Desensitisation, Disinhibition and Cognitive Priming Flashcards
What is desensitisation?
Where repeated exposure to violent media promotes a belief that resolving conflict with aggression is socially acceptable
How do attitudes to violence change with desensitisation?
Negative attitudes towards violence weaken, less empathy is felt towards victims and their injuries are dismissed.
What does the autonomic nervous system do as we become desensitised?
Arouses to a lower level.
What is disinhibition?
A lack of restraint leading to increased aggressive behaviour.
What leads to disinhibition?
Environmental triggers or over exposure to a stimulus.
After exposure to violent media, what happens to our social and psychological inhibitions?
They weaken so aggression becomes normalised.
How do video games present violence?
As rewarding
What is cognitive priming?
Repeated viewing of aggressive media provides us with a script of how to act in aggressive situations
How do we use scripts created in cognitive priming?
We use them automatically as we just ‘know’ how to respond to violent situations after the repeated viewing of media.
Describe Fischers research into violent song lyrics and their effect on aggression.
Men listened to violent song lyrics about derogatory actions towards women. Compared to when they listened to neutral song lyrics, PPTs subsequently recalled more negative qualities about women and behaved more aggressively to a female confederate. This procedure was repeated with female PPTs using men hating song lyrics.
Explain the strength of research support for desensitisation.
How did Krahe measure physiological arousal after PPTs viewed violent and non violent films?
How did arousal compare in those who watched more violent media?
When PPTs were allowed to give bursts of white noise. who gave the loudest bursts?
How does this support desensitisation?
Krahe showed PPTs violent and non violent films while measuring physiological arousal using skin conductance. PPTs who were more habitual viewers of violent media showed lower levels of arousal as they watched the violent film clip. They also gave louder bursts of white noise (a measure aggression). This lower arousal in violent media reflects desensitization to the effects of violence and it was also linked to greater willingness to be aggressive.
Explain the limitation of desensitisation being unable to explain some aggression.
What 3 things did Krahe’s study fail to consider.
What explanation may be more valid instead?
Describe a psychodynamic explanation of aggression.
Therefore, what does this suggest about the desensitisation explanation?
The study by Krahe failed to link media viewing, lower arousal and provoked aggression. A more valid explanation for this might be catharsis. This psychodynamic theory suggests that viewing violent media is a safety valve, allowing people to release aggressive impulses without behaving violently. Therefore, not all aggression is the result of desensitization and alternative explanations may be more valid.
Explain the strength of disinhibition having research support.
How did the shocks given by Berkowitz’s PPTs compare between those who saw a violent film and non violent film?
Why might media violence disinhibit behaviour?
What link does this demonstrate?
Berkowitz and Alioto found that PPTs who saw a film depicting aggression as vengeance gave more fake electric shocks of longer duration to a confederate. Media violence may disinhibit aggressive behaviour if it is presented as justified and socially acceptable, as in the case of vengeance. This demonstrates the link between removal of social constraints and aggressive behaviour.
Explain the strength of disinhibition explaining cartoon violence.
Why don’t children learn aggressive behaviour from cartoons? What do they learn instead?
What increases the likelihood of this theory being true?
This d________ aggressive behaviour.
How does this supprot disinhibitiion theory?
Children do not learn specific aggressive behaviours from cartoon models as many behaviours exhibited by them are not possible. Instead, they learn that aggression is socially acceptable. This is especially true if the cartoon model is not punished. This disinhibits aggressive behaviour. Therefore disinhibitions explains how cartoon aggression can lead to more aggression in those who observe it.
Explain the strength of real world application for cognitive priming.
When situations become violent, this depends on interpretation of…
This in turn then depends on the c________ s______
What did Bushman and Anderson argue about someone who habitually watches violent media? How do they interpret cues?
What has this suggested about reducing aggressive behaviour?
Whether real world situations become violent depends on how people interpret environmental cues. This in turn depends on the cognitive scripts they have. Bushman and Anderson argue that someone who habitually watches violent behaviour access stored scripts more readily. So they are more likely to interpret cues as aggressive and resort to a violent situation without considering the alternatives. This suggests that interventions could potentially reduce aggressive behaviour by challenging hostile cognitive biases.
