Annotation of TV Violence Affecting Children
... The first hypothesis was that violent television content would increase aggressive behavior. The second hypothesis stated that boys in the television violence groups behaved more aggressively if they were exposed to a violent-related cue. The third hypothesis said that the violent-cued victims would experience more immediate aggression after watching the violent film and receiving the violent-related cue. Lastly, it was assumed that characteristically non-aggressive boys would result in a higher aggressiveness throughout the experiment. 1.5 There were many variables in this study that should be pointed out and many different conditions that should be explained. The conditions consisted of to major groups: The pre-frustrated group and the post frustrated group. Each group had three sub groups: non-violent, violent, and violent with violent-related cue. Each group was studied separately in order to obtain the clearest results with minimal error. There exist many independent variables in this study. One variable is the behavior of the children before they were experimented on. Their aggressiveness before they entered the study was not controlled by the experimenters. Also, an unspoken independent variable is the morality at which each boy strived to reach. In my opinion, a boy who had high standards in violent behavior would refrain from showing aggression, even if he felt like behaving in such a way. On the contrary, a boy who had no standards would stop at nothing to be violent, especially if it was in an innocent game such as floor-hockey. This aspect of the boy’s conscience is something an experimenter has no control over, therefore it is placed as an independent variable. 1.6 The dependent variables were the observers of the hockey game who did a sort of ‘play-by-play’ commentary on each boy and how they showed aggression. Their remarks were based on the attitudes and behaviors of the boys. Another dependent variable is the frustration of the boys before or after watching the violent/non-violent films. This was done by showing a cartoon that had mechanical problems and eventually was turned off due to static on the screen. Another dependent variable was the violent-related cues given by the walky-talky to certain boys in order to spark a sudden interest in aggression. These variables were tested in order to gain validity in the experiment. For instance, pre-tests showed that 95% of the people who watched the violent films remembered the walky-talky seen. Therefore it was rightfully assumed that presenting a walky-talky to random boys would remind them of the violence they saw earlier. 1.7 The results were as the hypotheses predicted. Violent television content did increase aggressive behavior, although this disinhibition effect occurred only among groups with high average scores on characteristic aggressiveness. Also, boys in...