Media Influences On Aggression Flashcards
(9 cards)
What are the effects of excessive TV viewing on aggression?
- Aggressive behaviour may be linked to viewing ‘excessive’ amounts of TV regardless of whether the content is violent or not
- Lindsay Robertson et al
- Measured the TV viewing hours of over 1000 New Zealanders, at regular intervals up to the age of 26yrs
- Researchers found that time spent watching TV in childhood & adolscence was a reliable predictor of aggressive behaviour in early adulthood
- According to researchers excessive time spent watching TV is assoicated w reduced social interaction & poorer educational achievement
This means link between excessive viewing & aggression may be indirect
How has violent film content been linked to aggression?
- Viewing violnet content-most significant media influence on aggressive behaviour
- Albert Bandura (1963) Followed up on their earlier research by looking at the effects of aggression viewed on a screen
- They replicated their earlier study except that the children watched a film of the Bobo Doll being beaten by an adult model
- Outcome was similar, w children imitating the aggressive behaviour of the model (& cartoon version)
- The SLT processes identified by Bandura operate through media as well as face-to-face
What research has found that the negative effects of TV/Film violence are not as strong as often assumed?
- Haejung Paik & George Comstock
- Carried out a meta analysis of about 200 studies
- Found significant positive correlation between viewing TV/Film violence & anti social behavior
- HWVR they estimated that TV/film violnece probably only accounted for between 1% & 10% of the variance in childrens aggressive behaviour
- This implies a relatively minor role for TV & film compared w other sources of aggression
What evidence is there that proves the effect of computer games on aggression?
- Growing evidence that computer games & video games may have more powerful effects than traditional screen-based media
- This is probably because:
- The player takes a more active role compared to a relatively passive viewer
- Game-playing is more directly rewarding for the player (operant conditioning)
What lab experiments have been conducted on influence of computer games in aggression?
- Lab studies- Have advantage of demonstrating cause & effect but an ethical disadvantage of delibertately exposing ppts to violence & encourage aggressive behaviour- for this reason alternative measures of aggression are used
e.g. a standard lab experiment is the Taylor competitive reaction time task- Ppts deliver blasts of white noise at chosen volumes to punish a (non existant) opponent
Bruce Bartholow & Craig Anderson found students who played a violent computer game for ten minuets selected significantly higher volumes of white noise than students who played a non-violent golfing game
What correlational studies are there into computer games into aggression?
- Other research methods have also been used for instance correlational studies- a common finding is that several measures of aggression are positively correlated w time spent playing video games
Matt Delisi et al argue that the link is so well established that aggression shld be considered a public issue & computer game violence a significant risk factor
Give one limitation for media influences in aggression.
- OL is Aggression is defined in various ways
e.g. the dependant variable in studies in a lot of these studies is violent behaviour (DeLisi et al), volume of white noise blasted at an opponent (Bartholow Anderson) & criminal convictions (Robertson et al)
Hwvr, violence & aggression are not exactly the same behaviour - All violence is aggression, but not all aggression is violence & not all aggression or violence is necessarily criminal
- The effects found in studies depend very much on how aggression is defined
This variation in definitions means that the findings of studies are hard to compare
Give another limitation of media influences into aggression.
- OL is that this research area is plagued by unsupported conclusions
- There are several reasons why we shld maintain a sense of balance
- First many researcher studies are methodologically weak (e.g. confounding variables,poor sampling methods)
- Even meta analyses are not perfect on the basis of if poor quality studies are included the analysis will also be poor quality
- Secondly, many studies are correlational so cause & effect conclusions are unjustified
- Thirdly experimental studies lack external validity so findings cannot be generalised to the real world
- Therefore some researchers may be guilty of drawing premature conclusions based on findings which lack validity
Give one strength of media influences in aggression.
- OS is that findings can be explained using SLT
- Anderson et al present SLT as a ‘convincing theoretical framework’ (as shown by the bobo doll studies of Bandura et al)
- They note that it is widely accepted that exposure to violence at home for example is harmful to children.
- Logically it makes sense that TV & computer/video gams are other sources of social learning
- Children are more likely to imitate aggressive behaviours when they see them being rewarded (vicarious reinforcement) , & even more so when children identify w on screen characters
This is a key feature of science- having a unifiying explanation to account for findings, enhacing the validity of this research
