Media influences on aggression

• Excessive TV viewing linked to aggression
• Robertson et al. (2013)

  • Wanted to see if there’s a link between excessive TV viewing in childhood and aggression in adulthood
  • Measured TV viewing hours of 1037 New Zealanders born in 1972 and 1973 at regular intervals up to 26 years old
  • found that time spent watching TV in childhood and adolescence was a reliable predictor of aggressive behaviour in adulthood (measured by convictions for aggressive and violent crimes)
  • Those who watched more TV were more likely to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder
• According to researchers, excessive time spent watching TV is associated with less social interaction and poorer educational achievement

  • so the link between excessive viewing and aggression may be indirect
• Viewing violent film content may be a significant media influence on aggressive behaviour

  Bandura et al. (1963)

  • follow up Bobo doll study
  • children watched film with the Bobo doll being hit by an adult model
  • found the children imitated the aggressive behaviour of the model

  Suggests social learning processes also operate through media
• Other research has found that negative effects of TV/film violence aren’t as strong as often assumed

  Park and Cornstock (1994)

  • Meta-Analysis of around 229 studies
  • dignificant positive correlation between viewing TV/ film violence and antisocial behaviour
  • but estimated TV/ film violence likely only accounted for between 1 to 10% of the variance in children’s aggressive behaviour

  Implies TV/ film plays a relatively minor role compared to over sources of aggresion
• Why do computer games have more powerful effects than other types of media?

  Player takes a more active role

  • rather than being a passive viewer

  Game playing is more directly rewarding

  • operant conditioning
• There’s growing evidence that computer games have more powerful effects than traditional media
• Lab experiments


  Bartholow and Andersen (2002)

  • Students played violent and non-violent computer games for 10 minutes
  • carried out the TCRTT
  • those who played violent games selected significantly higher noise levels (5.97 decibels) compared to non-violent (4.6 decibels)
• What is the TCRTT?

  Taylor competitive reaction time task

  • giving blasts of white noise at chosen volumes to opponent
• Strengths of TCRTT

  Addresses ethical issues of encouraging real life aggression
• Limitations of TCRTT

  Not like real life aggression
• Limitations of Bartholow and Anderson’s lab study

  Low population validity

  • sample of only students
  • not generalisable

  Ethical issues

  • deliberately encouraging violence and aggressive behaviour
• Strengths with Bartholow and Anderson’s study

  Demonstrates cause and effect
• Commonly found to be a positive correlation between aggresion with time spent playing violent games
• Correlational study

  DeLisi et al.

  • Studied 277 juvenile offenders with serious aggressive behaviours
  • using unstructured interviews, they gathered data on several measures of aggression and violent computer game playing
  • found offenders aggressive behaviour was significantly correlated with how often they played violent computer games and how much they enjoyed them
• Limitations with correlational studies

  Correlation not causation

  • Aggression may cause enjoyment of violent computer games

  Could be 3rd intervening variable

  • Possibly genetics or parents influence could influence both aggression and enjoyment of violent video games
• DeLisi et al.

  • argued that aggression should be considered a public health issue
• Meta-analysis

  Anderson et al. (2010)

  • 136 studies including 3 types of methodology: experimental, correlational and longitudinal
  • found exposure to violent computer games was associated with increased aggressive behaviour, thoughts and feelings
• Anderson et al. Meta-analysis strengths

  True for males and females in collectivist and individualistic cultures.

  High quality studies used

  • increases significance of findings
• Convincing theoretical framework- A03

  Findings can be explained by SLT

  Widely accepted that exposure to violence is harmful to children

  Makes sense that Tv and computer games are other sources of social learning

  • children are likely to imitate aggressive behaviours when they see them being rewarded and if they identify with the characters

  Key feature of science= unifying explanation to account for findings
• Support for link between violent video games and aggression- A03

  Greitmeyer and Mugge (2014)

  • Meta-analysis of 98 studies since 2008 involving nearly 37,000 participants
  • found a link between violent games and an increase in aggressive outcomes and less prosocial outcomes
  • Prosocial games found the opposite effect- regardless of the type of study

  Suggests violent video games can also lead to decreased prosocial behaviours or cognitions as well as aggression
• Defining aggression- A03

  Aggression is defined in various ways: violent behaviour, TCRTT, criminal convictions etc.

  Not all aggression is violence

  Effects found in studies depend on how aggression is find

  Variation in definitions means findings of studies are hard to compare.

  Counterpoint

  • Meta-analysis can overcome this- E.g. Anderson et al.
  • Meta-analysis using various definitions of aggression are valid methods of investigating effects of media on aggression
• Unsupported conclusions- A03

  Research are plagued by unsupported conclusions

  • studies methodologically weak- confounding variables- even meta-analysis aren’t perfect
  • Many studies are correlational
  • Experimental studies lack external; validity

  So some researchers may draw premature conclusions based on invalid findings
• Overstating the case- A03


  Many studies claim statistically significant relationships between violent media and behaviour overstate the case

  Ferguson and Kilburn (2009)

  • found when measuring aggression as violence to another person or violent crime then the relationship between violent media and aggresive behaviours are actually close to 0

  Suggests studies don’t represent all violence in society

  • so link between media and violence may not be as strong as claimed
• Cultural bias- A03

  Livingstone (1996)

  • Discussed the problem in generalising predominantly American based research to countries with different media and cultural histories

  Theory doesn’t account for cultural differences
• Frustration not aggression- A03

  May be another explanation rather than video game content leading aggression in real life

  Przyblski et al. (2014)

  • suggested that aggressive behaviour may be due to failure and frustration during the game rather than the content

  suggests the problem doesn’t entirely lie in the violence in the games

  • non-violent games can also lead to aggression

  So research needs to focus elsewhere to find the true source of aggression in violent video games