Key Issue Learning Approach
| For this section you need to be able to:
a Describe one key issue of relevance to today’s society and apply concepts, theories and/or research (as appropriate) from the Learning Approach to explain the issue. Suitable examples: the influence of advertising on people’s behaviour the increase of female violence related to changing role models the influence of role models on anorexia. Note: in the examination paper, students may be given stimulus material from a key issue to explain using concepts, theories and/or research (as appropriate) from the Learning Approach. |
Key Issue – The Influence of Role Models on Anorexia
One issue is the influence of role models on anorexia.
There are an estimated 60,000 people in Britain with eating disorders. Nine out of ten are female. Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions resulting in significant damage, with anorexia having the highest mortality rate of all forms of psychiatric illness.
When a person chooses to pursue a career as an actor, pop star, model or television personality, regardless of whether the individual deserves it or not, he or she is likely to be seen as a role model, particularly to vulnerable young people. Many models and actresses in the 1990s commonly had body fat levels as low as 10% – the average for a healthy woman is 22% to 26%. These ‘anorexic role models’ are extremely damaging to self esteem and can lead impressionable teens to unconsciously link looking stick-thin to fame and fortune. The media’s obsession with painfully thin fashion models has contributed to the growth in eating disorders among young girls, according to the British Medical Association.
Explain the issue using concepts from the learning approach
Concepts could include: Observation, modelling, imitation, positive reinforcement, vicarious reinforcement, role models, same gender, similar age, high status, Social Learning Theory, Punishment
Social Learning Theory says people learn by imitating role models who are generally of the same gender. Role models (celebrities etc) are seen to have high status and the behaviour that they model is likely to be imitated. Therefore, size zero models such as Eliana Ramos who died as a result of her eating disorder are likely to be observed on television and in magazines by young girls who may then wish to imitate their behaviour by restricting their daily calorie intake in order to lose weight. This can then lead to eating disorders such as anorexia whereby the behaviour has been learned through imitation.
Bandura says that behaviour is copied if it is rewarded and is carried out by someone similar to the observer. In the case of the anorexic role models who are female and of a similar age to girls who observe their behaviour, they are being rewarded for being size zero by receiving media attention and earning money through modelling. This can lead impressionable teens to unconsciously link looking stick-thin to fame and fortune via vicarious reinforcement whereby teenagers are indirectly reinforced for their behaviour when they see role models receiving rewards and positive reinforcement (money and fame) for not eating properly.
If role models are punished for their behaviour, e.g. size zero models are now banned – maybe this will stop others imitating them. Again, this would work when teenage girls observe the size zero models losing work, money and media attention due to their size they may be less inclined to imitate their eating behaviours because it cannot lead to anything good. Furthermore, the use of larger sized models in magazines and on TV as role models may result in teenage girls realising that being incredibly thin is not a good thing and may go some way to reduce the incidences of anorexia. For example, Chloe Marshall the first size 16 beauty queen who made it to the finals of the Miss England contest.