desensitisation disinhibition cognitive priming

• desensitisation

  when we witness a violent action we experience physiological arousal with the sympathetic nervous system. but when children repeatedly view a aggressive act eg on computer games they become habituated to its effects =reduced anxiety
• desensitisation 2 


  both physiological and psychological. gives idea agg is socially acceptable to deal with conflicts. negative thoughts for agg weaken and less empathy for victims is felt.

  Earls= lab study showed a violent scene involving rape and then the same participants watched a rape trial. those who watched the video gave less sympathy for victim but no effect on the female participants.
• disinhibition

  most people see agg as harmful and antisocial. also powerful social and psychological inhibitors against using aggressive behaviour to resolve conflicts. these are learnt by slt. disinhibition suggests usual restraints are loosened after exposure and seen acceptable and can be justified in the media if consequences are lessoned on the victim if actor reduces them. computer games show violence being rewarded which creates new social norms.
• cognitive priming 


  repeat viewing of agg in the media give us a script of how violent situations may play out.

  Huesmann suggested the script is stored in memory and we become primed to be aggressive without being aware of it. automatic process the script is trigged when external cues are perceived as aggressive
• cognitive priming study Fisher

  looked at priming of aggressive scripts in memory by looking at song lyrics. male participants listened to songs with aggressive lyrics about women. and compared to listening songs with neutral lyrics. findings showed more aggression in the males that listened to the aggressive songs

  was repeated in females with male-hating lyrics and found sim
• a03: research support desensitisation

  Krahe= showed participants violent and a non violent film while measuring psychological arousal using a skin conductance. those who were habitual viewers showed lower arousal. low levels of anxious arousal and high levels of pleasant levels so confirm the hypothesis
• a03: support disinhibition 


  Berkowitz participants who saw a film depicting aggression as vengeance gave more electric shocks for a longer duration. suggesting the media violence may disinhibit agg behaviour when it seems justified. due to vengeance being a powerful agg justification, so more socially acc

  adds validity shows a link between removal of social constrictions and aggressive behaviour, in justified aggression.
• a03: practical app cog priming

  life-saving benefits due to internal scripts and interpreting external cues which is stored in memory.

  bushman: someone who habitually watches violent media accesses stored aggressive scripts more readily. so most likely to see things as aggressive and resort to aggressive solutions. so effective interventions can be used to reduce agg behaviour and encourage alternatives eg humour or negotiation in "violent situations"