Media

• Media influences refer to the impact of computer games in aggressive behaviour, including

  1. Desensitisatin
  2. Disinhibition
  3. Cognitive priming
• Desensitiation (Biological)

  • witnessing aversive stimuli provokes a physiological response - fight or flight
  • if aggressive behaviour is repeatedly viewed, it has less of an impact
  • less arousal = less emotional involvement = more likely to display aggression
• Disinhibition (Social)

  • most cultures (via SLT) teach that aggressive behaviour is bad
  • BUT high exposure to violent media causes aggression to be more socially acceptable
  • people are less restrained/disinhibited when in situations that provoke aggression
  • also video games show violent behaviour rewarded and consequences are minimised
• Cognitive Priming (Cognitive)

  • scripts (schemas) about violent situations form from aggressive media
  • stored in our memory
  • triggered when something aggressive is percieved
  • more violent media = more images and cues (essentially triggers) in memory
  • those with high exposure to violent media are more likely to see everyday cues as inappropriately aggressive therefore behave aggressively
• Desensitisation AO3

  • Strength - Krahe
  • showed ppts both violent and non-violent clips
  • measured Galvanic Skin Response
  • Frequent viewers of violence had lower scores (lower physiological arousal) and reported higher levels of pleasant arousal
  • Limitations
  • aggression and violence are often underpinned by emotion
  • this explanation claims that media makes individuals less emotional
  • so, aggression cannot be explained by desensitisation (contradictory claims about emotion)
  • Individual differences
  • high media exposure for all
  • but we're not all effected in the same way
  • some are more desensitised than others, more research is needed to establish why
• Disinhibition AO3

  • Strength - Berkowitz and Alioto
  • when viewing aggression as vengeance in a film, ppts gave longer and more electric shocks
  • suggests violent media could lead to aggressive behaviour when it's justified
  • ( increases validity - demonstrates a link between removal of social constraints and aggression)
  • Limitation - individual differences
  • the extent to which ppts are engaged with the violent media will vary
  • disinhibition may only occur when people are more engaged and not easily distracted by external stimuli
  • it also may only occur in certain types of media e.g. computer games where individuals are more directly involved, not passive
• Cognitve priming AO3

  • Strength
  • Fischer et al
  • male ppts listened to aggressive music about women
  • = they were more aggressive to women and remembered bad traits in particular
  • Practical applications
  • if we can understand the influence of cognitive priming on aggression, we can develop interventions to reduce aggressive behaviour
  • challenge negative and aggressive scripts, encouraging individuals not to use aggression
  • Limitations
  • less realistic media is less likely to be incorporated in the script e.g. fantasy fiction - not applicable to all types of aggressive media
  • Individual differences
  • may only have effects if the person already has a predisposition towards behaving aggressively
  • it's likely other factors will also have an influence on whether cognitive priming will occur