The effect of television on children’s behavior is a topic that has continued to evoke interest in psychologists. In the investigations educators suggest that television has replaced other forms of socialization such as school and family, reason being that children spend more time in watching television as compared to time spent in school.
Psychological and government experiments together with congress investigations have been implemented with the aim of establishing the effects of television on children behavior. Main interest of the methods is to deduce whether social violence results from the violence portrayed in television programs.
Investigations suggest that commercial programming serves as positive socializers and modeling cues provided by television increases the generosity of the young observers (Bryan, 1970). Among the studies, one succeeded in its deductions concluding that broadcasted televised materials induced prosocial behavior in children. In the experiment 3-to-5 years old children were subjected to varied forms of programming, the three programs selected contained scenes of aggression, dieting and neutral programs the results confirmed previous works since certain types of prosocial behavior increased following the exposure. The intention of the experiment was to establish whether specific attempts of a certain action directly affected the audience. It answered that if a popular show displayed a scene of helping would the scene induce the same character to the subject viewers. Would the viewers do the same if they found themselves in a similar situation? The children were exposed to shows with different characteristics, Lassie, one of the programs had both human and canine characters and had complete commercial messages.
The setting was the same composed for a similar audience who happened to be motivated by similar forms of entertainment. Though the programs had a conflicting story line, the notable difference lied in the fact that one had a concrete prosocial aspect that the other did not achieve.
Combination in similarities and differences was aimed at optimizing the detection of the potential effect of the specific model cues in television entertainment and its reflection on the youngster’s behavior later.
Method
Design and participants
The design employed was a 3*2 factorial that employed television experience. It employed 30 participant 15 girls and 15 boys focusing on sex variation on the subject. Picking was done from the first four grade classes and in the middle class, the picking was done within a suburb dominated by white neighborhood. The prospective subjects were handed forms to take to their parents to authorize them for participation. Outline of the project was conveyed in the letter requesting the parents not to inform the subjects the intent of the experiment. Selection was done from a number of youngsters of whom the parents returned the contracting forms, of which 80% did and the experiment commenced by assigning the subjects in a random manner to the treatment conditions.
One of the experimenters took the child and conducted the videotaping in the television viewing room and continued to the next experimenting room which was adjacent to the classroom. The second experimenter happened to be blind to the treatment conditions. Four graduate students carried out the first role and the second experiment was administered by a 24-year-old white female graduate student.
The viewing room was set up with a black and white television with a 9-inch screen that programmed by an enclosed Sony video recorder; it also contained a Point Game and a Help button; the two were separated by a distance of 5 ft each placed on a child-size desk. The point game comprised a response key plus a display box. Dimensions of the response key were 1.5 by 0.5 inches. It also had a hand rest made of a rectangular blue button mounted on a 4 by 6.5 inches inclined platform. The display box dimensions were 6 by 8 inches a metal box gray in color mounted on it was a Cramer digital timer and a blue 15-W light bulb. The 10’s and 1’s columns were covered with a tape on the timer. The bulb was lit, and the timer activated by pressing the bulb.
The help button comprised a small green circular button that was mounted on a 7 by 5 inches with the words “Help” indicated in black letters just below it. The button served to activate the second Cramer timer that was located outside the experimental room.
An extension cable was used to connect the earphones that were located next to the game on the desk to a tape recorder outside the experimental room. The tape was crafted such that there were 30 secs of silence that were followed by 120 secs of dogs barking.
Procedure
Introduction to the treatment condition.
The first experimenter led the child to the experiment room containing desks, chairs and videotape she switched on the monitor and told the child that he would be playing a game shortly and informed him that the second experimenter was not ready for him yet. She then turned on the video record without the child’s knowledge, turned on the monitor, and told the child to watch as she continued to do some work at the back of the classroom. The children seemed interested in the half-hour programs; the experimenter worked busily with the intent of discouraging the child from starting any conversation. Experimental and control conditions. The children viewed the prosocial Lassie program within the experimental conditions.
The episode majorly reflected on Lassie’s effort of preventing her runt puppy from being given away, tis she did by concealing the pet. The story climax is observed when the puppy slept and fell into a mining shaft falling to the ledge. Her master is brought to the scene where Lassie is forced to ask for his help together with his grandfather, Jeff hangs over the edge of the shaft in an effort to save the puppy. Main reason for the program selection was based on this helping scene.
Under the second condition, the program viewed was “The Brady Bunch”, this had no aggression and was not animated, it was a children’s program that did not feature a dog depicted in prosocial Lassie series. Brady’s efforts at being important were show cased in trying to set record on the time spent on a seesaw. The program demonstrated willingness of children to assist after watching a popular program that did not contain interpersonal family encounters nor family pertinence.
Results and discussions
The design relied on extensively on the number of seconds the Help button was pressed. The helping score was the standard deviation. The main effect for sex was minimal and insignificant (F=2.18). It was also evident that those who saw the prosocial Lassie program helped more than those who watched neutral Lassie. Another finding was in the marginal tendency for sex and treatment conditions to interaction (F=2.80,P<0.10) The findings are as shown below
FEMALE MALE COMBINED
Prosocial Lassie 105.48 79.80 92.64
[20.37] [47.38] [36.94]
Neutral Lassie 34.80 68.20 51.50
[46.30] [53.36] [50.28]
Brady Bunch 8.50 66.50 37.50
[14.18] [45.55] [44.13]
Effects of prosocial Lassie program were more dominant in female than male. Girls also tended to respond differently to neutral Lassie and Brady programs differently.
Despite the differences, the results effectively portrayed the basic demonstration that it was aimed, helping for instance in a set influenced the audience to help counterparts.
This research is applicable to general audience, it was a time consuming task but it, which displayed the importance of prosocial programming, and how programming would be optimized to educate children.
The introduction to television to children has made them more aggressive and harmed their acquisition to reading skills and in the event decreasing the creativity score. The effects are great and far reaching and mostly negative. Despite the numerous studies and findings, it is possible to apply the knowledge of this research to our benefit. Not all forms of programming steer the children to taboos, it should be a lesson to those who air the programs to add emphasis on programs that develop character and promote goodness.
Regardless of nationality the nature of humans is good and what tarnishes the spirit is the exposure that people receive, at the tender age prosocial behavior happens to be the only form of learning that is willingly and innocent. Despite its simplistic nature it sticks and shapes the character of the audience. A form of regulation that works should be implemented to protect children from unintended on incomprehensive messages.
References
Experimental psychology: a case approach eighth edition accessed from http://www.coursesmart.com/bookshelf
Tannis MacBeth Williams.The Impact of Television: A Natural Experiment in Three Communities" accessed from http://world.std.com/~jlr/comment/tv_impact.htm
Megaessays. Positive effects of television accessed from http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/8021.html
