ess television than they did when they were younger, and watch less with their families. “Their interests at this age tend to revolve around independence, sex and romance, music videos, and horror movies” (Dietz, & Strasburger, 1991). Adolescents in middle school and high school are much more likely than younger children to doubt the reality of television and much less likely to identify with television characters. The small percentage of those who continue to believe in the reality of television and to identify with its violent heroes are the ones likely to be more aggressive, especially if they continue to fantasize about aggressive-heroic themes (Bandura, 1973). TV Violence on Children Bandura’s Views In the book, Social Learning Theory, author Albert Bandura presents his major thesis. He believes in the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others especially in films and television. Bandura believes that learning through modeling is very important and says that "Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling that is, from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasion s this coded information serves as a guide for action." (Bandura, 1977, p.22). Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, an environmental influences. The component processes underlying observational learning are: Attention, Retention, Motor Reproduction, and Reinforcements. In Attention, individuals cannot learn much by observation unless they retain and then act out significant features of the modeled behavior. For example, children must attend to what the aggressor is doing and saying in...
