Media Violence and Aggressive Behavior
Media Violence and Aggressive Behavior
Monica Suzanne B. Castro #21856730
Submitted for SSC130BB: Essentials of Psychology
January 25, 2014
Research project #05020500
Media Violence and Aggressive Behavior
Introduction
In the early 1960s Albert Bandura conducted his famous “Bobo Doll” experiments, in which children were shown videos of someone attacking a plastic clown known as a Bobo doll (Isom, 1998). Many of the children exposed to these videos later imitated the same violence they had seen demonstrated in the video and continued to reproduce that violent behavior even months later (Isom, 1998). These results led Bandura and others to conclude that the children had learned the behavior from the video and were modeling their behavior accordingly. Today many people continue to claim that exposure to violence in the media will invariably lead to similarly aggressive behavior in children. However, by the time the average child graduates elementary school, he will have witnessed more than 8,000 murders and 800,000 violent acts on network television (Feldman, 2013, p. 188). Clearly, not all children who view these acts become violent and aggressive, so there must be mitigating factors at work. While excessive exposure to media violence can be detrimental, there are far more important factors that influence a child’s behavior and, when properly monitored, media can have a beneficial impact as well.
The Role of Family While media plays an ever growing role in the lives of children, it is not the only factor that holds influence over them. From the time children are first born until they have some understanding of the world around them, parents and other family hold the most influence. At that time, children are just experiencing the world and they are extremely receptive to any stimuli they receive, positive or negative. They model behavior as a way of learning how people interact with one another. This
Monica Suzanne B. Castro #21856730
Submitted for SSC130BB: Essentials of Psychology
January 25, 2014
Research project #05020500
Media Violence and Aggressive Behavior
Introduction
In the early 1960s Albert Bandura conducted his famous “Bobo Doll” experiments, in which children were shown videos of someone attacking a plastic clown known as a Bobo doll (Isom, 1998). Many of the children exposed to these videos later imitated the same violence they had seen demonstrated in the video and continued to reproduce that violent behavior even months later (Isom, 1998). These results led Bandura and others to conclude that the children had learned the behavior from the video and were modeling their behavior accordingly. Today many people continue to claim that exposure to violence in the media will invariably lead to similarly aggressive behavior in children. However, by the time the average child graduates elementary school, he will have witnessed more than 8,000 murders and 800,000 violent acts on network television (Feldman, 2013, p. 188). Clearly, not all children who view these acts become violent and aggressive, so there must be mitigating factors at work. While excessive exposure to media violence can be detrimental, there are far more important factors that influence a child’s behavior and, when properly monitored, media can have a beneficial impact as well.
The Role of Family While media plays an ever growing role in the lives of children, it is not the only factor that holds influence over them. From the time children are first born until they have some understanding of the world around them, parents and other family hold the most influence. At that time, children are just experiencing the world and they are extremely receptive to any stimuli they receive, positive or negative. They model behavior as a way of learning how people interact with one another. This
References: Feldman, R.S. (2013). Psychology and your life. New York: McGraw-Hill. Gentile, D.A., et al. (2011). Media violence, physical aggression, and relational aggression in school age children: A short-term longitudinal study. Aggressive Behavior, 37, 193-206. Isom, M.D. (1998). The social learning theory. Florida State University. Retrieved from http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/bandura.htm.