Media influences on aggression Flashcards
Who conducted a study to see if violent tv and films caused aggression?
Parke 77
How did Parke 77 test whether violent tv/films caused aggression?
Parke exposed young offenders to either aggressive or neutral films. Participants were observed for a week to gain a baseline measurement of aggression, then watched either violent or non-violent films for a week, then were observed for a further week to measure changes in aggression.
Boys who were rated in the first week as aggressive showed increases in aggressive behaviour after the week of violent viewing.
What is the problem with Parke 77 study on violent tv/films affect on aggression?
It was a field experiment that suffers from lack of control over extraneous variables.
Therefore, it is possible that other external factors were causing increases in the violent TV group’s aggression.
Do correlation studies on violent tv and films affect aggression support Parke’s 77 study?
Evidence from correlation studies is fairly consistent, viewing or a preference for violent TV is related to aggressive attitudes and behaviours.
Atkin asked 9-13 years olds what they would do if another chidden pushed them off their bicycle. The children were given response options including verbal or physical aggression and the chance to avoid or minimise conflict.
45% of heavy violent TV viewers chose the violent options compared to only 21% of low violent TV viewers.
What is a problem with correlation studies supporting the view that violent tv and films cause aggression?
Correlational studies only indicate a relationship between these variables, not that violent TV causes real-life violence. It could well be that already violent children are attracted to watching more violent programmes.
How do laboratory experiments suggest that violent computer games cause aggression?
Laboratory experiments have found increases in physiological arousal, aggression and hostile emotions after playing violent video games.
How does a study by Anderson 07 suggest that violent video games cause aggression?
Anderson 07 surveyed violent games use in 430 children aged 7-9. High exposure children were rated as more verbally and physically aggressive, and were rated by their teachers and themselves as less pro-social.
What was a longitudinal survey conducted by Moller 09 that supports that violent video games cause aggression?
Muller 09 conducted a longitudinal survey into the relationship between violent video games and aggressive behaviours and thoughts among 13-16 year old students.
Questionnaires assessing violent video game usage and self-rated violent tendencies were taken at the start of the study then 30 month later.
Increased game use was associated with increased violent tendencies. Although it is possible that extraneous variables caused increases in violence, this study does seem to indicate direct relationship between increase in violent video game playing and increases in aggressive behaviour and thoughts.
Evaluate in conclusion the evidence against violent media causing aggression?
Although the above examples do indicate a relationship between violent media and violent behaviour many studies have found no relationship.
Aggressive behaviour is influenced by numerous variables such as gender, biological factors such as testosterone or genetics, low socio-economic status, low levels of education, peer group, family background etc. Thus it is virtually impossible, therefore to isolate the media as a single cause of increased aggression.
Most people have seen huge amounts of fictionalised violence yet remain unaffected. If media violence does cause imitative behaviour it is likely that this only occurs with individuals who score low on measures of empathy and moral development, high on scores of fantasy, and are likely to possess violent temperaments already.
What is desensitisation?
Refers to the way that in which people become less anxious and shocked by media violence, as a result of exposure. The more violence someone is exposed to, the more acceptable aggressive behaviour becomes.
What is the result of desensitisation?
The result is that individuals may be more likely to accept violence and aggression and may be more likely to respond violently and aggressively, when presented with the opportunity to do so.
How can desensitisation be measured?
Measures of physiological arousal which are a good indicator of how anxious a person is.
Changes in cognitive and affective reactions to aggressive stimuli. For example, a desensitised individual may show less sympathy for victims. These changes may make aggressive responses more likely.
What was the study conducted by Carnagey 07 that shows that watching violence leads to a reduction in physiological anxiety? (Desensitisation)
Carnagey tested desensitisation by asking participants to play either a violent or non violent computer game for 20minutes , then watch scene of real life violence for 10 minutes. Those in the violence condition showed significantly lower heart rate and electrical skin conductivity when viewing the violent film compared to those in then non-violent condition.
This certain provides evidence that watching violence leads to a reduction in physiological anxiety, although it does not prove that those individuals are more likely to act aggressively.
What is Disinhibition?
Is a theory which explains how the media can influence aggression. It proposes that our normal restrains are loosened after exposure to media violence e.g. films, TV, video games.
Aggressive behaviour then becomes normalised and these norms govern a person’s behaviour, which is altered from non-acceptance to acceptance.
This means that aggression is then seen as a ‘normal’ response in certain circumstances.
What was the study conducted by Goranson ‘69 that investigated the effects of the consequences of violence on disinhibition?
In 1 condition, participants saw a boxing match where there were no consequences to the violence; in condition 2 they saw the same boxing match but this the loser died as a result of his injuries.
Participants in condition 2 were much less likely to behave aggressively in a test of aggression after the experiment than participants who had been disinhibited from behaving aggressively by being shown the potential negative consequences of aggression.
