who is raising these kids..

We have talked this week about how children are turning to media and we discussed emotional competency theory, social cognitive theory, and the parasocial contact theory. I believe the idea that children look to their environment to learn how to manage emotion is true. I think that when children watch TV it definitely correlates with their positive and negative interactions. The example of the Lassie study, showed how children can be exposed to something positive, and then that lesson will be embedded in them even if its just a temporary effect. The study that involved the bobo doll, where a child watched an adult punch the doll and when the child was alone with it they beat the doll up, just shows how impressionable children are. They observe what they see and believe to be true and then implement it.

The video we watched in class called i love my hair by the sesame street character, at first seemed like such a positive video for African American children that might have conflicts with loving their hair. However then once we discussed it in class it brought up many points that weren't so good. For one, other ethnicity's will watch that and say "my hair can't do all that", which may be sending the wrong message that one race may be "better" than the other. Another point was the fact that why does the African American child need to be reinforced that their hair is a good thing. It just shows that they already have a notion that they are "different" and it doesn't measure up so they have to reinforce it. On TV and in magazines many black celebrities don't have their natural hair or even curly hair, so i think that impacts young girls in the sense that the straight long hair is the only thing that looks good. I was shocked when i heard someone in class say their friends mixed daughter cried and said she hated her hair after getting made fun of at the age of 3! It was just bizarre because children shouldn't be focusing on copying someones image but instead being independent and self sufficient with their own identity.