TV, Computers & Development Flashcards
(27 cards)
What are the two types of aggression witnessed in children?
1) Instrumental
2) Hostile
- overt
- relational
Elaborate on what instrumental aggression entails.
- Child wants object, space or privilege.
- pushes, shouts at / attacks person in the way of what they want
- aggression to directly remove obstacle, achieving goal
- declines as children learn to control their behaviour
Elaborate on hostile aggression.
- intention to harm someone
overt (more for males):
- verbal; “you fool!”
- physical; hitting, kicking, etc.
relational (more for females):
- social manipulation / exclusion, spread rumours
- increases over school years
How stable is aggression?
- Fairly stable from mid-childhood onwards
- Those turning to aggression / delinquency later in childhood less likely to persist after adolescence, vs those who exhibit aggression early
Describe the model of high aggression.
1) Individual differences: early difficult temperament –> often intense -ve emotions, attention demanding, lack of control, high activity
2) Family processes: lax, inconsistent / coercive discipline foster aggression
3) Social-cognitive distortions: perceive aggression in others as you interpret the world in an aggressive lens
4) Commitment to deviant peer group
How does trauma create intergenerational aggression?
- parents’ power assertion techniques (harsh parenting) are associated with low considerate behaviour in children
- physically abused toddlers rarely show concern over other children’s distress; instead respond w fear, anger & physical attacks
What kind of children are more likely to exhibit prosocial behaviour?
Those that show signs of sympathy
Children shown video of other children in need
- those who responded with distressed facial expression were less likely to help than those who exhibited sympathy
What factors encourage prosocial behaviour in children?
1) Parental prosocial, empathic behaviour towards child:
- +ve relation b/w parents’ empathy and children’s
2) Parental instruction & regulation of child’s behaviour:
- set clear limits, intervene when child displays inappropriate emotion, directly teach kindness
What are the 4 concerns regarding TV for children?
1) Advertisements
- reinforce gender stereotypes
- lack of meaningful racial representation
2) Wasted Time
- less creative play & social communication
- obesity
- lower achievers
3) Understanding TV
- hard to judge what’s real on TV
- 4 - 7 years old: understand that fictional characters don’t exist irl
- difficulty with flashbacks and misordered sequences
4) Violence
- cartoons more violent (25 times / hour)
- sanitised violence (no one gets hurt from the violence) = children believe violence has no consequences & desensitised = passive victims & bystanders
What are the effects of media violence on children?
1) Imitation
2) Desensitisation
3) Increased hostile feelings
4) Perceive world as violent place
How does media violence create imitation in children?
Children observe and imitate aggressive behaviour on TV, as they can’t distinguish b/w reality and TV
No punishment for media violence; children imitate because they think it’s okay
What did Lemish’s (1997) study reveal about how children imitate media violence?
Increase in playground injuries after intro to Is**’s WWF wrestling
Nationwide survey of elementary schools:
- > half principals reported that children recreated specific wrestling matches that were aired
- almost half reported that new behaviours caused injuries: 1/4 broken bones, unconsciousness and concussion
How does media violence contribute to children’s desensitisation?
More violence = more used to it
reduced arousal & emotional disturbance when witnessing violence
watching media violence = children tolerate violence in others and themselves more
reduce guilt in behaving aggressively
What did Molitor and Hirsch’s (1994) study reveal about desensitisation to media violence in children?
Children shown either Olympic clip vs Karate Kid, then watched 2 kids through a TV monitor. were told to get help from researcher if anything happened
- those who watched Olympic video asked for researcher’s help faster
- desensitisation makes children less likely to seek help when faced with real life aggression, indirectly encouraging violence
How did Black & Bevan (1992) show that media violence can foster hostile feelings in people?
Hostility measure of 129 people watching either a violent action movie or non-violent drama
- those watching the action movie scored higher hostility than those attending the drama, even before watching
- after watching, only action movie goers had higher hostility levels
- violent people are more attracted to hostile movies, and watching media violence perpetuates hostility
How does media violence make children see the world as a violent place?
Media violence portrays world as more frightening –> children less trusting –> more likely to interpret actions as hostile –> behave aggressively in retaliation –> carry weapons in fear
What did Eron et al.’s field study reveal about children’s TV preferences and their violence tendency?
Longitudinal study of girls and boys
- early studies only show effects of boys, but later studies reveal effect on girls
- preference for violent TV –> violence increase in adolescence
What did the longitudinal research at Otago Uni reveal about TV’s LT problems on people?
- Obesity / poor fitness
- High cholesterol
- smoking
- poor attention span & concentration
What are some benefits of TV?
High quality programmes like Sesame Street or Blue’s Clues can aid learning
Parents can interact with children about TV content when they watch together
What did Wright et al’s (2001) study reveal about selective TV viewing?
longitudinal study of low / moderate income families
- TV viewing history collected form diaries
- annual tests on reading, math, vocab, etc.
informative TV programs = better on all 4 tests (bidirectional relation: those with better abilities choose better programs)
frequent viewing of general audience programs = worse performance than those who view infrequently
What did Ballard and Lineberger’s study reveal about how video game violence influences people’s reward and punishment behaviours?
Video game violence may:
- decrease reward behaviour toward
others, particularly males - increase punitive behaviour
toward others, especially females
How big of an impact (i.e., proportion of variance) do computer games and TV have
on aggressive tendencies?
Longitudinal effect around .15 to .20 (2.3 to 4.0% of variance)
What are the potential benefits of video / computer games?
Better physical health: dancing game increased heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen consumption
Improved emotional wellbeing: Tetris for nursing home women also had better reaction times
Children with ADHD / autism
- combine game performance with biofeedback
- improve language, social interaction, math & reasoning skills
What did Kirsh’s (1998) study reveal about how violent video games affect children’s attitudes & behaviours?
- 52 boys & girls (aged 8 - 11) play one of two games:
1) non-violent sports game NBA JAM
2) violent Mortal Kombat 2
- then, read 5 stories where same-sex peer caused -ve event to happen
- peer’s intent was ambiguous
- asked participants questions about retaliation, punishment & harm-doer’s emotional state
findings:
- ST hostile attribution bias
- played MK 2 = more likely to attribute bad motives & -ve feelings to perpetrator + retaliate if they were in same situation
- violent video games led to increased hostility & children more likely to view others -vely
