The Social Psychology Of Media Violence And Aggression

The Social Psychology of Media Violence and Aggression
Introduction
A significant amount of research exists on the effects of media violence on youths’ aggression. In order to examine the relationship between these two constructs, one should first consider the different theories that account for aggression. In this essay I will briefly present some significant theories for aggression and then critically examine the results of key studies on the field of media violence. Due to the limited length of this essay, I aim to balance between the core theoretical and empirical evidence that exist on the current literature, in order to link the theory with the findings.
Theoretical background
Media violence and aggression
The term media includes television,

2008; Anderson & Bushman 2001). Recent research has focused on video games and future research is expected to examine social media, the most contemporary facet of media (Ferguson et al. 2011). ‘Aggression is a behaviour that is intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm; it is an act, not an emotion, thought, or intention.’ (Anderson et al. 2008, p. e1068). Aggression can have different manifestations (Huesmann 2007). It can be physical or non-physical, direct or relational. Violent behaviour is defined as the most severe form of physical aggression (Huesmann

Adachi & Willoughby (2013)provided support for both socialization and selection hypotheses, as they found that adolescents involved in competitive activities show greater aggression and that those who are more aggressive tend to opt for competitive activities.
Reciprocal relationship between media violence and aggression
The first longitudinal study to examine the effects of violent video games was conducted by Anderson et al. (2007). The length of the study was relatively short compared to those having conducted on the field of media and TV. Nevertheless, they found significant changes in children’s and adolescents’ behaviours. They supported that there is a reciprocal relationship between media exposure and aggressive behaviour. ‘Social comparison processes’ then drive young people to seek the company of others that share the same, hostile, characteristics, either in the real or in the virtual world. In this way, the risk for establishment of those behaviours is heightened, and the downward spiral process takes place (Huesmann 2007, p.