Social Learning and Experimental Research.

Monkey see, monkey do. You have probably heard the proverb a million times and would not have guessed it could be applied to modern day media studies. What seems to be the simple truth behind a four-word proverb is actually a topic area for experimental research on the impacts of media content on children. The concept of studying media impacts, through isolated experimental research, helps me understand why people believe children imitate certain aspects of the media they are introduced to.

Social learning focuses around the mime-like reactions individuals have to media exposure. Critics believe that the media may have a direct correlation with the progressive changes in society. Some argue that it reflects the current moral system in society and others argue it has the ability to alter the way our entire society thinks about certain issues. There are various types of approaches to these concepts, but experimental research specifically intrigued me. It takes the overall idea of social learning and applies it to a controlled micro-level experiment. The basic process is to take an isolated group of subjects and show them one type of media emphasized in the subject area of interest. For example, showing a clip with large amounts of cursing and seeing if the subjects respond by imitating the clip. To help increase the validity of the experiment, groups should be picked randomly. This helps diversify the subject pool but does not eliminate the fact that other variables will be present in real social situations.

The smaller application of experimental research helps me understand the macro-level of social learning. For instance, the following political cartoon shows the general idea quite well.

The cartoonist is showing the mime-like reactions associated with social learning. The cartoon highlights certain social effects by showing a deranged person directly imitating the ridiculous actions being shown on the television set and alluding to violence by having the character hold a gun and a knife. The cartoon shows the power the media and has over an individual’s attitude and behavior. Variations of these effects have already been tested through experimental research by Bandura and his colleagues at Stanford University.

- E. Camacho

Image Source: http://www.pediatricbehavior.com/Articles/EffectsTVViolence.htm