Media Influences On Aggression Including The Effects Of Computer Games Flashcards
What do most of us live in
A media saturation world. TVs, radios, books, internet, social media fill our lives. Psychologists want to investigate the impact of these influences on aggressive behaviour
What are computer games defined as
Games played on a screen using a mouse, keyboard or handheld controller
What have computer games seen to increase
There is growing evidence that compoter games have been causing an increase in aggression, compared to traditional screen based media like films. Due to the player being able to take a more passive role and more directly rewarding for the player
What is the TCRTT
Taylor competitive reaction time task - participants have to deliver blasts of white noise at chosen volumes to punish a (non existent) opponent. Bartholow and Anderson found that students who played more violent computer games for 10 minutes like mortal combat selected significantly higher levels of white noise compared to those playing non violent games
Strengths
One strength of the effect of computer games on aggression is that it can be supported by social learning theory. Banduras bobo doll studies showed that when role model displayed aggressive behaviour, children copied that through imitation and modelling. Similarly when playing a violent video game, the children will imitate the actions on screen
Weakness
One weakness of research into the effects of computer games is that the term ‘aggression’ is defined in many different ways, which’s makes it difficult to measure objectively. In the TCRTT tests, the variable to measure violence is the volume of white noise blasted at the opponent, however violence and aggression are not the same thing - although violence is aggression, not all aggression is violence. Therefore the effects of these studies depend very much on how aggression is defined. This questions the validity of studies that look at the effects of computer games on aggression
