COMM 203 Exam 2
Smith: Type of Study? - (correct Answer) - -Content Analysis
-Based on previous studies of how TV violence affects viewers
Four Foundations of NTVS (all)? - (correct Answer) - • (1) Television violence contributes to harmful
effects on viewers
o This fact is hardly novel and mostly all agency/ group has come to this conclusion
• (2) Three types of harmful effects can occur from viewing televised violence
o Learning aggressive attitudes and behaviors
o Desensitization to violence
o Increased fear of being victimized by violence
• (3) Not all violence poses the same degree of risk of these harmful effects
o Some violence may occur on-screen but some can be just implied; shown close up or at a distance;
different in types of character who commit violence- reason → not all portrayals of violence are the
same
o Attractive perpetrator: viewers are more likely to learn from attractive characters (ex. heroes) so they
pose more risk to audience
o Attractive victim: viewers empathize with good characters more than bad ones so violence against
victims who are attractive can raise audience fear
o Justified violence: viewers interpret violence differently based on character's motives so self-defense/
protection is okay but justified violence increases learn aggression because action is legitimized
o Conventional weapons: these increase viewer aggression rather than physical strength
o Extensive/graphic violence: this can increase desensitization, learning, and fear in viewers
o Realistic violence: encourages aggression; brutality increases fear but this doesn't mean cartoon is
harmless because children have difficulty to distinguish fantasy v. reality
o Rewards and punishments: violence that is glamorized/ rewarded poses a risk for viewers but also
violence that goes unpunished
o Pain/harm cues: showing the serious harm and pain that occurs from violence can discourage learned
aggression
o Humor: humorous violence can seem less harmful so it increases learned aggression
• (4) Not all viewers a
,Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) - -
Children learn both specific aggressive behaviors and attitudes supporting more complex aggressive
behaviors through observational learning theory
o For instance, it has been shown that the extent to which a child imitates an actor is greatly influenced
by the reinforcements an actor receives. If the actor is rewarded for a behavior, the child is more likely to
imitate that behavior. If the actor is punished for behavior, the child is less likely to imitate that behavior.
o On TV nearly 40% of the violent acts are perpetrated by characters who possess valued characteristics
that would make them attractive role models for viewers
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) -
Cognitive Cueing and Priming theory
o Aggressive idea suggested by a violent movie can 'prime' other sematically related thoughts,
heightening the chances that viewers will have other aggressive ideas in this period
o For example, in one study, it was found that subjects who viewed slides of weapons were more willing
to severely punish a target than were those subjects who viewed neutral slides. Presumably, viewing the
weapons stimulated other aggressive ideas and emotions that then affected the viewers subsequent
attitudes and behaviors.
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) - -
Violence on Television is often glamorized
o A lot of violence is acted out by "good "characters, "bad" characters often go unpunished, and almost
¾ of the perpetrators show no remorse for their actions
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) -
Violence on television is often sanitized:
o More than half of the victims show no pain or suffering and long term consequence portrayals is very
low
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) - -
Violence on television is often trivialized
o Even though 53% of the violent scenes on television were lethal 40% were made humorous.
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann?: How do researchers
study TV violence and Aggression? - (correct Answer) - True Experiments (preferred method because it
allows cause and effect to be distinguished): Whether conducted in a laboratory or field (i.e. real world)
they share two features.
1. The researcher has control over the procedures, manipulating the TV violence variable and holding all
other variables
2. The second feature is that participants are randomly assigned to groups. Random assignment is the
great equalizer.
a. If the children who are randomly selected and shown a violent show behave more aggressively than
,other randomly selected children who are treated the same except for seeing the violent show, it must
be that viewing the show caused the children to behave more aggressively. There is no other possibility.
Some Problems with True experiments
- They do not say much about long-term effects
- They by themselves are not sufficient to determine the real-world importance of how TV violence
affects children
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) - Cross-
Sectional Field Study: In this study the research does not try to control variables or randomly assign
participants to groups. Instead the research merely observes people's TV viewing habits and their
aggressive behaviors to see if they are correlated.
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) -
Longitudinal Field Studies: Go one important step beyond cross-sectional studies. The variables of
interest are observed over two or more distinct time periods (e.g., at the beginning of the study and 6
months later or even 20 years later). This study provides two distinct improvements:
1. One can see if long-term relations differ from short-term relations
2. If there are long-term relations, it allows one to test the relative plausibility of competing causal
theories about violence viewing causing aggression or aggression causing violence viewing
To be continued....
Methods of UCSB Study (definitions, stipulations, units of analysis, sample, measures, coder training) -
(correct Answer) - • Definition: violence is defined as involvement of animate beings, a clear intent to
harm, and harm that is physical in nature as opposed to psychological and emotional.
• Stipulations: threats, behavioral acts, and harmful consequences of unseen violence.
• Unit of analysis: violence on TV overall- including drama, comedy programs, movies, music videos,
reality programs, and children's shows
• Sample: during 9 month period from Oct. 1994 - June 1997; 23 TV channels were selected to create a
composite week of content for each source; monitored programs between 6 AM- 11 PM (total 17 hours)
for seven days of the week → 119 hours/ channel ; 23 channels were most frequently watched
• Measures: (1) Each violent incident (interaction between perpetrator and victim), (2) Each violent
scene (instance of ongoing, uninterrupted violence; several violent incidents between different types of
characters), (3) each violent program
• Coder Training: elaborate codebook was developed to provide detailed and precise definitions of terms
and rules of judgment for coders to follow. 50 research assistants received 40 hours of classroom training
and 20 hours of laboratory practice. Worked individually. Tested every two weeks to make sure the same
rules and definitions were used across individuals.
Results of NTVS UCSB study? (p. 29-34) - (correct Answer) - • Much of violence is still glamorized: good
characters are frequently the perpetrators of violence, and rarely do they show remorse or experience
, negative repercussions for violence
• Another aspect of glamorization is that physical aggression on TV is often condoned: violence that goes
unpunished poses risk because it is more likely to be imitated or learned than violence that is
condemned
• Most violence on TV continues to be sanitized: TV often ignores/ underestimates what happens to the
victims of violence
• Much of the serious physical aggression on TV is still trivialized: violent behaviors on TV are often quite
serious in nature ; repeated exposure to serious violence that is made to seem trivial can contribute to
both desensitization and learning among viewers
• Some other findings:
o Violence continues to pervade American TV → in prime time, the proportion of programs with violence
has increased on the broadcast networks on basic cable ; the typical violence program contains at least 6
violent incidents per hours
o For children under 7, high-risk portrayals of violence that teach aggression are found most often in
cartoons → certain depictions can be labeled "high risk" because plot elements that encourage
aggressive attitudes and behaviors are all featured in one scene ; the average American preschooler who
watches more cartoons is exposed to over 500 high-risk portrayals of violence each year.
Nathanson & Cantor: Type of Study? - (correct Answer) - ...
Hypothesis? - (correct Answer) - Children who are asked to consider a victim's feelings in the video clip
will report:
1) Less positive evaluation of the perpetration than children who do not receive any medication.
2) More positive evaluation of the victim than children who do not receive any medication.
3) Perceive the cartoon violence to be less justified than children who do not receive any medication.
4) Lower level of aggression than children who do not receive any medication.
Research Questions? - (correct Answer) - Will children who are asked to consider a televised victim's
feelings find the cartoon to be less funny than children who do not receive any medication?
Method? - (correct Answer) - Children in the 2nd-6th grades (44% of female) from six schools were
randomly assigned to one of three conditions:
1) Fictional involvement: children were asked to consider the feelings of the victim in the shown cartoon
while they viewed.
2) No medication: children were simply asked to watch the cartoon without receiving any medication.
3) Control group: no showing of cartoon; children were asked to complete the aggression questionnaire.
• Post-viewing Measures:
Smith: Type of Study? - (correct Answer) - -Content Analysis
-Based on previous studies of how TV violence affects viewers
Four Foundations of NTVS (all)? - (correct Answer) - • (1) Television violence contributes to harmful
effects on viewers
o This fact is hardly novel and mostly all agency/ group has come to this conclusion
• (2) Three types of harmful effects can occur from viewing televised violence
o Learning aggressive attitudes and behaviors
o Desensitization to violence
o Increased fear of being victimized by violence
• (3) Not all violence poses the same degree of risk of these harmful effects
o Some violence may occur on-screen but some can be just implied; shown close up or at a distance;
different in types of character who commit violence- reason → not all portrayals of violence are the
same
o Attractive perpetrator: viewers are more likely to learn from attractive characters (ex. heroes) so they
pose more risk to audience
o Attractive victim: viewers empathize with good characters more than bad ones so violence against
victims who are attractive can raise audience fear
o Justified violence: viewers interpret violence differently based on character's motives so self-defense/
protection is okay but justified violence increases learn aggression because action is legitimized
o Conventional weapons: these increase viewer aggression rather than physical strength
o Extensive/graphic violence: this can increase desensitization, learning, and fear in viewers
o Realistic violence: encourages aggression; brutality increases fear but this doesn't mean cartoon is
harmless because children have difficulty to distinguish fantasy v. reality
o Rewards and punishments: violence that is glamorized/ rewarded poses a risk for viewers but also
violence that goes unpunished
o Pain/harm cues: showing the serious harm and pain that occurs from violence can discourage learned
aggression
o Humor: humorous violence can seem less harmful so it increases learned aggression
• (4) Not all viewers a
,Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) - -
Children learn both specific aggressive behaviors and attitudes supporting more complex aggressive
behaviors through observational learning theory
o For instance, it has been shown that the extent to which a child imitates an actor is greatly influenced
by the reinforcements an actor receives. If the actor is rewarded for a behavior, the child is more likely to
imitate that behavior. If the actor is punished for behavior, the child is less likely to imitate that behavior.
o On TV nearly 40% of the violent acts are perpetrated by characters who possess valued characteristics
that would make them attractive role models for viewers
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) -
Cognitive Cueing and Priming theory
o Aggressive idea suggested by a violent movie can 'prime' other sematically related thoughts,
heightening the chances that viewers will have other aggressive ideas in this period
o For example, in one study, it was found that subjects who viewed slides of weapons were more willing
to severely punish a target than were those subjects who viewed neutral slides. Presumably, viewing the
weapons stimulated other aggressive ideas and emotions that then affected the viewers subsequent
attitudes and behaviors.
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) - -
Violence on Television is often glamorized
o A lot of violence is acted out by "good "characters, "bad" characters often go unpunished, and almost
¾ of the perpetrators show no remorse for their actions
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) -
Violence on television is often sanitized:
o More than half of the victims show no pain or suffering and long term consequence portrayals is very
low
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) - -
Violence on television is often trivialized
o Even though 53% of the violent scenes on television were lethal 40% were made humorous.
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann?: How do researchers
study TV violence and Aggression? - (correct Answer) - True Experiments (preferred method because it
allows cause and effect to be distinguished): Whether conducted in a laboratory or field (i.e. real world)
they share two features.
1. The researcher has control over the procedures, manipulating the TV violence variable and holding all
other variables
2. The second feature is that participants are randomly assigned to groups. Random assignment is the
great equalizer.
a. If the children who are randomly selected and shown a violent show behave more aggressively than
,other randomly selected children who are treated the same except for seeing the violent show, it must
be that viewing the show caused the children to behave more aggressively. There is no other possibility.
Some Problems with True experiments
- They do not say much about long-term effects
- They by themselves are not sufficient to determine the real-world importance of how TV violence
affects children
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) - Cross-
Sectional Field Study: In this study the research does not try to control variables or randomly assign
participants to groups. Instead the research merely observes people's TV viewing habits and their
aggressive behaviors to see if they are correlated.
Be able to explain factors in Table 1 using theory from Bushman & Huesmann? - (correct Answer) -
Longitudinal Field Studies: Go one important step beyond cross-sectional studies. The variables of
interest are observed over two or more distinct time periods (e.g., at the beginning of the study and 6
months later or even 20 years later). This study provides two distinct improvements:
1. One can see if long-term relations differ from short-term relations
2. If there are long-term relations, it allows one to test the relative plausibility of competing causal
theories about violence viewing causing aggression or aggression causing violence viewing
To be continued....
Methods of UCSB Study (definitions, stipulations, units of analysis, sample, measures, coder training) -
(correct Answer) - • Definition: violence is defined as involvement of animate beings, a clear intent to
harm, and harm that is physical in nature as opposed to psychological and emotional.
• Stipulations: threats, behavioral acts, and harmful consequences of unseen violence.
• Unit of analysis: violence on TV overall- including drama, comedy programs, movies, music videos,
reality programs, and children's shows
• Sample: during 9 month period from Oct. 1994 - June 1997; 23 TV channels were selected to create a
composite week of content for each source; monitored programs between 6 AM- 11 PM (total 17 hours)
for seven days of the week → 119 hours/ channel ; 23 channels were most frequently watched
• Measures: (1) Each violent incident (interaction between perpetrator and victim), (2) Each violent
scene (instance of ongoing, uninterrupted violence; several violent incidents between different types of
characters), (3) each violent program
• Coder Training: elaborate codebook was developed to provide detailed and precise definitions of terms
and rules of judgment for coders to follow. 50 research assistants received 40 hours of classroom training
and 20 hours of laboratory practice. Worked individually. Tested every two weeks to make sure the same
rules and definitions were used across individuals.
Results of NTVS UCSB study? (p. 29-34) - (correct Answer) - • Much of violence is still glamorized: good
characters are frequently the perpetrators of violence, and rarely do they show remorse or experience
, negative repercussions for violence
• Another aspect of glamorization is that physical aggression on TV is often condoned: violence that goes
unpunished poses risk because it is more likely to be imitated or learned than violence that is
condemned
• Most violence on TV continues to be sanitized: TV often ignores/ underestimates what happens to the
victims of violence
• Much of the serious physical aggression on TV is still trivialized: violent behaviors on TV are often quite
serious in nature ; repeated exposure to serious violence that is made to seem trivial can contribute to
both desensitization and learning among viewers
• Some other findings:
o Violence continues to pervade American TV → in prime time, the proportion of programs with violence
has increased on the broadcast networks on basic cable ; the typical violence program contains at least 6
violent incidents per hours
o For children under 7, high-risk portrayals of violence that teach aggression are found most often in
cartoons → certain depictions can be labeled "high risk" because plot elements that encourage
aggressive attitudes and behaviors are all featured in one scene ; the average American preschooler who
watches more cartoons is exposed to over 500 high-risk portrayals of violence each year.
Nathanson & Cantor: Type of Study? - (correct Answer) - ...
Hypothesis? - (correct Answer) - Children who are asked to consider a victim's feelings in the video clip
will report:
1) Less positive evaluation of the perpetration than children who do not receive any medication.
2) More positive evaluation of the victim than children who do not receive any medication.
3) Perceive the cartoon violence to be less justified than children who do not receive any medication.
4) Lower level of aggression than children who do not receive any medication.
Research Questions? - (correct Answer) - Will children who are asked to consider a televised victim's
feelings find the cartoon to be less funny than children who do not receive any medication?
Method? - (correct Answer) - Children in the 2nd-6th grades (44% of female) from six schools were
randomly assigned to one of three conditions:
1) Fictional involvement: children were asked to consider the feelings of the victim in the shown cartoon
while they viewed.
2) No medication: children were simply asked to watch the cartoon without receiving any medication.
3) Control group: no showing of cartoon; children were asked to complete the aggression questionnaire.
• Post-viewing Measures:
