Comm Test 2

theory of planned behavior

(included in revised TRA) - behavior is also based on the person's perceived control over the behavior - the extent to which you think you can control that behavior - if you are addicted to cigs and think they are bad and others think they are bad - you might still smoke because you feel that you can't control that behavior

Bleakly (2008)

- relationship between exposure to sexual content in media and adolescent sexual behavior -exposure to sexual content increases adolescent sexual activity -sexual activity adolescents likely to view sexual content **two directional relationship - creates cycle

sexual violence in slasher films

-Rated R -readily available to teens -violence juxtaposed with sexuality -studies suggest men become desensitized women do not *victim is typically a female so how can they be desensitized when the victim is someone they identify -over time, men find such films to be less degrading to women, more enjoyable, less offense, less violent

importance of individual differences (sexual content)

-force oriented vs. non force-oriented males respond differently -harmful effects occur when sexually violent materials depict female aroused by assault -link exists between viewing sexual violence and propensity to inflict pain upon females ex. experiment similar to that one in psych - men were more likely to shock females after being exposed to violent porn

extent of sexual content in the media

-magazine declining since 1990's -more pervasive media = videos, cable and pay-per-view, internet, sexting, talking about sex on TV

impact of exposure to sexually violent material

-media have begun to portray sex in combination with violence - domination and bondage -normal males can be aroused by violent sex if female is portrayed as enjoying it (myth: males think that females enjoy violent sex - even though it is often portrayed as rape, but obviously women do not)

measuring violent media

-payne fund studies -content analyses of prime-time TV in 50s and 60s - people didn't have TV's prior - made the transition between sitting around the radio for news and entertainment to sitting around the TV

TV (sexual content)

-sexual comments and overtures are frequent mostly in humorous scenes (sanitation) -unmarried to married sex 6:1 on programs, 24:1 on soap operas (seems to have a moral lens, seems to depend on your own value system whether unmarried sense is a bad thing) -studies confirm that exposure to sex on TV encourages earlier sexual experimentation among adolescents (another moral lens)

music videos (sexual content)

-sexually suggestive actions occur frequently -3/4 "concept" videos contained an avg. of five instances of sexual content -80% of videos with violence also contain sexual content

mass media and social learning

-source to observe other social behaviors that you can learn from or model -viewing dis-inhibitory devices working in the media - ex. ex. teenager under pressure to tries cigs and teens around them are smoking so teen tries it - device present in media that can effect our behavior -cultivating viewers' perception and beliefs about the world *social construct of reality - the world makes sense to us through our experiences - the things we see in the world don't make sense until we actively make sense of them and the media helps us do that - might not always be right - long term -prosocial learning - getting people to wear sunscreen -diffusion - person learns of innovation - adopts innovation or performs new behavior - interaction in social networks confirms decision to adopt new behavior *media provides source from which the diffusion of new ideas and artifacts gets introduced and then spread from person to person

Internet (sexual content)

-studies show adolescent males most likely to seek sexual content on internet - sometimes they actually want to learn - not just for gratification -directly affects male tendency to view women as sex objects - objectified in porn -highly realistic portrayals associated with recreational attitudes toward sex - seems like fun -2007 study by pediatrics - 42% of internet users aged 10-17 exposed to porn - 66% accidental or unwanted

effects of erotica on aggression

-viewing sexually explicit material tends to enhance aggressive tendencies -excitation transfer - intensifies unrelated affective states, however depends on type of porn *if it is more pleasing, non-arousing nude photographs calmed aggressive behavior - porn tends to arouse which can pour over into aggression but not always if it is soft-porn

3 mitigating factors to reduce harmful effects

1. clear, well-defined family value system 2. free and open discussion encouraged and practiced in family - having the talk 3. active viewing and critical analysis of program content -debriefings effective in lessening harmful effects -men most affected by learning that women are not responsible for sexual assaults against them -training emphasizes reality that women are absolutely unable to enjoy rape

5 types of porn

1. depictions of sexual violence like rape 2. depictions of degrading or humiliating activities 3. depictions of consensual, nonviolent intercourse 4. depictions of nudity 5. depictions of child pornography - federal crime to have any nude photo even of yourself when you are a minor

how does priming work

1. exposure to media activates related thoughts that have been stored in the mind of an audience member 2. media message triggers concepts, thoughts, learning, or knowledge previously acquired that are related to the message content 3. thus, message content is connected, associated, or reinforced by related thoughts and concepts that it brings to mind 4. for a period of time after viewing such content, a person is more likely to have thoughts about the content, related thoughts, or memories 5. in some instances the related thoughts become permanently associated with the message or content

types of effects (violence)

1. imitation/modeling - social learning theory/social cognitive theory 2. disinhibition - as viewers grow more accustomed to seeing violence on TV, they become less inhibited by social restrictions against committing violent acts -socially permitted violence (football,boxing) -viewing violence - removes some of the inhibitions - part of ourselves that says 'don't do this' 3. arousal -when people get worked up - can carry over - can have an argument which makes us aroused and then later you're driving to work and there's a huge traffic build up- the arousal will be amplified and then you have crazy road rage -excitation transfer theory (zillmann) - physiological arousal dissipates slowly - blood pressure takes a while to go down - if two arousing events are separated by a short amount of time, some of the arousal caused by the first event may transfer to the second event or be misattributed to the second event 4. desensitization - repeated viewing of media violence makes viewers less and less sensitive to violence - numbs us to the violence

what are examples of priming

1. just having a can of red bull sitting on your desk can prime you to engage in risky behavior, in comparison to having a bottle of water 2. red bull soccer team became the #1 team for fouls after their name change because even having the name red bulls make them foul more 3. video we watched in class - money makes you more hungry and self-reliant (money was the primer, hunger / willingness to help / pain threshold was linked to primer) --- priming is short-term but if repeated enough can be long-term (research is mostly short-term)

excitation-and-valence model

1. pleasing non arousing erotica counteracts anger (tastefully done nude pics) 2. displeasing non arousing erotica increases annoyance (a tasteful nude pic of someone you don't wanna see naked) 3. displeasing non arousing erotica increases aggression when provoked, through excitation transfer 4. pleasing arousing erotica transfers calmness

effects of exposure to highly explicit content

1. sexual arousal -70% of sexually explicit videos viewed by males -male arousal increased by violence and dehumanization -less explicit material sometimes more arousing -different individuals aroused by different stimuli -heavy consumers become habituated, less satisfied with real sex- increasingly seek out sexual gratification through the media and that then becomes their preferred form of sexual experience 2. changes in values and attitudes -repeated exposure results in desensitization - previously taboo behavior becomes acceptable because of repeated exposure -exposure produces significant changes in attitudes -real-world partners rated lower in appearance and performance -desire for marriage, monogamy and children decreases -sex becomes unfulfilling -media messages degrade and dehumanize women as victims or playthings 3. changes in behavior -viewers learn from material depicted -disinhibition toward depicted sexual acts -studies have found correlation between rape incidence and availability of sex magazines

four cognitive traits

1. symbolizing capacity - symbols such as words and letters are utilized to represent specific objects, thoughts, or ideas - symbols are the vehicle of thought - allows people to store, process, and transform experiences for mental processes - taking info and turning it into an abstract representation of something else 2. self-reflective capacity- the process of thought verification -people perform a self-check to make sure his or her thinking is correct -through self-relection people make sense of their experiences, explore own cognitions and self-beliefs, and alter their thinking accordingly - highly impulsive people don't do this 3. self-regulatory capacity -adopted standard and perceived performance -people evaluate their own behavior and respond accordingly - not trapped in a cycle of bad behavior - capacity provides potential to self-directed changes in behavior ** -a dual control process A. discrepancy reduction - if you want to run a marathon you go and run a mile - one step closer to making self directed change - reduce discrepancy of who you are now (not a marathon runner) B. discrepancy production - if you want to stop smoking you can produce discrepancy by quitting --perspective recognizes that we have cognitive and symbolic capacities that gives us an amount of agency as humans and therefore not all the blame can be on media 4. vicarious capacity -people learn by observing the behaviors of others without actually experiencing it - learning to shave by watching dad -emphasizes potential contributions of media messages -positive - learn beneficial things -negative - learn antisocial things

cognitive response theory

1. the impact of variables depends on the extent to which individuals articulate and rehearse their own thoughts to the information presented 2. the amount of favorable or unfavorable thoughts generated determines the extent of persuasion goal: to get you to buy product or change your attitude about something - cognitive assumption of active participants* in terms of persuasion - yielding depends on cognitive response to message - if we want to understand persuasion we have to pay more attention to what an audience thinks about a message - draw attention to their attitude

Message system analysis by cultivation researchers (beginning in late 1967)

George Gerber took interest in violence on TV and how it can cultivate a distorted view of our reality - cumulative effects

Payne Fund Studies

In the 1920's public concern about harmful effects of motion pictures on children prompted this study - 1929-1932, 13 studies found that movies had a significant impact on various phenomena

Lazarsfeld, Bereslon, and Gaudet

The people's choice study on the 1940 presidential election - found that the impact of media exposure in terms of conversion was negligible

schema

a representation of knowledge about a concept or type of stimulus including attributes and relation between them more abstract, less contextualized, less mutable (less likely to change) in comparison to mental models

general affective aggression model

arousal is increased when exposure to mediated violence primes hostility and anger, primary or automatic appraisal is made in the mind of the viewer, secondary appraisal is made where viewer rethinks action

cognitive traits

aspects that are distinctly human in terms of our cognition - we all use and rely on thinking about reflecting on who we are/ how we are going to behave how do we think socially - how we think effects our social environment and our social environment effects the way we think- what are the components of cognition

four component processes

attention, retention, motor reproduction, motivation

psychological impact of violent media

behavioral effects, affective effects, cognitive effects

the people's choice re-read

beyond conversion - more about changing your mind- if the media reinforces the vote that is still important - big impact of small effects - close elections - two step flow (media --> opinion leaders--> mass audience - overestimated in this study - media played a larger role than the authors acknowledged)

behavior effects (of violent media)

catharsis - viewers vent their aggressive impulses harmlessly through viewing televised violence or by fantasizing about violent acts arousal- viewer watches a violent scene and becomes excited or emotionally aroused disinhibition - as viewers grow more accustomed to watching violent media, they become less inhibited by social sanctions against committing violent acts

effects on attitude

central route- accessible, long term, resistant to other change messages, predictive of behavior, persistent peripheral route- less well articulated foundation, short term effects, less accessible, less enduring, less resistant to subsequent attacking messages, less predictive of behavior (not always concerned with these factors - sometimes just want to focus on short term effects)

revisionist perspective

challenges traditional model - seeing examples from other studies that show huge effects from a "small-effect" era

measuring viewers' perceptions

children especially are at high risk for learning aggressive behaviors from portrayals that feature all five of these elements: 1. a perpetrator who is an attractive role model 2. violence that seems justified 3. violence that goes unpunished (no remorse, criticism, or penalty) 4. minimal consequences to the victim 5. violence that seems realistic to the viewer

priming

concepts that have some relation to each other/ are connected in some mental network, so that if one concept is activated then concepts related to it are also activated

Joseph Klapper

conducted an extensive review of effect studies - concluded that the effects of mass communication were limited - if you look closely through a revisionist lens you will see that there were both small and big effects that would have appeared under different circumstances - he was being even handed (most scholars at this time felt that the media had limited effects which slightly effected his conclusion)

importance of prevailing tone

contextual variables that contribute to prevailing tone: -context of viewing - watching alone, with spouse, friend, mom, preacher -seriousness or triviality - if you're laughing with friends it becomes trivialized -artistic value or intent -degree of explicitness / relevance to plot - how explicit is it and is it relevant to plot (random sex vs. having sex because it relates to the characters relationship) -cultural context - nudity in some societies is more taboo than in others

explicitness

depends on how much is left to the imagination

research on media violence

diverse methodologies - lab / field experiments, cross-sectional surveys, longitudinal panel studies, natural experiments, intervention studies, content analysis TV violence increases aggression overall, but young children are especially susceptible - children are more likely to identify with violent characters and imitate them, have a harder time distinguishing fantasy from reality - as you get older you are less susceptible - reciprocal relation between TV violence and aggression - watching TV makes aggressive kids feel better about they're own aggression because "everyone's doing it" -- aggressive children are more unpopular, thus more likely to watch more TV, which adds to the process

X-rated videos (rating used by porn industry)

domination - sexual control of one person over another (usually male domination) reciprocity - consensual sex, satisfying to both individuals exploitation - coercion of one over another (money offering), or use of status to make another perform as desired sexually (I'm a police officer you have to do what i say) autoeroticism - self-stimulation such as masturbation *x-rating replaced by MPAA in 1990 with NC-17 and NC-18 ratings *88.2% of porn videos contain physical aggression *48.7% verbal aggression

mental model

dynamic mental representation of a situation, event, or object; they can do the following; 1. help us process, organize, and comprehend incoming information 2. make social judgements 3. formulate predictions and inferences 4. generate descriptions and explanations of how a system operates (idea of you running scenarios through your mind (have to be able to imagine the scenario))

persuasion

effects are intended - research examines the process of attitude formation (cognitive processes) and change and the modification of behavior based on attitude change attitude is a mediator) persuasive message--> attitude --> behavior

Cline's four-factor syndrome (the study of sex offenders)

effects occur in same order: 1. addiction 2. escalation 3. desensitization 4. tendency to act out or copy -correlation between sex crimes and sexually explicit material -far more sex offenders than non offenders report using sexually explicit material -sex offenders more likely to become aroused and likely to perform sexual act after viewing such material

priming stereotypes

ex. pictures from hurricane katrina --> white people "find" / black people "loot"

outputs

exposure, attention, interest, comprehension, acquisition, yielding, memory, retrieval, decision, action, reinforcement, consolidation

high-risk contexts

five key elements of context that make people susceptible to negative effects 1. perpetrator is an attractive role model 2. violence seems justified 3. violence goes unpunished 4. minimal consequences to victims 5. violence seems realistic to the viewer

disinhibitory devices

forms of self exoneration - not restrained or regulated - acting freely ex. how did people during holocaust allow such a horrible thing to happen - things that we do to allow ourselves to justify bad thins that we do - how we forgive ourselves is a psychological process 1. moral justification - stealing to provide food for my family 2. advantageous comparison - compare own acts with even more serious behaviors of others 3. euphemistic labeling - downplaying a horrible crime - i borrowed instead of i stole 4. diffusion of responsibility - when act is performed in a group people feel less personally responsible 5. distortion of the consequences - ease conscience by distorting the harm caused by their act - i only shoplift from huge chain stores 6. dehumanization - victims are looked at as subhuman 7. attribution of blame - blame victims or the situation (if you weren't a jerk I wouldn't have hit you)

Carl Hovland

found that U.S. army films did not affect soldiers' motivations

Triadic Reciprocal Causation

from magic bullet perspective there is one variable going one way - media causes us to go a certain way from this perspective: -behavior: can influence personal factors - if you put your seatbelt on 21 times in a row you will keep doing it because it becomes a habit aka an unconcious/cognitive process- therefore behavior effects our personal factors -personal factors: personality (influences behavior)- introvert vs. extrovert, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, cognitive processing -environmental factors: change your environment through your behavior, environment changes the way you think *overall more dynamic, realistic, complicated

porn

graphic and explicit depictions of sexual activity

re-reading Klapper

his first two points are categorized as limited - 3,4,5 talk about direct effects and feels more like magic bullet era - yes, this is accepted history but there needs to be more care taken when making over arching claims of an era of limited effects and an era of powerful effects

effects of media violence

important social issue - public concern for negative effects of exposure to media violence, especially among children viewing mediated violence causes aggressive behavior (causal link)

theory of cognitive dissonance

inconsistencies between attitude and action cause anxiety must be resolved ex. smoking - you know its bad for you so you have a negative attitude about it but you are addicted and keep smoking - cognitive dissonance says there is a gap between your attitude and behavior and that causes anxiety - must be changed

McGuire's matrix model

inputs (indep. variables) and outputs (dep. varables) - if we want to understand persuasion we just need to understand these variables limitations: we don't go through all of these steps and sometimes we through them in a different order or a different amount of times - doesn't account for indirect or moderating effects

communication / persuasion matrix model

inputs: source, message, recipient, channel, context outputs: exposure, attention, interest, comprehension, acquisition, yielding, memory, retrieval, decision, action reinforcement, consolidation - successive stages - effective influence requireseach stage of outputs is necessary for the immediately following stage to occur (exposure--> attention--> interest) - limitations - some of the steps in the processing sequence may be completely independent of each other (action without comprehension) - not very complex

peripheral route - ELM

involves little thought, dependent on peripheral cues, for less personally relevant issues

motor reproduction (production)

leanring a behavior does not lead automatically to replicating it - must have physical skills to replicate the action - self- efficacy or the belief you can do it -modification could occur during the production process

obscenity

legal term (miller v. california 1973) -material appears to a shameful, sick, morbid, or lustful interest in sex -material is offensive beyond community standards regarding sexual depictions -material lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or science value ** not protected by the first amendment, can be regulated -not all porn is considered obscene -indecent is just in bad taste - obscene has to follow these criteria -video: comedian saying he wants a list of words that aren't okay to say in public - people have different lists *was this obscene? no because it was artistic, talked about the words themselves (literary merit), and a political component (these words are regulated-- ex about radio station)

1940s-60s

limited media effects - started developing more nuanced theories on how the media effects people - more sensitive to the fact that not all effects are the same

the nature of sexual content

media content described as "sexual" must be clearly defined - varies in terms of how explicit it is vs. how much is left up to the imagination vs. how much is visibly occurring

why does media violence matter?

media is one of the causing factors of crime and crime is a huge societal issue because more people per 100,000 of our population is in prison or on parole (more than russia) - we need to address this issue from multiple angles

paul lazarsfeld (1940s-50s - persuasion)

media messages reinforced existing attitudes two-step flow 1. media messages influenced certain opinion leaders in a community 2. these opinion leaders had influence to change others' attitudes - spread word inter-personally *puts more emphasis on this type of comm less focus on media indirect effects situation

cognitive neo-association model

memory is a network (web), watching media activates part of the network, past experiences are remembered and then associated with the new information

attention depends on

message characteristics, perceived functional value of the action, ones goals and interests, ones cognitive skills

retention depends on

modeled behavior must be remembered or retained in order to be used again retention: cognitive rehearsal - picturing yourself doing that observed action elaboration - comparing the action to already existing thoughts relevant to the action - actively thinking about it filing the behavior into long term memory - if you ever experience that situation you will do what you cognitively rehearsed

1970's

moderate effects - most people had TV's - first time violence was brought into the house and exposed children to it - more sophisticated theorizing - cognitive, conditional, indirect (started bringing in psychologists)

recipient factors

motivation - personal relevance, whether you are someone who thinks critically or someone who does not (high vs. low) ability to engage in message elaboration - distraction, general intelligence, repetition, comprehension

memory

network of consisting nodes (concepts) and links (associations)

significance of interpersonal communication

not just about media, there are other factors so if you believe in the magic bullet theory you are overlooking these factors

message source factors

number / length of arguments within a message- has an effect on persuasion (education, etc.) number of people in agreement with the message (bandwagon effect) unexpected or unusual message channel of origin

myth #4

one cannot know whether violent media causes aggression - experimental method

theory of reasoned action

people decide how to behave based on 2 criteria 1. persons attitude toward the behavior itself 2. perceptions about others' views of behavior ex. texting and driving - if all of your friends are aware and think its bad then you are less likely to do it

violence

physical aggression by one human or human-like character against another with the intent to cause harm

1980's - present

powerful effects - TV violence is linked to societal violence -viewing entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values, and behavior, particularly in children (joint statement)

1920's - 30's

powerful media effects - magic bullet / hypodermic-needle model (if you take anyone regardless of age, race, socioeconomic status, and expose them to media it will effect them directly like a bullet or a shot from a needle) - directly to you and has a direct effect on you

attitude

predisposition to evaluate others favorably or unfavorably - important mediator standing between acquisition of new persuasive information and subsequent behavior change - have to change someones attitude or get them to an attitude in order to persuade

factors that increase violence

provocations and frustrations - road rage poverty easy access to guns drug and alcohol use gang involvement parental neglect violent media

invasion from mars

radio adaptations of the war of the worlds written by H.G. Wells - U.S. invaded by aliens - dramatized in a newscast style - 1 million people thought it was true - fled homes and packed the roads

affective effects (of violent media)

research has shown that everyone experiences an emotional reaction when viewing violent content on TV or films - may be immediate or long term

how is violence sold to the audience

sanitization - watching violence on TV can create cognitive dissonance -behavior would be watching violence on TV, know its not a good thing, but in order to resolve this issue you can change your behavior or attitude- TV stations want you to keep watching - sanitize violence -no physical harm to victim, no long term consequences - don't have to feel bad about ourselves for enjoying the violence -trivialize violence so we can accept it - mix humor and violence

national television violence study (1994-1997)

several studies coming together some were content analysis (solely descriptive) some studies generated links -first step was to offer a definition for violence -"unseen violence" still counts

effects of WWII films

significant impact on knowledge about foreign affairs - delayed effects

observational learning theory

simplistic - learning a new behavior involves observing and imitating that behavior being performed by another person- model could be a real person or a fictitious character - concerns long-term effects- violence in the media cultivates a bad attitude about the world over time - Bandura's bobo doll studies

motivation

socially learned behaviors may not be enacted unless one is motivated motivational rewards or punishments -direct: result of your own actions - want to do yoga and you realize that it makes you feel good / motivates you -self-produced: self-satisfaction / self-worth - getting good grades -vicarious: observation of other's behavior and subsequent outcomes

source factors

source credibility, attractiveness or likability of a source, believability, features of communication (music, etc.)

inputs

source, message, recipient, channel, context

dependency theory 1976

states that the degree to which people depend on mass media information depends on several factors

re-interpret early studies

studies that indicate limited and powerful effects can be identified in every period - inclusion of past studies that do not fit the standard scenario

myth #1

the level of violence in the mass media simply mirrors the level of violence in the real world

individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior if:

the model is similar to the observer (identify with them),, model has admired status (someone you look up to), the model is rewarded, the behavior has functional value (if you see that students that study hard for exams get better grades - you are more likely to do the same)

self-validation theory

the relationship between thoughts and attitudes should be great when people have confidence rather than doubt in their thought - doesn't need a sequence of prior stages - might use more than one model to get better results limitations -- people are not always paying attention - only applicable to when individuals are cognitively involved

indirect effects situation

the way that media messages are indirect in a persuasive context ex. new candidate running for president that is well liked and someone finds out they become opinion leader and spread the word inter-personally

social cognitive theory

the way that we process and retain information - offers an explanation for our behavior that recognizes the steps that other theories ignore - Bandura - "social foundations on thought and action: a social cognitive theory" - assigned cognition a central role in human behavior (acting unconsciously - ex. texting and driving - not consciously thinking about risk and rewards) -people are not just reactive organisms shaped by environmental events or inner forces (magic bullet) -people are also self-organizing, proactive, self-reflecting, and self-regulating (capable of wanting to do something but not doing it)

re-reading the established history

there was interest in indirect and conditional effects in powerful effects studies (payne studies) - partial reading / interpretation of limited effects studies was pointed out

central route - ELM

thinking about a message, dependent on argument quality, for more personally relevant issues (more likely to persuade)

Hovland findings on persuasion

tried to get people to support the war and sign up for the war three things central to persuasion 1. listeners must pay attention to message 2. comprehend message 3. accept message five variables affect persuasive power 1. credibility of message source 2. type of message appeal 3. order of arguments presented 4. audience identification with certain groups 5. personality of audience

knowledge gap hypothesis

tv and later the internet (new medias) contribute to our thoughts on public affairs - helps wealthy more than poor (money to buy the resources)

situational model

type of mental model that is less abstract than mental models or schemas - a person creates this model in memory to represent a particular story or episode viewed via mass media, whereas a person would create a mental model based on a number of related stories or episodes

intervening variables

variables that enhance priming effects 1. perceived meaning 2. perceived justifiability 3. character identification 4. perceived reality 5. memories of prior experiences

ELM - elaboration likelihood model

very popular- persuasion depends on a person's likelihood to pay attention and think very carefully about a message - persuasion can occur when thinking is high or low - covers limitations of previous models because subject doesn't need to be super engaged

perceived justifiability

viewer believe the violent behavior is justified for some reason ex. grand theft auto - if they're going around gunning everyone down - if you make them feel like this is justified it will enhance your priming effects - if you don't then it will probably reduce priming effects

perceived reality

viewer believes that they are seeing reality as opposed to fiction ex. if you show people real life violence from the news it is going to prime them to be more violent in comparison to showing them other fake media violence

character identification

viewer identifies with the character committing the act ex. had people watch jersey shore and then manipulated them to either highly identify or not identify with the characters and found that those that did identify were more narcissistic

perceived meaning

viewer interprets the meaning of violent actions in a particular way

memories of prior experiences

viewer sees media and something triggers a memory from viewers' past - unethical to test

myth #2

violent media decreases aggression -based on catharsis theory - by watching violent media, people could be relieved of their negative feelings vicariously through watching other people acting out their anger -pressure cooker theory - if anger isn't vented the person will "explode" in an aggressive rage -no evidence of this - only study went to a detention facility for boys and randomly picked boys to watch violent and some to watch nonviolent media - found that boys who watched violent behaved less aggressively - but these teenagers were pissed that they were being forced to watch boring uninteresting TV so they acted out -social learning theory - goes against this theory -research shows that even fantasizing about aggression increases aggression - priming theory - activating violence-related thoughts

myth #3

violent media have a trivial effect on aggression - some risk factors for youth violence - violent media has a correlation of .2 -only other factor that has a stronger correlation is gang membership -violent media is just as strongly correlated as having a bad relationships with your parents, being male, prior physical violence *not trivial - it is significant and meaningful

selective attention

we are not passively effected by the media - we choose the media we are exposed to

protection motivation theory

what motivates people to engage in protective behaviors (safe sex, taking measures to prevent skin cancer, and stop smoking) -threat appraisal: how serious is threat, how likely is it to affect you? -coping appraisal: how effective is protection, are you capable of performing protective behavior? *focuses on threats rather than motivations for gains - when a threat is seen as more severe or when a protective behavior is seen as more effective they are more likely to be motivated by this method

cognitive effects (of violent media)

when viewing mediated violence influences a viewers' beliefs about the world