MEDIA INFLUENCES

• LAB EXPERIMENTS

  
  

  Study effects - use experiments.

  (+) These study the short term effects; BARTHALOW + ANDERSON conducted a lab experiment, getting students to play a violent computer game or a nonviolent computer game, for ten minutes. Afterwards, they were told to administer white noise sounds to another individual. They found that those who played violent games selected higher noise levels than those who played nonviolent games. This suggests a link between violent games and aggression.
• (-) COMPUTER GAMES - LAB EXPERIMENTS 


  validity of experimental studies as they use artificial stimuli to measure aggression. = unrealistic, it is unclear whether the findings would be the same in real life situations. = lack mundane realism. aggression is seen as safe in the lab as there is no chance of retaliation, = may increase the levels of aggression shown. = difficult to establish a clear connection = violent games + aggression, lowering the validity; findings should be used with caution.
• (+) COMPUTER GAMES - LAB EXPERIMENTS

  have high levels of control, making it possible for them to establish clear causal relationships, leading to a high level of reliability. 
• META ANALYSIS

  use a mixture of these methods to compare exposure to violent games and have found that increased aggression is linked to this. (+) It has been found to be valid for females, males, individualist and collectivist cultures. This suggests a level of universality in the findings, and thus gives the research potential to benefit society, and aid the understanding of human aggression.
• (-) COMPUTER GAMES - META ANALYSIS 


  may be subject to publication bias which may affect how video games is portrayed. It is often the case that significant results are published, and those finding that are not valid are not. = meta analyses are prone to use only published studies, which skews the data. = lack reliability, it is likely that the same results would not be found if it was replicated using a wider range of studies. = the effects of aggression may be over exaggerated or underexaggerated, leading to a lack of understanding.
• LONGITUDINAL STUDIES 


  These look at the long term effects of computer games. E.G ROBERTSON looked into the relationship between excessive tv viewing in childhood and aggression in adulthood. He found that excessive tv viewing in childhood was a predictor of aggression in adulthood, and as the time increased, so did the likelihood of being diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.
• (+) COMPUTER STUDIES - LONGITUDINAL STUDIES 


  strengthened by their ability to investigate changes over time, and thus have more mundane realism than other methods. Looking into the long term effects is beneficial for society and thus allows research into the effects of computer games on aggression, to have real life application.
• (-) COMPUTER GAMES - LONGITUDINAL STUDIES 


  theorists suggest aggression may be due to the experience of failure or frustration at a game, rather than its content – findings show this applies for both violent and non violent games. Thus, the ideas may need to consider additional variables which could increase aggression.