Bandura: TV Violence Today\'s Society

Bandura: TV Violence

Today's society has become increasingly permissive. The culture has evolved in such a way that clothes, movies, television programs have shifted from being kinder and gentler to something rawer. Some scholars might aver that society in earlier times hypocritically masked its realities and saw the world through rose colored glasses. Every year, a new set of television programs are created, each containing more violence and sexual promiscuity than the previous year. More disturbing is the fact that these shows have crept into the family viewing hour. The question that can be asked however is, does viewing violence on television really responsible for aggressive behavior in children? Schools of thought on the subject differ. V-chip can be installed on televisions. They and allow parental control over what children might or might not watch. Also, all television programs are rated (similar to motion pictures or even video games). Have these added measures resulted in the decrease in violence?

American thrives on its principles of democracy and capitalism. This means that most decisions are made through the eyes of a majority and most programs are based on viewer ship and advertisement revenues. Also, one must recognize that there is an instinct towards violence that is permanently seated in the psyche of children. A few decades earlier, most children (or at least boys) grew up playing Cops and Robbers or Cowboys and Indians -- these games were premised on violence and the fight of good over evil J.B. Funk conducted and published the results of research on 357 pre-adolescent children. (Funk, 1993) by large majorities, children preferred games that contained violence or sports video games that had violent undertones or even games that contained violence performed by or done to humans. A miniscule two percent admitted to preferring games that were educational. Besides, a few instances of aggressive mood creation, Funk saw nothing more than short-term aggressive behavior. The same can be extended to watching violence on television.

Albert Bandura advanced the social learning theory. (Siegel, 2003) After a while, these children were allowed into a room that contained dolls with which these children would normally play. The children were however, not allowed to touch these dolls. This led to feelings of anger and frustration. Later, when the children were left in the room with the Bobo-doll, they vented their feelings on the doll, violently -- much like what they observed. This behavior was observed in more than eighty eight percent of the children. In order to show that learned behavior is not necessarily short-term, when the children were reintroduced to Bobo a few months later, 40% showed the violent behavior.

In assessing whether watching excessive violence on television causes long terms aggressive behavior, research studies should be more comprehensive. They should take into account factors such as chemical or neurological imbalances, family history of violence, emotional and physical abuse or genetic factors. Whether it is indisputably proven that watching violence on television causes aggressive behavior or whether it isn't, one should realize that over indulgence is never a good thing. They can have physical, emotional and sociologically negative impacts.