Media Influences

• Desensitisation theory


  Continual exposure to a stimulus are decreased. If aggression is presented to us on a daily basis, there is a reduction in our response to the aggression.
• What have psychologists proposed about desensitisation?

  It can provide an adaptive response to the environment
• Disinhibition theory


  our normal restraints are loosened after exposure to media violence. Aggressive behaviour becomes normalised.
• Bandura and disinhibition theory


  When aggression levels are normalised in role models, a child can grow up believing these norms of aggression. This process of disinhibition is more powerful if violence is rewarded. eg computer games
• What happens to our views of aggression when we see it in the media?

  Your normal restraints are loosened
• What type of aggression are we most likely to view as normal?


  When our behaviour becomes allowed from non-acceptance to acceptance. A revenge response
• Who does Bandura say is a role model for children

  Superheros, any media figures, parents and significant others
• When is disinhibition more powerful?

  when it is rewarded
• cognitive priming 


  the influence of aggression in the media and in computer games provides individuals with 'scripts' for their responses and behaviour when they perceive an environmental stimulus as aggressive. It maintains that there is a priming effect of media images on learnt behaviours or cognitive schema