Media Influences in Aggression

Question 1

How does Huesmann et al. explain cognitive priming?

Answer 1

If the child develops a ‘script’ that is aggressive, they will commit this to memory and use it to define how situations will play out.

Question 2

What did Murray find regarding cognitive priming?

Answer 2

fMRI was used to show that, when watching violent media, part of the right hemisphere responsible for emotion was active. Also, areas responsible for storing episodic memories were active implying violence is stored for later use.

Question 3

Define desensitisation.

Answer 3

When we repeatedly view violent aggression, the response from the sympathetic nervous system becomes reduced.

Question 4

Who found that, after watching violent media, participants became less sympathetic of victims of violence?

Answer 4

Weisz and Earls - participants who had viewed a rape scene in a film showed less sympathy to the victim and were less likely to find the defendant guilty.

Question 5

Define ‘disinhibition’.

Answer 5

The process whereby the usual restraints to use violence are loosened after exposure to violent media.

Question 6

What is the relationship between disinhibition and rewards?

Answer 6

Disinhibition is enhanced if violence is rewarded - e.g. killing people in video games may be rewarded meaning the consequences may be justified.

Question 7

What did Berkowitz and Alioto find?

Answer 7

Participants who had watched a film that shows aggression for vengeance were more likely to administer more severe electric shocks for longer than those who hadn’t viewed the film.

Question 8

Give two advantages of the media influence in aggression explanation.

Answer 8

Advantages:
- Supporting evidence for the desensitisation model - Carnagey et al. - participants who had played a violent game for 20 minutes had a lower heart rate when watching a violent film afterwards - supports the idea of desensitisation.

• Supporting evidence for the theory of cognitive priming - Josephson - ice-hockey players who witnessed a violent film with a walkie-talkie were more aggressive afterwards to the referee if they were holding a walkie talkie - the walkie talkie acted as a cue - further empirical support of cognitive priming.

Question 9

Give two disadvantages of the media influence explanation of aggression.

Answer 9

Disadvantages:
- Cumberbatch et al. - individuals may get used to violent media though they do not change their aggression in the real world - Zillmann - children watching violence has beneficial, cathartic effects - releasing bulit up aggression and acting as a safety valve

• Zendel at al. argued that violent games may be more complex than non-violent games - an extraneous variable

Question 10

Name the four methodologies used by psychologists to study the infleunce of video games on aggression.

Answer 10

• Experimental
• Correlational
• Longitudinal
• Meta-analysis

Question 11

Give an example of experimental research into computer games and aggression.

Answer 11

Bartholow and Anderson - students played a violent or non violent vide game for 10 minutes - those wo had played the violent game selected significantly higher noise levels compared with the non-violent players (5.97 compared with 6.60 dB)

Question 12

Give and example of correlational research into the effect of video games on aggression.

Answer 12

DeLisi et al. - 227 juvenile offenders - offender’s violent behaviours correlated with how often video games were played.

Question 13

Give an example of longitudinal research into the effect of video games on aggression.

Answer 13

Robertson et al - 1037 New Zealand people - time spent watching TV was a reliable predictor of aggressive behaviour in adulthood.

Question 14

Give an example of meta-analysis into the effect of computer games on aggression.

Answer 14

Anderson et al. - 136 studies - exposure to violent computer games was associated with an increase in aggressive behaviours.

Question 15

Give some disadvantages of research into the effects of computer games in aggression.

Answer 15

Disadvantages:
- Data is correlational - no causation - e.g. DeLisi et al. - do innately more aggressive people play aggressive video games?

• Issues distinguishing between ‘violent’ and ‘non-violent’ video games - highly subjective - violence may not be the sole factor in aggression - frustration and/or excitement may also have a role to play.
• Publication bias - studies that corroborate violent video games causing aggression are typically published more - creates a false impression that the effect of violent video games is more severe.
• Extraneous variables - Zendel et al - difficulty of the video game must be controlled.