An essay about media violence issue

Since the 1960s, research has suggested that exposure to media violence will always raise an individual's aggressiveness. The provided truth is correct since the content of violent media always modifies an individual's way of thinking and enhances their desire to settle disputes by the use of violence, if not aggressiveness. The offered investigation seeks to determine whether watching an aggressive video clip makes a person more hostile. The hypothesis developed for the mentioned research implies that excessive media consumption increases an individual's ability to be more aggressive. The presented research used survey research methodology to confirm this. A sample of 200 participants was identified for the current study.

Will Watching An Aggressive Video Clip Make You More Aggressive?

Introduction

Watching an aggressive video clip makes an individual more aggressive. Various studies have supported the notion that watching an aggressive film indeed makes an individual aggressive. The presented fact is supported by the notion that the reaction of an individual depends on how aggressive they were right from the start. If an individual has an abrasive personality, it is highly evident that the violent movies will make them more aggressive. Psychiatrists have acknowledged that media violence have had an effect on human behavior. The level of aggressiveness among individuals watching violent films was on the rise during the 1990s. However, the figures significantly declined by 40% between 2001 and 2010 (Anderson et al., 2003).

Media violence is defined As all forms of mass communication which suggests the threat to utilize force, the act of using force, and the utilization of force against animated beings. Exposure to violent media scenes have resulted to several undesirable effects. Media violence increases the level of aggressive thoughts. Evidently, exposing an individual who always watches violent film to a hostile environment will always prompt them to behave in a hostile manner. The identified group of individuals will always interpret ambiguous situation in the worst way in that they will always assume that the behavior of others reflect hostility rather than other positive traits. Therefore, exposure to violent media prompts people to act aggressively towards others. For over five decades, researchers and scientists have provided enough data to draw irrefutable conclusion that exposure to violent media always increases the level of aggression. Anderson et al. (2003) shows that approximately 300 studies involving over 50,000 subjects have been carried out on the presented research topic.

Method

Participants

The presented research implements the use of survey research methodology. The participants were majorly obtained through the social media, family and friends. The participants were aged between 18 and 60 years. The sample was composed of 200 participants whereby 100 were male and 100 females. The first 200 individuals who shown their willingness to take part in the research process were chosen and informed what the research was about.

Materials

The main material utilized for the current research was research survey which was composed of a set of 10 questions. The main theme of the questions was on the link between media violence and aggressiveness. The questions utilized were both open-ended and closed-ended in that the respondents were required to answer the first eight questions by providing a “yes/no” or “true/false” feedback. The last two questions required the respondents to provide their feedback on the research topic without any forms of restrictions and limitations.

Procedure

The research process was carried out in a set of four rounds. Evidently, the participants were divided in a group of four each composed of 50 individuals. The groups were composed of individuals with history of physical assault and those who were known to be calmer. Afterwards, each group was provided with printed survey questions which they were required to complete within a period of two hours maximum. To ensure that each participant understood what was required, they were advised to read all the instructions before completing the survey questions and ask for any clarifications where it was unclear what was expected of them. All the participants were required to complete only a single sheet of the survey questions to ensure the generated feedback from the survey derived accurate results.

Results

It was hypothesized that watching an aggressive video clip makes an individual more aggressive. The thought viewing aggressive video clips increased the rate of violence by altering individual behavior among people with an abrasive personality. To test the presented hypothesis, a survey procedure was carried out whereby the involved questions involved media violence and aggressiveness. Chi-square was further utilized to obtain the data in order to generate a finding on the research question. To generate a conclusion regarding the accuracy of the hypothesis, the P value was calculated. A comparison of the expected results and the observed ones was done to that of the Chi Square test. The presented findings of the research are summarized in the table identified in Appendix 2 below.

Discussion

The generated research findings indicate that watching an aggressive video clip will always increase an individual’s level of aggressiveness. Eight-nine percent of the participant provided that they always ended up being aggressive after watching violent movies with only 11% indicating that violent movies did not have any significant effect on their behavior. Additionally, 93% of the participants provided an indication that after watching a lot of media violence they lost their sense of sympathy on the victims of violence. Only 7% indicated that they still felt sympathetic with the victims and they could not continue watching the films to the end. According to Gentile, Coyne and Walsh (2011), exposure to violent media has the ability to result to grave effects on the human behavior. Evidently, people who watch a lot of violent media are known to become less sympathetic to persons considered as victims of the violence in question. Gentile, Coyne and Walsh (2011) has provided that the main reason why people become less sympathetic towards victims and more tolerant to the violent crimes is because they are desensitized to it as time goes by. Furthermore, after consuming violent media, the blood pressure and the heart rate levels of the consumers significantly reduces as a response towards the depiction of violence in real world (Merritt, A., LaQuea, Cromwell & Ferguson, 2016).

The research revealed that 76% of the participants always behave aggressively towards each other after watching aggressive video clips. The remaining 24% stated that the clips did not increase their desire to be violent or practice what they saw on the violent media. Besides desensitizing people to violence effects, watching violence media also increases the rate of a person’s aggressiveness by increasing aggressive thoughts (Gentile, Mathieson & Crick, 2011). Person’s who watch a lot of aggressive video clips have an increased likelihood of attending to hostile information and highly expecting other individuals to also behave in a hostile manner. Furthermore, the presented persons cans also interpret ambiguous situations in the worst possible way assuming that also the behavior of the others reflects hostility rather than any form of positivity. Other than aggressive thoughts, violent media also increases aggressive feelings. Apparently, people who watch a lot of violent media have a tendency of behaving aggressively towards each other (Gentile, Mathieson & Crick, 2011).

Aggression is considered to be a trait which develops together with the nervous system over a considerable period of time. Behavioral patterns are solidified within the nervous system which continues the behavior further into the adulthood especially when coached in an individual’s personality. The presented factor explain why the media has played a significant role in motivation people to do certain activities especially when the right actions are not undertaken to prevent such situations from taking place. A significant percentage of theorists have agreed that the short term effects of media violence exposure are as a result of priming processes, mimicking of the noted behaviors in the film, and arousal processes. The media arouses aggressive behavior among the observers. It remains a fact that a subsequent stimulus will always arouse an emotional response (Swing & Anderson, 2014). For instance, after watching an exiting media presentation, the end-result would be an aggressive response towards provocation when addressing a social problem. On mimicry, most subjects will always try to mimic what they observe on the aggressive video clips hence increasing the chances that they will always behave in the same way as those in the movie even if it involves a violent behavior.

The main limitation of the current study is the inability to prevent instances of double entry when conducting a survey. The fact that the respondents were required to fill in the survey forms on their own increased the chances of double entry hence affecting the accuracy and validity of the generated research findings. Evidently, the participants were allowed to ask for new forms whenever they filled the ones they provided wrongly. Some even indicated that they had not been assigned the survey forms for the research. With this, it was difficult to rule out the invalid survey results to generate accurate results. To overcome the presented limitation, it is advisable to employ different people who are going to be directly involved with monitoring the participants when filling the survey forms. With this, it is evident that the presented instances of double entry will be limited as the participants will have to go through the employed “staff” to be provided with new forms to fill hence preventing instances of double entry. Another limitation noted in the current study is the fact that some respondents considered some questions to be inappropriate. The fact that the questions were standardized before being administered to the subjects increased the fact that some was considered to be inappropriate. To deal with the outlined issue the researcher must focus on establishing questions which are general enough with an aim of accommodating the general population. Despite this, it still remains a fact that the general questions may not be appropriate for the all the identified sample members.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is apparent that watching an aggressive video clip will make an individual more aggressive. Exposure to electronic media violence increases the risk that an individual will behave aggressively in the short and long-run. Apparently, when an individual watches aggressive clips, most will want to mimic what they see in the clip when faced with real life issues. Additionally, the videos alter an individual’s behavior in that they enhance the aggressive thoughts of the viewer. With this, a person will always want to resolve issues through the use of aggression even in the cases where the person in question is not willing to act in an aggressive manner.

References

Anderson, C. A., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, L. R., Johnson, J. D., Linz, D., & ... Wartella, E. (2003). The influence of media violence on youth. Psychological Science In The Public Interest, 4(3), 81-110.

Gentile, D. A., Coyne, S., & Walsh, D. A. (2011). Media violence, physical aggression, and relational aggression in school age children: a short-term longitudinal study. Aggressive Behavior, 37(2), 193-206.

Gentile, D. A., Mathieson, L. C., & Crick, N. R. (2011). Media Violence Associations with the Form and Function of Aggression among Elementary School Children. Social Development, 20(2), 213-232.

Merritt, A., LaQuea, R., Cromwell, R., & Ferguson, C. (2016). Media Managing Mood: A Look at the Possible Effects of Violent Media on Affect. Child & Youth Care Forum, 45(2), 241-258.

Swing, E. L., & Anderson, C. A. (2014). The role of attention problems and impulsiveness in media violence effects on aggression. Aggressive Behavior, 40(3), 197-203.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Survey Questions

Question 1-8 are to be answered through the use of yes/no or True/False responses. Questions 9 and 10 require an explanation to be provided in at least one sentence.

Does watching an aggressive clip result to a change in human behavior?

Will people always derive negative impacts when watching a lot of aggressive video clip?

Is your level of judgment impaired after watching an aggressive clip?

Is it true that people always behave aggressively with each other after watching too much aggressive video clips?

Do your desire to mimic what you see in aggressive movies increase when you watch a lot of violent movies?

Is it true that violent media desensitizes people to violence effects?

Do you agree that watching violence media also increases the rate of a person’s aggressiveness by increasing aggressive thoughts?

Is it true that violent media always arouse an emotional response?

How can you relate aggressive thoughts with violent movies?

What are some of the recommendations of avoiding a change of behavior even when an individual watches a lot of violent media?

Appendix 2: Survey Responses

Questions

Responses %

One

96% True

Two

90% Yes

Three

88% Yes

Four

72% Yes

Five

90% Yes

Six

88% Yes

Seven

94% Yes

Eight

86% Yes

Nine

84% indicated that aggressive thoughts always arise when watching too much movies.

Ten

92% suggested that acknowledging that what happens in the movies should not happen in real life.