Television Violence and its Contribution to Aggression of Children

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Social Psychology: Television Violence and its Contribution to Aggression of Children

Social psychologists take violence as a great concern since it is creating a negative impact on the mental conditions of the young generation. In the United States, children watch television shows that comprise 60% of violence in any form, and even 40% of them consist of substantial violence (Huesmann, 2007). Even the video games that are a form of entertainment for kids are now involving violence that is exciting to play and arouses emotions of aggression. This paper aims to highlight the issue of television violence and its contribution to children’s aggression along the lines of social learning theory.

According to researchers, aggression means the behavior that inherits the intention of harming another person. In contrast, violent behavior is the kind of behavior that inflicts harm to others to the extent that the victim might need serious medical attention (Anderson, 2016). The type of media violence that shows in which the characters kill each other, harm one another, or say bad words to people around them, the young generation is directly affected by this behavior, deeming it mostly ‘cool’ and modern.

The short-term and long-term impacts of television or media violence have been under study for ages. Short term effects include immediate copying of the aggressive action that has been recently watched on the television, heightened exciting behavior that is not evident in normal routine, the ways of child’s thinking and emotions could be relevant to aggressive behaviors and learning by observing similar attitudes deeming it is beneficial (Anderson, 2016). The results of one of such studies revealed that short-term effects also include priming, arousal, and mimicry (Huesmann, 2007). Priming could be considered a form of excitement created from one stimulus within the brain to another, traveling along with the brain nodes for cognition, behavior, and feelings. For instance, the vision of a gun can arouse feelings of aggression just by watching the weapon. The second short-term, arousal, provokes emotion on impulsive terms, which could be risky for a young mind. Arousal of anger, for example, of a villain is hitting the hero would not be useful for a young mindset, even if it is in a cartoon movie. Also, the third form, mimicry, is the human’s natural tendency to mimic someone they have seen or observed recently, such as children do about their class teacher funnily. The same behavioral pattern could be repeated after watching television shows containing violent actions.

On the other hand, long-term effects could be evident up to three years, comprising being frequently involved in physical fights (Anderson, 2016). Long-term effects also include social cognitive learning that is evident from the said theory. The theory deciphers that the children in their childhood days observe their family members, friends, and community people, even those they see on television (Huesmann, 2007). Social, behavioral change is brought due to changes in cognitive schemas that they observe in the world they live in, which stands true for television and media. Therefore, the extensive contact with violence in television and media would not be valuable for the child’s upbringing. The inappropriate behaviors reflected in aggression and violence on television shows would be crystalized within their childhood behaviors, inside their brains that would be lingering onto their maturity years, limiting them to cat acceptably within their social circle.

Additionally, when negative emotions are watched or experienced repeatedly, such as watching a killing scene several times in various movies, the sensitivity level to that violence decreases, making it a normal routine for the viewer as it would no longer create an effect on his mind. It would be normalized in terms of emotional reactions, and ‘desensitization’ would occur (Huesmann, 2007). Another crucial learning in this context that would create long term effect is enactive; it means that children would develop an idea in their minds when they see the villains gaining their goals as a result of the violence that they could achieve anything if they show their aggressive behaviors towards either parents or teachers, for example.

Social learning theory reiterates the same concept that behaviors are learned through reinforcement or re-enactment of the same behavior recurrently, which is done through television programs on children’s minds (Lan, Abdullah & Roslan, 2010). For example, the theory suggests that if the child is observing aggressive behavior at school, at home, or within the fictional world of television programs or video games, he is most likely to develop those behaviors, considering the required consequences to be gained immediately. Learning by example is the best possible influential model a child can absorb to develop new behaviors, which stands true in a child’s theory and natural human nature (Wiedeman et al., 2015). Modeling sets the social cues for the child for his learning that certain behavior would generate a particular outcome. If it is favorable outcomes according to the needs and wants of the child, then it is most likely to affect him. The observational learning process would take place even if it is through aggression. The chance of behaving in the same aggressive manner would increase once he knows that positive rewards would be attained due to it. Strong, aggressive responses were observed from children exposed to violent televisions and media content. It refers to the positive outcomes when the child’s desired goals are met, even through negative means. The child is only concerned about the positive outcomes such as pleasantries and social support rather than thinking about his right or wrong means of achieving. For further facilitation of the aggressive or violent behaviors, if they are displayed by the child’s favorite or influential TV character, the likelihood of adopting the observed aggressive behavior would escalate. Hence, the repetition factor of the favorable outcomes for the child through aggressive means is the crux of social learning theory.

Age, gender, culture, circumstances, and personality types are affected differently. In contrast, the effects on the young age are of greater concern as that change in personality at that tender age carries on to further years of life. For instance, a study indicated that children showed the same violent behaviors even after 30 years (Anderson, 2016). Becoming young adults and showing persistence with the same learned aggressive behaviors at a young age worry social psychologists. Such behaviors create psychological impacts that are harmful to others living around them and themselves.

Gender has also been believed to play a great part in identifying the display of aggressive behaviors among children older than 15 years (Huesmann & Taylor, 2006). For example, a study revealed that females were engaged in more frequent lying than men due to media violence. Likewise, physical aggression was more evident in males than females as they were more interested in watching the same violence in television programs. It might also be attributed to males being depicted as higher beings within society. For that, showing aggression is considered ‘manly’, which stands true for television programs.

The cartoon-based media violence also imposes the same results since a study signified results leading to the fact the violent children games that contained cartoons but were inclusive of aggressive behaviors produced children who were 47% more likely to be punished for similar behaviors conducted in real life as compared to those children who played non-violent games (Anderson, 2016). Violence or aggression in any form is not beneficial for immature minds as they tend to influence delicate minds adversely.

Research has presented that children within the United States watch television three to four hours a day and are exposed to fictional yet violent movies and programs, which is causing severe psychological and behavioral changes (Huesmann & Taylor, 2006). An experimental study was set up to see the change in behavior of children aged nine years after watching violent television programs before playing a hockey game in school (Huesmann & Taylor, 2006). The results revealed that boys were engaged in more aggressive behaviors during the game on the ground, such as hitting, shoving, pushing with elbows, etc., who had watched violent television shows compared to those who had watched a non-violent film.

A similar study was conducted among school-going children, African Americans from tenth and eleventh grades, all males (Kenyon, 2002). Only television violent program viewers were included to keep the study free of complexity. It was determined that seven out of eight children had televisions in their bedrooms, watching 8-12 or even 13-16 hours in extreme cases in a week. Seven of the participants watched the violent programs, even the carton shows containing violence. Also, the participants felt that they did not feel anything while watching violent scenes, leading to the desensitization factor. Rather, they believed it was alright to be engaged in violent behavior sometimes. The type of aggressive behaviors they were engaged in at schools included verbal and physical fights three to five times.

Special studies have been conducted for the children who already have a medical background for behavioral and emotional difficulties (BED), causing a rise in public and medical concerns. One of such investigations was based on children aged 7 to 11 years having challenging antisocial behaviors, problems resulting from aggression, disruptive moods, and hyperactivity issues (Mitrofan et al., 2014). The study was considered interesting in terms of another aspect that demographic factors were also taken into account for an aggressive display of behaviors resulting from media violence. For example, children who belonged to low-average income families showed higher scores in the use of weapons and aggression measures. Initiation of verbal aggression and physical fights were also observed. Even children studying in secondary schools and obtaining higher levels of formal education living with lone parents exhibited greater scores on violence and use of weapons.