Media Influences on Prosocial Behaviour AO1

Exposure to prosocial behaviour
1. A statistic commonly reported on is the high prevalence of violent acts shown on TV
  1. Studies have found that popular children's progs contain at least one act of aggression and antisocial behaviour
  2. Despite moral panic over antisocial content in popular TV progs, there has been prosocial content that is of comparable levels
Acquisition of prosocial behaviours and norms
1. Social Learning Theory -- claims we learn by obs how to do things and when they are acceptable
  1. May then imitate behaviour,the likelihood of repeating the behaviours is determined by the consequences of the imitated behaviour
  2. Prosocial acts on TV are more likely to represent social norms that have been established (e.g. helping others) then antisocial acts (e.g murder, fighting)
    1. These prosocial acts are likely to reinforce social norms rather then contrast them
      1. Suggests we are less likely to be rewarded for imitating antisocial behaviour than for prosical behaviour
Developmental factors
1. It has suggested that many of the skills synonymous with prosocial behaviours (e.g. empathy, moral reasoning) develop throughout childhood into adolescence
  1. As a consequence -- might expect strong differences in the degree children are influenced by prosocial behaviour on TV
    1. Older children may be more affected by prosocial portrayal in media then younger children
Parental Mediation
1. For many the effect of TV viewing is mediated by the presence of a parent (as co-viewer).
  1. Parental mediation recognised by BBC w/ early children's programmes, like 'Watch w/ Mother'.
    1. Austin (1993) argued that effective mediation involves parents discussing prog w/ child, explaining any ambiguous/ disturbing material and following up concepts presented in prog
    2. Parental mediation has been shown to enhance the learning effect of Sesame Street (Rice et al, 1990)
    3. Rosenkoetter (1999) suggested that w/ parental mediation, children as young as 7 were able to understand even complex moral messages contained in adult sitcoms.
Mares (1996)
1. Altruism (e.g. sharing, offering help)
  1. Studies typically involve explicit modelling of very specific behaviours.
  2. Sprafkin et al (1975)
    1. Young children watched episode of Lassie - child rescued a dog
      1. More likely to help puppies in distress than children who watched a neutral TV prog
  3. Mares concluded children who saw prosocial content behaved more altruistically than those who viewed neutral/ antisocial content
2. Self control (e.g. resistance to temptation, task persistence)
  1. When exposed to TV model demonstrating self-control, children subsequently showed higher lvls of self-control in their own behaviour
  2. Friedrich and Stein (1973)
    1. 4 yr olds who watched Mister Rogers' Neighbourhood over 4 week subsequently showed more taske persistence and obedience to rules than those who watched aggressive cartoons (such as Batman) / neutral progs over the same period
3. Positive interaction (e.g. friendly interactions, peaceable conflict resolution)
  1. Friedrich and Stein
    1. Observers watched children at play, counting the no of aggressive acts, friendly behaviours, expressions of affection etc
      1. Those who had watched the prosocial prog behaved more pos towards each other than those who had seen the neutral prog
4. Anti- stereotyping (e.g. counter- stereotypes of gender)
  1. Johnston and Ettema
    1. Conducted a large-scale study involving sev 1,000 9-12 yr olds.
      1. Watched TV series,Freestyle (prog designed to reduce sex - role stereotypes), once a week for 13 weeks
        Overall, there were mod pos effects in studies such as this, which featured counter - stereotypical themes, w/ children becoming less stereotyped or prejudiced in their attitudes / beliefs
Prosocial effects of other media
1. Mares and Woodard (2001)
  1. Children's stories traditionally carried prosocial messages (Snow White, who looked after the dwarves and triumphed over the bad stepmother).
    1. Young children - especially fond of reading these stories over and over again which reinforces the message
  2. Increasing no of children, computer software and Internet are important form of entertainment, but not yet focused on prosocial content

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Media Influences on Prosocial Behaviour AO1

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