Desensitisation, disinhibition and cognitive priming Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is desensitisation?
Reduced sensitivity to a stimulus
Psychological or physiological
This reduced response may make a behaviour such as aggression more likely
What happens when we witness violent actions?
Physiological arousal associated with the sympathetic nervous system eg. heart rate, higher blood pressure and more sweating
What happens when we are repeatedly presented with stimulus? (physiological)
When children in particular repeatedly view aggression on TV or play violent computer games they become used to its effects
Stimulus that is usually aversive has a lesser impact
Anxiety and arousal become lower on repeated viewing or playing
What happens when we are repeatedly present with a stimulus? (psychological)
Repeated exposure to violent media promotes a belief that using aggression as a method of resolving conflict is socially acceptable
Negative attitudes towards violence weaken, less empathy is felt for victims and injuries are minimised and dismissed
What did Earls et al study?
Showed participants feature film straw dogs
Contains a prolonged graphic scene of rape
Participants then watched re-enactment of rape trial
Compared with those who watched a non sexually violent film
Male viewers showed greater acceptance of rape myths and sexual aggression
Expressed less sympathy towards rape victim in the trial
Were less likely to find the defendant guilty
No such effect of film type on female participants
What is a strength of desensitisation?
Research support
Krahe et al
Participants violent films while measuring physiological arousal using skin conductance
Participants who were habitual viewer of violent media showed lower levels of arousal as they watched the violent clips
Also gave louder bursts of white noise to a confederate without being provoked
Lower arousal in violent media users reflects desensitisation to effects of violence - linked to greater willingness to be aggressive
What is a limitation of desensitisation?
Cannot explain some aggression
Study above failed to link media viewing, lower arousal and provoked aggression
More valid explanation - catharsis
Psychodynamic theory suggests viewing violent media is a safety valve alloweing people to release aggressive impulses without behaving violently
Not all aggression is result of desensitisation and alternative explanations may be more valid
What is disinhibition?
Lack of restraint
Due to environmental triggers or overexposure to a stimulus, resulting in socially unacceptable behaviours becoming acceptable and therefore more likely
What is the role of disinhibition?
People generally hold the view that violence and aggression are antisocial and harmful
Strong social and psychological inhibitions against using aggression to resolve conflicts
Learned processes - SLT
Usual restraints are loosed after exposure to violent media
Aggressive behaviour is made to appear normative and socially sanctioned in such media - especially if portrayals minimise effects of violence on its victims - suggesting that it is justified
Not usual for video fames to show violence being rewarded at the same time as its consequences are minimised or ignored
Creating new social norms in the viewer
What is a strength of disinhibition?
Research support
Berkowitz and Alioto
Participants who saw film depicting aggression as vengeance gave more electric shocks of longer duration to a confederate
Media violence may disinhibition aggressive behaviour if it is presented as justified and socially acceptable
Demonstrating the link between removal of social constraints and subsequent aggressive behaviour
What is a strength of disinhibition?
Can explain effects of cartoon violence
Children dont learn specific aggressive behaviours from cartoon models
Learn aggression in general is acceptable
Especially true if cartoon model is not punished
Disinhibits aggressive behaviour
Disinhibition explains how cartoon aggression can lead to aggression in those who observe it
What is the role of cognitive priming?
Repeated viewing of aggressive media can provide us with a script about how violent situations may play out
What is cognitive priming?
Way a person thinks is triggered by cues or scripts which make us ready to respond in specific ways
What does Huesmann argue about the script?
Script is stored in memory - become ready or primed to be aggressive
Process is mostly automatic, directing behaviour without us even being aware of it
Script is triggered when we encounter cues in a situation that we perceive as aggressive.
What did Fischer et al study?
Priming of aggressive scripts
Investigated a neglected form of media violence - song lyrics
Men - songs featuring aggressively derogatory lyrics about women
Compared when they listed to neutral lyrics, participants subsequently recalled more negative qualities about women and behaved more aggressively towards a confederate who was a woman
Procedure was replicated with women as participants, using men hating song lyrics with similar results
What is a strength of cognitive priming?
Real world applications
Whether real world situations become violent often depends on how people interpret environmental cues
In turn depends on cognitive scripts they have stored in memory
Bushman and Anderson
Someone who habitually watched violent media accesses stored aggressive scripts more readily
More likely to interpret cues as aggressive and resort to a violent solution without considering the alternatives
Suggesting interventions could potentially reduce aggressive behaviour by challenging hostile cognitive biases
What is a limitation of cognitive priming?
Confounding variables
Research into effects of video games has found that playing violent games primes violent behaviour more than non violent games do
Problem - violent games tend to be much more complex in their gameplay than non violent games
Complexity is confounding variable
Zendle et al
When complexity was controlled, priming effects of violent video games disappeared
The supportive findings of studies into priming may be at least partly due to confounding variables
