Effects of Different Levels of T.V Violence on Aggression

Abstract

EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF T.V VIOLENCE ON AGGRESSION:

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of different levels of television violence on grade school children. Since some studies show that younger children are more prone to aggression than older children. This study is designed to show how violence plays a role in aggression. The intention is to show that violence causes different aggression levels between males and females. The second purpose of this study is to show if there are any significant differences between males and females and aggression induced by violence. The information on gender difference and aggression is controversial. All the children were mixed in this experiment combined the male and females children in mixed groups. Each group randomly received 10 males and 10 females. One of the groups was the control group which viewed the non-violent video and the second group was the experimental group, which viewed a violent video. Girls and boys who had about the same level of aggression were chosen for the experiment. Two televisions shows that contained different levels of violence were used in this study. Two volunteer teachers were present while the children viewed the videos. Measurement of aggression will be gathered from each student using a picture aggression test. Aggression levels were rated on a scale of 1 though 11, 11 being the highest level of aggression. The statistical results from group A, the boys who viewed Power Rangers, showed the mean of their level of aggression was 8.4. The variance, the precise measure of variability, of this group (1.64) was a significant difference. Group B for girls, who viewed Sesame Street, their mean was 1.6 and their variance was 0.16, also another significant difference. When comparing the numbers between the boys and girls in group A, the boys did appear to have a higher aggression level, than the girls in the same group, when they viewed the Power Ranger. In group B, the aggression level was higher for the girls than for boys in the same group, when they viewed Sesame Street.

EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF T.V VIOLENCE ON AGGRESSION:

POTENTIAL GENDER DIFFERENCES

Violence in the United States has risen to alarmingly high levels. Whether one considers assassination, group violence, or individual acts of violence, the decade of the 1960s was more violent than the several decades preceding it and ranks among the most violent in our history. The United Sates is the clear leader among modern, stable democratic nations in its rates of homicides, assault, rape, and robbery, and it is among the highest in incidents of group violence and assassinations. This high level of violence is dangerous to our society. It is disfiguring out society--making fortresses of portions of our cities and dividing our people into armed camps. It is jeopardizing to some of our most precious institutions; among them our schools and universities--poisoning the spirit of trust and cooperation that is essential to their proper functioning.

In the past years until now, violence among children has increased dramatically. Cases have been reported where grade school students take guns and other weapons to school and use them against their teachers and classmates. Things of that sort are very much a reality for schools around the country. Is the reason for these acts of violence that children are becoming more aggressive at younger ages? Does, the media have to do something with the increase in violence of young children, the fact that the media has more violence in it than any other point in history? It could be a combination of things, including work, single parents, peer pressures, etc. The true concern is that the media entertains children with violent shows, which are aimed at them. Some networks agreed to place advisories warning before and the prime-time television programs which they determined as violent (Molitor & Hirsch, 1994). The problem here is that the networks decide what violence is and what is not. The purpose of this study is to establish a guideline as to what is enough violence for a child to watch without increasing their aggression. The hypothesis at stake is that males will be more significantly aggressive that females and the females that are exposed to different levels of television violence will show different levels of aggression.

Most people look at television as an entertaining and education ional way of spending time.

Some believe though there is currently too much violence in television and that it is influencing our young into becoming aggressive in nature and tolerant to violence. Children's viewing of violent TV shows, their identification with aggressive same-sex TV characters, and their perceptions that TV violence is realistic, are all linked to later aggression as young adults for both males and females. These findings hold true for any child from any family, regardless of the child's education or occupation, their parents' aggressiveness, or the mother and father's parenting style. The age in which television violence starts to affect children is when they are 3 years old. Just as soon as they reach their mid-teens they will have seen thousands of violent incidents and deaths in cartoons and with real people according to research. However, these finding are restricting since if these studies had chosen two different age groups, the results would have told us more about the effect of television, videotape and videogame reduced exposure across different age groups.

To begin our experiment, we must first define what aggression is. Aggression is the first attack, or act of hostility; the first act of injury, or first act leading to a war or a controversy; unprovoked attack; assault; as, a war of aggression. "Aggressions of power" action. It is intended to harm someone. It can be verbal attack--insults, threats, sarcasm, or attribution nasty motives to them--or a physical punishment or restriction (Scott, 1975). What about thoughts and fantasies in which we humiliate or brutally assault our enemies? Is that aggression? What about violent dreams? Such thoughts and dreams suggest anger, of course, but are not aggression as defined earlier. While aggression is usually a result of anger (is feeling mad in response to frustration or injury), it may be "cold" and calculated, for example, the bomber pilot, the judge who sentences a criminal, the unfaithful spouse, the merchant who overprices a product, or the unemotional gang attack. To clarify aggression, some writers have classified it according to its purpose: instrumental aggression (to get some reward,

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