Explanations of media influences

• What is desensitisation? (physiological?)

  • When we witness violent actions, a physiological arousal to do with the sympathetic nervous system occurs in which our heart rate increases and higher blood pressure.
  • However, when children view aggression repeatedly on TV, they become used to the effects of the violence. This means that the aggressive stimulus will have less of an impact with less anxiety and physiological arousal. 
• What is desensitisation? (psychological?)

  • The desensitisation is both physical and psychological.
  • Repeated exposure to violent media promotes belief that aggression is socially acceptable for conflict resolution.
  • Violence is viewed more positively, less empathy for victims is felt and any injuries are minimised or dismissed. 
• Key study showing desensitisation being psychological?

  • Bushman and Anderson (2009) carried out a study where they showed that desensitization is psychological.
  • P’s played a violent or non-violent game for 20 minutes.
  • They then heard a loud fight in which someone was injured outside the lab.
  • Those who played violent video games took longer to respond to the injury and rated the fight as less serious compared to p’s who played the non violent video game.
  • These findings suggest violent media makes people less sensitive to pain and suffering of others. 
• Supporting evidence for desensitisation?

  • Krahe (2010) - Desensitisation is physiological.
  • He compared p's who were habitual viewers of violent media to those who weren’t.
  • Krahe showed violent and non-violent film clips and measured physiological arousal through skin conductance.
  • He found frequent viewers experienced less physiological arousal and reported higher levels of pleasant arousal.
  • These same p’s were likely to engage in unprovoked aggression in a noise blast task.
  • It shows that watching violence seems to desensitise people to it and this makes aggression more likely.
• basis of Disinhibition?

  • People hold the view that violence and aggression are antisocial and harmful.
  • There are powerful psychological restraints against using aggression to resolve interpersonal conflicts.
  • These are usually learned by the processes in social learning theory. 
• Disinhibition restraints?

  • After viewing violent media, these usual inhibitions/restraints are loosened.
  • This is due to the media portrayal of aggression being seen as accepted and normalised.
  • It minimises the effect of violence on victims and leaves aggression unpunished.
  • For example, in video games violence is rewarded and consequences are ignored.
  • This creates social norms in the viewer and they can act aggressively because there is a lack of guilt of concern about consequences.
• Supporting evidence for disinhibition?

  • Supporting evidence - Goranson (1969) - He showed a clip of a boxing match with two different endings.
  • One ending showed no apparent consequences but the other showed the losing boxer dying.
  • It was found that p’s who saw the ending with no apparent consequences were more likely to behave aggressively after viewing the fight.
  • This supports the theory that disinhibition will happen if there are no consequences for the actions
• Cognitive priming?

  • Priming refers to a temporary increase in the accessibility of a thought.
  • Huesmann (1998) argues people exposed to violent media get provided with a script of how violent situations are meant to play out.
  • It is stored in memory so we become primed for aggression.
  • It is mostly automatic and can guide our behaviour without being aware of it, it is triggered when we see an aggressive situation. 
• Key study of cognitive priming?

  • One study investigated priming of aggressive scripts in the memory by looking at song lyrics.
  • Researchers found when male p’s listened to aggressively negative lyrics about women, they behaved more aggressively to female confederates.
  • Similar results were found with women. 
• Supporting study of cognitive priming?

  • Bushman (1998) showed undergraduates a 15 minute clip of a violent or a non-violent film.
  • P’s took a reaction time task where they pressed a key when a word was flashed on the screen.
  • Half the words were aggressive and the other half were non-aggressive.
  • P’s who saw the violent film had faster reaction times to aggressive words.
  • Film content did not influence reaction times to non-aggressive words.
  • This suggests that exposure to aggression primes memories related to aggression, thus supporting the role of cognitive priming in aggression.
• Positive real life implications (general)?

  • Research into media influences on aggression has real world applications.
  • Research into desensitisation has helped the military understand it can be more effective in combat.
  • In addition, research into media influences on aggression helps researchers understand why people may not help those in distress due to being desensitised or disinhibited. 
• lack of differentiation negative evaluation?

  • It suggests that violent media will affect everyone in the exact same way, there may be individual differences in media.
  • For example, researchers have shown that younger children are more likely to be influenced than older children as they are drawn into violent sequences without knowing the consequences.
  • Children brought up with norms against violence are less likely to be influenced than those brought up with normalised violence.
  • These factors suggest that the relationship is not straightforward and many other variables can affect it.
• negative evaluation regarding determinism?

  • The theories suggest exposure to violent media will cause aggression.
  • Free will is ignored as individual may choose not to engage in violent behaviour despite watching violent media.
  • The research is socially sensitive as it implies aggression is not someone’s fault.
  • Jon Venables and Robert Thompson watched Child’s play 3 prior to killing Jamie Bulger, it was the violent media that determined their murder?
  • Punishment implications - should individuals be punished if aggression is determined by exposure to violence as a child?