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The 'parent poll' carried out by a team at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues found that only 15% of parents thought that popular social media sites, such as Facebook, provided a positive influence on a young person's character. 40% of parents said they were 'concerned' or 'extremely concerned' about the negative and potentially harmful impact of social media.

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Social media sites obstruct children’s moral development, say parents (2016)

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Social media sites obstruct children’s moral development, say parents (2016)

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Social media sites obstruct children's moral development, say parents. More than half of UK parents think popular social media sites hamper their children's moral development, according to a poll commissioned by researchers at the University of Birmingham.

The 'parent poll' carried out by a team at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues found that only 15% of parents thought that popular social media sites, such as Facebook, provided a positive influence on a young person's character. 40% of parents said they were 'concerned' or 'extremely concerned' about the negative and potentially harmful impact of social media.

The UK-wide poll, questioned over 1,700 parents of children aged 11 to 17. Of those parents questioned, 93% said they were regular social media users. Researchers carried out this poll to gauge parents' perceptions around the influence of social media on children's character.

The survey, which is the first of its type in the UK, provides a unique insight into the moral values that are portrayed on social media. It points to widespread parental anxieties about the influence of online networks on children as young as 11, who are often using the sites despite age limits.

Dr Blaire Morgan at the University of Birmingham said: 'There are some surprising findings in the poll, not the least the low level of agreement that social media can enhance or support a young person's character or moral development.'

Respondents named a number of character strengths that they believed were lacking on social media. 24% said forgiveness and self-control was least present, followed by honesty (21%), fairness (20%) and humility (18%). However, a bleaker picture emerged when respondents were questioned about the negative character traits, or vices, they saw on social media at least once a month.

60% of parents named anger and hostility as the most negative trait displayed, followed by arrogance (51%); ignorance (43%); bad judgment (41%); and hatred (36%). Vanity, commonly perceived to be a major negative character trait in the "selfie" generation, came further down at 9th place in the league table of social media vices, comprising of 30% of respondents. Dr Blaire Morgan at the University of Birmingham added:

'The 'Parents and Media' project seeks to offer a more constructive outlook on how social media might impact on a person's character and moral values. 'Social media is not going away, so by learning more about this relationship we should be able to maximise the benefits of its use and avoid the pitfalls.' The positive impact of social media was given less attention, but the results of the poll suggest some cause for optimism.

72-per cent of respondents said they saw content with a positive moral message at least once a day. This figure is higher than the percentage of respondents who said they regularly saw negative moral messages, suggesting social media is not purely an environment for vice.

The top five character strengths promoted at least once a month on social media sites were identified as; humour (52%); appreciation of beauty (51%); creativity (44%); love (39%); and courage (39%).

Summary of key findings:

* Anger, arrogance and hatred are among the top negative character traits, or vices, reported by parents on social media.

* A quarter of parents highlight a lack of forgiveness and self-control among users.

* As an antidote to the negative findings, almost three-quarters (72%) of parents who use social media see content containing a positive moral message at least once a day.

* The 'character strengths' promoted most regularly are humour, appreciation of beauty, creativity, love, courage and kindness.

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children's health; staying healthy; psychology research; child psychology; social psychology; psychology; media and entertainment; popular culture; ethics

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Social media sites obstruct children's moral development, say parents

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Social media sites obstruct children's moral development, say parents. More than half of UK parents think popular social media sites hamper their children's moral development, according to a poll commissioned by researchers at the University of Birmingham.

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Does Preschool Physical Activity and Electronic Media Use Predict

Later Social and Emotional Skills at 6 to 8 Years? A Cohort Study

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A Cohort Study (2017) (Mental Health)
In adolescents and adults both higher levels of physical activity

and lower levels of electronic media use, such as television viewing,

have been shown to be favorably associated with aspects of mental

health, including self-esteem, anxiety, and depression.1–3 Emerging evidence suggests that physical activity and electronic media use

may also be associated with psychosocial health during the early

childhood period (5 years and younger).

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The Social Learning Theory

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Albert Bandura is an influential social cognitive psychologist who is perhaps best-known for his social learning theory, the concept of self-efficacy, and his famous Bobo doll experiments. He is a Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and is widely regarded as one of the greatest living psychologists.

One 2002 survey ranked him as the fourth most influential psychologist of the twentieth century, behind only B.F.

Skinner, Sigmund Freud, and Jean Piaget.

Best Known For

Early Life

Albert Bandura was born on December 4, 1925 in a small Canadian town located approximately 50 miles from Edmonton. The last of six children, Bandura's early education consisted of one small school with only two teachers. According to Bandura, because of this limited access to educational resources, "The students had to take charge of their own education."

He realized that while "the content of most textbooks is perishable...the tools of self-directedness serve one well over time." These early experiences may have contributed to his later emphasis on the importance of personal agency.

Bandura soon became fascinated by psychology after enrolling at the University of British Columbia. He had started out as a biological sciences major and his interest in psychology formed quite by accident.

While working nights and commuting to school with a group of students, he found himself arriving at school earlier than his courses started. To pass the time, he began taking "filler classes" during these early morning hours, which led him to eventually stumble upon psychology.

Bandura explained, "One morning, I was wasting time in the library.

Someone had forgotten to return a course catalog and I thumbed through it attempting to find a filler course to occupy the early time slot. I noticed a course in psychology that would serve as excellent filler. It sparked my interest and I found my career."

He earned his degree from the University of British Columbia in 1949 after just three years of study and then went on to graduate school at the University of Iowa. The school had been home to Clark Hull and other psychologists including Kenneth Spence and Kurt Lewin. While the program took an interest in social learning theory, Bandura felt that it was too focused on behaviorist explanations.

Bandura earned his MA degree in 1951 and his PhD in clinical psychology in 1952.

Career and Theories

After earning his Ph.D., he was offered a position at Stanford University. Bandura accepted the offer (even though it meant resigning from another position he had already accepted). He began working at Stanford in 1953 and has continued to work at the university to this day. It was during his studies on adolescent aggression that Bandura became increasing interested in vicarious learning, modeling, and imitation.

Albert Bandura's social learning theory stressed the importance of observational learning, imitation, and modeling.

"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," Bandura explained in his 1977 book on the subject. His theory integrated a continuous interaction between behaviors, cognitions, and the environment.

His most famous experiment was the 1961 Bobo doll study. In the experiment, he made a film in which an adult model was shown beating up a Bobo doll and shouting aggressive words. The film was then shown to a group of children. Afterward, the children were allowed to play in a room that held a Bobo doll.

Those who had seen the film with the violent model were more likely to beat the doll, imitating the actions and words of the adult in the film clip.

The study was significant because it departed from behaviorism's insistence that all behavior is directed by reinforcement or rewards. The children received no encouragement or incentives to beat up the doll; they were simply imitating the behavior they had observed. Bandura termed this phenomenon observational learning and characterized the elements of effective observational learning as attention, retention, reciprocation and motivation.

Bandura's work emphasizes the importance of social influences, but also a belief in personal control. "People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided," he has suggested.

Is Albert Bandura a Behaviorist?

While most psychology textbooks place Bandura's theory with those of the behaviorists, Bandura himself has noted that he "...never really fit the behavioral orthodoxy."

Even in his earliest work, Bandura argued that reducing behavior to a stimulus-response cycle was too simplistic. While his work used behavioral terminology such as 'conditioning' and 'reinforcement,' Bandura explained, "...I conceptualized these phenomena as operating through cognitive processes."

"Authors of psychological texts continue to mischaracterize my approach as rooted in behaviorism," Bandura has explained, describing his own perspective as 'social cognitivism.'

Selected Publications

Bandura has been a prolific author of books and journal articles over the last 60 years and is the most widely cited living psychologist.

Some of Bandura's best-known books and journal articles have become classics within psychology and continue to be widely cited today. His first professional publication was a 1953 paper titled "'Primary' and 'secondary' suggestibility" that appeared in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.

In 1973, Bandura published Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis, which focused on the origins of aggression. His 1977 book Social Learning Theory presented the basics of his theory of how people learn though observation and modeling.

His 1977 article entitled " Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change" was published in Psychological Review and introduced his concept of self-efficacy. The article also became an instant classic in psychology.

Contributions to Psychology

Bandura's work is considered part of the cognitive revolution in psychology that began in the late 1960s. His theories have had a tremendous impact on personality psychology, cognitive psychology, education, and psychotherapy.

In 1974, Bandura was elected president of the American Psychological Association. The APA awarded him for his distinguished scientific contributions in 1980 and again in 2004 for his outstanding lifetime contributions to psychology.

Today, Bandura is often identified as the greatest living psychology as well as one of the most influential psychologists of all time. In 2015, Bandura was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Barack Obama.
Bandura, A. Autobiography. M. G. Lindzey & W. M. Runyan (Eds.), A history of psychology in autobiography (Vol. IX). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association; 2006. Lawson, RB, Graham, JE, & Baker, KM. A History of Psychology. New York: Routledge; 2015.

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What Were Albert Bandura's Contributions to the Field of Psychology?

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Albert Bandura is an influential social cognitive psychologist who is perhaps best-known for his social learning theory, the concept of self-efficacy, and his famous Bobo doll experiments. He is a Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and is widely regarded as one of the greatest living psychologists.

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The experiment involved exposing children to two different adult models; an aggressive model and a non-aggressive one. After witnessing the adult's behaviour, the children would then be placed in a room without the model and were observed to see if they would imitate the behaviours they had witnessed earlier.