Television and aggression
Discuss the view that the media influences aggressionThe question of whether the media influences aggression has recently become an area of great interest. More specifically, the area of whether aggression and violence is having a detrimental effect on children, and therefore is one of the causes in the recorded number of youth violent crimes.Statistically speaking, the amount of television being viewed by children has risen:"Children now spend approximately 25 hours a week watching television, a dramatic increase when compared to 10 years ago" (Miller, 1998)However, more alarmingly is the evidence that shows the increase in violence on our television screens. Many psychologists have focused on this area and have found startling results including:" By the time the average child leaves elementary school, he or she will have witnessed at least 8,000 murders and more than 10,000 acts of violence on television" (Smith, 1996) " In 1982, airtime for violence increased from 1.5 hours per week to 43 hours per week in 1986, and in 1980 most of the children's programmes featured 18.6 violent acts per hour and now have 26.5 violent acts per hour" (Smith, 1992)" 57% of television programmes contain "psychological
The findings showed that the children who had witnessed the violent behaviour also behaved more aggressively towards the bobo doll, whereas the children who had not witnessed any aggressive behaviour played with it in a normal fashion. Total the answers and compare the differences between parents and children (Hough, Erwin, 1999). Unfortunately, not all parents are capable of doing that, and the children who are otherwise most vulnerable to the effects of television violence may be the ones whose parents are least likely to be vigilant mediators in their child's life. Parents still have more influence that the television in shaping their children's attitude about violence and conflict. Such as, what do they think is going on? What do they like about what they are watching? What makes them uneasy or scared? And why? (Hough, Erwin, 1999). Also limiting the amount of time the children spend watching television and encouraging them to spend more time on their hobbies, playing sports, or wit friends (Luke, 1988). The main one being that like many other areas of social psychology the main weakness of supporting studies is that they only concentrate on the short-term effects. This would suggest that it is not watching television that produces aggressive behaviour, but only certain programmes. Some ideas and questions to introduce the child to help re-establish a sense of reality about violence on television are as follows:·How does it feels when someone is getting hurt or killed on television is being watched?·If violence is not fun to see, why should it be watched on television?·Are there any consequences to the actions shown?·Can the child think of other ways to catch the enemies than what they had just seen on television? And it cannot involve hurting other people (Luke, 1988). He researched how television violence effects a child as they mature. However, the opposing side suggests that television violence does not cause people to act aggressively, it is all in the way in which they were taught to treat their aggression and how they interpret violence. He found that children learn to be aggressive by observing and imitating other people who are acting aggressively; "if these individuals are rewarded for their violent behaviour, children are even more likely to imitate them". Heorold (1986) conducted a statistical analysis of over 100 studies of pro-social effects of television and found that: "Although fewer studies exist on pro-social effects, the effects size is much larger, holds up better under more stringent experimental conditions and is consistently higher for both boys and girls, that the potential for pro-social behaviour overrides the small but persistent effects of anti social programmes"It is believed that pro-social behaviours are copied because they are promoted more whereas anti-social messages aren't meant to be copied and so aren't highlighted. Dealing with the violent scenes as they appear on the screen is another way to help the child better understands the situation. Children whose parents have the motivation and resources to be vigilant and active mediators will likely avoid most of the negative effects of violent content.
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