Exam 3 Flashcards
Types of aggression
- Physical aggression (punching, kicking, etc.).
2. Social aggression (gossiping, social exclusion, cyber bullying, etc.).
Bystander Behavior
Reaction toward violence (e.g., we can even learn from the media how to react to violence).
Catharsis Hypothesis: Prediction
Consuming violent media decreases violent behavior.
Catharsis Hypothesis: Explaination
Consuming violent media releases violent energy, leading to less violent behavior.
Catharsis Hypothesis: Limitation
This theory has not been supported! Further studies reveal counter evidence for this prediction.
Priming
Associations between concepts – One thing reminds you of something else (e.g., Dark alley may remind you of a scary movie that you watched recently).
▪These associations can be activated by media content. ▪Associations between concepts get stronger every time they are activated.
Priming: Prediction
Consuming violent media increases aggressive thoughts and behavior.
Priming: Explanation
Violent media may prime thoughts that lead one to believe aggressive behavior is warranted or justified.
Eron Study: Summary
The Eron Study surveyed the same sample from third grade through adulthood. A longitudinal survey (a panel study).
Eron Study: Findings
Even after controlling for factors like family dynamics and gender, kids who watched TV were more violent as adults.
Notel Study: Summary
The Notel Study studied the changes in physical and verbal aggression among kids, youth, and adults before and after TV was introduced to a small town in Canada.
Type of study: longitudinal survey (panel study).
Notel Study: Findings
Physical and verbal aggression were significantly increased among elementary school students. Also, social activity participation decreased.
Effect Size
There are many factors that can contribute to individuals’ aggressive behaviors (Family dynamics; gender; mental illness; IQ; peer groups, etc.)
How do we know which factors are more important for predicting aggressive behavior?
Effect size is a statistical tool that allows us to interpret the size or magnitude of an effect.
Considering effect size allows us to interpret which factors have the biggest association with aggressive behavior.
Examples of proven effect size
▪Substance abuse has a large-sized effect on aggressive behavior
▪Gender or family dynamics have medium-sized effects on aggressive behavior.
▪Consumption of violent media, IQ, or peer-group dynamics have a small-sized effect on aggressive behavior.
- That is, these factors DO have an effect on aggressive behavior, but it’s not as big as the effect of substance abuse or family dynamics.
Social Learning Theory: Prediction
If we observe aggressive behavior, we are likely to model it in our own lives.
Social Learning Theory: Explanation
When we observe others rewarded or punished for their behavior, we learn vicariously about how we should behave in similar situations.
Modeling
Models are the people we observe and learn from (e.g., friends, family, teachers, celebrities, fictional characters, and etc.).
Bobo Doll Experiment: Treatment group
Watched an adult attack a doll.
Bobo Doll Experiment: Control group
Watched an adult play with other toys and ignore the doll.
Bobo Doll Experiment: Findings
Children who’d watched the adult attack the doll were more likely than children in the control group to attack the doll when given a chance to play with the doll and other toys.
Social learning theory explains that we can learn a behavior by modeling the behavior. There are 2 types of modeling, what are they?
- Imitation (However, modeling is not only imitation)
2. Abstract Modeling
What is the main prediction of Social Learning Theory?
Learning behaviors and adapting them in our own lives (not simple imitation) is the main prediction of social learning theory.
Imitation
A direct repetition of an observed behavior
Abstract modeling
Involves learning knowledge and skills for future use in similar situations
What factors explain whether we will model a behavior?
- Vicarious reinforcement
- Characteristics of the model
- Identification
Vicarious Reinforcement
- Is the behavior you observe punished or rewarded.
- If the behavior was punished, you will less likely model the behavior.
- If the behavior was rewarded, you will more likely to model the behavior.
Characteristics of the model
Status, attractiveness, and similarity of the model influence your willingness to model the behavior.
Identification
- More likely to model people we identify with; the more common ground we perceive, the more we identify with that person.
- Children and younger people are more likely to identify with a wide variety of characters.
Types of Social Learning through media
- Observational learning
- Inhibitory learning
- Disinhibitory learning
Observational Learning
Learning unfamiliar behavior by watching it on TV/movies
Inhibitory Learning
Seeing behaviors punished in media teaches us not to model those behaviors.
Disinhibitory Learning
Seeing rewards for behavior that is considered negative makes us more likely to model that behavior.
Social Learning Theory and video games: Prediction
Players who play prosocial games will demonstrate more helping behavior than players who play violent video games.
Prosocial games
a game rewarding helping behaviors
Violent games
a game rewarding aggression.
Social Learning Theory and video games: Study results
Players who played violent games were more hostile to other study participants than players who played prosocial games. In a longitudinal survey, players who played violent games also reported less helping behavior and less empathy than players who played prosocial games.
Social Learning Theory and video games: Implication
Can’t imitate behavior in most video games due to efficacy, which means that actions possible in the video game world are not possible in the real world.
But violent and prosocial games may be associated with aggressive or prosocial attitudes and behaviors. There is still a potential for abstract modeling.
Copycat phenomenon
People sometimes imitate the exact behavior that they see depicted in the media `
Cultural Indicators Paradigm
The paradigm includes 3 main types of analysis for studying media:
- Institutional Process Analysis
- Message System Analysis
- Cultivation analysis
Message system analysis
This type of analysis is concerned with the nature of media messages.
Tends to produce systematic content analysis of media content in an attempt to arrive at comprehensive descriptions of that content.