aggression

• Desensitisation


  Repeated exposure to violence reduces normal levels of physiological and psychological arousal associated with anxiety, making aggressive behaviour more likely
• Desensitisation


  1. Witness violent actions

  2. Experience physiological response (increased heart rate)

  3. Repeatedly view aggression on TV/play violent video games

  4. Become used to its effect

  5. Stimulus has lesser impact

  6. Anxiety and arousal become lower
• Repeated exposure to violence

  Promotes a belief that using aggression as a method of resolving conflict is socially acceptable
• Repeated exposure to violence

  Negative attitudes towards violence weaken, less empathy is felt for victims, and their injuries are minimised and dismissed
• Disinhibition


  Normal social constraints against certain behaviours can be weakened by environmental triggers, and these behaviours then appear temporarily socially acceptable and therefore more likely
• Exposure to violent media

  Usual restraints against aggression are loosened
• Strength of desensitisation as an explanation for media influences on aggression

  • Has supporting evidence
  • Real-world evidence shows lower arousal in violent media users, suggesting desensitisation has a strong effect on how violence is perceived and is linked to greater willingness to be aggressive
• Media displays a message that aggression is part of everyday life


  Aggressive behaviour is often made to appear normative and socially sanctioned
• Child plays a violent video game and is not punished for killing but instead rewarded through points


  The child thinks they should continue killing, positively reinforcing this aggressive behaviour
• Participants who were habitual viewers of violent media

  Showed lower levels of arousal as they watched violent film clips, reported higher levels of pleasant arousal and lower levels of anxious arousal, and gave louder bursts of white noise (measure of aggression) to a confederate without being provoked (proactive aggression)
• Cognitive priming


  Repeated viewing of aggressive media, especially game playing (and violent images), provides us with ready-made scripts about aggression and how violent situations may 'play out'
• Aggressive scripts are stored in memory

  We become ready/primed to be aggressive
• Meta-analysis


  Analysis of multiple studies to determine overall effect sizes
• Bushman and Heusmann carried out meta-analysis of 431 studies, involving over 68,000 participants
• Aggressive scripts are triggered when we perceive aggressive cues in situations

  The process is mostly automatic and directs our behaviour without us even being aware of it
• 264 of the 431 studies were on children, and 167 involved adults
• Strength of disinhibition as an explanation for media influences on aggression

  • Has supporting evidence
  • Berkowitz and Alioto found participants who saw a film depicting aggression as vengeance gave more electric shocks of a longer duration to a confederate, suggesting media violence may disinhibit aggressive behaviour when presented as justified
• Most studies looked at impact of violent TV, but others had also looked at effect of video games, music, and comic books
• Overall, found modest but significant effect sizes for exposure to media violence on aggressive behaviours and thoughts, angry feelings, and arousal level
• Short term effects of violent media

  Greater for adults
• Long term effects of violent media

  Greater for children
• Male participants listened to songs featuring aggressively derogatory lyrics about women


  They recalled more negative qualities about women and behaved more aggressively towards a female confederated, compared to when they listened to neutral lyrics
• Bjorkqvist study


  • Exposed 5-6 year old Finnish children to either violent or non-violent films
  • Found that children who had watched the violent film were rated much higher on measures of physical aggression (e.g., hitting other children)
• Heusmann et al. study


  • Studied 557 children (aged 6-10) growing up in Chicago in 1977, and then 329 of these 15 years later
  • Found that habitual early exposure to TV violence was predictive of adult aggression later in life and that this applied to both boys and girls
  • Relationship persisted even when possible effects of socioeconomic status, intelligence, and any differences in parenting style were controlled
• Anderson and Dill study


  • Participants blasted their opponents with white noise (a random, multi-frequency sound) for longer and rated themselves higher on the State hostility scale after playing Wolfenstein 3D (violent 'first person shooter' game) compared to those who played Myst (slow-paced puzzle game)
• Anderson et al. survey


  • Surveyed 430 children (aged 7-9) at two points during the school year
  • Children who had high exposure to violent video games became more verbally and physically aggressive and less prosocial (as rated by themselves, their peers, and their teachers)
• Longitudinal link between violent video games and aggression

  May be due to competitive nature of games, rather than violence (violent video games tend to be more competitive)
• Strength of cognitive priming as an explanation for media influences on aggression

  • Has practical application
  • Bushman and Anderson argued that someone who habitually watches violent media accesses stored aggressive scripts more readily, meaning they are more likely to interpret cues as aggressive, resort to a violent solution, and fail to consider other alternatives
• Ignoring alternative explanations such as biology, physiological response, social factors, social learning theory, and cognition/scripts is a limitation of these explanations
• Media violence


  How it might influence aggression
• Lab studies


  • Consistently found that those who watch violent scenes subsequently display more aggressive behaviour, thoughts, and emotions than those who do not
• Lab studies


  • Bjorkqvist found that 5-6 yr old Finnish children who had watched violent films were rated much higher on measures of physical aggression than children who had watched non-violent films
• Longitudinal studies


  • Allowed researchers to track aggressive behaviour over time
• Longitudinal studies


  • Heusmann studied children from Chicago in 1977 and then in 1992. They found habitual early exposure to TV violence predicted adult aggression in boys and girls, regardless of socioeconomic status and intelligence
• Meta-analysis


  • Found modest, significant effect sizes for exposure to media violence on aggressive behaviours, thoughts, and feelings. Short term effects were greater for adults and long-term effects greater for children
• Lab studies on computer games

  • Found short term increases in levels of physiological arousal, hostile feelings, and aggressive behaviour following violent game play compared to non-violent game play
• Lab studies on computer games

  • Anderson and Dill found that participants blasted their opponents with white noise sounds for longer and rated themselves higher on the State Hostility Scale after playing a violence first person short game compared to a slow-paced puzzle game
• Children with high exposure to violent video games


  Became more verbally and physically aggressive and less prosocial over time, measured at 7 and 9
• These explanations will never create a comprehensive explanation for aggression as there will always be other factors not accounted for, decreasing their utility and credibility in explaining media influences on aggression
• A limitation of research into media influences

  There is an alternative explanation