The social cognitive theory explains much of the impact that people often claim the media has on themselves and others. For example, if taking into account the three factors of the triadic reciprocal causation, behavior, personal characteristics, and environmental factors, it would be safe to assume that a 5-year-old child would be largely negatively affected by the show, “CSI.”
Likewise, someone could also point out positive aspects of the mass media. Shows like “Sesame Street” and “Barney” teach children not only academic knowledge, like counting and the alphabet, but also emphasize moral values. In fact, a newer show, “Dora the Explorer,” which premiered in 1999, and is currently the most-watched pre-school show in US, teaches its viewers the Spanish language.
In the 1970s, professor and social scientist, Nathan Katzman, studied soap operas, an increasingly popular television genre in that decade and the present one. What he found was that issues on these shows were not consistent with those in real life. For example, soaps have a surprisingly high number of extramarital affairs. These affairs are not seen as taboo on the shows and are typically quickly forgiven by the spouse. Assuming that the social cognitive theory is correct, one might assume that people who watch soap operas frequently may be more easily influenced by infidelity. In another interesting find, homicide is also represented at a higher proportion on soap operas than actually occur in real life.
The mass media also uses the social cognitive theory for what some of us might call positive influences. For example, a young girl who’s interested in music, may be influenced to drink milk after seeing Carrie Underwood’s participation in a “Got milk?” ad.
“In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.” -Albert Bandura
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