PSYHCOLOGY AND HE MEDIA

• How oten to bristich poeple consume media? (OFCOM 2010)

• 7 hours 5 mins per day
• amounts to 45 % of waking time

MEDIA IS BAD -

• Many people assume that media use is associated with chnages in behaviour particularly increases in agression
• it may have long lasting negative consequences for eductaional acheivement and subsequent socioeconomic status and wellebing (HANCOX ET AL 2005)
• it is passive - leads a a sednetary lifetyle, obesity and even diabetes (HU ET AL 2001)

how can media lead to agression?

• social learning theory
• desentisation
• physiological arousal (short term)
• cultivation theory

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY- BANDURA 1978

• People are not born with behaviours - they must learnt them through direct experience or observation
• people learnt through observing behaviors of others (models) and oberving the outcomes of these behvaiours
• they observed behvaior is the vicariously reinforced if there are positive consequences for the model - or lack of negative consequence
• this promotes the acceptability of the behvaiour and disinhibits the observer
• the development and strength of a that behviour largely depends on teh rewarding and pu8nishing consequences of the action

how does this relate to media and aggression?

• media provides a lot of models
• violence often seems to solve a problem - fight crime (rewarding)
• poeple engage in symbolic modellin -fictional characters which can infleunce peoples behvaiour

types of reinforcemnt?

• self reinforcemnet - feeelings of pleasure/ satisfcation
• extreinsic reinforcments - external rewards
• vicarous reinforcemnet - viewing rewards of others

all of these mean a behvaviour is liekly to be repeated

who is a person most likely to model themselves after?

BOBO DOLL STUDY 1961 

• 36 boys and 36 girls age 3-6
• groups = agressive/ non agressive/ female model/  male model/ same sex model/ opposite ses model
• immitative verbal and physical aggression
• mild agression aousal
• 70% of non agressive group - scored 0 on aggression scale
• significant difference between groups
• imitative behvaiour shown
• boys = more physically and verbally agresssive both imitative and non immitative and engaged in more gun play - gender differences
• both boys and girl imitated male model more tahn female model

"The subjects readiness to imitate 'neutral' figures' indicates that mere observation ofa gression is enought o produce agession in children"  

X- artificial - the way the children watched = untypical of normal vmdeia viewing, short and focused with no narrative

X. - lab study with poor ecological validity

X - cannot generalise bahviour to a bobo doll to poeple - children can distinguish between fantasy violence and reality

X- Ethical issues

DESENTISATION

what is desentisation?

• a dulling in sensitivity to aggressive behvaiour in everyday life
• reducing anxiety to violence
• poeple become compfotbale numb

How are the effects of desentisation - CRANAGEY, ANDERSON & BUSHMAN 2007 ?

• reduction in physilogiacl responses
• increase in aggresive nehvaiour
• flattening of emotional reactions to violence
• reduction in liklihood of helping victim
• recuction in sympathy for victim
• reduction in percieved guilt

how does this relate to media and aggression?

• 85% of video games contain violence and over half revolve around violent actions ( CHILDREN NOW, 2001)
• …