Media influences of aggression Flashcards
Violent films and TV
Laboratory and field experiments
A consistent finding is that those who watch violent scenes display more aggressive behaviour and have more aggressive thoufhts or aggressive emotions than those who do not.
> Compared with children who viewed a non-violent film, 5-to 6 year olds who watched a violent film were subseqeuntly rated much higher on measures of physical aggression
Longnitudinal studies
Huesmann et al. (2003)
Studied children between the ages of 6-1-0, and then again 15 years later. Habitual early exposure to TV violence was preditive of later adult aggression
> This relationship presisted even when the possible side effets of socioecomonic status, intelligence and any differences in parenting styles were controlled,
Meta-analyses
Bushman and Huesmann (2006)
Found significant effect sizes for exposure to media violence on aggressive behaviours, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings and arousal levels.
> short-term effects of violent media media were greater for adults for adults than for children. Long-term effects were greater for children than for adults.
Violent computer games
- Interactive violence in video games has the potential to exert even more influence than TV violence, where the viewer plays a more passive roe (Porter and Starcevic, 2007).
Experiemental studies
Lab experiments have found short-term increases in hostile feelings and aggressive behaviour following violent game play compared to non-violent game play (Gentile and stone, 200%).
> Anderson and Dill (200) found that p’s blased their opponents with white noise for longer after playing a violent game, compared to those who played a slow-paced puzzle gaame.
Media violence research: Overstating the case
Fegurson and Kilburn, 2009
P: A ‘statistically ‘signiifiant relationship between media violence and violent behaviour may be an overstament
E: Studies that found a relatioship between the two typically report small effect sizes. Very few have measured aggressio agaisnt another person
E: When aggression towards another person or violent crime is the measure of aggression, the relationship is close to zero (Fegurson and Kilburn, 2009)
Failure to consider other casual variables
P; Many studies fall to account for other variables that might explain both aggressive behaviour and a prefrence for violent games.
E: Ferguson et al (2009) claim that much of the research on computer game violence has failed to control for variables known to influence aggressive behaviour e.g family violence
E: These other risk factors, as opposed to exposure to media violence, may be the primary cause of aggressive behaviour.
Problems with research on the effects of computer games
P: In experiments, research must use alternatives tha have no relation to real-life aggression or that only measure short-term effects.
E: These alternative ‘measures’ include adminstering noise blasts to another participant
E: However, participants may be exposed to other form sof media violence during a study, so the effect from violent video games alone is uncertain.
Game difficulity rather than content may lead aggression
P: Przybylski et al (2014) suggest aggressive behaviour may be linked to a player’s experiences of failure and frustration during a game
E: They found that was not the violent storyline or imagery, but the lack of mastery and difficulty players had in completing the game, that led to frustration and aggression
E: The researchers suggests that even non-violent games can leave players feeling aggressice if they are poorly designed to too difficult.
What AO3 are you using?
- Media violence research: Overstating the case
(Fegurson and Kilburn, 2009) - Failure to consider other casual variables
- Problems with research on the effects of computer games
- difficulity rather than content may lead aggression
