Unit 4

Question 1

What is Excitation Transfer?

Answer 1

-arousal from one event can be added to the arousal w/ a subsequent event (that is temporally close) -result is intensified level of arousal for the latter event

Question 2

What is the difference between violence and aggression?

Answer 2

violence is higher in intensity -aggression is more general (any action intended to cause harm)

Question 3

Summarize Anderson et al. Findings? Limitations?

Answer 3

• longer term study -cross-cultural -confirmed that (habitually) playing vid games is causal risk for later aggression
• 3 samples = 181 japanese 12-15yr olds, 1050 japanese 12-18yr olds, 364 US 9-12yr olds -studied before & after 3-6 months
• same effect btw US (aggressive, individualistic) and Japan (less aggressive, collective) -slightly less effects for older youth
• limitations: -measures not identical across samples (but could show robustness) -need larger sample size & longer periods

Question 4

Summarize Konijn. Findings? Limitations?

Answer 4

• violent vid games might increase aggression more when players identify w/ the characters -SLT
• 112 dutch boys aged 12-17 -played realistic or fantasy violent or non-violent game -then noise test
• result: identifying w/ characters does make more aggressive -not all players who played violent were aggressive, but those who identified were (not necessarily those who were already aggressive)
• limitations: -hard to measure all aspects of identification -limits ability to make causal inferences -only studied boys

Question 5

What is violence?

Answer 5

any act or threat of physical force against self or others (except includes accidents) so acts that intentionally lead to physical or psychological harm

Question 6

what is aggression?

Answer 6

any act intended to cause harm -broader category

• can be direct or indirect
• ex. verbal (direct), physical (direct), or relational (indirect)

Question 7

Problems w/ defining violence and aggression?

Answer 7

• hard to do

- what about news? a hockey game?

Question 8

What are some factors that impact likelihood of acting aggressive?

Answer 8

• aggressive emotions
• aggressive traits
• physiological factors
• aggressive thoughts

Question 9

Is catharsis supported? What is it?

Answer 9

• no not enough evidence

- idea of purging -if violent thoughts can release through watching media

Question 10

Who’s most likely to imitate on Bobo doll if rewarded? What factors might impact this?

Answer 10

• boys
• having a model similar to themselves (ie sex)
• or a model they know
• personal factors

Question 11

How does scripts theory work w/ violence?

Answer 11

• violent media can build up scripts in a certain way -ex. if there’s a disagreement, think it’s okay/acceptable to punch since you’ve seen it
• shapes your thoughts which then shape your behaviour
• thoughts!

Question 12

How does excitation theory work w/ violence?

Answer 12

• consuming violent media leads to arousal -can be interpreted as anger
• arousal starts emotion -emotions leads to action
• emotions!

Question 13

What is desensitization?

Answer 13

• repeated exposure to media violence leads to lessened emotional reaction
• neuroimaging of brain - showed grownups varying violent clips -left orbital frontal cortex detects threat signal and regulates emotions -after a lots of violence, decrease in activation
• emotions!

Question 14

How does priming work w/ violence?

Answer 14

• violent stimuli activate aggressive thoughts - prime related thoughts
• the more you watch the more related thoughts are activated & prime for others
• thoughts!

Question 15

Which media effects theories deal w/ violence and emotions?

Answer 15

• excitation transfer theory

- desensitization theory

Question 16

Which media effects theories deal w/ violence and thoughts?

Answer 16

• scripts

- priming

Question 17

How can both theories exist when one says gets more aroused and one says we’re desensitized?

Answer 17

-different time scales - 1st time you are aroused but if repeated exposure become desensitized

Question 18

main points of GAM (general aggression model)

Answer 18

• input variables (personal or situational)
• affect internal state (affect, cognition, arousal - bidirectional)
• then route is appraised for either thoughtful action or impulse action -decide to act aggressively -either reinforced or punished or neither (same as rewarded basically) -then will impact future decisions

Question 19

What is the difference between UMM and GAM?

Answer 19

-replace the word aggression w/ behaviour

Question 20

How does media affect GAM?

Answer 20

• input variables -short-term impacts arousal, affect, & primes aggressive thoughts to affect internal state (affect, cognition, & arousal)
• long term - more aggressive scripts, reinforced to lead to a more aggressive personality or desensitization to violence (action, cognition, person)

Question 21

How did Anderson et al contradict that only aggressive kids will become more aggressive?

Answer 21

• SLT

- kids from low aggressive cultures/pretested as low aggression kids still acted aggressive after habitual playing

Question 22

What were Anderson’s & Konijn recommendations on how to lessen impact of violent vid games?

Answer 22

• focus on pain of victims

- stop glamorizing violent actions

Question 23

what is similarity identification?

Answer 23

-observer identifies w/ characters b/c share salient characteristics

Question 24

What is wishful identification?

Answer 24

-observer desires to emulate character outside of viewing situation -vicarious learning -glimpse of ‘what if’

Question 25

Do realism and immersion affect aggressive behaviour?

Answer 25

- no doesn't seem like it | - but do affect wishful identification which does

Question 26

Do most aggressive kids automatically act aggressively after playing the game? (Konijn)

Answer 26

-no depended on wishful identification - but hard to measure that -also the kids who were more aggressive seemed to choose violent game & identified w/ character more

Question 27

Was correlation btw aggressiveness and wishful identification significant?

Answer 27

- no | - depended on vid game played I think

Question 28

was correlation btw realism and immersion significant? (Konijn)

Answer 28

no

Question 29

What other factors that can lead to aggression (not media related)

Answer 29

-genetics, experience of abuse, parenting, owning a weapon, gender, aggressive personality

Question 30

What are some correlational designs/findings for TV violence?

Answer 30

- positive correlation btw violent TV consumption and aggressive cognition/behaviour - 1970s -measured how much kids were exposed & willingness to use violence -more exposed were more willing - wrestling -those who watched & if have tried to fight before - positive

Question 31

What are some correlational designs/findings for vid games violence?

Answer 31

- positive correlation | - 4&5yr olds -coded what they played -amount was correlated w/ lower empathy or positive attitudes towards violence

Question 32

Correlational problems w/ violent Tv & vid Games

Answer 32

- third variable? - directionality - accuracy of responses - (also most seemed to study only boys b/c more consistent result w/in boys)

Question 33

Why use longitudinal designs?

Answer 33

-for direction of effect

Question 34

Longitudinal designs & violence

Answer 34

- grade 3-4 -violent TV exposure (+ self-reports & others reports) -15yrs later correlated w/ aggression behaviour in 20s (weakish) - if aggressive as a kid didn't predict how much violent TV you'd watch in 20s -proves direction is media --> aggression - higher likelihood of criminal convictions - still not causal -3rd variable?

Question 35

What is the downward spiral model?

Answer 35

watch more aggressive media leads to being more aggressive which makes you watch more media etc.

Question 36

Experimental designs and violence in TV shows?

Answer 36

- those who watch TV violence do engage in more aggressive conditions/behaviours - also indirect aggression - 11-14yr olds were showed 1-3 TV shows of a friendship (direct or indirect or non) -then they evaluated the researcher -they rated her less positively & siad she should be paid less after watching aggression (direct or indirect) - is this modelling behaviour? mood? is the control group vid similar enough?

Question 37

Experimental designs and violence in Vid Games?

Answer 37

- pattern is assigned to violent vid game leads to more aggression (majority) - 9-12 yr olds & 17-19 yr olds -either violent or non-violent game -(games diff depending on age) -played for 20min -then noise test - blasted louder after violent game - BUT not all studies - 8-12 yr olds -play vi or non and then after gave scenarios of kid getting a toy stolen -found no difference btw playing the game beforehand

Question 38

What is the term for the noise test? & what is it?

Answer 38

Taylor Competitive Reaction Time task - get to blast your losing opponent w/ a sound - a certain level could deafen them -those that are aggressive do -how loud level is level of aggression - real world applicable?

Question 39

In general is consuming media violence linked to increased aggression? Problems?

Answer 39

yes -but it depends - real-world effects? - are results meaningful? - ethics

Question 40

Are the findings similar in meta-analysis of more aggressive media linking to aggressive behaviour? Issues?

Answer 40

- yes -but small to moderate effect - 5-10% of aggressive behaviour could be explained - most likely other factors - real world effect - methodological flaws/summary flaws in studies - individual factors

Question 41

What are some characteristics of the consumer that might factor into the impact of media violence?

Answer 41

- gender (recent studies less likely to find differences & most are about boys -possible gender effect but not enough data) - culture (seems no difference ) - personality & mental state (individual aggressiveness, likely to feel angry or frustrated after exposure to media violence) - age (hard to study -ethics)

Question 42

What are some characteristics of the media that might factor into the impact of media violence? (in connection w/ consumers)

Answer 42

- identification w/ violent characters (similarity & wishful) - context (glamorization, rewarded or unpunished, justified, realistic) - the medium (hard to compare between, (ex. vid games impact user more than viewer, meta-analyses find larger effect size from Tv violence than vid games))