Archives

Uncategorized — No Comments
19
Oct 21

Cultivation Theory & Parenting: Are Kids Safe?

Addicted to Screens

In a generation that uses technology more than anyone ever has it’s important to understand how our beliefs and actions may be effected. According to a recent study done in 2020, American adults are spending on average 7+ hours browsing on their phone watching their television (Richter, 2021). This is an amazing amount of time for our minds to be influenced heavily by what we watch.

Cultivation Theory Explains the Consequences

Cultivation Theory seeks to understand the influence of TV specifically on our attitudes & behavior. According to our textbook, “Cultivation theory maintains that TV operates as the primary socializing agent in today’s world” and that “people begin to see the world as dangerous and ‘mean'” (Gruman, et al., p.169). Listening to crime podcasts or watching local news about a criminal who has evaded the police leads us to believe that we are more at risk of danger than we actually are.

We saw this during COVID when Americans were at home consuming more TV media. No matter what your beliefs were during the time – COVID exaggerated them. Some people wore HAZMAT suits or wore masks on a hike outside by themselves – things that the CDC never recommended but Americans did on their own due to fear. We also saw this politically as misinformation caused people to distrust the election process and storm the capital on January 6th, 2021 after they were convinced the government announced the wrong president-elect.

The Cultivation Theory also points to concerns about how we are raising the next generation.

Parenting in a ‘Dangerous’ World

Many of us have heard nostalic stories from our parents about the “good old days” when they would play outside, run around the neighborhood, catch a bus by themselves to run an errand and not having to return home until dark or for dinner. Hearing these stories, one would assume that the America we live in today is much less safe than it was back when they grew up. However, looking at Figure 1 you can see that violent crime has not been as low as it is today since the 1970s! However, parenting in the same way would be considered child neglect in the form of inadequate supervision.

Figure 1 (Below) from https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/americas-faulty-perception-crime-rates

The perception vs. reality of danger outside of our homes has huge impacts for the way we relate to one another and how we raise our children to interact with the world. I was ready to buy the latest video monitor with a sock that monitored everything from baby’s body temp to their heart rate and blood oxygen levels. The amount of technology that is out there allows us to have an illusion of control over the environment in which we raise our kids. However, this world doesn’t come fully customizable like our phones and we need to teach our children how to interact with the world themselves when it is safe to do so. My generation started to spend more time with helicopter parents who kept their kids indoors or kids who stayed inside playing video games. I truly believe that this time spent behind a screen led to the massive amounts of anxiety, depression and other mental health issues we see today.

As parents, we have to understand that one day our children will be adults and be able to make decisions on their own. The only way we can equip them to do this is if we give them age appropriate independence to help them transition into the world outside – even if watching TV leads us to believe the world is dark and dangerous.

 

Works Cited:

Eisen, Lauren-Brooke. “America’s Faulty Perception of Crime Rates.” Brennan Center for Justice, 16 Mar. 2016, www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/americas-faulty-perception-crime-rates.

Gruman, Jamie A., et al. Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems, SAGE, 2017.

Lukianoff, Greg, and Jonathan Haidt. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure. Penguin Books, 2019.

Richter, Felix. “Infographic: The Generation Gap in TV Consumption.” Statista Infographics, 20 Nov. 2020, www.statista.com/chart/15224/daily-tv-consumption-by-us-adults/.

Uncategorized — 1 Comment
19
Apr 15

The Joy of Reading and the Overjustification Effect

wkw_dontread

Source: Parents-Choice.org

When my daughter was in second grade and all through the summer, I could not get her to put her books down. Now that she is in third grade, giving her a book to read is like a form of punishment. Somewhere, at sometime, my daughter’s enjoyment of reading turned into the dreadful “chore” of reading, a change most likely contributed to the overjustification effect.

Alexitch (2012) defines the overjustification effect as “the loss of motivation and interest as a result of receiving an excessive external reward” (p.198). In other words, my daughter may have initially been intrinsically motivated to read, purely because it was enjoyable for her. However, when she began to receive an external reward for reading, such as a weekly prize from the 3rd grade treasure box, the motivation to read suddenly became about the prize rather than the initial enjoyment of reading. Now, one would think that the incentive to receive a prize would motivate a child who already enjoys reading to read more, rather than reduce her motivation to read at all, but research has proven otherwise.

Lepper, Greene and Nisbett (1973) observed three groups of preschoolers to see the effects of external awards on intrinsic motivation to play with a set of magic markers. First, all of the preschoolers were given the option to play with the magic markers, among several other activities, over a three day period. The children observed playing with the markers on their own were then randomly divided into three groups two weeks later. All three groups were told that a visitor was coming to see the kind of pictures they would draw with the magic markers. Then, two of the groups were asked if they would like to draw a picture for the visitor, while the third group was told they would be given an award if they drew a picture for the visitor. All of the children enthusiastically agreed and drew pictures for the visitor with the magic markers. After the children finished their drawings, the first group was returned to their classroom. Members of the second group were unexpectedly given a “Good Player Award” certificate and members of the third group were given the “Good Player Award” certificates as they expected. Finally, the children’s time playing with the magic markers on their own was observed again a week to two weeks later and compared with the time they spent playing with them before the “visitor” came. The results revealed that the children in the third group, who were told they would receive a reward, spent a significantly less amount of time playing with the magic markers and, when they did, the quality of their pictures decreased as well. Meanwhile, the quality of work and time spent using the magic markers remained the same for the other two groups. Lepper, Greene and Nisbett (1973) concluded that anticipated external rewards for engagement in an activity does negatively decrease the “pleasures and satisfaction of [the activity] in its own right” (p. 135), particularly when the activity’s intrinsic value was initially high.

Now I know why my attempts to reward my daughter with ice cream and play dates when she has completed a week’s worth of reading homework has been unsuccessful! Without knowing it, my efforts have added to the effect rather than reversing it. So then, what is a mother to do when her daughter’s motivation to read has been decreased, due to the overjustification effect? Further research has revealed that the overjustification effect “may be minimized or even reversed” (p. 201) by focusing on the personal enjoyment and satisfaction one feels while engaging in the activity rather than any external rewards received after the activity is completed (Alexitch, 2012). I guess my daughter and I will be spending some time talking about the joys of reading tonight.

References

Alexitch (2012). Applying social psychology to education. In F. W. Schneider, J. A. Gruman, & L. M. Coutts (Authors), Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (Second ed., pp. 191-215). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications

Lepper, M. R., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. E. (1973). Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the “overjustification” hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28(1), 129-137. doi:10.1037/h0035519

Skip to toolbar