Discuss what psychological research has told us about some of the media influences on anti-social behaviour and educational choices.

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Raminta Petrauskaite

Discuss what psychological research has told us about some of the media influences on anti-social behaviour. (5 marks + 6 marks)

Research suggests that children observe the actions of media models and may later imitate these behaviours, especially when the child admires and identifies with the model. Also the consequences of the models actions depend on whether the child will chose to do the same or not. If the consequence is rewarding, it is more likely to be imitated, whereas if the consequence is a punishment, it is more likely to be avoided. The more ‘real’ the children perceive violent televised scenes to be, and the more they believe the more they identify with the characters, the more likely they will be to try out the behaviour they have learnt. Philips (1983) examined crime statistics for the 10-day period following televised heavyweight boxing contest, and found a significant rise in the number of murders during that period. (There was no such rise after American football was on.) Bandura’s Social Learning Theory supports the view that children learn specific acts of aggression and also learn increased aggressiveness through imitating models, even when the models are not real people.

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A group of students has been asked to produce a short film to encourage more school leavers to apply for science degree courses at university instead of arts- based courses. Using your knowledge of psychological research into persuasion and attitude change, identify some of the factors which the film-makers might take into account. (4 marks)

The Horland-Yale model model focuses on methods of persuasion. This model focuses on the factors to do with the advert, such as the ‘source factor’, ‘message factors’ and ‘audience factors.’ Source factors include things like whether the people presented were experts or the ...

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