Media - influences on pro-social behaviour

Question 1

Sprafkin - SLT

Answer 1

• children watched one of 3 films
• first film was Lassie; boy risked his life to save puppy
• second was episode of Lassie; positive messages about dogs
• third was family based situation comedy
• children took part in button pressing game where they could win prizes
• asked to press button if they heard puppy barking in distress; would stop the game and stop winning prizes
• children in group A chose to help the puppy more quickly and for longer periods of time; became sensitised to the puppy?
• lab experiment; lack ecological validity
• PSB observed and displayed was similar to hard to generalise to different contexts

Question 2

Ostrov - SLT

Answer 2

• assessed educational TV viewing in children by questioning their parents
• followed them over two years and measured pro-social behaviour by observation
• viewing educational media designed to demonstrate PSB was associated with a higher frequency of PSB
• children were more likely to imitate same sex models
• relied on parent testimony
• only shows association, not causality

Question 3

Shelton and Rogers - sensitisation

Answer 3

• showed participants video of industrial whaling

- enhanced empathy for whales