Here is something no one will dispute: The American media contains a high degree of violence. Movies, television sitcoms and other programs as well as cartoons use violence for entertainment and to hold our attention. Musical lyrics that glorify and condone violent behavior and criminal acts are numerous. And of course, many video games are inherently violent, it is not just put there to grab attention, it is the purpose. (By video games I mean computer games, Nintendo, play station, gameboy, arcades- anything where you are playing on a screen.)
             But all that is just normal right? Just part of life and entertainment, it does not really affect us, right? Apparently it does. However, not everyone agrees on how much and why. For this discussion I will limit myself and speak only about television.
             Many different psychologists haves theorized about what determines personality and I choose to discuss three of those theories, or approaches. The Social-Cognitive approach to personality emphasizes experiences and their interpretations as the great influences on personality. Nurture, environmental factors and experiences, along with their perceptions shape the growth and development of someone's personality. There are three ways this can happen. One, by learning that specific events or behaviors are followed by other occurrences, is known as classical conditioning. Two, by learning that certain behaviors are followed by certain consequences. This is called operant conditioning. Finally, the third major way we allow the environment to influence us is called observational learning, also known as modeling. This is when we observe and imitate (model) the actions of others. All of these are worth noting when examining the affects of media violence, but I feel this last one is of great importance.
             Young children are very impressionable and fact and fantasy basically mean the same thing to them, especially on T.
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