Research+on+Effects+of+Violent+Media

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The effects violent media has on a person’s propensity to commit violent acts boasts a large amount of research and little agreement. Many studies attempting to quantify this effect revolve around measuring aggression. However experts in the field are quite split on the applicability of the research.

=**Aggression Models **=

= = Aggression models are diagrams used to depict causes that lead to aggression. The models are used as a framework to base experiments on. These models make claims of how violent media effects aggressiveness.  The General Aggression Modelis the most common model aggression research is based on. The model is split in two sections distal and proximate cases and processes. Proximate refers to factors effecting an aggressive response that are a result of the immediate situation. Some examples of this are your current mood, how a social encounter went, or the specific situation. Certain situations can cause almost anyone to behave aggressively. Distal causes are things such as personality or how you were raised. Someone might just be more prone to aggression and these factors are described as distal. With this model in mind experimenters can set up experiments that are meant to isolate aspects of this aggression model. This model implies all of these factors contribute to aggressive behavior, but enough of any including violent media, can cause aggressive behavior [1]. See part 1 under study examples to read about a specific study that uses this model.

The [|Catalyst Model] is another aggression model. This model includes violent media as having an effect on violent behavior but it is not the focus. Genetics, family violence, personality, and environmental strain all lead to motivation of violence. However violent media exposure skips motivation and leads directly to violent behavior. This is because under the catalyst model violent media is not motivation for violent behavior, but it does effect the style of violence. It is implying violent media does not cause violent behavior, but if there is motivation for violent behavior to begin with, the perpetrator of the violence may use ideas from violent media [2]. This is referred to as style. See part 2 under study examples to read about a specific study that use this model.  =**Study Examples **=

= = A study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology sought to study cumulative effects of violent video games [3]. For three days participants played 20 minutes of a violent game or a nonviolent game. After each session participants would play a reaction game to measure their aggression. During the reaction game participants were told they are playing against another person who they cannot see. They were not actually playing the game though, and the winner of each round was determined randomly. If the participant lost the round they would be blasted with a loud sound through a head set. If they won they got to do the same to their opponent. The participant was allowed to control the length and volume of the sound their opponent had to listen to, up to five seconds, and the loudest volume setting was comparable to a fire alarm. The setting for the sound was used to measure aggression, the louder and longer the more aggressive. The punishment they received for losing was random. When their random punishment was more severe participants were more likely to also make their punishments more severe. This response was measured and referred to as hostile expectations. Hostile expectations is the propensity to act more aggressive when you are being acted hostile to. The results indicate that people who played violent video games are more aggressive than people who played nonviolent video games. Also this effect increased each day of the study, which was claimed to show cumulative effects.

A 2 part study published in Criminal Justice and Behavior sought to study the effects of violent video games on aggression or violence [4]. The first part of the study was similar to the study discussed in part 1 of study examples. This study began with a questionnaire to judge each participants aggressiveness before the study. There were three groups, one who had to play a violent video game, one who had to play a nonviolent game, and one other group who got to choose what type of game they played. After playing the game they also answered questions about the fun and frustration of the game. Across all variables the only significant indicator that could predict higher aggression levels was gender, males were more aggressive. This means that not even choosing to play the violent game over a nonviolent one was a factor. The second part of the study was a questionnaire that collected the following information about each participant: demographics, trait aggression, video game habits, family violence exposure, and violent criminal behavior. All of this information was used to find relationships between it and violent criminal behavior. The factors reported that had high predictive relationships were being of male gender, exposure to physical abuse, trait aggression, and perceived parental. High exposure to video games was only predictive in the case of trait aggression also being high, there was no relation otherwise.

=**Criticism **=

= = There is significant debate in the validity of research in this field. A poll of 371 media psychologists and mass communication scientists was conducted to understand the consensus [5]. When asked if video games can increased aggression in children 66% agreed. When asked if violent media is a major factor in real life violence 46% disagreed, 35% agreed, and the rest neither agreed nor disagreed. These numbers indicate that even experts in the field disagree.The following are points of contention over the applicability of aggression research.

Experiments measuring aggression caused by violent media often occur immediately after viewing the violent media. Because of this the experiments are measuring short term effects of violent media. Short term effects of watching violent media are not very relevant to understanding if it causes violence. The argument against violent media is not that it sets people off in the moment to start committing violent acts. Testing immediately afterwards is measuring just that though. Researchers argue that while lab results do not directly measure this effect, there is high external validity [6]. This means the data can predict outcomes often enough in a real setting to still be valid. However a study that compiled more than 200 psychology studies to measure external validity found that social psychology was especially susceptible to having low external validity [7].

It is unethical to design an experiment that could test severe aggression. Because of this aggression experiments must test aggression with things that are not very aggressive, such as having someone eat hot sauce or play loud sounds through a head set. Aggression of these acts are measured in how much hot sauce, or how loud and how long the sound is. If someone choose to give someone the max punishment the experiment allowed, it would still not be very aggressive, compared to violent crimes. The General Aggression Model's answer to this argument is that by showing violent media causes aggression at all, it is shown to be a contributing factor to violence.

Aggression does not have standard units. Experimenters need to judge how aggressive someone is during their test though. So some type of standard during the experiment must be set. In the case of a loud sound experiment, the length and volume of the sound is used to assess aggressiveness. Multiple studies from different researchers saying the same thing helps build validity of an experiment, but many of them use different ways to measure aggression. Their scales will not match in many cases. Sometimes specific authors are not measuring aggression in the same way across studies, even when they use the same method to collect the data [8]. Validity of research in the field would would greatly benefit from a standard. Aggression research shows positive, neutral, and negative results. Since there is no standard though it is difficult to bring the results together.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">There is a failure to account for other variables. There will always be a control group who plays or watches nonviolent media for the experiment. This nonviolent media will be inherently different in ways other than violent content though. As an example, in one experiment that used video games, the nonviolent games were racing games, and the violent games were non-racing games [3]. Differences in game mechanics could easily account for different levels of aggression. In this particular experiment they attempted to account for this by having subjects fill in information about the fun or frustration of the game they played. This data was not used in the results because they claimed it did not change the results. There is too much complexity in these variables to properly account for them even if with the subject’s feedback. In another study that used video it was found that violent media exposure in the lab predicted increased aggression, but habitual exposure outside of the lab did not show increased aggression [9].

<span style="font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Studies that seek to find statistical significance have been shown to be very unreliable [10]. These studies are looking for a positive relationship between two data points, aggression and violent media usage. The larger the effect the more likely statistical significance is to be true [10]. Aggression in one of these studies is not large though. If people became irate after viewing violent media these types of studies would be more likely to be valid. Since this is certainly not a common reaction, the results of the study are likely to be a measurement of the studies bias [10].

=<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Conclusion =

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The applicability of aggression research on the effects of violent media are debated amongst experts. Different models are used to describe how violent media impacts aggressive acts. Belief in one model over the other leads to disagreement of interpretation of results.

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> References =

= = <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;">[1]C. DeWall, C. Anderson and B. Bushman, "The general aggression model: Theoretical extensions to violence.", //Psychology of Violence//, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 245-258, 2011.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;">[2]R. Surette, "Cause or Catalyst: The Interaction of Real World and Media Crime Models", //American Journal of Criminal Justice//, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 392-409, 2012.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;">[3]Y. Hasan, L. Bègue, M. Scharkow and B. Bushman, "The more you play, the more aggressive you become: A long-term experimental study of cumulative violent video game effects on hostile expectations and aggressive behavior", //Journal of Experimental Social Psychology//, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 224-227, 2013.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;">[4]C. Ferguson, S. Rueda, A. Cruz, D. Ferguson, S. Fritz and S. Smith, "Violent Video Games and Aggression", //Criminal Justice and Behavior//, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 311-332, 2008.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;">[5]B. Bushman, M. Gollwitzer and C. Cruz, "There is broad consensus: Media researchers agree that violent media increase aggression in children, and pediatricians and parents concur.", //Psychology of Popular Media Culture//, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 200-214, 2015.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;">[6]C. Anderson, J. Lindsay and B. Bushman, "Research in the Psychological Laboratory", //Current Directions in Psychological Science//, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 3-9, 1999.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;">[7]G. Mitchell, "Revisiting Truth or Triviality", //Perspectives on Psychological Science//, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 109-117, 2012.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;">[8]C. Ferguson, "Violent video games and the Supreme Court: Lessons for the scientific community in the wake of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association.", //American Psychologist//, vol. 68, no. 2, pp. 57-74, 2013.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;">[9]B. Krahé, I. Möller, L. Huesmann, L. Kirwil, J. Felber and A. Berger, "Desensitization to media violence: Links with habitual media violence exposure, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive behavior.", //Journal of Personality and Social Psychology//, vol. 100, no. 4, pp. 630-646, 2011.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;">[10]S. Goodman and S. Greenland, "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False: Problems in the Analysis", //PLoS Medicine//, vol. 4, no. 4, p. e168, 2007.