Desensitiation, disinhibition, cognitive priming

• Psychologists have formulated several explanations of how media aggression might influence aggressive behaviour. No single factor on its own can explain it, however, desensitisation, disinhibition and cognitive priming can be used to explain the long term effect of habitual use of violent media on behaviour.
• Desensitisation

  • people usually have an anxious reaction to violence and aggression
  • repeated exposure may reduce this reponse
  • this can lead to a reduction in physiological arousal, and can be a psychological reason why aggression becomes more acceptable and less empathy is felt for victims
  • repeated exposure can make it be seen as a socially acceptable way to resolve conflict
• Disinhibition

  • most people have social/psychological inhibtions using aggression to resolve interpersonal conflicts and it is seen as unacceptable, anti social and harmful
  • these usual restraints become weakened after exposure to violent media and may become an acceptable way of achieving a goal
  • prolonged exposure to media violence gives the message that violence is a normal part of every day life
  • aggression may be justified on media which makes it even more acceptable
• Cognitive priming

  • "priming" can be referred to as a temporary increase in the accessibility of thoughts and ideas about violence
  • viewing aggressive media gives us a script of how violent situations begin and develop
  • this script is stored in memory and makes us more ready or primted to be aggressive
  • we are primed to retrieve these memories if we come across anything that is assosciated with them
• Supporting evidence for desensitisation

  Carnagey et al

  • A01 - IV was playing a non violent or violent video game for 20 minutes and then they watched a 10 minute film clip containing scenes of real life violence, DV- physiological changes in response to the clip, a monitor of heart rate and skin conductance response
  • Findings- Ps who had previously played the violent video game had a lower heart rate and skin conductance response while viewing the filmed real life violence
  • Conclusion - prediction supported that playing games produces desensitisation
• Supporting evidence for dishinhibition

  Goranson

  • showed people a film of a boxing match
  • A01 - two alternative endings, one where there was no apparent consequence and one where the loser was beaten to death
  • Ps who did not see the negative consequences were more likely to behave aggressively which suggests that disinhibition may be more likely where the negative consequences of violent media are not seen by viewers
• Supporting evidence for cognitive priming

  Fisher and Greitemeyer

  • A01 - looked at the priming of aggressive scripts in memory by using song lyrics
  • male Ps listened to songs that had derogatory lyrics about women and this was compared to a group where neutral lyrics were heard
  • Ps recalled more negative qualities and behaved more aggressively towards a female confederate
  • when repeated using man hating songs, females produced similar results
  • this suggests that exposure to violent media relates to aggression
• Alternative explanations for desensitisation comes from evidence that watching violent media is cathartic. Watching such films and playing such games acts as a safety valve mechanism, almost letting of steam without the need to behave aggressively towards other people.
• A weakness of this explanation is because there is not a direct causal link and appears to be a correlational theory. It is mediated by a large number of individual and social characterstics
• A limitation of this explanation is that the research evidence is methodologically weak. Many studies tend to use lab experiments as a measure of aggression and this is artifical and unrealistic and this does not correspond to real life situations.
• Strength

  • provided us with implications for parents, as they can now restrict their child's viewing and ensure that they are protected from this