Media Psychology. PSYA4. Influence of TV and Video games.

PSYA4, Media Psychology Influence of TV

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Media Psychology

BANDURA: 

Children imitate high status/powerful models e.g. T.V. contains violence by these models.

MICHAEL RUTTER:

What children see in everyday lives more likely to have an affect than few hours of T.V e.g. Homes with parental conflict

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Influence of T.V. violence on

PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES:

  • Increased AROUSAL
  • EXCITATION/AROUSAL TRANSFER to real life situations
  • HUESMANN:- Desensitisation to violence

COGNITIONS:

  • We store SCRIPTS/MEMORIES of violent acts
  • PRIMES watchers to behave similarly
  • MURRAY et al:- violent acts are stored as EPISODIC memories 

AGRESSIVE BEHAVIOURS:

  • HUESMANN:- LONGTITUDINAL study. 557 M + F aged 5 - 8. Asked what was their fav TV shows. 398 followed up in early 20's. INTERVIEWED those close. SIGNIFICANT CORRELATION between violent shows watched in childhood and REAL LIFE AGGRESSION.

Seems to suggest TV violence does have an effect. CORRELATION studies = just as likely violent people seek violent shows.

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How much violence is actually on TV?

GUNTER & HARRISON:

Monitored 2084 programmes on 8 channels over 4 weeks

Violence occupied: 0.61% on terrestrial channels

                           1.53% on satellite channels

Only 19% of violence was on Children's programmes. 

Violence represents only a tiny part of TV output

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Effects of watching Pro-social behaviour

FOGEL:

aged 8-12 given questionnaires on NORMAL TV WATCHING HABITS.

Randomly allocated to GROUP 1: 30 mins of Hang-time & 15 mins discussion

                                 GROUP 2: watched 30 mins of Hang-time NO discussion

Group 1 improved scores on PRO-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Watching and DICUSSING with an ADULT is KEY to benefit from Pro-social programming.

HIGH ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY. risk of DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS. PARENTAL CONSENT required. 

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Influences on Pro-social behaviour

MARES:

4 different categories of pro-social behaviour:

  • POSITIVE INTERACTION
  • ALTRUISM
  • SELF-CONTROL
  • ANTI-STEREOTYPING

Watching has a large effect on Altruism and Self-Control but only if EXPLICITLY MODELLED

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Explanations of Inlfuences

SKINNER:

Operant Conditioning. Rewarded behaviour is repeated.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:

BANDURA - Vicarious experience, we learn through OBSERVATION and MODELLING

SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY:

Develop SCRIPTS and SCHEMAs from watching

Although clear link between watching anti-social programming and aggression there are other influences. Plus pro-social programming is beneficial.

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Influence of playing Violent ames

INCREASED AROUSAL

TAFALLA:- Increased heart rate & BP when "DOOM" game music playing. Transfer of arousal.

REDUCED HELPING

SHEESE & GRAZIANO:- Players of violent "Doom" choose to exploit rather than help.

INCREASED AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR/ COGNITIONS/ FEELINGS

UNSWORTH et al:- Only those already aggressive have changes in feeling before/after/during game

DESENSITISATION TO VIOLENCE

BARTHOLOW:- Evidence of reduced brain response in those used to game violence.

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The General Aggression Model

ANDERSON et al:-

A model to explain INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES in vulnerability to violent exposure in games.

Such games increase AROUSAL, COGNITIONS and MOODS.

Effects depend on variables like EXPECTANCY BIAS:- belief others will act a certain way.

BUSHMAN & ANDERSON:-

participants given VIOLENT/NON-VIOLENT games to play. Then asked to complete SHORT STORIES.

Violent games group tended to complete stories with more AGGRESSIVE ENDINGS. 

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Positive effects of games

ENHANCED COGNITIVE ABILITIES:

DIN & CALAO:- Children's reading and spelling significantly improved after educational games 

DEVELOPMENT OF SKILLS IN SPECIAL NEEDS:

POPE et al:- 6 SONY PlayStation's modified and linked to 9-13 yr old ADD sufferers. Both modified games and traditional brainwave techniques IMPROVED impulsiveness and school performance. However modified games group were more MOTIVATED.

IMPROVE SOCIAL SKILLS:

Players discuss tactics. Simulation games provide environment to learn social skills.

Playing appropriate games in moderation can be beneficial. causal link between aggression and game play inconclusive. But CAN lead to addiction.

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Comments

davidwarner

Report

The media are a powerful force in children's lives, and according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), kids in the United States spend an average of 7 hours a day on entertainment media—watching TV, using computers, playing video games, etc. It's no surprise that with such an overwhelming amount of time spent consuming media, this exposure has a significant impact on their lives. In fact, in the past 30 years, there has been an increase in childhood obesity, attention problems, and aggressive behaviors—all things that can be traced back to certain aspects of children's media use. Media violence and aggression, Children who watch many hours a week of violent TV may become inured to violence and begin to see the world as a scary and unsafe place. As a parent, you might wonder if any negative effects of violent media on behavior carry over into real life. Now on this site I have to play no deposit casino online so that I could enjoy my free time with my friends playing fascinating casino games.

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