enter and either play with the child from a complete ten minutes, the control group, or at some point during those ten minutes begin beating up the doll, the experimental group. They would also say things such as “pow” and “he keeps coming back for more” while attacking it (Cherry).

The study consisted of 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University Nursery School, ages between 3 to 6 years old. The children were split into three groups based off their aggression judgment from teachers and parents. The first set of children were shown aggression by adults, both male and female, beating up a Bobo Doll. The second set of children ascertained an adult model who exhibit no aggression and the control group was not acquaint to any model. The first set of children were placed in a room with the Bobo Doll after 10 minutes of watching the adult model. The results showed that the first set of children who watched the aggressive model showed

The results of the study were that it was possible to predict aggression based on media exposure and that it significantly increased aggression. The study suggests that the more educational media exposure there is to children the more aggression is shown.

Practically since the beginning of television many, parents, teachers, legislators and mental health professionals have desired to grasp the impact of television programs, mainly on children. Mainly on the concern has been the portrayal of violence, predominantly given by psychologist Albert Bandura's work in the 1970s on social learning and the tendency of children to imitate what they see. In general,” the more aggressive the people or films that children observe, the more aggressive the children act. Learning by watching and imitating others, rather than through one's own personal experiences, is called social learning. Later research has shown that viewing violent acts on TV and in the movies affects people in other negative ways: (1) It

Bandura’s experiment is a true study, which is the only type of research that can determine causality (Belsky, 2013) – page 28); therefore, this study can determine causality. The results of the experiment show that when children are exposed to hostile models, they tend to also act aggressively. This study is important because it shows that children copy aggressive behaviors (Durkin, 1995). Implying that either exposure to violence thru TV or in real life environment, such as school or household, can lead to aggressive behaviors in children. Consequently, it is important that parents and caregivers avoid exposing children to violence.

Two theoretical explanations are provided for social aggression: social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2009, as cited in Martins & Wilsons, 2012) and information processing theory (Huesmann, 1998, as cited in Martins & Wilsons, 2012). Social cognitive theory reveals that observation of social interactions and media displays can contribute to one’s attainment of knowledge. Therefore, when children watch violent scenes on television, they may mimic those aggressive behaviors in real life. Information processing theory states that once the information from the environment is learned, it can be retrieved and emphasized through responses to social situations. In this way, the violent behaviors children learned through television are encoded into memory and normalized through everyday use.

Television is especially influential on the children of today. Thirty years ago, not every home had a television; they were considered a luxury that only the rich could afford. Now, most households have two televisions and children watch them incessantly. Many children's programs are extremely violent and a child can learn violent behavior from watching these programs. For example, about a month ago, in Norway, a small girl was beaten, stripped, and left to die by three boys aged 5, 6, and 6. When asked why

The presentation of the Frequency of Aggressive Responses by Children in Control Groups and Those Exposed to Aggressive and Non-aggressive Models shows a prominent difference in how children react to certain models, or lack of thereof. The research shows that children shown aggressive model treatment showed approximately 95% of aggressive responses, whereas the non-aggressive model group only showed 40% of aggressive responses. This shows that children who are presented with cartoon models are more likely to repeat such behaviour, although they are not taking part in the behaviour, or receiving a reward for repeating the behaviour. This study shows how the use of media can be used as a tool for helping individuals learn without

Television is a big part of today’s society. Everybody watches television, including the children. There is a potential problem with letting children watch television. Ask this question, would someone let their own child watch some of the programming that they watch, too? Some of these programs are intended for the adult generation, not young children. Violence has a major role in television these days. Letting children watch this violence could corrupt their minds and eventually lead to bad behavior. There needs to be a limitation on the types of television programming that parents let their children watch, because violence in television can negatively affect children.

As evidence has shown, children view many violent scenes while watching television, movies, or playing video games, but the question still remains: What psychological effect does violence in the media have on children? Research over the past 10 years has consistently shown that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and real-life aggression (Strasburger 129). Violence in the media can lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the various programs. Of course, not all children who watch television, or movies, or play video games develop aggressive behavior. However, there is a strong correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior. A study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, examined how children's television viewing practices are related to aggressive behaviors. The results revealed that children who reported watching greater amounts of television per day had higher levels of violent behavior than children who reported lesser amounts of television viewing (Singer 1041). Witnessing violence is an important determining factor in violent behavior. The media serves as a means for children to witness violence. According to Bandura's Social Learning Theory, children imitate behavior that they see on television, especially if the person performing the behavior is attractive or if the

the Bandera’s Theory illustrates the Three Effects of Imitation for instance the modeling affect ,this can be explained when someone starts acquiring a new behavior. If a child continues to watch a martial arts tcv shows they are more prone to trying some off the moves that they see,it is human nature to imitate something or someone that attracts your intertset.This can open the door for Territoriality ,our text human puzzles defines this as Another explanation, attributed to ethologists, is based on the assumption that we are by nature aggressive. This explanation relies heavily on observations of aggression among nonhuman animals. It assumes that since aggression appears to be common among other animals, it must have a biological basis. This theory explains how certain stimuli in the environment can create a reason for aggression ,can sometimes be a survival characteristic .However, there is not clear evidence that humans have this ,but it is fair to say that we may have had instinctual tendencies .How can children be influenced by violence? ,when some children don’t ?.Research suggest children younger than eight may not be able to detruncate between reality or fantasy ,since children observe and imitating, and are able to adopt behaviors to different situations and environments ,it is concluded that media can influence children’s thoughts