Violent Behavior in the Media and its impact on Violence in the Physical World - Research Proposal Example

?Violent Behavior in the Media and its impact on Violence in the Physical World BoYeon Lee Arizona Violence and aggression in the media has been an increasing trend for many years as technology continues to increase and programmers compete for ratings. Concerns have been raised about how this affects aggression demonstrated in the real world. Despite numerous studies on the subject there remains no consensus on what effect, if any; violent behavior within the media has on violence and aggression in real life. This review focuses on the effect of television violence on aggression in real life and develops a comprehensive experimental procedure for testing whether there is a relationship between the level of violence that is observed, and the aggression that is shown for adult males. Participants were exposed to two hours of television programming (including advertising), for which the level of violence was calculated. A total of six different levels were used, falling into three categories: children’s cartoon, adult comedy and adult action. The level of aggression shown by participants was tested using a twenty-question survey, where individuals were asked how they would respond to different situations, with responses varying in the level of aggression shown. These responses can then be analyzed using statistical tests to determine whether there is a significant trend. Literature Review Introduction Society as a whole is consistently being fed with violent images, ideas and themes from the media that surrounds us. This is particularly important in the present age where mass media is a common method is a common method of advertising and entertainment. Mass media comes in many forms and the term is used to any form of media communication that reaches a large group of people at the same time. Different forms of mass media include newspapers, the Internet, billboards, movies, television and magazines . One form of mass media that is of particular interest is television. From once being a novelty, and a luxury item that only a few could afford, televisions are now commonplace in households, with many who consider themselves ‘light’ viewers watching several hours each day. Many who watch television pride themselves on the ability to distinguish fact from fiction, what is real from what is illusion, yet these distinctions are solely on the part of the viewer, and change as the viewers own perception changes . The high prevalence of television in the lives of a large amount of people, as well as the high number of hours that are viewed by even light viewers leads to concern that there is high potential for what is observed to affect both thought processes and behavior. In addition to this the large amount of information that can be portrayed through the television, both from sounds and visual information is substantial. A factor that has been of interest within the literature for many years is whether the violence and aggression that is prevalent in mass media in general and particularly on television has any influence on the levels of violence and aggression that are observed in the real world. Violence in media can generally be defined as visual or audio portrayals of physical aggression by one character, generally human-like, towards another. In contrast, aggression in the media can be defined as an act intended to either injure or irritate another person . Debate has been wide ranging concerning whether the violence on television plays any role, with opinions and studies indicating different results. This debate is becoming of increasing importance as the prevalence of violence on television continues to rise . Murders and shootings are common in many different genres of television program and movies. Martial arts, expositions and fist fights are all common fare to emphasize a point, or to fill in the gaps between pieces of story . This study looks at the background and need for studies on violence on television, the arguments for the ability of mass media to cause violence, arguments against this ability, indirect or alternative effects that could be causing the trend, and the consensus in the literature and in what areas more research is needed. Finally, a research question and hypothesis will be proposed for further study into the topic. Background and Need It is human nature to look for causal links between the environment surrounding us and aspects of our own behavior and health. Many times links are found in places that are not expected and this brings a new focus and direction to research. For example, the concept that smoking could strongly contribute to cancer was once a foreign concept, but now it is widely recognized. In many cultures, particularly American, the amount of time spent watching television is high, in many cases outweighing most or all other activities .The trend for violence in media is increasing as program planners and designers aim to get the maximum number of viewers possible. For both adults and children, incorporating violence into the program on average causes a significant increase to the number of individuals that watch the program . There are a large number of studies each year looking at the relationship between violence in media and violence in real life, however there appears to be little overall consensus . The consequence of this is that despite the large number of studies in the area, the field of study remains both an active and an important one. One strong theory surrounding how viewers respond to what they watch on television is cultivation theory or analysis. The concept is that people who spend more time watching television have an increased likelihood of perceiving the real world in a similar way to the themes they see on television. In contrast, those who spend less time watching television are less likely to carry the themes that they observe into the real world . While many correlations have been made between violence on television and that in the real world, such as times where children have watched a violent act on television then enacted it in real life, these correlations do not replace scientific study. It is important to know whether violence on television and in movies is having an actual effect on behavior in the real world or if the effect is only perceived . Questions are posed whether observed trends are casual, or whether they are based on correlations, such as pertaining to a third factor, or whether the cause is the other way around, as in individuals with higher levels of aggression are spend more time watching violent television than those with lower levels of aggression . This correlation can be avoided by the use of experimental studies, rather than those that look at trends within the population. When examining the effects of violence, it is important to take into account both the long term and the short-term effects. Children exposed to violence on television for many years may be affected by it, whereas this may not be the case for children only exposed for a short period of time . Likewise, violence in the media can affect our acceptance of violence in the real world, affecting how much of it is present. Constant exposure to violence can act to desensitize, resulting in individuals not taking action to prevent an act of violence, where previously they would have . There is a wide range of literature that considers this topic, covering both sides of the debate. Evidence for Mass Media Causing an Effect It is often considered what we invest our time and our energy into is where we focus our thoughts and our attention, both while we are involved in the activity and when we are not. There has been concern for a substantial period of time that the violence seen on television was causing an increase in violence in the real world as a direct response. As explained by Phillips (1982) the earliest studies that tested the link between what was observed in the media and actions in real life was in 1977. One correlation that drove this discovery was the relationship between suicide rates and statistics such as non-fatal accidents that could have been suicide attempts, and suicide stories on soap operas. When a popular soap opera did a story that addressed the issue of suicide, with one or more characters being suicidal and/or committing suicide, there was a statistically significant increase in the number of people in real life that committed or attempted to commit suicide . A recent study by Huesmann examined the current level of research surrounding the effect that electronic media such as television, video games and the Internet have on violence and the likelihood of violent behavior. They considered a number of theoretical explanations for how violence in the media can cause effects in real life. Among these were: priming, which involved the activation of the neural network towards the external stimuli; arousal, where the emotional response from the media is often misattributed to the response from external stimuli and the physical response took both emotional responses into account, and mimicry, which involves the imitation of behavior. Long term models included observational learning and desensitization. Observational learning is a cognitive theory that has significant support and suggests that the growth of the social behavior of an individual is based off what they observe to be the norms of social behavior as they grow up. A child exposed to significant violence from an early age through media may begin to consider this type of behavior to be the norm and show an increased propensity towards violence as a consequence. Desensitization involves the decrease in response from a stimulus such as violence as the consequence of repeated exposure. The author examined one meta-analysis that concentrated on violence in television and films. They found that from 217 published studies there was a moderate effect size of violence in the media on violence in real life, this effect remained even when only experimental studies were included in the analysis . Arguments against Mass Media Causing an Effect One factor to take into consideration is that even if there is shown to be a relationship between violence on mass media and violence or aggression in real life, it doesn’t mean that the causal factor has to be the violence on the media. It could be that aggressive individuals have a higher tendency to watch violent programs, or that the rise in violence in mass media is a consequence of a rise in violence in real life, based on the concept that art mimics life. Alternatively, violence in the media and violence in real life may be correlated as they are both related to a third factor, not because one causes the other . Indirect or Alternative Effects Another argument for the role that mass media plays towards violence in the real world are its role not in violence, but in the acceptance of violence when it is seen. For example, a study found that viewing violent media increased the acceptance of males to violence against women .A study on children found that those who had just seen a violent movie took longer to seek help following a fight in the classroom than those that had not seen the movie . The catchphrase for this is often the desensitization towards violence. Conclusion While a large number of studies suggest that there is an effect of violence observed on television has a significant effect on violence, aggression or the propensity towards violence, there remains no consensus opinion. As a consequence, we propose an experimental test of the theories and concepts examined in this literature review, looking specifically at the amount of violence viewed on television by adult males and subsequent levels of aggression. RQ1: Is there a relationship between the level of violence viewed and aggression shown in adult males? H0: There will be no significant relationship between the level of violence that individuals view and the aggression that they show. Methods Research Participants Participants for this study were 40 males aged between 21 and 70 years of age. The mean age was 29.4, as most of the respondents were young. Approximately 70% of these were white non-Hispanic, 15% black non Hispanic and the remainder including Asian and Hispanic, as well as those identifying with multiple racial groups, or with a non listed racial group. Procedure Advertisements were placed in two prominent newspapers for participants in a research study with would involve around half a day of commitment. Criteria for participants were that they were above 21 years old and male, no upper age limit was stated. The advertisements were run for several weeks, during which 47 individuals responded. Of these, seven were excluded due to inability to attend either session. Two sessions were done for the study, each consisting of half of the participants. Participants were randomly assigned to a session unless prior commitments meant that they were only able to attend a specific session. If this was the case, then the individual attended the session for which he was free of commitments. Within each session, participants were randomly assigned one of three groups (A, B or C). Because of the number of participants these groups were not even in size, rather two contained seven members and the third contained six. Each group watched approximately two hours worth of television. Group A watched two episodes from two different comedy series, Group B watched two episodes from children’s shows which showed some cartoon violence and Group C watched two episodes from action two action series. The exact programs watched by the participants differed between the two sessions in order to introduce replication. All advertisements that ran at the time of the program were included in the viewing material. Following the two hours participants were given a 15 minute break during which they could socialize and have something to eat. After this break the participants were given a 20 question survey which covered a wide variety of topics. The first few questions of the survey asked for demographic information about the participant including their age and race. The remainder of the survey proposed situations in which the individual might find themselves in and how they would respond. The participants could respond to each situation with one of four multiple choice answers which were designed to emulate actual responses as much as possible. The answers varied in the level of aggression that was demonstrated, with one answer often indicating a violent solution. Instrumentation The independent variable in this study was the level of violence or aggression that was observed. There was no established measure for this variable, and as a consequence a method of measuring aggression and violence level was determined. The variable was termed “exposure to violence”. To determine this variable, the length of time during the program that violent or aggressive scenes were shown was calculated by watching the content and using a stopwatch to record the number of instances and the length of time. This produced a number which could then be used for direct comparison between the six groups (three experimental groups, two sessions). For example, group A in session two had a total of ten minutes of aggression throughout the two hours of media which they viewed. The dependent variable was the level of aggression that was shown by individuals. As with the independent variable, there was no established means of measuring the variable. Thus, for each survey question (excluding the demographic questions) the responses were scored from one to four for the level of aggression or violence that was shown, with one being no aggression, seeking a peaceful solution, while four was the highest level of aggression, often resulting in violence. Data Analytic Plan The research question for this study was: Is there a relationship between the level of violence viewed and aggression shown in adult males? This will be determined by using ANOVAs to test for the significance of the exposure to violence compared to the level of aggression that the participants demonstrated. The analysis will also test whether age or session had an impact on the outcome. References Aluja-Fabregat, A., & Torrubia-Beltri, R. (1998). Viewing of mass media violence, perception of violence, personality and academic achievement. Personality and Individual Differences, 25(5), 973-989. Bryant, J., & Oliver, M. B. (2009). Media effects: Advances in theory and research. New York: Taylor & Francis, 34-36. Drabman, R. S., & Thomas, M. H. (1974). Does media violence increase children's toleration of real-life aggression? Developmental Psychology, 10(3), 418. Freedman, J. L. (2002). Media violence and its effect on aggression: Assessing the scientific evidence. Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1-15. Huesmann, L. R. (2007). The impact of electronic media violence: scientific theory and research. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41(6), S6-S13. Huesmann, L. R., & Miller, L. S. (1994). Long-term effects of repeated exposure to media violence in childhood. 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