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MOVIES AND CONDUCT 'Modern dynamic psychology, however, has suggested that certain elements of a child's nature and outlook do not change, in the process of growth, into adult versions of those elements, but persist unchanged in some part of the mind and form the ultimate background to all adult life'. The importance of this statement with reference to those children whose minds are stocked with film imagery, and with little else, is obvious. In her conclusion Dr. Lowenfeld makes this interesting observation on children's play: 'Play is to a child, therefore, work, thought, art, and relaxation, and cannot be pressed into any single formula. It expresses a child's relation to himself and his environment, and, without adequate opportunity for play, normal and satisfactory emotional development is not possible'. If one accepts this statement in the case of the film-nurtured child, one is forced to conclude that many people to-day must interpret their world largely in terms of film material.
Imitation by Adolescents
In the play of children there is a large element of make-believe, and the impersonation of a character from the screen is to the child an end in itself — a pleasant pastime which has no practical aim in relation to the affairs of everyday life, whatever longings it may awaken in the player's imagination.
When, however, we observe the forms in which film influence manifests itself in adolescents, we are at once aware of a much more conscious and deliberate use of screen material as a means of furthering the designs of real life. It is, of course, impossible to make an arbitrary distinction between the semi-fanciful 'dressing up' of older children and the more serious copying of film styles in clothes, hair, etc., among girls in their teens, but there is nevertheless a marked tendency for the adolescent to seek in the cinema patterns of behaviour and dress which he or she can incorporate in ordinary conduct.
That this type of film influence is very widespread among adolescents is indicated by Professor Blumer's examples. These suggest that the main motive behind the imitations, whether of clothes, mannerisms, or methods of love-making, derives its force from the universal need of the adolescent to make a satisfactory adaptation to the adult world, and to conform with the standards of behaviour of his social group. There is, moreover, an indication in some of the accounts quoted that these standards are themselves considerably modified by those exemplified on the screen.
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