PSYCHOLOGY 409A February 27, 2006
DBB (Drivers Behaving Badly) RATINGS for MOVIES, CARTOONS, and COMMERCIALS
Outline 4
By
Reference 1: http://www.drdriving.org/articles/dbb.htm
Instructions for this activity are found
at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/g24-oral1.htm
Instructor: Dr. Leon James
Concept 1: The Influence of Television on Children’s Future Driving Behaviors
As we all know children tend to model the actions of those around them such as parents, family and friends, but now in the modern world they also are greatly influenced by television. With the increasing amount of television being watched by youths now a days there is an even greater influence that it has on the development of children’s actions. One of the most common scenarios on television is driving. People often try to rate programs and movies for nudity, violence, language, etc. to help prevent children from reenacting the scenes or from creating negative misperceptions based on what they view, but the way in which negative driving behaviors might affect youths is over looked. We all know that movies and television shows are not real, but with increasing technology and movie budgets they are becoming much more realistic. This realism makes it much more convincing that the actions in the movie can be performed with similar ease in real life. In nearly every television show or movie there is negative driving behaviors being portrayed to the viewers such as car chases, aggressive driving, road rage, street racing, drinking and driving, and even more subtle actions that can be just as negatively influencing such as not wearing a seat belt, talking on the cell phone, listening to loud music, socializing with friends. How often do you notice a driver in a movie or TV show using their turn signals? How about putting on their seatbelt? Using shoulder checks instead of relying only on mirrors? Long before children are of age to drive they develop all of these negative driving behaviors based on the shows and movies that they watch. It is because of this huge influence that TV has on shaping the impressions of children that the DBB rating system, drivers behaving badly, was created to help provide a heads up as to what is in the program that a child is about to watch. It can be used by parents and others in the same way as violence and sexual content are used to create an overall rating (PG, R, etc.)
Concept 2: My Own DBB Rating
Movie: “Team
Rating: UNRATED
Observation
In the opening seen there is a Hummer that comes speeding in almost
hitting several pedestrians and then slams on its breaks to a sideways skidding
stop as it knocks over some planters and some pillars.
Later in the movie there is a car chase in which a Jeep is being chased by a Hummer. The Jeep drives through a wooden double door to start the chase, the Hummer pursues the Jeep through a crowded Middle Eastern market place nearly hitting many people and smashing through many stands and carts. At one point the Hummer hits a person and keeps driving as if nothing had happened. The driver of the Hummer is having a conversation with his passenger and is also talking to another person over a hands free telephone. Throughout the whole chase they are shooting guns at each other, recklessly speeding and swerving around on a dirt road, which has poor traction, yelling in clear anger and rage, all while no one is wearing a seatbelt.
Evaluation
Although this movie was made with string puppets, and thus not realistic
to adults, the pure entertainment and comic value of the movie makes the
negative driving situations seem more fun and real to a younger audience. You
can clearly see from the above description that multiple laws are broken as
well as many lives being put in danger with complete disregard. I would not
think that this movie is a very strong influencer of children because it is
aimed at an older audience, but because it is aimed at an older audience the
jokes and over exaggeration of events can be missed if viewed by a younger
viewer. This is common in many movies made with an older audience in mind, and,
as with video games, no matter what the rating you put on a movie or video game
children who are not old enough to watch or play, or who are not allowed by
their parents, will find a way. This movie provides no trouble for young people
to watch because it is unrated, even though the entire movie is full of foul
language, violence, sexual content, and drivers behaving badly, albeit with
string puppet characters.
Rating (Based on a 5 point scale, 5 being the
highest, 1 the lowest)
Related Links:
1) http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct04/tvheroes.html
Changing behavior through TV heroes. I chose this link because it shows how Albert Bandura’s social learning theory can be used in a positive way using television and movies. Now we need to apply positive driving behaviors to television and movies so that people can be taught proper safe driving techniques in addition to other mediums. This article also shows the universality of the influence that television has.
2) http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p011070.html
TV Violence and Brainmapping in Children. This link shows the severity of modeling from television in negative ways, specifically violence. I would also like to mention that when searching for links relating to modeling from television and movies, violence and sex are the most common results. As I mentioned earlier, the effects on driving behaviors are well overlooked.
3) http://www.drdriving.org/articles/dbb.htm
Movies, Cartoons, Music Videos, Car Commercials, Drivers Behaving Badly on TV (DBB Ratings). I chose this link because I find that it is the best example to help show the prevalence of negative driving behaviors on television, whether it is in a movie, TV show, music video, or even a commercial. From this link you can navigate to other examples of student’s DBB ratings for numerous types of programs.
My Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/whyte/home.htm
G24 Class Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/classhome-g24.htm