Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

224 CHAPTER 5 LearningCRITICAL THINKINGDoes Exposure to Media Violence Cause Aggressive Behavior?Bandura’s early observational learning studies showedpreschoolers enthusiastically mimicking the movie actions of anadult pummeling a Bobo doll. His research provided a powerfulparadigm to study the effects of “entertainment” violence. Bandurafound that observed actions were most likely to be imitatedwhen:• They were performed by a model who is attractive and whohas high status or is a dominant member of the viewer’ssocial group.• The model is rewarded for his or her behavior.• The model is not punished for his or her actions.Over the past four decades, more than 1,000 studies haveinvestigated the relationship between media depictions of violenceand increases in aggressive behavior in the real world (see Bushman& Anderson, 2007). We’ll highlight some key findings here.How Prevalent Is Violence on Television in the UnitedStates?The amount of violence depicted on American television is trulystaggering. One major research project, the National TelevisionViolence Study (NTVS) (1996, 1997, 1998), systematically analyzeddepictions of violence in more than 8,000 hours of cableand network programming.The study found that more than 60 percent of television programscontained depictions of violence. More troubling, muchof the violent behavior was depicted in ways that are known toincrease the likelihood of imitation. For example, violent behaviorwas not punished and was often perpetrated by the heroesor other “good guys.” In 80 percent of the violent shows, the violencedid not result in any long-term consequences. Since thatstudy, television and film depictions of violence have becomemore graphic, not less—and more readily available (Signorielli,2005).Is Exposure to Media Violence Linked to AggressiveBehavior?Numerous research studies show that exposure to media violenceproduces short-term increases in laboratory measures ofaggressive thoughts and behavior. And, hundreds of correlationalstudies demonstrate a link between exposure to violentmedia and aggressive behavior both in and out of the classroom(see Bushman & Anderson, 2007; Huesmann & Taylor, 2006;Murray, 2008).The American Psychological Association, the American Academyof Pediatrics, and four other public health organizationsissued a joint statement on the impact of entertainment violenceon children (Congressional Public Health Summit, 2000). Based ona review of more than 30 years of research, they concluded that“viewing entertainment violence can lead to increases inaggressive attitudes, values, and behavior, particularly in children.”Does Exposure to Media Violence Have Long-Term,Real-World Effects?According to several longitudinal studies, the answer is “yes”(C. A. Anderson & others, 2003; Huesmann & Taylor, 2006).For example, psychologist L. Rowell Huesmann and his colleagues(2003) conducted a 15-year longitudinal study thatbegan with more than 500 boys and girls, ages 6 to 10, growingup in the Chicago area. When these individuals reachedtheir early 20s, the researchers were able track down andresurvey 329 of them. The researchers also interviewed theparticipants’ spouses or friends, and they obtained courtrecords of criminal convictions.The results showed that men who watched the most televisionviolence as children were significantly more likely to havepushed, grabbed, or shoved their spouses and to have shovedanother person in response to an insult. They were also threetimes more likely to have been convicted of a crime. A similar>> Closing ThoughtsOne theme throughout this chapter has been the quest to discover general lawsof learning that would apply across virtually all species and situations. Watsonwas convinced that these laws were contained in the principles of classical conditioning.Skinner contended that they were to be found in the principles of operantconditioning. In a sense, they were both right. Thousands of experimentshave shown that behavior can be reliably and predictably influenced by classicaland operant conditioning procedures. By and large, the general principles ofclassical and operant conditioning hold up quite well across a wide range ofspecies and situations.But you’ve also seen that the general principles of classical and operant conditioningare just that—general, not absolute. Such researchers as John Garcia andMarian and Keller Breland recognized the importance of a species’ evolutionaryand biological heritage in acquiring new behaviors. Other researchers, such as EdwardTolman and Robert Rescorla, drew attention to the important role playedby cognitive processes in learning. And Albert Bandura’s investigations of obser-