Chapter 13 Social Learning Theory

The concept of the Social Learning Theory helps me understand the astonishing impact of the Sylvester Stallone’s character in the film Rambo.

The Social Learning Theory claims that people imitate what they view on television. This theory helps explain the prominent decrease in public morality. The decrease developed during the first “TV” generation, thus providing evidence for the validity of the Social Learning Theory. If people see violence, they will go out and be violent. Observational learning, the behavior change of someone emulating the behavior of that which they watch, is the process of the Social Learning Theory.

            During Tough Guise, the film-maker Jackson Katz, directly addresses the Social Learning Theory. By using boys and violence as an example, he stresses that the violent, male, outstanding characters in the mass media are negatively influencing boys and even men. Stallone in Rambo was the example used that stood out to me most. Every guy deep down respects and even envies Stallone’s main character in the movie Rambo. This character is idolized to be all that is man: tough, violent, and ripped. When males watch this film, the Social Learning Theory kicks in and they want to be tough, violent, and ripped just like Stallone’s character that they have come to love.