Examples Of Unjustified Violence In Film Excerptss

Aggression is defined as “any behaviour intended to cause physical or psychological harm to a person (including self), animal or object” (Carter, 2005, p. 433). Distinguishing aggression from violence lies between the severity of the act, as violence is a more harmful act than aggression. Violence can be recognized as justifiable (able to explain) and unjustifiable (unnecessary) – this will form the independent variable. In this investigation, both males and females will participate in an experiment in which 3 film excerpts will be watched, the participants will have their heart rate measured before and after the film excerpts, to investigate ‘does the female and male heart rate differ when watching justified vs non-justified violence in different film excerpts?’. The heart rate of the participants will be the dependent variable. The film The Patriot is the justified violence, Crazy, stupid love is the unjustified violence and The Note Book is the control, a calming agent. The controlled variables in the investigation consisted of secluding each participant from one another, the amount of time the heart rate
was measured for and no conversation.

The investigation conducted involved the stage 1 year 11 psychology class, in which, 9 females and 10 males in the age range of 15-16 calculated their heart rate to different film excerpts. The participants were not randomly selected, due to, the Australian curriculum in which the students were compiled to participant. Consent was obtained through a contract that consisted of information about what will be conducted and how and signed by each participant, if younger than 16 the participant was required to have a parent signature.

Step 1 –Separate participants from one another.
Step 2- Educate participants to find their heart rate effectively and efficiently.
Step 3- Ensure every participant has a questionnaire (upside down) in front of them with a pen/pencil for the first film excerpt.
Step 4- Give participants 10 seconds to find heart rate before timing initial heart for one minute.
Step 5- Ensure each participants eyes are closed whist taking initial heart rate.
Step 6- Play film excerpt.
Step 7- Wait 10 seconds before recording final heart rate after one minute of the film excerpt (keeping eyes closed).
Step 8- Answer questionnaire in front
Step 9- Place questionnaire in front once finished without changing anything.
Step 10- Repeat step 3-9 for each film excerpt.

The results indicate that females while watching Crazy, Stupid Love had a significantly lower average of 4.2 beats per minute compared to males, with an average of 7.8 beats per minute. However, in The Patriot the male’s heart rate average (8.9 beats per minute) was seen as lower compared to females with an average of 9.2 beats per minute. The heart rate increase between the sexes both increased however the female’s heart rate increased significantly more than the
males.