There has been far-reaching research on the link between televised violence and violent behavior amongst adolescents. Current studies have shown a direct correlation between aggressive conduct and watching violence depicted in many media services and suggest that media is a variable that put children at risk of aggressive behavior (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 1992). According to the American Psychological Association, watching playing violent scenes them on games and television, can desensitize children to the suffering and pain of others and may be a greater risk of acting aggressively toward others and they're less bothered by violence in general and less likely to see anything wrong with it. Studies disclose that children watch roughly twenty eight hours of television a week (Tompkins, 2003). American children and adolescents are exposed to increasing amounts of media violence, especially in television, movies, video games, and youth-oriented music. By 18, the average young person will have viewed 200,000 acts of violence on television (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 1992). Many of the studies that claim positive results concerning a link between media violence and ensuing aggression, actually have negative or inconclusive results. Media violence researches frequently fail to report for other variables such as heredity traits, personality and introduction to family violence that may explain both the reason some people become violent and why they may decide to expose themselves to violent media.
In more recent years, violence has become the most popular form of entertainment. Most fictional programs on television and scenes depicted in most games need this violence to develop a storyline that would be i...
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...ut the violent act in fantasy or play right after seeing it on TV (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 1992). This is thought to be workable because of the notion that if a child does not learn to hold back their aggression then they will not learn social skills such as the capability to collaborate and make peace with others.
Works Cited
Huesmann, L. R., Moise-Titus, J., Podolski, C.-L., & Eron, L. D. (1992). "Longitudinal Relations Between Children's Exposure to TV Violence and Their Aggressive and Violent Behavior in Young Adulthood: 1977 - 1992. Developmental Psychology , 202-221.
Malamuth, N. M., & Check, J. V. (1981). The Effects of Mass Exposure on acceptance of Violence against Women: A Field Experiment . Journal of Research in Personality , 436-446.
Tompkins, A. (2003). The Psychological Effect of Violent Media on Children. Allpsych Journal .
American society emphasizes violence in the media. Television shows, movies, and video games, are all outlets researchers often place blame when considering the effects media has on violent behavior. Television shows, movies, and video games frequently revolve around violent plots, characters die in gruesome ways, and violence against others is common place. “Social learning is the branch of behavior theory most relevant to criminology. Social learning theorist, most notably Albert Bandura, argue that people are not actually born with the ability to act violently, but that they learned to be aggressive through their life experiences.” (PG. 161)
According to the article, Violence in the Media, written by the APA, it provides information on how ferocious television episodes can affect a child’s senses, feelings, and attitude. To be more specific, it can make them become numb, frightened, and more pugnacious due to the amount of violent TV they watch. Furthermore, according to the same article, the APA also wrote, “By observing these participants into adulthood, Huesmann and Eron found that the ones who'd watched a lot of TV violence when they were 8 years old were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults.” Psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann and Leonard Eron held a study that concluded that the result of watching violent television can lead to jail and criminal actions. This will also cause a child to become more aggressive and therefore will become a nefarious person. All in all, the American Psychological Association decided that violent television can shape a child’s disposition. In fact, it can also encourage a child to execute bad deeds and crimes when they become
Most of the time violence is considered as the worst when it comes to the bad effects of video games. A scientific survey (Anderson & Bushman, 2001) has found a connection between aggressive behaviors and playing violent games where more the children play violent games, more tend be aggressive in behavior. Not only that but also they are more likely to have aggressive feelings and thoughts plus diminished aiding. It is said that the impact of playing violent games in children is compounded by the intuitive/interactive nature of the games. Children are remunerated for being more vicious or violent, most of the time in many games. The demonstration of violence is carried out over and again and the player is in control of the violence who encounters the brutality such as killing/stabbing in his own eyes. This first-hand experience in violence, being rewarded for it and the iteration of this process are compelling conditions for learning and developing violent behavior.
Positive associations between media violence and aggressive thoughts, hostile emotions, and aggressive or violent behavior have been found repeatedly, in both children and adults, in studies using a variety of methods, including laboratory and field experiments, cross-sectional studies, and longitudinal research” (Jones, Cunningham, and Gallagher 11). Children are taken care of by those that are older. Children are taught what to do and what not to do. However, not all adolescents have the chance to be raised right. They become exposed to violence in or out of their household, and they capture the cruel acts through media and are persuaded into thinking it’s normal.
With television violence more prevalent than ever before, parents and professionals have been concerned about this type of programming adversely affecting behavior in children. While thousands of studies have been completed on this subject, with most of them showing a direct connection between media violence and belligerent behavior, the ensuing information will show the inadequacies of such theories by further scrutinizing these points of interest:
The controversy over whether or not violence portrayed on television actually affects children or not has been playing itself out for nearly three decades. When some of the first results came out in the 60s and 70s that made the first connections between aggressive behavior and viewing televised violence, the TV and movie industries denied that there was a connection. When studies found the same thing in the 80s, the FCC opposed any regulation (Hepburn). A writer for Direct Ma...
Typically, randomized experiments have reveal that exposure to media violence can cause immediate increases in aggressive thoughts and tolerance for aggression in both children and teenagers. For example, in a study with young children (Drabman & Thomas, 1974, 1975; Thomas & Drabman, 1975), a brief violent video film clip were shown to the group of youngsters, it was then found out that they were slower to call an adult to intervene when they saw two younger children fighting compared to the peers who had watched neutral film. This shows that the single violent clip appeared to make the children more tolerant of aggression, at least for only a temporarily period.
It has been quoted “A 1992 study found that the average American child graduated from elementary school has seen more than 8,000 murders, more than 100,000 assaults, rapes and other acts of violence on television aone” (Wright). The amount of violence within children’s cartoons and music influences children negatively and plays off violence with humor. It has been proven, “with video games you’re not only passively receiving violent attitudes and behaviors, you're rehearsing them” (Cohen). The repetitive actions of shooting and violent behavior is replayed in the mind over and over, almost as muscle memory. It has been found “A recent analysis asserts that the correlation between virtual and actual aggression is stronger than those linking passive smoke and lung lung cancer” (Wright). Users of aggressive video games often do not realize how harmful the effects can be. Psychologists states “there is evidence that points to decades of research and more than a thousand studies that demonstrates a clear link between media violence and real aggression” (Wright). There is more than enough evidence that proves media violence is a link to actual violence. Children are more vulnerable to view violence on television. Children’s programs average between 20-30 violent acts per hour, four times as many as adult programs (Wright). The amount of violent acts shown to children at a young age is a factor that can lead a person to commit violent acts outside of the virtual
...of Indiana wanted to prove that media violence has a direct effect on the executive functioning of children and adolescents. Specifically, they wanted to see if there was a direct correlation between media violence in video games and television and aggressive behavior. It also set forth to test a theory proposed by the General Affective Aggression Model, (GAAM). GAAM proposed that, “repeated exposure to violence on television and video games causes changes in aggressive beliefs, aggressive perceptual schemata, aggressive expectations, aggressive behavior scripts, and desensitization that interact with the individual’s personality and the situation to cause aggressive behavior,” (Kronenberger 726). It also tested the theory that if something is wrong in the executive functioning area, it is likely to cause aggressive behavior that is poorly planned and impulsive.
In violent video games, children and teenagers submit themselves to the following material: bullying, murdering, abusing, and much more. Violent video games with such material teach the children and teenagers negative morals and negative ways of thinking. In these violent video games, children and teenagers perform violent and aggressive acts throughout the game repetitively. Sadly, children and teenagers learn from mimicking and repetition, and they tend to obscure truth and fiction from one another. “Video games often reward players for simulating violence, and thus enhance the learning of violent behaviors. Studies suggest that when violence is rewarded in video games, players exhibit increased aggressive behavior compared to players of video games where violence is punished (Granic 1).” Many critics state that these games numb players to violence and bullying. In 2007, researchers concurred that these games teach children and teenagers that violence is an adequate solution to problems, and a recent study indicates the amount of children being bullied in school has increa...
It is not a well-known fact that since 1994, in the US, video game sales have increased an estimated 204%, while crime has fallen 37% (“Violent Video Games”). Video games create an outlet for an alternative reality for expressing aggression, rather than in the real world. Simulated violence that is shown to the public through video games is advantageous in numerous ways. Video games are extremely beneficial and safe because they provide kids with useful, real-world skills, they help gamers to solve scientific problems, and there are limits placed on them.
The question is do violent video games influence children to act aggressively? And can repetitive killing train a person to be violent himself? Statistics have shown that the violence amongst young people has been increasing every year, conversely, so has the number of violent video games. Although the violence in these video games is fictional, research has proven the violence to lead to more aggressive behavior in children. Violent acts depicted in these games allow young children to believe that killing and fighting is acceptable and fun.
Furthermore, television violence causes aggressive behavior in children. Many people believe that children who watch violent television programs exhibit more aggressive behavior than that exhibited by children who do not (Kinnear 23). According to the results of many studies and reports, violence on television can lead to aggressive behavior in children (Langone 50). Also, when television was introduced into a community of children for the first time, researchers observed a rise in the level of physical and verbal aggression among these children (Langone 51). The more television violence viewed by a child, the more aggressive the child is (“Children” 1).
Fisher, Deborah A. "Television Violence Contributes to Aggressive Behavior in Young People." 2007. Opposing Viewpoints. .
No single factor can cause children or adults to act aggressively. Instead, it is the accumulation of risk factors that leads to an aggressive act. Hundreds of studies look into the issue of violent media, it always seems to end up the same place with three major effects including increasing aggressive behavior in a variety of forms, desensitization, and spurs fear. Not every viewer will be affected noticeably, but we know that every viewer is affected in some way. Some have argued that violent media are the primary cause of mass shooting. Others have argued that there is no solid evidence of any harmful effects of violent media. But it is clear is that exposure to media violence is one of risk factors increased aggressive behavior, desensitization, and fear.