Media Violence and Its Effects

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Media Violence and Its Effects

• Violence in real life considered a significant
  societal problem, to be controlled minimized.
• Violence in society (murder, rape, assault,
  robbery, etc.) is recognized by most (scientists
  public) as being caused by numerous social
  conditions, e.g., poverty, parental
  neglect/abuse, racism, criminal activity (drugs,
  etc.), disenfranchisement of lower SES, etc.

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• Violence in the media represents ___ ____ of
  the viewing audience, by demonstrating
  techniques, and conditions and situations in
  which a violent response to interpersonal
  conflict is appropriate, desirable, or likely to
  succeed.
• It also conveys info about the pervasiveness of
  violent response, how often it occurs, who uses
  violence, etc. This is a norm setting function.

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• As defined by the total number of scientific
  studies published, more is known about the
  effects of TV violence on viewers aggressive
  behavior than any other topic in the entire field
  of psychology.
• Exact is not certain, but is gt 200 (maybe
  3000!), representing studies involving gt10K
  research participants.

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• The role of media depictions of violence as a
  cause of real world violence is scientifically
  conclusive.
• Yet, its discussion (in media outlets) is nearly
  always politicized, usually by intertwining the
  issue with other nonscientific issues, such as
• -____ __ ____,
• - limited understanding of psychological science
  by laypersons, and
• - intentional discrediting/disputing of
  scientific research by the TV, movie, and
  videogame industries.

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A. Theoretical mechanisms of influence

• Observational learning (modeling) Bandura is a
  generic theory of behavior acquisition 4 steps
• Attention to models behavior
• Retention (memory) of modeled behavior
• Motoric reproduction/ability, rehearsal
• Reinforcement/motivation to perform learned
  behavior.

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• Observational learning theory describes how new
  behaviors are learned, as well as how
  previously-learned behaviors are____.
• Accounts for learning of any type of behavior
  has high relevance for the issue of learning of
  aggression via media violence.

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• Cue theory Berkowitz
• Aggression is motivated initially by a state of
  negative affect (anger, physical discomfort,
  etc.).
• Whether aggressive behavior will follow is a
  function of cues in persons awareness (current
  situation or memory), e.g., does anything suggest
  that aggression will pay off as a response to my
  negative affect in the current situation?

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• Unpleasant stimuli
• Negative affect/emotion
• Angry thoughts OR Fearful thoughts
• Cues
• Aggression Flight

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• In this theory, frequent exposure to media
  violence makes violent/aggressive behaviors ___
  __ ___ more easily (available cues), than for
  low media violence exposure.
• Thus, when one feels angry, one is more likely to
  consider an aggressive response to the current
  situation if recently exposed to violent behavior
  of TV characters.

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• Arousal theory Zillmann
• Media violence is emotionally-arousing
  physiological arousal remains in ones system for
  several minutes (but leaves conscious awareness).
• If another event then occurs which raises anger
  or calls for aggress response, the residual
  arousal from the first event adds to the
  emotional response to the second event,
  increasing the intensity of the response (in this
  case, anger) to the 2nd event.

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• Any arousing stimulus can amplify the emotional
  response to any subsequent response
• 1st source/event 2nd event/response
• Media violence ? aggressive reaction
• Media violence ? sexual excitement
• Sexual arousal ? aggressive reaction
• Sexual arousal ? humorous reaction
• etc.

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• Script theory - Huesmann
• Scripts are memory schemas for recurring
  behavioral events, e.g., eating at restaurant
• Enter restaurant
• Get seated
• Server takes order
• Server brings food
• Pay server/cashier
• (some variation due to type of restaurant, e.g.,
  fast food, sit-down, cafeteria, etc.)

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• Social interaction may be organized as scripts
• E.g., seeing an acquaintence in store..
• Greeting
• Whats new?
• Chat, this and that
• Well, have to buy stuff and go home
• Bye

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• Mass media may depict recurring social situations
  that become scripts in viewers memories,
  including those containing violent behavior.
• E.g.
• Person goes to rowdy bar
• Person gets drinks
• Persons is bumped by
• antagonist
• 4. Persons punches
• antagonist

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• Scripts serves as guides for behavior (what is
  expected of you in this situation) as well as
  demonstrating ____ ____ (how others usually act
  in this situation).
• Mass media may present consistent yet unrealistic
  scenarios, and include violent response much more
  often than would/should occur in real life
  situations.

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• Catharsis Freud, Aristotle.
• Refers to concept that watching violence will
  purge the viewer of similar urges, resulting in
  less aggression afterwards.
• Aristotle believed this was a healthy benefit of
  seeing the Greek tragic plays.
• No scientific research has ever found evidence an
  actual cathartic function of viewing media
  violence.
• Some may confuse it with distraction effects.