Media- influences on anti-social behaviour Flashcards
explanations of media influences on ASB
social learning theory,
desensitisation
social learning theory as an explanation of media influences on ASB
Bandura claimed that aggression (e.g of ASB) is learned).
either by
DIRECT EXPERIENCE: in line with Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning- if a child pushes another child, and as a result they get what they want, then the action is reinforced and it’s more likely to be repeated.
OBSERVATION: a child sees someone else behave aggressively to achieve something and they imitate this behaviour.
SLT is exclusively psychological, takes no account of physiological effects of watching violent media such as desensitisation
what are they key elements of SL of aggression of media influences on ASB
attention: observer pays attention to model e.g violent film character, encouraged by exciting music and effects
retention: observer retains a memory of observed behaviour- particularly if the character is memorable e.g a famous person playing the character
the media can direct the viewer’s attention on behaviours they may not have considered resulting in children learning violence or getting tactics for crime.
SLT: whether behaviour is performed depends on:
motivation: observer must want to copt the behaviour, and this is more likely if the model is rewarded.
high status f the role model
if the observer can identify with the role model e.g if they’re similar/can relate.
if the role model is rewarded (vicarious reinforcement)
if the role model is punished (vicarious punishment)
vicarious leanring
an observer sees an unpleasant/pleasant consequences happening to the role model and this either puts them off or encourages them to copy it.
evaluation of Bandura’s SLT
Bandura study:
33 boys and 33 girls watched tv film of Rocky being abusive to an adult size bobo doll
each clip ended differently either rocky was rewarded (congratulated), punished (told off/called a bully) or given no consequence.
kids then observed in a room with bobo doll and obervers recorded number of imitated behaviours.
results:
no consequence and rewarded conditions kids imitated the most behaviours, more than the punishment group
no difference between award and no consequence
no difference between groups when offered rewards, use of positive incentives wiped out any previous performance differences.
if there’s no vicarious punishment of aggression, viewers will be more motivated to initiate the violence they have learned
although administration of punishment reduces whether or not children imitate aggressive behaviours it does not influence the degree to which they learn them.
methodological evaluation of Bandura SLT
randomly assigned to conditions blinding- observers didn't know which clip the children had seen controlled conditions (cause and effecT) still given the choice to hurt someone (strong interval validity) real world findings - comstock and paid - into long term effects supportive
if this was the only evidence (bandora) because the bobo doll does not feel pain it’s not got particularly high validity in operationalisation of aggression
evaluation of SLT bandora using supporting studies comstock and paik
comstock and Paik- meta analysis
showed strong short term effects and weaker long term effects
they idenitfied factors that increased the effects of media violence:
if the person behaving violently is portrayed as similar to the viewer- supporting the motivation element of SLT
whether violent behaviour is presented as an efficient way to get what on wants- vicarious reinforemcent- supporting SLT
evaluation of ALT bandora using supporting studies Philips
highly publicised heavyweight boxing fights in which the black man was the loser, increased murder rates of young african-american males.
increased murder rates of young white male following white losers
racial simialrity of loser and victim, showing that the observer identified with the winner
support for sLT as demonstrates the importance of indetifying with the role model as part of the motivation to imitate.
this evidence has been triangulated (comstock and paid and phillips)
Desensitisation- definition
Anderson et al’s desensitisation is ‘a reduction in distress related physiological reactivity to observation or thoughts of violence’.
Empathy
the ability to pick up on and respond to the emotional state of others, prevents us from hurting others, we experience an unpleasant emotional response to seeing people get hurt
but if we see enough suffering from the consequences of violence in the media, our empathetic response can be dulled
desensitisation0 description
initial exposure should produce aversive responses: increase heart rate, fear, discomfort, perspiration, disgust, galvanic skin response
but prolonged and repeated exposure reduces this initial physiological responses until violence no longer causes negative responses
the question is whether becoming desensitised to media violence can be transferred to becoming desensitised to real life violence- whether d from media can predict d in real life
how has desensitisation been measured
using electrodermal activity (EDA) meter
EDA causes continuous variation in the electrical characteristics of the skin
if the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system is highly aroused then sweat glands produce sweat and the conductance of the skin so indicating emotional and sympathetic responses. electrodes can be attached to fingers to measure changes in sweat levels
there is a relationship between emotional arousal and sympathetic activity but electrical changes cannot identify specific emotions being elicited. So research continues into the source and significance of EDA
evaluation of D
grafman
exposure to most violent films inhibits emotional response to similar violent videos over time.
continued exposure- will make an adolsecent less sensitive to violence, more accepting of it and more likely to commit violent acts since the emotional component associated with the act has diminished.
by assessing the brain activity of boys with MRI scans while they rated the degree of violence in 60 4 second video clips compared to the one before(low mild or moderate) there were no extreme scenes, they found that the areas of the brain concerned with emotional reactivity had decreased shown by the fMRI and the skin conductance results.
lateral orbitofrontal cortex )IOFC) involved in emotional responses became increasingly desensitised over time
grafman believes that these results cane extrapolated to the way people would behave in real life situations
most can distinguish between playing vid game and real life but given the right circumstance where the rules are more ambiguous e.g if provoked by a bully, dr grafman think that if they’ve been exposed to violent video games they would be more likely to act
but prof griffiths argues there’s no denying that desensitisation happens but there is no proven causal link between watching the games and committing real life violence as it depends on a host of psychologcal and social factors e.g how much violence they experienced as a child.
evaluation of D and SLT
both explanations have practical implications- such as limiting the amount of exposure to violent models through tougher film censorship and a tv watershed- to reduce violence in society
