Question

Consider learning theories you have been reading about in your course materials.

What is the evidence that TV or film portrayals of violence is linked to real world aggression?

Use at least one peer reviewed article or other empirical research to back up your conclusion.

What are alternative explanations for aggression and violence, rather than just observing violence on TV or film

Answer 1

Learning theories which we have popularly come across are:

Classical conditioning: Learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the reflex.
Operant conditioning: It refers to the type of learning where the learning of a voluntary behavior is done through the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to response.                                   
Latent learning: Learning that remains hidden under its application because useful.
Learned helplessness: the tendency to fail to act to escape from a situation because of a history of repeated failures in the past.
Insight learning: The sudden perception of relationships among various parts of a problem, allowing the situation to the problem to come quickly.
Observational learning: Learning a new behavior by watching a model perform that behavior.

Link of violence and aggression to the real world, with a backed up empirical study.

Observational learning: this is to date the most relevant cause of violence amongst children, which grows on to them. Their projection of violent and aggressive behavior is partly based on their exposure to violent television & video games having explicit content, use of drugs, strong language and other means of aggression displayed on the screen. Rest of it could be due to the upbringing of the child in the environment, family issues such as domestic violence, split families, etc.

Observational learning, as proved by the old and the most basic study of Albert Bandura and his’s Bobo doll speaks a lot about violence and aggression. Bandura’s classic study in observational learning involved having a preschool child in a room which the experimenter and a model interacted with toys in the room, in the presence of the child. In condition ‘A’, the model interacted with the toys in the room, in a non-aggressive way, ignoring the presence of a Bobo doll (a punch-bag-doll). In condition ‘B’, the model became very aggressive with the Bobo doll, kicking it and yelling at it, throwing it in the air and hitting it with the hammer, all in the presence of the second child in condition ‘B’.

When each child was left alone in each room and had the opportunity to play with the toys, the camera footage caught the child in the condition ‘B’ beating up the Bobo doll in the exact imitation of the model. In condition ‘A’, the camera footage caught the children playing with the toys, ignoring the model, the exact way how the model acted.

The base of all such aggression and violence, which is developed from childhood is via occur observation, irrespective of what violent/aggressive environment the child is witnessing. From the television alone, Egypt State Information Services declared in their speech at Cairo University, stating Tom & Jerry cartoons are amongst the list for causing violence amongst children. Even cartoon does contain violence, but its hidden in the actions, language, etc.

Other sources, apart from television and media, are as follows:

Innate factors: efforts were earlier put into differentiating violent vs non-violent behavior in human beings. This began with attempts in assigning precise neural locations to a range of behaviors including violence. The approach of phrenology assigned high priority to the innate presumable defects of an individual’s makeup. The idea that behaviors are linked to physiological attributes drove criminologists to understand the etiology of violence.
Socialization factors:

Exposure to media
Peer pressure during adolescence
Poverty & low economic status

Situational factors: innate factors and social experiences mold an individual’s propensity to violence. Apart from that, even situational catalysts lead to aggression and violence. Frustrating situation links to heightened aggression, which may not all the time instigate a violent behavior but is a probable trigger. Other aversive experience such as pain foul odor, smoke, violent noises, crowding, etc could be a trigger for violent behavior.