Social and emotional development - Tutorial Flashcards
By the age of 16, the average
American child will have seen
approximately
13,000 killings on TV.
Why might observing TV violence
lead to aggressive behaviour?
Viewing violence may encourage
aggression through imitation.
* Violence may become associated with
stimulation of positive feelings through
arousal.
* Viewing violence may desensitize children
to the negative consequences of
aggression.
* Viewing violence may teach children
aggressive ‘scripts’ for dealing with social
situations.
How are scripts thought to contribute to
aggressive behaviour?
Some researchers have suggested that
children learn ‘scripts’ from watching
violent TV.
* Children come to believe that one way to
deal with problems/resolve situations is
through violence.
* This effect may be particularly
pronounced when the situations they
encounter are similar to the ones they
have seen on screen.
* Children may learn that aggression is
normative/socially appropriate.
what is the causation issue with aggression and media theories?
Children who are highly aggressive
might seek out violent TV
programmes.
* Aggressive children might feel
happier and more justified in their
behaviour if they believe that other
people act in a similar way.
What were the main findings of
Huesmann et al. (1984) and Huesmann &
Eron, (1986)?
Children’s TV viewing habits in the first grade
predicted their aggressive behaviour 3 years
later, even when initial levels of aggression were
controlled for.
* This relationship between TV habits and
aggression held true for boys and girls.
* The more aggressive children watched more TV,
preferred more violent programmes, identified
more with aggressive characters and perceived
TV violence to be more like real life.
The more aggressive children …
watched more TV,
preferred more violent programmes, identified
more with aggressive characters and perceived
TV violence to be more like real life.
What were the aims of this
study?
To follow-up the longitudinal study of 557
children conducted by Huesmann and
colleagues.
* To investigate the long-term relations
between viewing media violence in childhood
and aggressive behaviour in young
adulthood.
* To compare different theories of the violent
effects of television.
The authors sought to address
four questions. What were they?
- To what extent does early childhood exposure to
media violence predict young-adult aggression
and violence? - Are there gender differences in the predictability?
- Does the extent to which children viewers identify
with the aggressive character and believe that the
plot is realistic affect the strength of the
prediction? - To what extent does any long-term relationship
seem to be due to more aggressive children
simply liking to watch violence or seem to be due
to a “third variable” that increases the likelihood
of watching violent TV?
How old were the participants at follow-up
20-25 mean 22
how many of original sample were in new study?
329
How was adult aggressive behaviour
measured?
- Self-report
- Reports from other people
- Archival data
Did viewing TV violence in childhood
predict adult aggression 15 years
later? If so, how strong was the
association?
- Yes
- Males, r = .21
- Females, r = .19
Was the relationship between TV
violence viewing and adult
aggression influenced by other
variables?
- Analyses were conducted controlling
for parent variables, SES and
intellectual ability. - The observed relations held true
even when controlling for these
variables.
Participants who had high
identification with same-sex
aggressive characters in childhood … who was this stronger for?
Participants who had high
identification with same-sex
aggressive characters in childhood
scored significantly higher on adult
aggression 15 years later. This effect
was stronger for males.
What recommendations do the
authors make for the prevention of
violence?
What recommendations do the
authors make for the prevention of
violence?
