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

Television is one of the first mediums that starts to play a role in a child’s development. From a young age, sometimes infancy, children are

We are living in the electronic era in which children are exposed to a relevant amount of media outlets, rising concerns about the possible negative effects on cognitive development and overall health. Television exposure exceeds the time of any other children's activity, with parents often unaware of the consequences of using the TV outlet as a babysitter (Jusoff & Sahimi, 2009). Today households are invaded by many different types of electronic media, 32% of children of age between 2 and 7 are reported as having a personal TV in their bedroom; the percentage rises to 65% by the age above 8 years old (Jusoff et al. 2009). Television exposure is assumed to be posing a threat to children's health and learning.

An example of verbal aggression was, "Pow!" and "Sock him in the nose". After ten minutes the experimenter entered and took the child to a new room which the child was told was another games room. In stage two (Aggression Arousal) the child was subjected to 'mild aggression arousal'. The child was taken to a room with relatively attractive toys. As soon as the child started to play with the toys the experimenter told the child that these were the experimenter's very best toys and she had decided to reserve them for the other children. In Stage three the next room contained some aggressive toys and some non-aggressive toys. The non-aggressive toys included a tea set, crayons, three bears and plastic farm animals. The aggressive toys included a mallet and peg board, dart guns, and a 3 foot Bobo doll. The child was in the room for 20 minutes and their behavior was observed and rated though a one-way mirror. Observations were made at 5-second intervals therefore giving 240 response units for each child. Other behaviors that didn’t imitate that of the model were also recorded e.g. punching the Bobo doll on the nose. Bandura thus observed children who observed the aggressive models made far more imitative aggressive responses than those who were in the non-aggressive or control groups. There was more partial and non-imitative aggression among those children who has observed aggressive behavior, although the difference for non-imitative aggression was small. The girls

Bandura’s hypothesis was “that children can learn about aggressive behaviors by observing the action of others” (Durkin, 1995).

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

Today nearly 98% of American households have televisions. This makes television the single most important source of media in the lives of children and adolescents. Research shows that about 21- 23 hours per week on average, that children between the ages of five and twelve are exposed. This brings much controversy as to how television delivers the news, media, and violence to young children and adolescents. Many argue that the viewing of television during these crucial years of development can be very harmful involving the link of violence with aggressive behavior, hindering emotional and social development, the lack of exercise, health and activities, the development of temperament in young children, and sleep deprivation.

In the modern world, the media plays a massive role in an individual’s life. Whether it be watching the news to gain knowledge about their surroundings or just watching daytime television for amusement, it is no question that watching television is one of the most popular pastimes. With a simple click of the remote, a million shows are available for the viewer to watch. Even though it is convenient, it contributes to a developing problem that only modern humans have come to face: the increasing number of aggressive attitudes and behavior found in children.

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.

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).

For years now, researches have been studying the correlation between violent media and the aggression in children. Undoubtedly the conclusion is that violent media does indeed increase the aggressive nature in kids.

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

The non-aggressive group of kids watched a video in which the doll was being treated nicely. Lastly, the control condition group was not exposed to any video. Subsequently, children were taken to room full of toys including the Bobo Doll. The observation covered 20 minutes with a kid alone in the room. The results were labeled that children from the aggressive model group tend to imitate more aggressive responses that the other two groups. Also, researchers found that there is a difference between genders; meaning that boys tend to copy the physical aggressive behavior from the same-sex child in the video. And, they also discovered that girls were more tended to show verbally aggressive behavior. In recap, simply, paying attention to a particular behavior like the one showed in the video, would lead to imitation if it calls our

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).

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