L11- Media Influences On Aggression Including The Effects Of Computer Games

Question 1

Media

Answer 1

• media saturated world (tv, radio,newspapers, books)
• psychologists interested in investigating whether media influences have an effect on agg behaviour

Question 2

Computer games

Answer 2

• computer games (Xbox, ps) have become chief source of entertainment for many of younger age groups
• growing evidence computer games may have more powerful effects on agg than traditional screen based media e.g. tv
• bc: player takes more active role compared to passive viewer + game playing more directly rewarding for player (operant conditioning)

Question 3

Study in computer games + agg

Answer 3

Taylor competitive reaction time task (TCRTT) - alternative measure of agg- lab measure
- participants play white noise at chosen volumes to punish (non-existent) opponent
- Bartholow + Anderson found - students who played violent game for 10 mins (Mortal Kombat) selected sig. higher volumes of white noise than those who played non-violent golfing game

Question 4

Evaluation (Strenth + Weakness)

Answer 4

+ supported by SLT- Bandura BOBO doll- children copied behaviour of aggressive role model through imitation and modelling. - so when children required to kill villain in violent game, will do so as favorite hero does the same

• Multiple definitions of aggression - difficult to measure objectively- dependent variable in studies that measure violence in games = volume of white noise BUT violence + agg not same- all violence is agg but not all agg is violence- effects found in studies depend on how agg is defined - questions validity of these studies