The Effects of Violence In Media and Video Games

By: Chrysoula P.                                    Global Issue                                      5/21/15

       The effects of aggression and violence in media have been studied since the advent of television. Many psychologists have conducted studies to assess whether violent video games or shows affect children negatively through desensitization to violence, fearfulness of the world around them, or aggressive tendencies towards others. Opinions on the matter of media effects on children are wide ranging. Some scholars conclusively demonstrate that media violence effects are harmful. Other scholars argue that the media violence research field has been mismanaged, used poor measures of aggression, and failed to consider alternative causes of aggression. Despite, the opposition to deleterious media violence research, there is tremendous research that confirms the negative and pernicious effects that violence in media has on children.

Albert Bandura was a well-known behaviorist psychologist who during the 1970s researched social learning and the tendency of children to imitate what they see. He conducted a famous Bobo Doll Study, showing that violent behavior could be imitated without reinforcement or rewards. Banduras’s case study showed how violent behavior could be imitated through observational learning and extended to other media forms like video games and movies.¹ In this study, a group of children watched an adult hit, throw into the air, and pummel the Bobo Doll with a hammer. Then when the children were left in the room by themselves for 20 minutes, their behavior was observed through a one-way mirror. The group that had witnessed the adult aggression showed that same level of aggression towards the bobo doll in contrast to the control group which did not. By establishing that children could act violently from observational learning, Bandura's fifteen years of study culminated in a committee being formed by the Surgeon General  to assess the impact of violence on the attitudes, values and behaviors of viewers. ²

        In the past 30 years, there has been extensive research on this topic of violence and media. The results have shown overwhelmingly in all types of experiments, like longitudinal, cross-sectional, and experimental, that there exists a correlation between media and aggression. The typical American child will be exposed to over 200,000 acts of violence and 18,000 murders on television by the time it turns 18 years old. Shockingly, children’s programming, especially cartoons, have an average of 20 acts of violence per hour.³ Even Dr. Phil, psychologist and talk show host, denounces video games as aggression-causing tools that rob children of their ability to resolve anxiety and calm themselves through talking it out or even crying out their frustrations. Instead, they act it out by attacking something, kicking a wall, or being mean to a pet.⁴ More disturbingly, there is an increase in violent actions by children who view these kinds of video games. Children naturally express their frustrations physically, however, when their models are aggressive video games or movies, they will naturally move towards these forms of aggression releases rather than more socially acceptable ways of aggression release like talking it out or crying.

When a child plays a violent video game it also does not learn about moral consequences. It can shoot someone in the game and get rewarded for it by receiving more points rather than go to jail. Children are impressionable at this age and do not learn about right and wrong in these video games, instead the game companies assume that children will learn about morality somewhere else but given the long hours spent in front of the television, the children are almost brainwashed into believing that the video games are a form of reality. This is not to say that children will go out and shoot someone to extend the game into the real world, rather they will transform the actions of the game into a different action like bullying which releases the same frustrations but in a different form.

There are also many antagonists to the media and violence bandwagon, as well. Christopher Ferguson, argues that it is ethically impossible to examine aggression and media inthe laboratory and so the results are observed based on different criteria that are not actually assessing aggression but something close to it. One famous laboratory test is the Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Test (TCRTT) which  in essence measures competitive drive.⁶ The participants are told that they are playing against another opponent to see who will press the red button first and that they can set a noise blast punishment if their opponent loses. In effect, it allows the participant to gloat over the win and this is viewed as aggression. This form of aggression is not violent and it seems to be more, a form of bad sportsmanship rather than aggression. Furthermore, it has not been shown to be predictive of real-world aggression, let alone violent crime. What this does show however, is that participants would go to any means to win at a game without considering the effects that their aggressive behaviors have on others. In this respect, this experiment has shown that competition can bring out aggressive tendencies. Which brings us back to the original point that video games can bring out aggressive tendencies in participants and model inappropriate ways to express them.

Media and aggression have been studied for decades with the overwhelming conclusion that they are positively correlated. Their effects on children are exaggerated by the fact that children are very impressionable at this age and that they serve as inappropriate role models for aggressive behavior. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics has created a list of recommendations to address television violence including, physicians discussing television viewing with the parents and limiting television to 1-2 hours per day.^7. It is also recommended that children become more knowledgeable about conflict resolution. It is clear that media violence must be addressed in both the public and private sectors to offset its negative tendencies.

^1. “What Were Albert Bandura’s Contributions to the Field of Psychology?”

^2. “Bobo Doll Experiement | Simply Psychology.”

^3. Beresin, Eugene.

^4.  McGraw, Phil

^5. Ferguson, Christopher

^6. Ferguson, Christopher

^7. Beresin, Eugene

Sources:

Beresin, Eugene. “The Impact of Media Violence on Children and Adolescents: Opportunities

       for Clinical Interventions.” The Impact of Media Violence on Children and Adolescents:
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“Bobo Doll Experiement | Simply Psychology.” Bobo Doll Experiment | Simply Psychology. 
       Simply Psychology, 01 Jan. 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.

Ferguson, Christopher J. “Good Science or Moral Panic?” Media Violence Effects and Violent
       Crime. Chapter 3: Sage Publications. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.

McGraw, Phil. “Children and Violent Video Games.” Dr. Phil.com - Advice - Children and 
       Violent Video Games. Peteski Productions, Inc., 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.

"Violence in the Media - Psychologists Study TV and Video Game Violence for 
       Potential Harmful Effects." Http://www.apa.org. American Psychological 
       Association, Nov. 2013. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.

“What Were Albert Bandura’s Contributions to the Field of Psychology?” About
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