Updated:  05 December, 2001

Some of the most significant theories of indirect influence are those which have to do with how media affect how we learn to get along in our society.  Both of your texts have excellent chapters on these topics, so I refer you to them for in-depth study. Further, the Anderson and Meyer text also offers a good survey of the concepts, with a particularly detailed and astute evaluation of the Bandura Bobo Doll studies.  While I am not going to completely provide my  notes on the web, I will give you some key concepts and guidelines for study.

What is the problem with "short term" effects research?  Why were the limited/indirect effects studies limited to short term effects?

cognitive paradigm -- three factors between stimulus and response   --  S - 0 - R theory where "0" equals characteristics of the organism.

• structure of mental faculties -- physiology

• inherited instinct

• organizations of cognitive structure 

Review the limitations of experimental and survey methods.

neobehaviorism

How does survey research retain the advantages of the experiment?

What are the problems with self-report?

What about continuous and repeated exposure?  Baran and Davis write, "How could a pervasive medium like television that was viewed by most children for more than four hours a day have such limited effects?"   Why didn't that make sense?

SOCIALIZATION 

Def:  a complex, long-term, multi-dimensional set of communications between individuals and different elements of society that result in the person's preparation for life in that society.

• From an individual perspective: Socialization helps us get along in society.

• From a societal perspective: Socialization creates members who help perpetuate that society. 

Enculturation:

Assimilation:

What is the psychological view of socialization?

• Explain how that derives from Freud's theories?  

• Define: 

  • ID

  • EGO

  • Super-Ego

What is the sociological view of socialization?  What does it do for the culture?

• __

• __

• Expectations 

Socialization is absolutely vital to a society, because without it, a society cannot maintain itself as a continuous and stable system.

Members of society must be trained in key areas for the society to remain stable.  Those are:

• shared beliefs

• traditional life

• language

• rules for moral living

• various skills

What does it mean when the authors say socialization begins externally but becomes an internal part of a person's psychological organization?

Socializing agents: 

• Formal:

• Informal:

Some Basic Socialization Theories:

Social Learning Theory: 

Reinforcement

• linkages

• habits

• rewards

• reinforcement

• strengthened connection between habit and expectation of future gratification

            Imitation:  seeing a behavior and trying it out to see if it offers benefits

• behavior performed by model

• behavior seen as rewarding in some way

• probability of imitation is increased

• imitation results in gratification

• may become habit and persist

To what degree does the role model have to be aware of this process?

To what degree do the people who imitate realize what they are doing?  

How important is language to this process? 

   People can 

• think

• remember

• plan ahead

Why was the role of language left out of early socialization theories?

Modeling Process: Modeling focuses on the role of media

• observation of the mediated model

• identification with the model  (what does that mean?)

• realizes modeled behavior will be functional

• remembers the behavior which similar / functional situation occurs

• reproduces the behavior as a way to deal with the situation

• behavior brings the desired reward or gratification

• the gratification reinforces the link between the stimulus and the response

• reinforcement increases the probability that the behavior will be repeatedly used in similar situations

Some authors have condensed those steps:

• behavior of model must be attended--or selectively observed

• it must be retained

• it must be reproduced

Bandura added a fourth step in the shortened process..

• it must be  motivated 

  • people don't do everything they learn or see

  • whether they do or not is determined by three incentive motivators

    • direct -- it will benefit them in some way

    • vicarious -- if they observe others benefit or punished in some way

    • self-produced -- 

      • personal standards of conduct 

      • pursue activities which are self-satisfying

      • avoid those inconsistent with personal codes or values

[For more information about Social Learning Theory, see "Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication" by Albert Bandura in Medie Effects: Advances in Theory and Research,  Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann, eds.]

Problems with social learning?  

• Dependent upon terms which are not easily definable or operationalizable such as "identification" and "realization."

Social Learning and Modeling theory caused an increase in content analysis because researchers had to find out what the stimuli were....

How Do We Learn From Media?

• Observational Learning: Learn behaviors by watching them on TV or other media

  • Example: __________________________________________________

• Inhibitory Effects: See model punished for behavior and we are discouraged from imitating the behavior

  • Example: __________________________________________________

• Disinhibitory Effects: See threatening or prohibited behavior performed without negative repercussions and decide we can imitate the behavior safely or that the behavior is desirable.

  • Example: ___________________________________________________ 

Vicarious Reinforcement:  Viewers associate reinforcements with behavior and reinforcements they see on television and other media.  (Learned behavior.)

Do media creators intend for audiences to model behaviors they portray? (Be able to discuss this)

Strengths of Social Learning and Modeling Theory::

• Good account of conditions under which people observe and imitate behaviors to cope with situations

• Clearly shows that media can be socializing agents

• Accounts for direct and indirect effects; powerful theory 

Weakeness of Social Learning/Modeling Theory:

• Some forms of behavior can't be duplicated or tested well

• Doesn't apply to long-term effects or repeated exposures; methodology won't handle it

• Doesn't explain if modeling occurs after one or several exposures; that important information left unprovided

• micro theory which does not address cultural effects

Social Expectations Theory  

Socialization is a very complex process, obviously, and researchers are trying to find out what's going on. Media are clearly part of the process, but to what degree and what is the process?

Inner Processes:

• conscious

• unconscious

• learned

• inherited

People are more than just individualistic organisms responding to stimuli...Focus then on social interactions. Out this focus comes the sociological theories about socialization.

Social Organization Theory:

Primary concern of people: "What other people think."

• Why is this important to us?

• How do we know?

People in groups organize their interactions in the context of mutually understood rules which 

• provide definitions of what is acceptable behavior

• provide predictability of what people expect of you

• allow you to know what you can expect of others

• are the basic element of social stability

RULES = SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

The patterns which form because of these rules are social organizations

• they are complex

• they range in size

THEORY OF CULTURAL NORMS:

1970  Melvin DeFleur

• simple theory which forms foundation for more complex theories to follow

• mass media depict reality is very specific ways, creating an idea of what is "normal." (This depictions are selectively chosen in the production process and may have nothing to do with reality at all.)  Individuals who watch those depictions repeatedly shown will come to believe that depiction of reality is in fact a reflection of real cultural norms.  Since people usually try to act consistently with cultural norms, the media then influence conduct.

• If we believe the "TV norm", and we want to be "normal," then we adjust our behavior to be consistent with what we see on TV....

There are some key concepts in this process:

Norms: general rules that are understood and followed by all members of a group

• How "significant" do these need to be?

• How do we come to understand them? 

  • What are the role of "internal maps?"

  • How do we determine which rules are more important than others?

Roles: specialized activities associated with division of labor or specialization in the society

• Dependent upon the inter-dependence characteristic of complex societies

• learned by all members of the society

• coordinated with other  (teach/student)

Ranking:  hierarchy of power, influence or prestige within the group

• result in differences in rewards, privilege, etc.

• authority = backing of the group as a whole (the right to lead, etc.)

Sanctions:  ways in which culture reinforces various behaviors

• may be positive or negative

• may be formal or informal

Social Organization Theory emphasized inter-relationships between people rather than internal processes in one individual's mind.

Mass Media become a basic source of patterned social expectations:

• Describe norms, roles, rankings and sanctions

• Applicable in all aspects of life

• Particularly important in areas where people have little or no personal experience, so children are particularly vulnerable

Basic Ideas of Social Expectation Theory:

• Patterns of social organization in the forms of norms, role, rankings and sanctions are portrayed in media.

• Those portrayals may or may not be an accurate. authoritative or trustworthy representation

• Regardless of accuracy, those portrayals may be assimilated by viewers as learned sets of social expectations of how people are supposed to behave

• These expectations become important to prior understanding of expectations or requirements for groups of which they will become members

• What we expect of other groups within our society makes up our understanding of the social order.

• The definitions provided by these expectations  serve as guides to action or guidelines for how we're supposed to act in various situations in our society and how others will act toward us in those circumstances.

Social expectations theory joins Learning Theory with Socializations Theory and Social Organization Theory.

Social expectations theory offers as simpler explanation than social learning theory:

You all wrote the second tutorial on this topic, so you should be familiar with these concepts and terms.  Be sure you understand the definitions and concepts emphasized in bold.

Resources: Your textbooks and my personal notes.  See syllabus for specific citations.

Copyright, 2001

Dr. Janet McMullen

jmcmulle@unanov.una.edu