Psychological Influence in Disney Cartoons - Research Paper Example

The psychological impact of Disney animated films on young children I. Introduction The work at hand explores the idea concerning the potential psychological impacts of Disney animated films on young children. Disney films are enticing for children, and if they were not, the company Disney should have stopped promoting these types of entertainment materials to the public that mostly target the young audience, especially children. Parents remarkably do want to provide the best entertainment for their children. Evidently, Disney films provide a remarkable charisma that pulls children to love the iconic Disney characters, a real manifestation that Disney films are indeed creating a market share among the population of children. This is the reason why most children, with special permission from their parents, to end up with Disney animated films. As observed, Disney films, especially the one that has been recently published by Disney like “Frozen”, has remarkably gained a wide audience in all walks of life in almost all parts of the world, but primarily children. However, beyond the know-how of many people, there are relevant studies that try to expose the idea that Disney films or cartoons like “Frozen”, “Pocahontas”, “Cinderella” are creating psychological impacts on young children. There are hidden messages in various Disney films that many people are unaware of, but they are truly affecting the actual learning process of a child, both positively and negatively. Good thing for the positive side, but the reason why Disney films create, at some point, a negative psychological impacts on young children is due to their ability to affect the actual learning process taking place in a physically, emotionally and psychologically developing child or generally children in all walks of life, who of course, are specifically exposed to Disney films. II. Background Study shows that the media can be a powerful teacher of children, and so they have potential impact on the attitudes and behaviours of young people as they grow mature in life (Strasburger, Jordan and Donnerstein 533). In this study, it is evident that children are found to be affected by the media when it comes to the development of their attitudes and behaviors. This can start as possibly young as they are because as found, educational materials broadcasted on the media can improve children’s social, emotional and cognitive well-being (Calvert and Kotler 275). Mostly, the exposure of the children in the media started at home, as it started when they were young, as part of their parents’ strong prerogative. By tuning in to their favorite cartoon characters for instance, children are able to learn or portray their actual attitudes or behaviors, because they simply love to emulate them. This is the real essence of the actual results of the study that Strasburger, Jordan and Donnerstein found. As to the reason why, Calvert and Kotler argued that whatever it is that the children can view on the media, it can stand as an educational material for them, no matter how good or bad might be the message that it brings them. The idea speaks of the thought that what the children see, they learn from it, because they are still in the process of developing the social, emotional and cognitive aspects of their lives. III. Evidence Paragraphs Animated films can potentially head children to develop bias on certain concepts, ideas or principles in life. Study reveals that animated films lead children to develop stereotypes, such as a large number of them were found to have negative feelings toward older people, because of the large percentage of portrayal of older characters in Disney films in a negative manner (Robinson, Callister, Magoffin and Moore 203). This is one of the remarkable negative impacts that Disney films can substantially influence a growing child. The study further reveals the truth that in Disney films where older character is depicted as the villain, children will most likely to associate this character as the same as what is found in the actual setting. As a result, many children as established in the study of Magoffin and Moore have negative feelings toward older people. Eventually, children could learn to stereotype and this can be made possible through the actual concepts that they might have potentially learned from what they have observed or seen around, especially on the media. In addition, with animated films, children are taught to develop how to identify what standard they should consider. Study shows that cartoons are able to portray information concerning what is physically attractive or not, giving young people at an early age the idea about what is physically unattractive, physically attractive and ordinary looking individual (Klein and Shiffman 353). Added to this, generally, the media have provided the message to young children what an ideal body should be (Harriger 314). As observed, establishing what is ideal leads many people to be insecure or leaves many of them even to the point of being extraordinarily discontented with themselves or what they have. In fact, the actual study reveals that anorexia nervosa is a Western culture-bound syndrome, due to the prevailing cultural focus on dieting and ideals of thinness for women in the Western culture (Banks 867). In other words, just as how this syndrome for women was developed, which was due to cultural reasons, the animated films for children, as they could set the standard are eventually creating the kind of culture for them too especially on what they should consider ideal or the perfect standard of what they should believe is right. Unfortunately, this could lead them to stereotype as specifically revealed in the study of Robinson, Callister, Magoffin and Moore. Furthermore, with Disney films or related animated films, children can learn to understand the idea of violence. The problem with this is depicted on the research findings revealing that the animated violence was found to have a significant influence on the aggressive behavior of children, which was found to be negatively associated with aggression (Kirsh 547). There are a large number of animated films in Disney that depict violence. This includes the actual violence observed in the characters playing the antagonists’ rule. As a result, children are taught to hate this character or develop negative feeling toward them. This is a psychological response to the actual stimuli that children actually observed. For this reason, it is evident that Disney films, no matter how good may be the intention of portraying the good character, at some point, children are left to consider the idea of violence, but the problem is that they may be totally unconscious about it that their perspective in life is slowly affected, and worst, this could lead to a negative behavior as stated by Strasburger, Jordan and Donnerstein, especially if left unattended or unguided by parents. IV. Refutation/Concession However, it is important to consider that aside from the probable negative impacts linked to Disney films on children’s psychological development, there are also potential positive impacts of these films as revealed by certain academic studies. In the first place, on the positive side, Disney films are found to improve children’s mobility (Tranter and Sharpe 34). This is quite true in the case of the findings of the said study, because just as children are negatively influenced by the animated films in their attitudes and behavior, enhancing their mobility is found to be an exception. This is an advantage, because this one depicts mental alertness, creativity and even smart thinking at some point. These are the potential implications of the findings of Tranter and Sharpe. For them, Disney films can be informative to young children, so children will be able to learn many good things from them. As commonly observed, learning is found to be such a fundamental process in helping an individual advanced cognitively, emotionally and psychologically. Therefore, it makes sense to consider that animated films, especially the most common ones like Disney films are creating such positive impacts on children, specifically on their physical development. In addition, the opposing argument reveals that Disney films can help enhance the child values and characters. The truth about this is revealed in the study showing that the Disney film depicting a modern heroine Pocahontas shows the children the idea that a modern woman should eliminate selfish absorption in order to advance her selfless dedication in nurturing others (Dundes 353). This specifically implies that some Disney films are indeed good channels to teach the children the right values that they should take into account in their lives. The above points show that Disney films are creating positive impacts too on children. However, the first justification only points out to a more physical advancement, and so it potentially overlooks the psychological aspect, which must be the most important component in establishing the appropriate, attitudes, characters and behaviors of a person. The second point seems to be quite close in understanding the characters and behaviors, but setting the right values is a cultural issue, allowing it to be not that totally attached to a psychological concern, which as previously stated is the most important component in establishing the appropriate human attitudes, characters and behaviors, because of its scientific and objective nature. If it is an issue that is culturally influenced, therefore it is bound to be engaged in cultural bias. When there is bias, stereotyping cannot be far away to take its place too. Therefore, the above points show that the previously stated arguments showing the negative impacts of Disney films on children’s attitudes and characters are pure psychological in context, which leads to the point of looking at them in a more scientific and objective manner. V. Conclusion The negative psychological impacts of Disney animated films on young children exist, which eventually were also shown to influence their actual attitudes and behaviors. In fact, as stated, the media are influential to children’s behavior, because as discussed, they affect their actual learning process. Attitudes and behaviors as intuitively shown or implied in the discussion are can be learned. For this reason, Disney animated films as integral components of the media cannot be simply overlooked as to their potential psychological impacts on children’s attitudes and behaviors, both positively and negatively. Disney animated films are therefore found to be both beneficial and harmful, but as to their disadvantage, the entire context should surround the level of their psychological impacts on the young children’s attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, it is important to understand the level of risks associated with Disney animated films on children’s attitudes and behaviors on the ground of psychological context or understanding. Works Cited Banks, Caroline Giles. “‘Culture’ in culture-bound syndromes: The case of anorexia nervosa”. Social Science & Medicine 34.8 (1992): 867-884. Print. Calvert, Sandra L., and Jennifer A. Kotler. “Lessons from children’s television: The impact of the Children’s Television Act on children’s learning.” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 24.3 (2003): 275-335. Print. Dundes, Lauren. “Disney’s modern heroine Pocahontas: revealing age-old gender stereotypes and role discontinuity under a façade of liberation.” The Social Science Journal 38.3 (2001): 353-365. Print. Harriger, J. “Children’s Media Influences.” Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance (2012): 314-319. Print. Kirsh, Steven J. “Cartoon violence and aggression in youth.” Aggression and Violent Behavior 11.6 (2006): 547-557. Print. Klein, Hugh, and Kenneth S. Shiffman. “Messages about physical attractiveness in animated cartoons.” Body Image 3.4 (2006): 353-363. Print. Robinson, Tom, Mark Callister, Dawn Magoffin, and Jennifer Moore. “The portrayal of older characters in Disney animated films.” Journal of Aging Studies 21.3 (2007): 203-213. Print. Strasburger, Victor C., Amy B. Jordan, and Ed Donnerstein. “Children, Adolescents, and the Media: Health Effects.” Pediatric Clinics of North America 59.3 (2012): 533-587. Print. Tranter, Paul and Scott Sharpe. “Disney-Pixa to the rescue: harnessing positive affect for enhancing children’s active mobility.” Journal of Transport Geography 20.1 (2012): 34-40. Print. Read More