Developmental psychology.pdf

Learning and Instruction 263
For these reasons, modeling has been used in a wide variety of learning situations,
including therapy. Its special value in therapy is that many different behaviors
can be approached from a single framework, especially when symbolic modeling is
involved. Here the model is imagined or viewed in pictures by the patient, who can
participate vicariously in situations involving social relations, emotional responses, and
complex motor skills. Modeling, in this sense, is also an important link between daily
life and various instructional situations (Krasner, 1971; Meyer & Raich. 1983).
Modeling and Mass Media
Outside of family members, the models to which children and adults are most regularly
exposed are those on television. The casts of "Sesame Street," "M.A.S.H.," "Knight
Rider," and other programs have become household names throughout the United
States, Spain, and' much of the rest of the world. Before entering school, the average
American child has observed 5,000 hours of television. But what else does TV show,
besides commercials in which a woman walks on shaving cream and a man rides a
bicycle with no back wheel?
Television, the child's "early window" to the outside world, shows a great deal
of violence. The average unrestricted viewer has received more careful instruction in
how to commit assassination, burglary, rape, and so forth than in any other class of
activities. In the 1970s it was estimated that between ages 5 and 15 the typical American
child had observed the violent assassination on television of almost 13,500 people
(Liebert, Neale, & Davidson, 1973).
Does all this opportunity for observational learning via television make any
difference? One would think so, according to social learning theory.
Influence of Television Models Near the end of the first decade of widespread
television, an investigator was studying the relationship between childrearing practices
and aggressive behavior in eight-year-old children. Much by accident he noted that
aggressive children tended to prefer television programs portraying violence. This finding
received national attention at the time, and it prompted the investigator to consider
the issue again in a routine follow-up study when the children were examined again
in late adolescence. On this occasion an equally unexpected finding occurred. Among
the boys the relationship between aggressive behavior and the viewing of television
violence was even higher than it had been ten years earlier (Eron, Huesmann, Lefkowitz,
& Walker, 1972). There were some discrepancies among the data, but an official
government survey also supported this conclusion (Surgeon General's Scientific
Advisory Committee, 1972).
Today the evidence appears even more convincing. Continued viewing of aggressive
behavior on television seems a likely cause of aggression in children, and there
is a longstanding effect. The relation, furthermore, seems to be circular. Television
violence apparently prompts aggressive behavior, although it is not the only influential
factor, and aggressive children seem to watch more and more violence on television
(Eron, 1982).
Developing Countermeasures These findings have been confirmed in other
countries, including Australia, Finland, and Poland, and they have been consistent for
boys and girls (Eron, 1982). If taken seriously, they suggest that television violence is
a worldwide problem. The findings also provide further support for social learning theory
and leave parents, social scientists, and others wondering what to do about the uninvited
and subversive teacher in our living rooms and public places.
In many respects this research on violence on television may be in the same
stage as was the research on smoking and cancer a generation ago. In the future there
may be a government warning on some television shows: "This program may be dangerous
to your child's welfare (Figure 10.4)."