Agg : Media Influences

Question 1

What is ‘media’?

Answer 1

Newspapers, films, tv – frequently seeing aggression in the media may lead to increased aggression

Question 2

Robertson et al (2013)
(Longitudinal study)

Answer 2

Concept – hours of TV viewing (of any content) may lead yo aggressive behaviour
Procedure – studied 1037 New Zealanders in 1972-73 and measured TV viewing hours at regular intervals up to 26 y.o
Findings – time watching TV reliable predictor of agg behaviour in adulthood (convictions and violent crimes). Those who watched the most were more likely to be diagnosed with an antisocial personality disorder (amount of TV watched, not what is watched).
Conclusion – indirect effect of reduced social interaction and poorer educational achievement

Question 3

Bandura et al (1963)
(Experimental study)

Answer 3

Concept – violent films are potentially the most significant media influence on aggression as the content itself is violent
Procedure – reproduced his earlier Bobo doll study, but 1 group of children watched film of doll being beaten, other watched a live model
Findings – the group with a live model showed highest levels of agg, but the film group was close behind
Conclusion – suggests that social learning processes of vicarious reinforcement also operate through media

Question 4

Paik & Comstock (1994)
(Meta-analysis)

Answer 4

Concept – violent films are potentially the most significant media influence on aggression as the content itself is violent
Procedure – meta-analysis of approx 200 studies
Findings – positive correlation between viewing TV violence and anti-social behaviour
Conclusion – findings account for only 1-10% of variance in children’s agg (minor effect vs other sources)

Question 5

Bartholow & Anderson (2002)
(Experimental study)

Answer 5

Concept – computer games have more powerful effects than TV as the player is active (not passive) and the violent behaviour is rewarded
Procedure – students played violent games (Mortal Kombat) and a nonviolent game (PGA Tournament Golf) for 10 mins. After, they carried out the Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Task (TCRTT) where they had to press a button before their opponent which blasts the loser with white noise at chosen volumes
Findings – those who played violent games selected higher noise levels (5.97/10) compared with nonviolent control (4.6/10)

Question 6

Anderson et al (2010)
(Meta-analysis)

Answer 6

Procedure – meta-analysis of 136 studies w 3 types of methodology (experimental, correlational, longitudinal)
Findings – exposure to violent games was associated with inc in agg behaviours and thoughts. True for males and females in collectivist and individualistic cultures (universal)
Conclusion – effect of violent gaming on agg is more than effect of second-hand smoking on cancer – no sign of publication bias

Question 7

DeLisi et al (2013)
(Correlational study)

Answer 7

Concept – computer games have more powerful effects than TV as the player is active (not passive), and the violent behaviour is rewarded
Procedure – studied 277 juvenile offenders which serious aggressive behaviours such as hitting a teacher/parent/gang fighting.
Findings – offender’s aggressive behaviour was significantly correlated with how often they played violent computer games and how much they enjoyed them.
Conclusion – argued that aggression should be public health issue (like HIV/AIDS) and computer game violence should have a risk factor (like condoms)

Question 8

Experimental studies advs

Answer 8

• suggest causality → manipulating the effect of the IV on the DV means that there is causality, and we can say that playing aggressive games may cause an increase in aggressive behaviour.

Question 9

Experimental studies disadvs

Answer 9

• Measures of aggression in labs are often unrealistic and artificial (a lack of mundane realism) → no fear of retribution /retaliation vs in the real world this is a genuine risk associated with behaving aggressively (lab situation provides a ‘safe’ place to be aggressive) which reduces the ecological validity of the study.

Question 10

Correlational studies advs

Answer 10

• Temporal Causation → can explore whether media aggression leads to violent behavior, strengthening claims about causality
• Developmental Insights → capture changes in behavior over developmental stages across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood to identify ‘critical periods’
• Cumulative Effects → track cumulative exposure to media aggression and assess whether prolonged exposure leads to more significant behavioral outcomes

Question 11

Correlational studies disadvs

Answer 11

• Temporal validity → Manifestation of aggression may change over time, expressed as physical, verbal or relational at different life stages
• Media consumption habits may change → making it difficult to link to violent media accurately (eg viewing violent cartoons in childhood, realistic physical violence in films in later years)
• Retention bias → aggressive participants may be more likely to drop out over time

Question 12

Meta-analysis studies advs

Answer 12

• Allows researchers to detect effects that may be subtle in many small samples, where combining the data allows consistent findings to emerge, or to establish a lack of effect
• Increases generalisability → range of populations, settings and variations make the findings more robust
• Takes advantage of existing data

Question 13

Meta-analysis studies disadvs

Answer 13

• Only as good as the studies included (see definition of aggression problem)
• Publication bias → can only detect effects if published, and positive effects are more likely to be published (file-drawer problem)

Question 14

Meta-analysis studies disadvs

Answer 14

• Potentially spurious
• Directionality
• 3rd variables
• Results could be due to different things → Socialisation hypothesis – agg media causes people to be more agg; or Selection hypothesis – people who are already agg choose agg media