Media influences on aggression

Excessive TV

Aggressive behaviour may be linked to excessive TV, regardless if it’s violent or not

Robertson et als study on excessive tv

Measured TV viewing hours of over 1000 new zealenders at regular intervals 5-26

Time spent watching tv at childhood and adolescence was a reliable predictor for aggression in early adulthood.

Was also linked to reduced social interaction and poorer educational achievement

Tv/film effects not strong research

Paik and comstock meta analysis of about 200 studies found significant positive correlation between tv violence and antisocial behaviour

But estimated it only accounted for 1-10% of the violence in children’s aggressive behaviour

2 reasons computer games may have more powerful effects

Player takes more active role compared to passive viewer

More directly rewarding for player

Lab experiment on computer games

Taylor competitive reaction time task

Participants deliver blasts of white noise at chosen volumes to punish nonexisting opponent

Barthlow and Anderson found that students who played a violent computer game for 10 minutes Mortal Kombat selected significantly higher volumes than those who played a non-violent golf game.

Correlational study on computer games

Several measures of aggression are positively correlated with time spent playing violent games.

Delisi et al argue the link is so well established that aggression should be considered a public health issue like HIV or AIDS and computer game violence is a risk factor like condom non-use

Limitation defining aggression

violence and aggression are not the same.

all violence is aggression not all aggression is violence

Effects found in studies depend on how aggression is defined

findings are therefore hard to compare

Limitation unsupported conclusions

many studies are methodologically weak for example confounding variables, poor sampling methods

Many studies are also correlational which can’t establish cause and effect

lack external validity so can’t be generalised.

Findings can be explained using SLT positive

As seen in banduras study computer and video games are other forms of social learning.

Vicarious reinforcement and when children identify with on screen characters this enhances validity

Bandura

Replicated earlier study, but looked at grissino viewed on screen this time.

Outcomes were similar, imitation