Biological Aspects and Behavior Analysis of Children

The Disney Corporation has used “princess” products to improve on its profitability through the argument that girls have biological factors that make them like toys and teddies. This essay discusses that the Disney Corporation marketing of the “princess” products is purposed to fulfill a need that exists in many girls.

The need for toys associated with girls

Disney Corporation markets its “princess” products in order to fulfill the need for most of the girls in the country. Studies have proved the need for toys among young girls. A report given out by the Daily Mail proved that if children were asked to pick stereotypical toys, their choice would be influenced by their gender (Bruce, Alexander M., pg.223). Most likely, boys are likely to be attracted to toy cars, while girls are likely to be naturally drawn to dolls and teddies. Thus, this study proved that withdrawing the factor of prompting, young children will select the stereotypical toy. This study concluded that the choice of a toy could be linked to the biological basis of the child.

Another experiment was carried out by two psychologists from City University London. This experiment was carried out using 90 children who were aged between 9 to 36 months. These children were allowed to select a toy of their choice without prompting from a list containing a toy car, a cooking set, a digger, and a doll (Bruce, Alexander M., pg.712). The choice for every child, together with the time each child took to play with the toy they selected was recorded. The results for the study indicated that the youngest girls took selected dolls and took most of their time playing with the dolls while the boys chose to play with a toy car. The girls used approximately 50% of their time playing with the dolls while the boys spent almost 90% of their time playing with the toy cars they chose. This experiment further proved a biological basis must be involved in their choices.

Therefore, the marketing of the “princess” products by the Disney Corporation is aimed to fulfill a need that already exists in girls. The “princess product is aimed at satisfying a biological need that dwells in the will of every girl.

Zipes’s argument

Inferring from the cognitive science, anthropology, psychology, literary theory, evolutionary theory, and other fields, Zipes presents an argument on how fairy tales came to existence from the ancient oral cultures (Zipes, Jack, ed., pg.342). However, in these present times, these fairy tales continue to change as they continuously adapt to the varieties of media, which are ever-growing.

Baum’s argument

Baum argues that behavior analysis is a natural science. He further argues that typical behavior does not acknowledge all forms of dualism, inclusive of subjective-objective or inner-outer dualism. Baum also argues that “Yet radical behaviorists often claim that treating private events as covert behavior and internal stimuli is necessary and important to behavior analysis” (Baum, Carsten, et al., pg.189). This argument targets radical behaviorists.

Bettelheim’s argument

Bettelheim analyses fairy tales on the basis of Freudian psychology in the book The Uses of Enchantment. The emotional and symbolic importance of fairy tales to children inclusive of traditional tales at one time, which are considered too dark, is considered important. Bettelheim argued that traditional fairy tales, which include darkness of abandonment, witches, death, and injuries, allowed children to hold firmly with fears in remote, symbolic terms. He further argued that if the children could read and interpret these tales on their own, he believed that they would obtain a greater sense of the tale’s meaning and purpose (Bettelheim, Bruno, pg.512). Bettelheim argued that the children would go through emotional growth if they engaged through with these socially evolved stories; hence the children would go through a lot of emotional growth that would be useful for making their own future.

Work Cited

Bruce, Alexander M. “Princesses Without a Prince: A Consideration of Girls’ Reactions to Disney’s” Princess” Movies.” Children’s Folklore Review (2018): 7-22.

Zipes, Jack, ed. Fairy Tales and Fables from Weimar Days: Collected Utopian Tales/New and Revised Edition. Springer, 2018.

Baum, Carsten, et al. “Sub-linear lattice-based zero-knowledge arguments for arithmetic circuits.” Annual International Cryptology Conference. Springer, Cham, 2018.

Bettelheim, Bruno. A psicanálise dos contos de fadas. Editora Paz e Terra, 2015.