As a child, we all like certain characters or idols on TV. As I am older now I notice my nephews and nieces growing up and watching T.V and enjoying certain types of shows.
I notice their behavior mimics the characters on T.V. Sometimes I see them as the doppelganger of the character they like so much. During birthdays or Christmas, all they want is items from that characters.
I think of Bandura’s social cognitive theory,” four processes that must occur for vicarious learning to occur, attention, representational, behavioral production process, and motivational process” and how T.V. can attract young viewers by this theory (Gruman, 220).
First is the attention, as T.V. shows are tailored to children with cartoon characters and voices. How can it not be attention-seeking? My nephew loves the shows and the cartoons and is so zoned out, that when I talk to him, he is not even listening. Second, Is the representational process which meant, which “entails remembering the modeled behavior”, I see this as he tries to say things and repeat certain phases of the characters he likes on T.V. (Gruman, 220). Third, is the behavior production process, “which focuses on how people learn to perform the behavior they have observed” as he tries to act the same way as the characters he likes on TV from the way they walk or the actions they take on certain situations (Gruman, 220). Last is the motivational process, “perform those behaviors that they are motivated to perform” I see this in my nephew as he does a certain act and looks at me for a reward or reaction (Gruman, 220).
All of these things make me think that he is a doppelganger just in life form. I don’t see this as a good thing as I believe children should learn from good characters or role models. However, I’m not saying TV in all is bad, but I realized that parents and family members need to pay more attention to their children’s TV programs. Just because it’s in a cartoon or some other form, doesn’t mean it’s good for the child. I learned that I also need to speak up and inform the parent of the issue I see in a certain program. In our world now we see a lot of negative things and behaviors on TV, but it’s our responsibility to teach our children when and how to view certain programs and to explain them as well.
I informed my sister of my concerns for certain T.V. programs as she was not aware of the behaviors or violent acts and was grateful this was brought to her attention. As for now, I see the doppelganger nephew singing a song as one of the T.V. characters and enjoying the song as I think parents and families will need to be more cautious and limit access to children on TV.
Applied Social Psychology : Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Jamie A. Gruman, Frank W. Schneider, and Larry M. Coutts . SAGE Publications . 2016
Very well constructed post and extremely relatable. I believe this has been a problem that has plagued almost every household nowadays. I know in my family, my eight year old brother is absolutely obsessed with his electronic devices, games, and shows or movies. He recently started playing the popular game Fortnite and has turned to a whole new person. I am not going to explain the whole game but you can look it up if you have not heard of it. Ever since he started playing this game, he mimics the dance moves and reactions of the players constantly. A large part of the game has to do with shooting the other players in order to be the last one left, thus the winner. The problem got to be too much last night, when he yelled out in his dream something about “Don’t shoot me” and started having nightmares pertaining to the video game. After this, I explained to my parents how this game is too violent for him and how he will become desensitized to all the killing. In our textbook the authors explained that, “if people are desensitized to violence, they will be less likely to view violence as morally wrong. Unfortunately, TV and video game violence desensitizes people to violence” (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). Once all of this was presented, they decided that he would take a break from the game to calm down and get rid of the nightmares. Do you think kids TV shows can be pro-violence and thereby lead to desensitization of children to violence, similar to video games?
references
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology :
Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.
I really enjoyed and felt that I can relate immensely to your blog post. It is accurate that kids tend to mimic what they see on Tv. Whether that is what they say, their actions, what they dress like, etc. I, as a kid, always wanted to be cinderella. I would dress like her in her same dress and would say lines that she would say in the movie. I feel that this is “adorable” in this aspect however it can also be extremely dangerous or negative. For example, if a child is watching a film with cursing or violence it may be possible that that child is going to copy what they say or do. I think it was beneficial that you included Bandura’s social cognitive theory in your blog post and related it to this topic. You gave examples of each of the four parts and how it is included in watching Tv and being a “doppelganger”. Like I said before, I think there can be negative sides to this depending on the type of show that is being watched. I think that we have to be cautious on what we show our children because they are learning from television more than we think.
Applied Social Psychology : Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Jamie A. Gruman, Frank W. Schneider, and Larry M. Coutts . SAGE Publications . 2016