Media Psychology: Media Influences on Prosocial Behaviour

Question 1

What is SLT’s approach to Anti-social behaviour

Answer 1

Most psychologists agree that the most valid explanation of how children acquire pro-social behaviour is Bandura’s ‘social learning theory’. This theory says that children learn through watching things around them, and then copying that behaviour. So a child could watch pro-social behaviour on television and then copy this in real life. This theory could also work in conjunction with the theory of operant condition. This theory suggests that we learn through reward and punishment, so if a child watches a pro-social behaviour on the television and sees that the character is rewarded then operant conditioning would reinforce the learning of pro-social behaviour.

Question 2

Evaluate SLT’s approach to Anti-social behaviour

Answer 2

A criticism of SLT is that research has shown that exposure to filmed models has less effect to real-life models and also that the effect is often not generalised to new settings

Question 3

What is Parental Mediation?

Answer 3

Austin argued that effective mediation involves the parent discussing the programme with the child, explaining any disturbing material and following up the material.Research by Rice (1990) found that the pro-social messages broadcast by Sesame Street had greater influence if a child watched the programme with a parent, and then talked about it afterwards. Rosenkoetter said this is because the child won’t necessarily understand the pro-social message if the parent doesn’t explain it.

Question 4

Evaluate Parental Mediation

Answer 4

Valkenburg et al. showed research into parental mediation found that in ‘social co-viewing’, parents and children might watch together but do not discuss the content. this type of mediation, they argue, is largely ineffective as a means of modfying a child’s perspective..