Abstract

This project investigated the topic of role modeling and its effects on the social development of secondary school students in the Buea municipality. Its objectives were; to investigate the effects of role modeling choices on the social behavior of students social behavior, to examine how social media affects students and adolescents’ role model choice, and finally to examine how cognitive development is affected by the role model of a student or adolescent chooses.it made use of the descriptive survey design, with the use of questionnaires to gather information from students in some selected secondary schools in the Buea municipality.

The simple random sampling technique was used to carry out the study. The Likert scale type questionnaire was used and based on the findings of this study, the conclusions were made; role modeling affects students’ social development, social media also has an impact on the role model a student chooses.

From the conclusions these recommendations were made; counsellors should make effort to counsel students on the negative and positive aspects of role modeling, parents should supervise what their children watch on TV and social media, teachers should be able to follow up on students’ cognitive development.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Introduction

This chapter will include the background of the study that is the early studies of this topic and also a quick overview of the main theory of the research which is the role modeling by Albert Bandura, the chapter also contains the statement of the problem, the objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, justification of the study, limitations of the study and lastly operational definition of terms.

Background of the study

Historically, many years ago, many kids look up to athletes and entertainers as role models. They saw their lives as something to aspire to be people who have accomplished and made a name in the society. But all these people have flaws and also faulted at some point in time. So who can kids turn to today when seeking out role models? Probably the very place that they should have been looking all along that is their parents and other people that they respect and trust (family members, teachers, coaches) but they can also be let down by the people close to them, but at least they know the benefits of knowing whom they are on a personal level instead of relying upon an idealized perception of who their celebrity heroes are in real life. Nowadays, teenagers tend to have artists, actors, and actresses as role models some are because of their dressing code, the way they act, sing or perform on stage.

In a generation where social media is at arm’s reach to all teenagers, you can see most following their models on social media sites like Instagram, tik tok many others. Copying their lifestyles, their way, and manner of dressing irrespective of whether it is appropriate in our society or not. Teenagers and secondary school students are seen along the streets with all types of haircuts, dressing styles copied from their models mainly on social media. All these modeling and imitation causes a change in the social development of many students. Students copy behaviors like aggression, lack of respect for elders, indecent dressing, and many others just to fit in the standard the social media and their models have set for them.

Looking at the theoretical background, the social learning theory by Albert Bandura was used because Bandura considered both the environment and environmental factors that interact to influence human learning behavior. Also, he said that children can learn behavior by observing others, and this person he called them role models. Children can have different role models in different aspects of their lives depending on how the person inspires the child.

Another theory is the theory of cognitive development by jean Piaget which focuses on the fact that children develop in 5 stages and that role modeling also deals with the child’s cognition because the child must be mentally stable to be able to choose a role model he or she can follow.

Again, Erik Eriksons theory of human development focuses on eight stages but this study focuses on the 5th stage which is identity vs role confusion. At this stage, the child is battling with discovering who he or she is and they do this by modeling people who they’ll like to be like in the future.

Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory views human development as a process in which acquires their culture through collaboration with more knowledgeable members of the society. He also emphasized on the importance of social interaction in the development of the child cognition.

Though the concept of role models was first given a name in the 20th century, people where familiar with this concept beforehand. So anyone can be a role model but in today’s society, public figures such as actors, musicians, celebrities, athletes are the most common role models. Other examples include pastors, parents. Most of these people can be considered either negative or positive role models depending on their behaviors.  Persons like drug dealers, gangsters are considered exclusively as negative role models because of the kind of behavisor they portray.

The term role model comes from sociologist Robert K. Merton, whose work centered on social groups. Merton discovered that rather than modeling an individual’s behaviors, people tend to model set of behaviors. This set of behaviors are demonstrated by people who occupy certain roles in society. He emphasizes highly on visible individual behaviors and how people who look up to them react to such behaviors.

Another social scientist whose work is also relevant is Albert Bandura, whose work on learning led to the development of the social learning theory. Bandura found out that individuals tend to be active observers of their environment. During these observations, people make notes of the behaviors exhibited by others and then imitate them later in the future.

Contextually, the study is carried out in secondary schools in the Buea municipality. This is because the students at the secondary school level of education are still trying to find their identities and therefore tend to copy attitudes and behaviors.

Statement of the problem

Student social development is affected by many things like the environment they find themselves in the types of shows they watch and the type of people that they surround themselves within their everyday life.

Everyone faces problems with identifying who they are (Erik Erikson, 1958,1963) or even what they want to be. It is very important that teenagers and adolescents get to follow the examples from role models who lead them towards the right part.

Erik Erikson talked of identity vs role confusion, which is from about 12 to 18 years. During this stage, adolescents search for a sense of self and personal identity through an intense exploration of personal values, beliefs, and goals. It is at this stage that the adolescent will re-examine his identity and try to find out exactly who he or she is. At the end of this stage, there is supposed to be reintegrated sense of self of what one wants to do or be. During this period, they explore possibilities and begin to form their own identities based upon the outcome of their explorations, and not being able to accomplish this will lead to role confusion which involves the individual not being sure about themselves or their place in the society.

In response to role confusion, an adolescent can begin to experiment with different lifestyles for example work, education, or political activities.

Also, pressuring someone into an identity can result in rebellion in addition to0 this failing to this feeling of unhappiness. Role modeling, therefore, helps adolescents find themselves and who they are too but now parents and caregivers have to guide the adolescent to be able to choose the right model despite all the people they meet every day and especially with how the social media is giving them many opportunities to meet people and copy their lifestyles it will still be good if parents monitor t5he type of people they meet on the social media and also teach them on how to select role models telling them and making them know how their actions they copy from the models will affect them, their studies and also the people around them.

So this project is to address the effect of role modeling on the social development of secondary school students in the municipality of Buea. Buea has been known to bring adolescents closer to the open world due to the fact that the town has a university it has open up many children to social media and also meeting people.

Objectives of the study

General objectives

The purpose of the study is to find how role modeling affects student social development

Specific objectives

1. To investigate the effects of role modeling choices on the student’s social behavior
2. To examine how social media affects students/adolescent role model choice.
3. To investigate how cognitive development is affected by the model a student/adolescent chooses.