Television violence stimulates aggressive behavior in children

Introduction

In many parts of the world, the impact of television violence on children has become a topic of interest since many years. Researchers agree that there is a bidirectional link rather than a linear link, which gives an idea that it is better to understand the relationship between television violence, aggression and other individual environmental factors. The rate of violent crime in the whole world is increasing and more importantly young people are getting more involved in all the criminal activities. This particular development is going to be very harmful for the children in the future. This is quite alarming because aggressive behavior in childhood is good predictor of criminal behavior in adulthood.

Discussion

TV violence is even greater than seen in society, as before entering to school, child would have seen nearly 8,000 murders and 100,000 other violent acts. There are children from two to eleven years who spend an average of 28 hours per week watching television: it is more than any other activity except sleep. In the underdeveloped areas, it is even more since they have few opportunities to enjoy alternative recreational activities. There are many countries such as US and UK the law is quite cautious about the censorship of programming because researchers have different views about the importance of the impact of television. Various authors identified a multitude of topics on this subject. Many laboratory studies have shown that children who watched violent movie heroes imitated behavior and were more aggressive during their free time. The Correlation research has shown that aggressive behaviors are multi determined and that the viewing of violent programs contributes significantly and independently of other variables. Longitudinal studies have revealed that preference for violent programming by the children is a good predictor of violent behavior when he or she will enter adulthood. The results of multiple investigations are consistent. It can be easily said that aggression and television violence are mutually determined, that is to say that the child chooses more aggressive and violent programming that maintains and increases its level of initial aggression. This particular phenomenon goes to the same direction according to developmental theories and theories of social cognitive disorders (Hinshaw, p.301).

According to the developmental perspective, aggression in children is the result of the interaction of internal factors (temperament, intelligence) and environmental (family, neighborhood, school). Early socialization experiences are critical to the learning of aggression as a means of resolving conflict with peers. The child who uses aggression behavior may obtain short term outcomes of interest: he gets what he wants because others fear him. In the long term, however, his peers reject it; he has fewer opportunities to learn better social skills. In addition, he received negative reactions from others, which puts him in a situation to defend himself against a hostile environment. A vicious circle of aggression and rejection reinforces to react violently. He would most likely choose violent programs that will influence his attitudes and beliefs in accordance with the aggressive ...