Persuasion and Argumentation - Research Paper Example

sitized children through operant and classical conditioning, while also presenting role models of violence; nevertheless, some of Grossman’s claims have to be checked for their accuracy and generalization effects. Grossman effectively uses ethos to establish his credentials as someone who knows what he is saying when it comes to training people to kill. He describes his profession and experiences with the army to underline that he has valid empirical and anecdotal knowledge, which can back up his claims.

He says that he has travelled the world to train medical, law enforcement, and military personnel sharing knowledge about warfare conditions. He also claims to be an expert in “killology” because he is a psychologist and a former U.S. Army Scout Ranger. Killology is a new branch of science that concerns the study of how and why people kill each other during war, as well as the causes of violence. His credentials and experiences are important to ethos because he effectively establishes his background and proficiency on this matter.

He stresses that he possess an insider experience and he can see valid parallels between training soldiers to kill and how the media trains children to kill as well. His beliefs support numerous studies, such as those from Daly and Perez in 2009 and Huston-Stein et al. in 1981, where exposing pre-school children to media violence increased aggressive behaviors and decreased pro-social behaviors. These studies are similar to the studies and experiences that Grossman mentions, which strengthens his credibility as a valid critic of the effects of violence in media on children.

Grossman uses simple emotional images to evoke revulsion for media violence. In a study which explains the connection between TV violence and actual violence, he stresses that it takes fifteen years to condition people to kill. He says that the “prime crime age” is 15 years because “that is how long it takes for you to reap what you have sown when you