INFLUENCE OF VIEWING MEDIA VIOLENCE ON AGGRESSION

The Influence Of Viewing Media Violence On Aggression



Abstract

With even more interactive media being now available for our children through the forms of the internet and video games numerous experiments have exposed children to media violence and observed violence and aggression levels. In the short term media violence increases arousal and the unconscious urge to imitate the observed violent behaviours, where, in the long term it causes the perturbing decrease in negative emotional response, the virtual desensitization of our children. Concerns are also feared over different adverse reactions in children, including excessive fear of the world, as well as violent aggression and becoming less sensitive to suffering and pain (desensitization) The level of concern of the impact on future social behaviour of our children has led to numerous experiments being carried out to conduct whether or not there is reason for trepidation.

Media Violence On Aggression

Introduction

The effects of media violence and the ultimate desensitization of today's youth are causing mounting worries over children's development in such a technological world. The average child of today watches 5-6 hours of television, in which they are subsequently exposed to 100,000 violent acts in their mere childhood years. It is undeniable that a child learns and therefore reacts accordingly to the stimulus they are exposed to. Such significant exposure has hence sparked growing concerns amongst parents over the detrimental effects of media violence exposure; through the forms of material such as television, movies and video games, to the youth of today. It is now clear that there is a direct relationship between media violence exposure and aggressive behaviour in both the short and long term. In this investigation we shall explore the factors surrounding a topic which is much discussed in our society today - the level of influence Media violence have on our aggressiveness, as individuals, and as a society as a whole. We shall in particular focus on TV in this study, due to TV being the most popular Media, and also due to the limitation in size of the project itself.

There are four variables in this study and they are:

Provoked aggression before watching the film

Provoked aggression after watching the film

Memory score

Violence rating

Research Method

In this report we used quatitative research method.

Result

Descriptive Statistic:

Descriptive Statistics

N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

PAQbefore

89

36

130

95.46

20.792

Valid N (listwise)

89

The above table shows the descriptive statistic for Provoked aggression before watching the film. It can be seen that the average is 95.46 and standard deviation is 20.792.

Descriptive Statistics

N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

PAQaf

89

35

140

97.55

22.389

Memory

89

1

10

6.16

2.039

ViolenceR

89

4

10

7.93

1.437

Valid N (listwise)

89



The above table provide descriptive statistic for the rest of variables it can be seen that the mean for Provoked aggression after watching the film is 97.55 which is higher than the mean before watching the film.

Frequency Distribution for PAQ before and PAQ_ After

paqbefore (Binned)

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

<= 43

2

2.2

2.2

2.2

44 - 60

5

5.6

5.6

7.9

61 - 78

7

7.9

7.9

15.7

79 - 95

22

24.7

24.7

40.4

96 - 113

36

40.4

40.4

80.9

114+

17

19.1

19.1

100.0

Total

89

100.0

100.0

PAQaf (Binned)

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

<= 42

1

1.1

1.1

1.1

44 - 62

7

7.9

7.9

9.0

63 - 82

11

12.4

12.4

21.3

82 - 101

27

30.3

30.3

51.7

102 - 120

31

34.8

34.8

86.5

122+

12

13.5

13.5

100.0

Total

89

100.0

100.0

Comparison of Two data Sets - Paired Data (PAQ before and PAQ after)

Paired sample t-test is a ...