Psychological Effects of Television on Children’s Behavior/Learning

Part 1: Outline The Similarities And Differences Between The Studies - Bandura et al. (1963) &

Today nearly 98% of American households have televisions. This makes television the single most important source of media in the lives of children and adolescents. Research shows that about 21- 23 hours per week on average, that children between the ages of five and twelve are exposed. This brings much controversy as to how television delivers the news, media, and violence to young children and adolescents. Many argue that the viewing of television during these crucial years of development can be very harmful involving the link of violence with aggressive behavior, hindering emotional and social development, the lack of exercise, health and activities, the development of temperament in young children, and sleep deprivation.

The early development stages between the ages of two and four are paramount for a child’s cognitive growth. Children are extremely sensitive to their surroundings and pick up everything that’s going on around them and that’s what helps them learn and develop. In a study, it showed that for every hour of television watched the child’s age appropriate language skills decreased. As for children exposed to constant background noises this also decreased their cognitive and language skills as well. This early and over exposure to TV, video games, and computers, deprives the child from sensory, hearing, and touching skills that they would have learned in the real world without so much exposure. This is also the time of developing co-ordination skills, as well social and motor skills. These skills are valuable in long-term and short-term physical and mental health (Negative Effects of Media). Tv is used as a baby sitter now to keep kids busy while parents do work around the house, this is a destructive act being done. Tv is generally always on in households, leaving kids to be able to watch whatever is on tv rather than educational shows that parents should be providing. The social intelligences

The negative effects of television are huge. To minimize the potential negative effects of television, it's important to understand what the impact of television can be on children.

Many children are influenced by what they see on television. Some programs have a positive and negative affect on how children behave.(AACAP.org) Using Cultivation Theory, I will validate that the amount of television being watched and the variety of talk shows does impact a child’s health, behavior and family life. After reviewing the outcomes, it is obvious that my hypothesis and Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory which essentially clarifies that the heavy television viewers develop a common socially conservative outlook through constant exposure to the same images and labels.(p. 353) According to the 2011 Active Healthy Kids Report Card on Physical Activity, television is one of the most prevalent media influences in kids’ lives. Children are spending too much time watching television and this is stopping them from doing activities crucial to healthy mental and physical development. Studies has shown that young children who watch too much television have delayed cognitive and emotional development. In older children excessive screen time has been proven to lead to behavioral difficulties, reduced achievement at school, attention problems, sedentary behaviors and an increased risk of obesity.(MediaSmarts)

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of two not watch any television and children older than two watch no more than one to two hours of television a day. The first two years of life are crucial to development they begin to interact with others and their linguistic compatibilities improve. The child also needs to be a busy body as this is the time coordination begins to improve and their bodies become big and strong. Media sources such as Television, internet and other sources of media can impede the child’s way of exploring, learning, playing, and interacting with others, which encourages learning, healthy physical bodies and social development.

Our world has a variety of problems today, with violence being at the top of the list, you go anywhere and that is all you here about. Unfortunately it’s in front-page headlines of the newspaper and broadcasted on the news as top stories. Violence is a very big topic, although it is categorized into many small groups. There is juvenile violence, domestic violence, hate violence, terrorist violence, and violence displaced through various forms of the media. This research will be on violence in the media and does it affect our society. How we view television, has changed the world, no doubt in that. Turn your television set on and pick a channel at random; the odds are that half of the programs you come across will contain violent material. The statistics are overwhelming as I look on the internet, read articles, and look at the research. One of the things that most interests me in the violence on television, is the effects it has on children. Children learn by repetition while watching educational shows, so is learning violence on television an exception?

affect their language and cognitive development.” One article states that everyday actions like singing, playacting, and analyzing helps children develop and hone their cognitive abilities and motor skills; but distractions caused by television can hinder this development. Ph.D. Gwen Dewar explains talking between TV programs limits communication and personal talks between children and parents because it is nearly impossible to break focus from the TV.

The mental development of children has had a decrease, studies have shown that television viewing by preschoolers have lowered their executive functions such as the ability to complete a given task. Which could

There has been far-reaching research on the link between televised violence and violent behavior amongst adolescents. Current studies have shown a direct correlation between aggressive conduct and watching violence depicted in many media services and suggest that media is a variable that put children at risk of aggressive behavior (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 1992). According to the American Psychological Association, watching playing violent scenes them on games and television, can desensitize children to the suffering and pain of others and may be a greater risk of acting aggressively toward others and they're less bothered by violence in general and less likely to see anything wrong with it. Studies disclose that children

"It has been calculated that American kids see about 200,000 acts of violence and 25,000 murders on television by the time they reach age eighteen." (Schleifer 18) Arrests of people under the age of eighteen for violent crimes rose forty-seven percent from 1988 to 1992. (Miller 174) The American Medical Association conducted a study that found a direct relationship between viewing and homicide. (Miller 176) Does this kind of overexposure to violence have a significant effect on children and teenagers? The answer is yes! Many reliable sources have proven that violence in the media has a negative influence in children under the age of eighteen. Statistics show that deaths and arrests involving children due to violence committed by other

During the 20th century, the literacy rate in America has begun to fall at an alarming rate. A factor contributing to the problems in the literacy rate includes children’s exposure to television which has resulted in a shortened attention span during other activities. Today, children are less active because of technology such as television and video gaming and, as a result more children are suffering from obesity.

Research shows that the time children spend on the screen, or receiving background television, considering that today's households generally have more than one TV set, is abundantly superior to any other activity and equivalent only to sleeping time, and—that 90% of infants is watching TV regularly despite the AAP's

According to Carla Kalin, M. S., statistics indicate that the typical American child will be exposed to 12,000 violent acts on television a year. The American Psychological Association Help Center reveals that children’s TV programming alone contains about 20 violent acts an hour. Children are imitators and those who watch violent shows are more likely to display aggressive behavior. According to the American Psychological Association Help Center, they are more likely to “strike out at playmates, argue, and disobey authority.” The Parents as Teachers National Center suggests that violent television programming teaches children that violence is an acceptable way to solve problems. Additionally, it states that the toddler and preschool years are an important time for emotional development, as well as a time when fears increase, and many children do not have the capacity to distinguish reality from fantasy. Watching a violent act on TV may be very disturbing to a toddler. Children who watch shows with violent content have more anxiety about the world around them. The American Psychological Association Help Center indicates that there are three types of harmful effects associated with viewing violence. They are: Learning aggressive behaviors and attitudes, becoming desensitized to real world violence, and developing a fear of being victimized. The AAP suggests that parents should watch with the

[Researchers] conducted a study to determine the relationship between the effects of television viewing before the age of three and language delays. They found that children who started watching television at two years of age or younger were approximately six times more likely to have language delays. In addition, researchers found that these infants did not watch educational media; they watched cartoons created for older children. The majority of children studied who had language delays started watching television around the age of ten months and over 60% of them watched television alone (Chonchaiya & Pruksananonda, 2008). It appears, then, that the most negative effects of television for children's language development takes place at the earliest ages.