Unit 4 - Anti Social Behaviour

Observational learning and Imitation                                                                       Where children observe the actions of media models and may later imitate these behaviours. Especially if the child admires the model. Children are more likely to imitate violent behaviour that is successfu in gaining the models objectives. The more real children percieve the TV scenes to be, the more they wil try out the behaviour they have learned. - Vicarious Reinforcement.      

Evidence - Bandura's bobo doll study                                                                    supports the view that children learn specific acts of aggression through imitating models. Children observed adult role models use agression towards a bobo doll on a film, and later imitated the behaviour they had previously seen.

Evaluation - Highly controlled environment; high internal validity so valid conclusions can be made. - Is likely to suffer from demand characteristics as lab studies may provide clues of how the individual is supposed to behave. - It isnt ethical to expose children to violent media content. - lacks ecological validity as the lab violence is different from real life violence and is artificial so therefore we cannot generalise.

Cognitive Priming                                                                                                         - This refers to the activation of existing aggressive thoughts and feelings and explains why children observe one kind of agression on TV and commit another kind of aggressive act later as Immediately after a programme the viewer is 'primed' to respond that way. Example:If a child experiences a violent act in real life similar to one they have seen on tv, they would react in the same way as the tv character did as a memory is triggered.

Evidence - Josephson's hockey players                                                                         - Field study: hockey players were deliberately frustrated and then shown a violent/non violent film where an actor held a walkie talkie. In a subsequent hockey game, the players would be more agressive if they seen a violent film and the referee of the game held a walkie talkie. (cue for agression)

Evaluation - clear link between behaviour observed and behaviour displayed. - Few demand characteristics as PP's are often unaware they are taking part in a study. Gender Bias as it only focueses on male players, females may act differently and Sports men are naturally more aggresive than other people due to increased testosterone.

Desensitisation Suggests that under normal conditions, observing violence creates anxiety which inhibits its use. However repeated exposure to violence is the media reduces the impact of violence as people become 'desensitised' so that it has less of an impact on them. This makes them less anxious about violence and more likely to engage in violent activity.

Evidence - Huesmann and Eron                                                                     Longitudinal study (3 years); on primary school children in 5 different counties. They found a positive correlation between the amount of violence viewed on TV and aggressive behaviour in later life.

Evaluation - People may get used to screen violence but it does not mean that they will get used to all violence in real life as it is more likely to make children 'frightened' rather than 'frightening'. - Longitudinal studies have not shown a consisten pattern on results. There are more negative findings than there are positive. - There is a correlational relationship found but it doesnt explain cause and effect. Other variables may be the reason for the correlation.

Strength of Research                                                                                                     - Lots of research in support of the media influencing anti social behaviour.

Weaknesses of Research                                                                                               - A lot of the evidence is only correlational so we cannot establish cause and effect. There may be other variables that caused increased aggression such as biology or an unstable environment.

 - Research into media demonstrates gender bias, mainly because it focuses solely on male physical violence in an artificial setting, rather than considering the behaviour of women.

 - It is deterministic. It suggests that by watching violent programmes we are more likely to act aggressively, ignoring our ability to make our own choices and the idea of free will.

 - It is reductionist. It breaks down complex behaviour down to media influences, ignoring to role of biology or other complex factors such as life experiences or family stability.