Sophia Brown
6048 Belden St 21800056 Page 1
Philadelphia Pa, 19149 05020500
TO WHAT EXTENT IS MEDIA VIOLENCE RELATED TO AGGRESSIVE AND
VIOLENT BEHAVIOR
Sophia Brown 21800056
Essentials of Psychology
January 24, 2014
Assignment Number 05020500
With the increase in violence in our society over the past few years, many wonder if perhaps influences in early childhood could be the cause for the increase.Nearly every day we read of the increasing accounts of violence in bullying, school shootings and homicides among urban youth. It is realistic to assume that those involved in these incidents were not born with the tendency to participate in violent acts. Something has occurred along the way to send them down that road. Although there are various for violent behavior including child abuse, poverty, and substance abuse volumes of growing research are quite convincing that a child’s experience to violence in all forms of media plays the most important part in the causes of violent behavior in children throughout their childhood and as they mature and finally become adults.There is no overall explanation as to everyone’s behavior, but there are generalities. Violence in media is generally one of the influences whichlead to violence in children.
Mass media, including television, internet, radio, movies and video games have positive as well as negative roles to play in the lives of our growing children. Not all children who listen to music with violent lyrics become killers. Not all killers watched homicidal cartoons when they were children. However, the connection between these media and the risk of violent behavior is growing more and more insidious, spreading into our society in many other areas.
In 1990 the Children’s Television Act was passed which “reminded broadcasters that the educational and informational needs of children was serious business” (Huffman, 11) In spite of this American media is still considered to be the most violent in the world. At least 1000 studies show a direct correlation between television/film violence and real-life violence. Earliest studies began with a famous study by Albert Bandura. His experiment involved two groups of children being exposed to two different adult models. One group was exposed to an aggressive adult model and the aggressive manner in which they treated a punching doll (called Bobo), and the other group was exposed to a non-aggressive one and they witnessed the non-aggressive manner with which they played with the doll. Following the observation of the adult’s behavior, the children were placed in a room without an adult model to see if they would duplicate the behavior they had seen. The results were that the children who had been exposed to the violent model tended to follow and imitate the violent behavior. Those children who had observed the non-aggressive model did tend to be non-aggressive. Within both groups there were some gender differences depending upon if the adult model had been same gender or opposite gender. However, boys did act more aggressive than girls overall. Bandura proposed his social learning theory which claimed that “environment causes behavior but that behavior causes environment” (Grace, 2012). Though there were criticisms against the experiment, it was able to establish that children may imitate aggressive behaviors witnessed in the media. According to Bandura, the “adult's violent behavior led children to believe that such actions were acceptable (Cherry, nod)
Today our society has a growing tolerance to violence using rationales. For example heroes are “allowed” to act aggressively because they are heroes and will not be punished for their behavior. Children who are exposed to media violence to a high degree, tends to develop a sense of denial within themselves in their attempt to rationalize the aggression they have witnessed in TV shows or movies. (Isomer,
The increase of time spends watching violent television or playing violent video games has increased the intensity of violence we see today because it desensitizes the children. Although the connection between media violence and violent behavior seems to be a new topic, even Plato was concerned about the effects of play on children. What has caused the massive increase? It may appear that there is an increase in media violence, but the number and intensity of violence is not necessarily the cause for the increase in violent behavior we see in children. It is possible that the amount of time spent with violent entertainment has increased, and this has helped to blur the lines between “pretend” and reality.
According to a nationally recognized expert on issues associated with violence, Allan Hoffman, “violent crime by juveniles in the U.S. ranks as one of the highest in the world” (p. 12) He goes on to further say that media violence is a major contributor and is creating a public health problem. The only way to eliminate or slow down this tsunami of violence is to train parents in good parenting and public activism. Good parenting means monitoring children’s daily use and activism requires letting their voices be heard in the media industry.
There is little doubt that violence in the media can cause some of the violence in the real world. There is also little doubt that children imitate what they see and make it their realism. The high chances that a violence epidemic is connected to the media can be reduced. Adults need topay more attention to our children’s daily intake of video and television entertainment and let their voices be heard in the media industry. This will not eliminate the increase in violence, but it may go a long way to slowing it down.
References
Cherry, Kendra, (nod) Bubo Doll Experiment, Retrieved from
Isomer, Margaret, (1998) Albert Bandura, the Social Learning Theory,Retrieved from
Grace, Elizabeth, (2012). Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory. Retrieved from
Hoffman, A. M. (2011). Combating the Culture of Media Violence,Pediatrics for Parents, 27(5/6), 11