Grant Peer Review

Bushman conducted three studies to test his hypothesis that “high trait aggressive individuals are more affected by violent social media than that of low trait aggression.” (Bushman. Web. 1995). These three studies were conducted empirically with 420 psychology students. Study one gave the students a film description, and then they chose of which to view. These films have not been shown in theaters or televised. They were given scores on the “Physical Aggression subscale,” which results from a questionnaire testing verbal and physical aggression, anger and hostility.  (Bushman. Web. 1995). The participants with high trait aggression were more likely to watch violence than the opposed. Study two, “participants reported their mood before and

Television is the mainstream of our culture. Violence on television has been a topic of conflict since before 1950. There have been repeated debates on how to protect children from the harmful effects of violence on television. Television is one form of modern media that influences the everyday lives of people. Televised violence has a major effect on how children perceive the world and how they behave. "American television has become the most violent in the world. It is for this reason why researchers have focused their attention toward television violence" (Cantor & Hoffner 424-4-25). Children enjoy watching television and now with the increased technology of cable and movie

Some technical and political aspects of the program planning and evaluation I might encounter in the program scenario I chose, may be trying to reach out to those individuals that are or have been involved with the criminal justice system. Funding may not allow for these services to be provided to these individuals. Another aspect may be that the community is not aware of this program and the services that it provides. Grants could be another issue. If the program cannot show its effectiveness then grants may not be given and this could results in loss of services provided. A political aspect could be that one “favoritism” over evaluations. Some may use their political influence to “guide” the evaluation to present or not present the “selected” truth. (Yuen, 2003) There are many pressures from the individual who performs the evaluation to make it look; “good” This is a big political concern for programs.

In the United States children watch an average of three to fours hours of television daily (Cantor & Wilson, 1984, p. 28). Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is violent. Studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may become insensitive to violence. Consequently, they tend to gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems by imitating the violence they observe on television; and they identify with certain characters, good or bad. Therefore, extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater

Violent media has been proven time and time again over the past 60 years to cause increased aggression in children and young adults. The long term and short term exposure to violent media has been shown to cause “increased feelings of hostility, expectations that others will behave aggressively, desensitization to the pain of others, and increased likelihood of interacting and responding to others with violence” (Committee on Public Education). One of the most famous experiments done on the subject was done in 1961 by the psychologist Albert Bandura at Stanford University. In this experiment children between the ages of three and six were put in a playroom containing a many activities and toys (Cherry). One of those toys was a bobo doll; a 5 foot tall inflatable doll. An adult would enter and either play with the child from a complete ten minutes, the control group, or at some point during those ten minutes begin beating up the doll, the experimental group. They would also say things such as “pow” and “he keeps coming back for more” while attacking it (Cherry).

If given adequate funds to perform research in this area, I would like to expand upon this research. I would use more of the population, older and younger men. I would pull from prisoners and those known to have aggression, anger issues and those known not to have issues. I would expand the independent variables to include using violent and non-violent video games, watching violent and non-violent movie clips, handling machine guns, unloaded of course, a baseball bat or maybe a machete. Some un-inhibiting items such as a stuffed animal, a Bible, or interacting with a child with a game. The saliva tests before and after the interactions are adequate and reliable. I would have the subjects also undergo a baseline blood pressure and heart rate check before and repeat that after the interaction. Also, answer a few questions before and after and perform a physical aggression test to determine their aggression levels.

Credible evidence is very important in order to ensure stakeholder engagement and to strengthen the evaluation finding and recommendations. Credible evidence regarding our program will be gathered from key indicators. A key indicator is a specific, observable, and measurable component that supports the goal or premise of the program. Our key indicators include survey data, service utilization, observations of staff, interviewing the target population and solicitation of feedback. Specific milestones regarding these indicators are delineated in the program goals and

The federal government in the US has taken the initiative to curb not only the amount of violence that can be shown by one program, but also the level of violence that can be shown and to what audiences. By limiting the amount of violence shown on television before 10pm, the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, is trying to make sure that children are not exposed to the levels of gratuitous violence intended for more mature audiences. As early as the 1960s, studies reported that watching television can make children more aggressive. In fact, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the National Institute of Mental Health have all linked

Bandura’s Social Learning Theory says, “human behavior is transmitted, whether deliberately or inadvertently, largely through exposure to social models”(Bandura 1). When a child thinks that a behavior will be punished versus rewarded but instead is not even acknowledged they will perceive it as a reward. Children usually continue rewarded behavior to receive more praise. Television is seen as a “super tutor” to Bandura, the child will model what they see on television, not knowing if it is good or bad. For those children whose parents are not good role models, the television becomes the behavioral role model. If violence and aggression is viewed on the television, it is more likely that children will engage in violent and aggressive behavior. While television can model appropriate behavior, there is a well-documented tendency for violence and aggression. Advertisements are difficult to avoid since they are interwoven in shows and they tend to emphasize violent and aggressive behavior (Kilinger 13).

The bloody scenes in the media are indeed one of the prime factors contributing to an increase in aggressive behaviors among people in society, especially the youth. To exemplify, when people watch manifold rough activities such as: homicide, rape, assault, and gang -related cases, it seems to promote and encourage them to act their abusive behaviors out. The explanation for acting could be that much of human behaviors is learned by observing and imitating another’s person activities, whenever they see incidents on television, particular film channels, they would feel the desire to act similarly. Moreover, these types of actions could also extremely manage audiences’ feeling or even their personality if they are easily prejudiced. These persons

These results correlate highly with the social learning theory on aggressive behavior. Those exposed to substantial violence and aggression were likely to imitate it later on in life. However, while an observational study can elicit enlightening results, they do not provide much on practical, empirical evidence. What the researchers did was observe behavior exhibited by the individuals they studied; they did not control the amount of violence the individuals were being exposed nor were they preventing others from being exposed to such programming. Thus, this study can not be deemed as an “experiment”. While they tried eliminating the lurking variables that may plague the results of their findings, it would be impossible to eliminate every possible influence other than the television exposure through an observational study.

          Due to violence on television, children become less sensitive to that pain and suffering of others or to become more aggressive to others. It also makes children more fearful to the world around them. (Abelard 1) Viewing habits of children observed for many decades deduced that violence on TV is associated with aggressive behavior, more than poverty, race, or parental behavior. It also reported that a TV show contains about 20 acts of violence an hour.

Children view violence in different ways when they watch it on television, whether it is cartoons or a type of drama and action programming. After children have watched these television shows, they may have interpreted the meaning into a negative behavior. It could influence them by becoming aggressive, afraid of the world that surrounds them, or it may lead to confusion. When it is said that children may become confused because their parents teach that violence is wrong. When they view someone in a “superhero” position participating in violence, they may see that as it is all right for the simple fact the good person does the action. According to the American Academy of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry, “the impact of TV violence may be immediately evident in the child's behavior or may surface years later (AACAP, 2011).”

According to E.F Dubow and L.S Miller, authors of Television Violence and Aggressive Behavior: Social Science Perspectives on Television, “Ignoring consequences of violence (including the pain of victims, the victims’ families, and the families of perpetrators) or depicting the consequences unreasonably sets in motion a destructive encoding process.” There could be found a direct correlation between aggressive behavior and violence witnessed on television. The more violence watched, the more desensitized a viewer would become. Dubow and Miller further state “viewers become [fearful] and begin to identify with the aggressors and the aggressors’ solutions to various problems.” It is this identification that causes violent behaviors to become encoded in the person’s mind when exposed to repeated violent acts. The person may then come to see the world as a bleak and sinister place. Along with this

As evidence has shown, children view many violent scenes while watching television, movies, or playing video games, but the question still remains: What psychological effect does violence in the media have on children? Research over the past 10 years has consistently shown that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and real-life aggression (Strasburger 129). Violence in the media can lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the various programs. Of course, not all children who watch television, or movies, or play video games develop aggressive behavior. However, there is a strong correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior. A study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, examined how children's television viewing practices are related to aggressive behaviors. The results revealed that children who reported watching greater amounts of television per day had higher levels of violent behavior than children who reported lesser amounts of television viewing (Singer 1041). Witnessing violence is an important determining factor in violent behavior. The media serves as a means for children to witness violence. According to Bandura's Social Learning Theory, children imitate behavior that they see on television, especially if the person performing the behavior is attractive or if the