CMN 2101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 18: Meta-Analysis, Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Communication
• Course: CMN 2101
• Professor: Mahamoud Houssein

Document Summary

While research into human behaviour is enriched by this inheritance, it comes, as so many bequests do, with costs of its own. The methodologies that have served the social sciences quite well, and have certainly added rigour to the field, sometimes appear inadequate when applied to communication. These natural settings are contextually rich, so much so that isolating a particular variable from all the others is impossible without altering the setting. The complexity of communication studies is nowhere better demonstrated than in media effects research. We receive media messages in a natural setting, but to a large extent their effects are studied in artificial environments, and the results obtained are extrapolated to natural settings. In this area, research methodologies have yet to be refined to the extent necessary for us to accept or reject research results with as much confidence as our colleagues in other fields.