Television Violence Essay Research Paper The Effects — страница 2

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acquisition of a behavior does not automatically lead to its performance. (Bandura 1965). As children “acquire” the action performed by their favorite actors, they are more likely to perform these aggressive acts if their hero or the antagonist in the program is rewarded. One of the most noted studies to prove this theory is a series of “bobo doll” studies that were conducted by Bandura in 1963. Bandura demonstrated just how easily viewing aggression influences a child. He and his colleagues observed preschoolers in a contrived situation, which included aggressive behavior. His study consisted of four groups. A control group set up for this experiment contained children who had not witnessed any events involving a bobo doll. The other three groups had witnessed bobo being

verbally and/or physically abused by different figures. These figures included a live model, a filmed model, and a female dressed in a cat costume. All the children had been irritated beforehand, by having their toys taken away from them. This made the children more prone to use aggressive behavior. The children were then put into a playroom with the bobo doll. Out of the four groups that were involved, three exemplified aggressive behavior toward the bobo doll. The exception was the control group that had not witnessed any violence. This experiment supports the theory that after observing violent behavior, children are more likely to imitate the aggressive acts of the characters involved. Banduras findings definitely have direct bearing on the implications for the effect of

violence shown on television. In a study done on television shows and just how much violence is carried out the results are alarming. Of all violent acts, 40% were committed by attractive characters, and 75% of violent actions went unpenalized and the perpetrators showed no remorse. In 37% of the programs, the “bad guys” were not punished, and more than half of all violent incidents did not show the suffering of the victim.( ERIC Digest) This survey suggests that violence viewed on television by children may lead to increased levels of aggression if social learning theory comes into play. Acting out these acts of violence or mimicking their favorite character after viewing these seemingly acceptable acts of violence seems to be innocent enough to the children. This mimicking

behavior justifies Bandura s research and implies that environmental influences such as television violence can indeed moderate and control the expression of aggression. Regardless of all the research that has been collected, experiments that have been carried out, and studies that have conclusive evidence that television violence has an effect on children, violence still increases on television. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) position statement on media violence and children (1990) reports that violence in the media has increased since 1980 and continues to increase, particularly since the Federal Communication Commission’s decision to deregulate children’s commercial television in 1982. The NAEYC statement cites the following examples:

* Air time for war cartoons increased from 1.5 hours per week in 1982 to 43 hours per week in 1986. * In 1980, children’s programs featured 18.6 violent acts per hour and now have about 26.4 violent acts each hour. (ERIC Digest 1993) This much violence absorbed has an effect on a childs moral development in the way that he or she views violence in a real-life situations. After so much is viewed, the violence in the childs mind becomes a natural occurrence, which may cause the child to become non-compassionate or insensitive towards others as he or she grows older. Consequently, children can become desensitized to aggressive behavior. In other words, the television violence absorbed can also make children more accepting of aggressive behavior. Studies have shown that the

children tend to act differently after viewing acts of violence on television. Children often behave differently after they’ve been watching violent programs on television. In one study done at Pennsylvania State University, about 100 preschool children were observed both before and after watching television; some watched cartoons that had many aggressive and violent acts; others watched shows that didn’t have any kind of violence. The researchers noticed real differences between the kids who watched the violent shows and those who watched nonviolent ones. Children who watched the violent shows were more likely to strike out at playmates, argue, disobey authority and were less willing to wait for things than those children who watched nonviolent programs. (American