Heroes and Heroines

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Heroes and Heroines

IMAGES OF HEROES AND HEROINES:

HOW STABLE?

HUGH GASH AND PAUL CONWAY

ST PATRICK'S COLLEGE, DUBLIN, IRELAND

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, EAST LANSING, USA.

ABSTRACT

Heroic images are presented here as constructed possible selves which may play an important role in self development. A questionnaire was given to 510 Irish and 190 U.S. third and fourth grade children in a study designed to investigate (1) their conceptions of the heroic and (2) the effects of a classroom intervention on the Irish children’s choices of heroes and heroines. The educational program was constructivist and designed to challenge children to reconsider their ideas about heroic figures and to engage in discussion designed to promote prosocial attitudes in concrete ways. While national origin and gender strongly influenced children’s heroic images, there were strong factor structure similarities in U.S. and Irish samples. “The good” was the first factor, the fifth an antiheroic factor, and the others reflected figures from film, television and sport. In addition, gender differences in the choice of proximal and distal heroic figures were identified. Prosocial effects due to the intervention program were encouraging and discussed within the context of Irish educational objectives.

INTRODUCTION

Over a decade ago, to highlight the neglect of fantasy, Egan (1983, p.357) wrote: "The dominant theoretical approaches to education, whether traditional, progressive, or radical, and the dominant programs of research on young children's thinking and development almost entirely ignore this most prominent feature (fantasy) of young children's intellectual life." The research described in the present article is designed (1) to investigate elementary school children's conceptions of the heroic in Ireland and the United States, and (2) to evaluate the effects of a classroom intervention on the Irish children’s choices of heroes and heroines.

Heroes and heroines are studied implicitly or obliquely in various psychological research domains such as pretend play (Fein, 1981; Kostelnik, Whiren, & Stein, 1986; Rubin, Fein, & Vandenberg, 1983), role-modelling (Bandura, 1977, 1986), gender stereotyping (Huston, 1983: Bigler & Liben, 1992), the influence of television (Murray, 1980; Liebert & Sprafkin, 1988; Singer & Singer, 1981), and possible selves (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Oyserman & Markus, 1990a). Each of these domains have a recognized role in the development of self and identity, broadly recognized as of central importance in education (e.g., Bruner, 1990; Dunne, 1995, 1996). Earlier approaches discussed the ‘ideal self’ as the potential ‘social me’ (James, 1910), or the ‘ego ideal’ (Freud, 1925). The political implications of the role models to which children are exposed are part of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s work on civic education (IEA, 1994).

Cultural and historical changes have an important role if not a striking influence on children’s choice of heroic figures. For example, Torney-Purta and Schwille (1986) note how Japanese children in the early 1990’s “saw the emperor, above all, and military men, secondarily, as the greatest men in Japan” (p.38): but by the 1960’s children “did not agree on any one hero, named no military men, and favored a bacteriologist over the emperor and the prime minister” (p.38). Irish and American cultures, we feel, are similar to the extent that a multiplicity of heroic figures are presented to children. Indeed since television’s arrival, Irish and American cultures have entered an era where children's exposure to a multiplicity of often conflicting role models has increased dramatically (Erikson, 1980). Important features of cultures are passed on through media images by means of intersecting processes grounded in play and imagination and finding expression in self development. While the post-modern condition may be described as the collapse of old certainties and the gradual emergence of many alternative views, the increasing importance of television as educator and participant in these changes raises important cultural and educational issues. Television is a prevalent source of heroic figures. There is evidence that children's heroic play has changed since television appeared. For example adults who grew up with television, compared with adults who grew up in the pre-television era, report significantly more heroic adventure play and more fantasy heroes in this play. Further, these adults believed that the media’s role has increased, replacing friends, siblings, and parents as the primary source of information about heroes and play themes (French & Pena, 1991). Also, playing children use available media heroes and heroines. Brave Starr and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of the 1980s replaced Roy Rodgers of the 1950s (Pena, French, & Doerann, 1990). At present Irish elementary school children play Power Rangers in school playgrounds, and similar figures populate the imaginations of the American children described in Dyson (1996).

The content of film and television programs has been and continues to be of concern especially because of its aggressive and sexual content (e.g., Parke & Slaby, 1983; Pollard, 1995). A recent international survey reported that American children watch 3.0 hours of television per day and Irish children 2.4 hours (Martin & Morgan, 1994). These figures place the American sample highest and the Irish seventh highest in the 27 countries surveyed. The dominance of American programs are also of concern. In recent GATT talks, prior to agreement in December 1994, the French delegates succeeded in obtaining a "cultural exemption" for films and television programs to protect the European film industry. The success and expertise of Hollywood translates into large numbers of American programs on European screens, and a study by Yeatts (1985) shows that choice of hero and heroine is related to the types of television shows which elementary school children watch. In the sense that culture enriches the mind, heroes and heroines are profoundly cultural persons. Heroic figures not only enrich children's experiences, but provide them with ways of learning about their culture and their place in society (Erikson, 1980).

Heroes and heroines are paradigm role models for boys and girls, they are desired possible selves. For this reason, it is important both developmentally and educationally to study children’s heroic images. However, there appears to have been little systematic research into children's concepts of the heroic, cross sectionally, culturally, or longitudinally. Concern about heroic characters that populate stories is not just a recent phenomenon. Both oral and literate cultures have long been mindful about the role models children admire and seek to emulate. This consideration is rooted in the assumption that somehow social prototypes and role models, both heroes and heroines, represent potential selves to the younger generation. At the turn of the century, prior to the invention of television, during the early days of the Child Study movement, children's role models and ideals were studied by a number of researchers in the USA (Darragh, 1898; Barnes, 1900; Chambers, 1903; Hill, 1911; Hill, 1930; Stoughton & Ray, 1946), England (Barnes, 1900; Dodd, 1900), Germany (Freidrich, 1901; Goddard, 1906), and Sweden (Gilbertson, 1913). These early studies of children’s heroes and heroines all asserted the important role such social prototypes play in child development, though the studies were atheoretical. For a long time research has reported that modelling is strengthened through a child’s identification with the character a child is watching (Lesser, 1974). Within the context of Vygotsky’s (1978) theory, heroes and heroines are social influences which may become intensely personal. We are sure, that like the authors, readers will recall childhood heroes or heroines who encapsulated characteristics which seemed at that time terribly desirable. Such is the transformational quality of literature and of culture. No wonder that media content is of such concern. There has been an enormous increase in violent behavior by adolescents in the U.S. (Summary Report of the American Psychological Association’s Commission on Violence and Youth, 1993). Observation of images of violent behavior plays a key role in the emergence of violent behavior when it occurs in conjunction with a number of other factors (Staub, 1996). In this context it becomes important to identify children’s heroes and heroines and to see to what extent they are malleable. The work on possible selves is relevant in the long term. Possible selves are the selves we could become, or are afraid of becoming (Markus & Nurius, 1986). A person’s set of possible selves contains goals and fears and so provides a link between the self-concept and motivation. Oyserman and Markus (1990a) have argued that hoped for possible selves are most effective as motivators when balanced with feared possible selves, and they have shown that delinquents are less likely to display such balance. This implies that goal seeking of heroic characteristics is most effective when assisted by negative feedback. Courage is not only desirable but sought after, for example, when its absence is understood and feared. The underlying issue is the way that self images are balanced by children in their development (Oyserman & Markus, 1990b). An initial task is to identify and examine the characteristics of children’s heroes and heroines.

A number of earlier studies on heroic figures (Hill, 1930; Stoughton and Ray, 1946) have noted both developmental and gender differences with older children tending to chose more distant heroes and with boys more likely than girls to choose distant heroes or heroines at all ages. These studies used the term immediate where we use proximal and they used remote where we use distal but the definition of each remains the same in our study. Hill (1930), whose categorization was adopted by Stoughton and Ray (1946) defined immediate (proximal) as "made up of parents, relatives and friends" (p.381) and remote (distal) as "historic and contemporary public characters"(p.384). For developmental reasons one can expect children to learn first to admire people in their family and proximate community; and later they construct heroic images from distal sources such as the worlds of film-tv, sport, and music. This distinction between distal and proximal may be related also to girls' life orientations (career out of home, or in home) and their possible selves, explaining why girls are under represented in higher status and higher earning occupations (Curry, Trew, Turner, & Hunter, 1994).

Research on play and gender stereotyping intersect to a certain degree, indeed heroic characteristics presented here overlap with personal social stereotypes. Gender’s influence on boys’ and girls’ play is well documented (e.g., Rubin, et al., 1983) as is play’s role in the development of gender stereotypes (e.g., Huston, 1983). Males seem more likely to engage in fictional, superhero roles, while females are more likely to portray familiar characters (Rubin, et al., 1983). Discussion of distinctions between superheroes (or idols) and heroes formed part of the intervention. Intercultural variation among gender stereotyped social personal characteristics have been described by Williams and Best (1990). While Goddard (1906) compared children’s ideals (heroes) in England, Germany, and the U.S. (New Jersey and California), we could find no recent comparative cross-national study on children’s heroes and heroines. On account of the cultural variation in gender stereotypes we anticipate variation in both the heroic figures chosen by children in America and Ireland and in the characteristics of these figures. Further, there is evidence that training studies can influence children’s gender stereotyping scores (e.g., Gash & Morgan, 1993; Gash, Morgan, & Sugrue, 1993), and because of this we hoped that a suitable intervention might challenge some children to adopt positive prosocial heroes and heroines. We were also aware of the beneficial effects on the development of self and of ethnic identity found for an intervention to foster ethnic identity for high-risk Puerto Rican adolescents which used discussion of heroes and heroines from their culture (Malgady, Rogler, & Costantino, 1990).

The materials used in the intervention in the present study were selected from "Windows on the World (3): Heroes and Heroines" (Larkin & Honan, 1992). The program is designed to be interdisciplinary and can take place in different subject matter contexts, it is child centered and constructivist. It is child centered in the sense that the aim is for teachers to help children to become aware of their culture, its values and behaviors; to help them think critically about their experience of the world with a view to helping them become agents for change in their lives; and to help children value themselves and others, and to think about ways in which they can themselves be heroic. It is constructivist in encouraging respect for different viewpoints, respect for other people and cultures, and encouraging children to think about the construction of heroes and heroines, how they influence other people, and how children can act to change their worlds. In particular, the program is designed to help children examine critically heroic figures in the media. Forgotten heroes and heroines from history are studied, and unspoken ones in the present are discussed (Larkin & Honan, 1992).

Overall, the main aims of this study are:

(1) To identify the characteristics of contemporary heroes and heroines in Ireland and the U.S., and

(2) To examine the effects of challenging children to reconsider their choice of heroic figure in an intervention program designed to highlight the need for people to live together with mutual respect.

We anticipate gender and cultural differences in choice of heroic figure on the basis of research on gender stereotypes and research on heroic figures carried out decades ago; we also anticipate observing some change in heroic images due to the intervention. A number of demographic variables have been found to be important in previous intervention studies in elementary schools designed to change attitudes towards children with mental handicap (e.g., Gash, 1993). These include gender, age, and in some cases location (rural, urban) (Gash & Coffey, 1995). Consequently these demographic variables are included in the present research design.

METHOD

Participants

Schools were selected on the basis of the design constraints, contingent in Ireland on their not having participated previously in work on “Windows on the World” curriculum programs. They were selected in two locations (city and town) so as to provide a contrast to the urban cultures of large cities, and in schools with at least two classes at each grade level sampled (3rd and 4th) so that there could be an experimental and a control group in each school. The schools could be described as middle or lower class and all were mixed schools, that is, with both male and female pupils. The U.S. sample consisted of 190 children, almost exclusively Caucasian, from a small mid-Western city and surrounding rural areas. The total sample size was 700, 510 children in Ireland and 190 in the U.S. (Table 1). In the Irish sample some children were absent during administration of either pre-test or post-test.