Examining Aggression- Personal Experiences, Media Influence, and Behavioral Outcomes

Examining Aggression- Personal Experiences, Media Influence, and Behavioral Outcomes

Question 1: Aggressive Behavior

I grew up with a sister who was often considered troublesome. Whenever she got angry at someone, she would pick up a stone and throw it at the person who had annoyed her. In most cases, I happened to be the subject of her anger. This went on for some time until one day, she hit me on my leg and made me bleed profusely. My parents became infuriated with her and decided to punish her. She was grounded in her room for hours and was denied access to her gadgets which she often used to watch movies and video games. This strategy worked successfully to lessen her aggression for only a period of time. She got used to the punishment and continued other acts of aggression like hitting other children, destroying things in the house, or engaging in constant fights.

Question 2: Modeling Aggressive Behavior

Various studies have shown that exposure to violent media encourages aggressive thoughts, hostile appraisals, desensitization to violence, physiologic arousal, angry feelings, and reductions in empathy and prosocial behaviour like helping others (Anderson et al., 2017; Shaver, 2015). Children might watch violent video games, which would increase their tendencies and leniency towards violence, causing them to cheer and encourage other individuals who engage in physical violence like beating another kid at school, promoting bullying and physical aggression.

Question 3: Impact Of Exposure To TV Violence And Violent Video Games

I do not watch or play many violent video games, but I know several individuals who do. One of the things that could be attributed to my sister’s violence often had while growing up is too much exposure to violent video games like Mortal Kombat. My sister would get so absorbed in the video game to the extent that she would fail to recognize that other people were in the room. Whenever one of my parents would take away the video game from her so that she could eat or go to bed, she would get so angry and throw tantrums, kicking at the table and screaming loudly. Of course, it would be naïve to attribute her violence only to violent video games, but I believe that exposure to these violent video games had majorly influenced her aggressive behaviour. This is supported by research by the American Psychological Association claiming that the use of violent video games is a major risk factor for violent behaviours (Calvert et al., 2017).

Question 4: Negative Emotions And Aggressive Behavior

Research claims that negative emotions could result in aggression (Shaver, 2015). Personally, most of the times that I have acted aggressively, it has been majorly attributed to feelings of anger, hunger, frustration, and sickness. When I get sick, I tend to use verbal abuse and snap at people often. Most of the time, the people around me would understand that such reactions can be attributed to my sickness. When I get angry, I also tend to behave in an aggressive manner as I find myself having the need to throw something. For instance, there was a time when I got annoyed because I could not understand a certain concept that I was reading as I was preparing for my exams, and this frustration caused me to throw my phone and book. Therefore, sickness, frustration anger, and even hunger tend to influence my aggression.

Question 5: Aggressive Act to Reduce Further Aggression

Engaging in an aggressive act with the aim of lessening further aggression has sometimes been helpful for me. For instance, in the scenario when I got so mad due to my failure to understand a concept that I was reading in preparation for my exam, I decided to throw my book and phone, and afterwards, I felt relieved and was able to calm myself down. When I got back to reading, I was able to understand the concept better. My phone did not crash.

 References

Anderson, C. A., Bushman, B. J., Bartholow, B. D., Cantor, J., Christakis, D., Coyne, S. M., … & Ybarra, M. (2017). Screen violence and youth behaviour. Pediatrics, 140(Supplement 2), S142-S147.

Calvert, S. L., Appelbaum, M., Dodge, K. A., Graham, S., Nagayama Hall, G. C., Hamby, S., … & Hedges, L. V. (2017). The American Psychological Association Task Force assessment of violent video games: Science in the service of public interest. American Psychologist, 72(2), 126.

Shaver, K. G. (2015). Principles of social psychology. Psychology Press.

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Weekly Short Essays-Week Five

This is a short essay assignment with a mixture of multiple-choice/short answer and essay questions that cite evidence or research to explain/support your answer.

Your essay answers must be in your own words with paraphrasing properly source credited. Quotes in lieu of answering in your own words will not receive points.

Please submit your responses as a Word document (.docx file). Make sure to number your responses so your instructor will know where one response ends and the next starts. It is not necessary to rewrite each question in your document. For multiple choice questions, CLEARLY indicate your response (a, b, c, or d) so that your instructor does not have to search and try to determine your response in your short answer explanation.

Each response is worth 20 possible points. Please see the attached Rubric for the grading schematic that will be used to evaluate your responses. Your responses should be approximately one-half page each (double-spaced) for a total of three pages (not including Title and References Pages if you choose to include them).

Ch 10

1. Describe a time when you were reinforced or punished for your aggressive behaviour or when someone you

knew was. Was the attempt to reduce aggression successful?

2. Give an example of how children or adults might model aggressive behaviour from the media.

3. Do you or people you know watch a lot of TV violence or play violent video games? How do you think this exposure is influencing you or them?

4. Review a time when you acted in an aggressive way. What do you think caused the behaviour? Were there particular negative emotions that were responsible?

5. Consider a time when you or someone you know engaged in an aggressive act with the goal of reducing further aggression (catharsis). Was the attempt successful?