Theories of Communication
Lecture# 17
Social Cognitive Theory
Social Cognitive Theory
Social cognitive theory emphasizes the
importance of these uniquely human
characteristics known as:
Symbolizing capacity
Self-regulatory capacity
Self-reflective capacity
Vicarious capacity (Bandura, 1994)
Modeling
It includes four component processes:
– Attention
– Retention
– Motor reproduction
– Motivation
Abstract Modeling
Effects Of Modeling
Sometimes a person observes behavior or
receives information that conflicts in some
way with that person’s established pattern of
behavior. Two major effects are associated
with such situation:
Inhibitory effects
Disinhibitory effects
Modeling form Mass Media
Priming Effects
Modeling form Mass Media
Modeling from mass media, is an efficient
way to learn wide range of behaviors and
solution to problems that we otherwise learn
slowly or not at all, or pay too high a price to
learn in the actual environment.
Learning From Media Content And Modeling
Whenever a person sees a character on the
screen expressing some strong emotion or
performing some powerful action.
The viewer is affected or aroused. The
viewer remembers similar experiences and
emotions, and these thoughts and images
serve as cues that trigger self-arousal.
Social Construction Of Reality & Cultivation
Some studies show that realities depicted on
television programs do not always reflect the
true state of affairs in the real world. Some
scholars believe that heavy viewing of
television tends to shape or cultivate viewers’
perceptions and beliefs so that they are more
in line with the world portrayed on television
than with that of the real world. Media
scholars call this media effects phenomenon
the social construction of reality.
Stereotypical Portrayals Of Men And
Women
Effects of viewing televised or film violence
Through the years, most media effects
studies have examined the negative effects
that result from the vicarious capacity, such
as the learning of aggressive behavior by
viewing televised or filmed violence. When
carried to its worst extreme, the modeling of
such behavior has been linked to violent and
brutal copycat crimes and criminal
behaviours.
Learning good things from media
In recent years, a growing body of research
that examines children’s television
programming has yielded promising findings.
These studies have shown that many
children’s television shows have pro-social or
positive effects.
Social Prompting Or Persuasion
Advertising campaigns and other efforts of
persuasion serve as excellent examples of social
prompting, another example of modeled behavior.
Social prompting does not involve learning new
behavior, and therefore it differs from observational
learning and disinhibition. Social prompting implies
that a person is offered an inducement (an incentive)
to act in a particular way that has already been
learned.
Diffusion By Way Of Symbolic Modeling
One important area of media effects research
involves the study of diffusion or spread of an
innovation a new technology, tool behavior, farming
techniques - throughout the society or a large group
of people.
Diffusion of innovations research examines the
different strengths of media and interpersonal
influences in adoption of new behavior.
Social cognitive theory serves as the theoretical
basis for many types of media effects research -
from media violence studies and
Fright reactions to media content.
Effects from sexually explicit content.
Effects from persuasive media messages.
Social cognitive theory is an offshoot of
Bandura’s more comprehensive social learning
theory, which explains behavior by examining
the triadic reciprocal causation process, or the
interaction among:
Cognitive factors
Behavioral factors
Environmental factors
Viewers are affected or aroused by much
what they see on the screen. Some
experiences of arousal are fleeting in nature.
Priming Effects
Does media violence cause viewers to make
associations with angry or critical thoughts
stored in their own memories?
Does the viewing of mediated violence and
the mental associations it arouses make
viewers more likely to commit acts of
violence themselves?
Priming Effects
Priming occurs when exposure to mediated
communication activates related thoughts that
have been stored in the mind of an audience
member.
Media message content triggers concepts,
thoughts, learning or knowledge acquired in the
past that are related to the message content. In
this way, message content is connected,
associated or reinforced by related thoughts and
concepts that it brings to mind.
For a certain period after viewing such
content, a person is more likely to have
thoughts or memories become permanently
associated with the message content or
stimulus.
E.g. if one views a rail accident or air
accident the viewer might recall an accident
he is part of. His interest in the news story
and his reaction to it may well be affected by
his existing knowledge and previous
experiences.
In other words, his memories primed him to
react in a particular way to the story.
The priming activation may also influence a
person’s behavior, causing him or her to act or
react in some way, sometimes with
undesirable consequences. The most
sensational example of undesirable priming, in
this case operating with social learning theory
may be that of COPYCAT crimes - especially
murder or other violent crimes that occurred
after the person was PRIMED by movie or
program.
Instance of copycat crimes are grave extremes of
priming. Such cases represent a very small
percentage of the population experience priming
effects so completely that they actually MODEL OR
IMITATE the viewed behavior.
Priming effects from the viewing of media violence
are normally much more subtle but even that level
they represent cause for concern.
Priming is based upon the concept of cognitive
neo association.
This social psychological perspective attempts to
explain a portion of the phenomenon memory.
To understand cognitive neo association, one
must picture the brain as a complex network or
pathway that connects associated ideas,
thoughts, feelings and concepts.
Memory can be described as the overall
network, when a person watches a television
program or reads a newspaper the
information being processed triggers or
activates certain pathway throughout the
network.
Individual thoughts or feelings from past
experiences are remembered and associated
with the new information.
These ideas and thoughts may stimulate
other, related ideas and they may influence a
person’s actions.
Ideas connected to emotions trigger
associated feelings and responses.
E.g. research has shown that thinking
depressing thoughts can actually cause
feeling of depression; and exposure to ideas
of aggression can produce feelings of anger
or even aggressive acts under some
circumstances.
