Subsequent Aggressive Behavior example essay topic

There are great consensus in the scientific literature about the unhealthy effects of media violence. Quantitative-analyses show that media-violence viewing consistently is associated with higher levels of antisocial behavior, ranging from the trivial limitative violence directed against toys) to the serious (criminal violence), with many consequential outcomes in between (acceptance of violence as a solution to problems, increased feelings of hostility, and the apparent delivery of painful stimulation to another person). Communication researchers have conducted a wide range of studies to investigate the relationship between mediated factors and the subsequent aggressive behavior 2. The rapid growth of media and its appeal to audiences have triggered concern about its impact on viewers. High level of violence may promote violence or produce harmful effects especially among the young audiences a) The major initial experimental studies of the cause and effect relation between television / film violence and aggressive behavior were conducted by Bandura 1 and his colleagues. In a typical early study conducted by Bandura (Bandura, Ross & Ross, 1963), a young child was presented with a film, back-projected on a television screen, of a model who kicked and punished an inflated plastic doll.

The child was then placed in a playroom setting and the incidence of aggressive behaviour was recorded. The results of these early studies indicated that children who had viewed the aggressive film were more aggressive in the playroom than those children who had not observed the aggressive model. These early studies were criticised on the grounds that the aggressive behaviour was not meaningful within the social context and that the stimulus materials were not representative of available television programming. Subsequent studies have used more typical television programs and more realistic measures of aggression, but basically Bandura's early findings still stand. (b) 1 Yet another laboratory experiment by Leonard Berkowitch justifies the harmful media effects. He suggested that observing violence triggers aggressive thinking and emotions and ther by encourages aggressive actions. His experimental studies later became more sophisticated, essentially the studies involved in showing violent chips to students Berkowitz concluded that violent chips produced more aggressive behaviour in those who were angry, esepcai y when the violence was justified.

Field Studies One early field-experiment was a study conducted by Stein and Friedrich (1972) for the Surgeon General's project. The entire study was divided into Antisocial (e.g. Batman and Sueprman), Prosocial (stresses such themes as sharing possessions and co-operative play). and neutral programmes (neither prosocial nor violent) Neighbourhood (a program that stresses such themes as sharing possessions and co-operative play). The neutral diet consisted of children's programming which was neither violent nor prosocial. The overall results indicated that children who were judged to be initially somewhat aggressive became significantly more so as a result of viewing the Batman and Superman cartoons. Moreover, the children who had viewed the prosocial programmes were less aggressive, more co-operative and more willing to share with other children Limitation: Although laboratory experiments and field experiemtns have concluded that viewing television violence increases aggressive behaviour, their popularity ahs declined in recent years. This is so because the research measures only the short - term effects, thus telling us very little about how viewers behave in the real world.

Does the gun Pull the Trigger: 2 More than 30 years Berkowitz and Le Page published the first study demonstrating that the mere presence of a weapon increases aggressive behaviour. Two Experiments were carried, one in which aggressive words were used and other wherein actual weapons were shown. Both the experiments ame to the same conclusion that mere identification of weapon leads to aggression related thoughts How does this happen: The above phenomenon (aggression related thought) involves priming, identification of a weapon is believed to automatically increase the accessibility of aggression related thoughts, this is o because the term Weapons are linked to aggression and hostility in Semantic memory. For e.g. Most expereicnes with guns come from incidents in which a gun is used to threaten or a hrm soe moen. Once Assocation with the concept gun or weapon have been formed, seeing a gun or weapon increases aggressive thoughts thereby facilitating subsequent aggressive behavior. Does the gun pull the trigger?

Extant research suggests that it does forms aggressive thoughts BUT how do aggressive thoughts increases aggressive behavior is still to eb questioned (3) Reel world V /'s Real world The entrainment industry often claims that violent me ida simply reflects the violence that already exists in the society. Although most people look at television as an entertainment and educational way to spend time there are many who think that there is too much violence in the reel world and that is influencing our young into becoming aggressive in nature and to tolerate violence e.g. one study compared the frequency of crimes occurring in real world with the frequency of crimes occurring in the following reality based police TV programmes (Top Cops, America's most wanted). The study revealed about 0.2% of crimes, reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation were murders whereas 50% of crimes shown in reality based programmes are murders. Scientist have discovered that violence in television can in fact mold a young innocent person into becoming a monster right under your eyes, just by watching violence on television. For e.g. a child sees a bad guy been hit by a good guy and everyone is applauding, he / she learns that it is fine to hurt someone as long as they are bad, thus framing a false idea ina c holds mind of how the real world deals with criminals. Certain things on television ad movies have inspired people to set their wives on fire, lie down in the middle of the road, rape, steal, murder and to do shootings.

When people watch these shows it makes them more aggressive and antisocial. After few days of watching these shows people become less sensitive to violence and to victim of violence. The outcome of desensitization is that people begin to have a hunger for more violence in entertainment and I real life. Media violence is especially effecting children between ages of 8 or under.

The reason for that is because children in that agee cannot tell the difference between real life and their dreams. Some images may seem so real to them that it might traumatize them. Nowadays it is difficult to find children's cartoon that does not show some type of violence. The problem is not violence shown but what happens to people for doing the things they do. It is believed that more gruesome the movie, the more likely we are out to see it. Basically.

It is the mentality that people have cultivated towards violence. It is very necessary to take serious steps to solve this problem or else after many years of viewing and producing violence we will only cultivate a society with criminal minded individuals. If we compare the way the society was prior to television and now we would be able to see a difference in social behavior.