Media Influences on Aggression

Question 1

What are the two areas studied for media influences on aggression

Answer 1

Violent films/Tv and violent computer games

Question 2

How is the effect of violent tv studied in labs

Answer 2

participants will watch a violent scene or a non-violent scene and are then watched to see how they interact with others after watching the film.

Question 3

What is a consistent finding for lab studies into violent TV

Answer 3

That those who watch violent scenes subsequently display more aggressive behaviour and more aggressive thoughts and emotions than those who don’t. For example Bjorkqvist found this effect in 5-6 year old Finnish children

Question 4

Who found Finnish children who watched violent TV were more aggressive

Answer 4

Bjorkqvist

Question 5

How have longitudinal studies supported the effects of violent tv over time

Answer 5

Huesmann et al studied over 500 children, and found that habitual early exposure to TV violence was predicitve of adult aggression later in life, applying to both boys and girls, and persisted across socioeconomic status, intelligence and parenting styles

Question 6

Who did a longitudinal study into violent TV

Answer 6

Huesmann

Question 7

How have meta-analysis supported the role of violent tv in aggression

Answer 7

They have found a significant effect of exposure to media on aggressive behaviours, thoughts, feelings and arousal levels. The short term effects of violent media were found to be greater in adults then children, but the long term effects were found to be greater in children than adults

Question 8

Why are video games an exciting opportunity to increase violent behaviour

Answer 8

Many believe that violent video games have the potential to exert even more infleunce than TV

Question 9

How have experimental studies supported the effects of video games on aggression

Answer 9

Lab experiments have found short-term increases in levels of psychological arousal, hostile feelings and aggressive behaviour following violent video game play compared to non-violent. Anderson and Dill found participants blasted opponents with upsetting sound for longer when playing Wolfensteing versus Myst

Question 10

Who found that participants hated each other with white noise if they played wolfenstein

Answer 10

Anderson and Dill

Question 11

What have longitudinal studies shown about children who play violent games

Answer 11

Anderson found children who had high exposure to video games became more verbally and physically aggressive and less prosocial over the course of their schooling. Some have argued this is actually linked to the competetive nature of games rather than violence, as violent games tend to be more competetive than non-violent ones

Question 12

Who did a longitudinal study on video games

Answer 12

Anderson

Question 13

Why might research into media violence be overstating the case (eval)

Answer 13

Critics point out that although studies claim ‘statistical significance’, they are overstating the case. Studies which have found attritutable increases in violence to violent media have typically reported small to medium effect sizes. They have also not measured aggression to another person. When aggression is measured like this, the relationship between media and violence in practically zero

Question 14

Why might studies into violent media fail to consider other causal variables (eval)

Answer 14

Other variables might explain both more aggressive behaviour and why people choose to play aggressive games. Ferguson et al claimed that many studies failed to control for other variables like trait aggression, family violence and mental health. These other risk factors could be the primary cause of aggression

Question 15

Who said that studies fail to account for other variables

Answer 15

Ferguson et al

Question 16

What other factors in video games may be the cause of aggression (eval)

Answer 16

A study by Przybylski et al suggests aggressio may be linked to faliure and fustration of the game rather than a violent storyline. They found it was a lack of mastery of the game that led to aggression, and this was evident across both violent and non-violent games. This suggests that the view that violence in games causes aggression is too simplistic

Question 17

Who found other factors in games may cause aggression

Answer 17

Przybylski et al

Question 18

what is a problem with research on aggression (eval)

Answer 18

A major weakness of lab studies is that reseachers can’t study real life aggression, and therefore scales used to measure aggression have no relationship to real life. Other methods include administering noise blasts or hot chilli sauce to another participant, neither of which have much to do with aggression. In longitudinal studies participants may be exposed to other forms of media violence during the course of the study, so the effect of games alone is uncertain