Discuss one or more explanations of media influence on pro social behaviour. (4+6)

Question 1

Two explanations

Answer 1

SLT, Sensitisation

Question 2

SLT

Answer 2

Attention, Retention, Motivation

Question 3

Sprafkin

Answer 3

children aged 5-6 watched one of three films. A = Lassie, in which a boy risked his life to save a puppy from a mine shaft, B = Lassie, which carried a positive message about dogs but with no incident of helping a dog, C = Brandy Brunch, a family based sit-com - all children took part in a button-pressing game in which they could win prizes, at the same time they wore headphones through which they could hear a kennel and were asked to press a button if they heard the barking of a puppy in distress - children in group A chose to help the puppy more quickly and for longer periods than children in the other two groups - lab study > better controlled, cause and effect, lacks ecological, only short term effects

Question 4

Ostrov

Answer 4

assessed TV viewing in 76 3-4yr olds by questioning their parents. They followed them up for 2 years measuring pro-social behaviour by means of observations. Viewing educational media designed to demonstrate PSB was associated with a higher frequency of PSB, they found that children were more likely to imitate PSB in same sex than in opposite role models - longitudinal study (correlational)

Question 5

Sensitisation

Answer 5

development of empathy is a fundamental part of children’s social-emotional development, and that children have numerous opportunities for such learning in media viewing - highly empathetic children are known to engage in more frequent pro-social acts. We also know that children can empathise with characters portrayed on TV, particularly if they are the same sex and if the story is realistic - putting these facts together it is logical to propose that watching well portrayed emotions and pro-social behaviour in responses to them may helps develop children’s empathy - to sensitise them

Question 6

Sprafkin (S)

Answer 6

sensitisation provides an alternative explanation for the results of Sprafkin et al’s Lassie study. Rather than imitating the helping behaviour seen in the episode, the children may have been sensitised to the suffering of puppies by watching it. They then felt more empathy when presented with suffering puppies themselves

Question 7

Limitation of Sensitisation

Answer 7

it lacks direct evidence - there is a lack of studies demonstrating that exposure to pro-social behaviour in the media directly leads to higher levels of empathy in children

Question 8

Shelton & Rogers

Answer 8

Some evidence to suggest such an effect in adults - showed participants video of industrial whaling and footage of pro-social anti-whaling environment action. They found that this had the effect of enhancing empathy for whales. However, studies like this are quite far removed form the situation psychologists are most concerned with (whether the media can be used to develop long-term patterns of pro-social behaviour in children and young people