Looney Toons: TV Show Analysis

Hypothesis: The experiment aims to see if violent media has an effect on aggression in adolescent youth. The study hypothesizes that children specifically the experimental group those exposed to violent media will be more aggressive than those who weren’t exposed to violent media.

When it comes to the topic of violent media, some of us would readily agree it’s a controversial subject as to whether kids should or shouldn’t be exposed to it. This is because many children who view violent media react negatively rather than not being affected at all. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of what effects does it have on children. Whereas some are convinced that it is a healthy alternative for kids to express themselves, others maintain that it causes kids to become more aggressive and contributes to juvenile crimes.

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).

This could be opening the doors to a plethora of other cases and assumptions that can lead to our youth potentially becoming killers. Research was conducted on the exposure of television violence and its effects on kids, organizations like the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association and the Academy of Pediatrics have concluded that there is a cause and effect relationship amongst those exposed. However, such studies does not demonstrate that media violence causes aggressive behavior, only that the two phenomena exist together (207). This finding was used to make the assumption that it would likely be the case with video games.

Okay we all know that America can have some intense television programs that are offensive, and filled with profanity. No wonder kids are so rebellious to their parents these days cause of shows like Family Guy. Other shows like The Simpsons could also have an affect on kids’ behavior in a negative way. Just to provide some background on the situation Family Guy and The Simpsons have big similarities and differences. Some which include derogatory language but we will get into that a little bit later. Now that we have an idea what’s going on let me get more in depth with the situations.

I have chosen to discuss the role that media violence plays in aggression in children, specifically as related to Albert Bandura’s experiments. I specifically chose this topic based on Bandura's observations with his famous Bobo doll study (which has been very influential to linking media exposure to violent aggressive behavior in children). In researching this paper, I hope to find an answer to satisfy my curiosity as to whether the media is to blame to the extent that Bandura would have us believe or are there other forces accountable. Is it logical to blame media for the

That’s hardly a controversy," Bushman said. “With the general consensus about the harmful effects of media violence, it may seem surprising that some people still question the effects of violent media on aggression. One important reason is that people don’t distinguish between aggression and violence. These two things are not the same; aggression is a lot less worrisome and harmful than violent behavior because it does not indicate inflicting pain on another person. But will violent shooting games and the like be the reason your son punched his brother in the arm when he made fun of him at dinner tonight? According to Senior Pediatric Psychopharmacologist Dr. Raul R. Silva, childhood aggression is a symptom of many different underlying problems and is packaged and presented differently in each kid, seen much more frequently in boys who typically have more energy to dispose. Violent video games seldom lead to violent behavior, and the distinction between aggressive and violent behavior should be a focal point for parents of where to toe the

Is aggressive behavior in children attributed to the viewing violent movies and video games? This topic has been in the forefront of social psychologists research, trying to determine if there is indeed, a link between the two. Research concludes that the cause and threat are there, and warn parents against allowing their children access of such media. Researcher have outlined the following three key points; 1) Exposure to violence, whether firsthand or through media increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior. 2) Effects of violence can be classified as short term and long term. 3) The overall effects of media violence can be large (Hoffman, 2014). The major professional societies, which include American Academy of Pediatrics, Academy

Does the violence occurring in media exhibit aggressive and violent behaviors in older children and adolescents? This is a big controversial issue that everyone debates on. However, many researchers have found that violence in television, video games, and media reveals that media violence increases likelihood of aggression and violent behaviors in adolescents. Although, negative experiences in families and peer groups have an important role in the development of violent behavior, children may develop that mentality to view the world full of conflicts and violence. I will be arguing how media violence does exhibit aggressive behavior a adolescents’ life. Therefore, many researchers believe that a violent behavior in adolescents is a learned behavior rather than an innate behavior.

Moving away from education, even entertainment is a serious purpose displayed in cartoons. Just like Family Guy, People can watch it to relieve stress and take their minds off of their busy schedule for a little while. Many people have a lot to balance and think about in what they do on a daily basis which is not easy for anyone to handle regardless of their expertise in what they do. Therefore, cartoons provide the serious purpose of entertainment as an outlet to the all the stress.

Gentile and Bushman (2012) hypothesized that not only exposure to the media violence, but also other risk factors exclusively and mutually increases the risk of aggression in children.

Various scholars, political groups, and organizations have reported that there is clear and consistent evidence that violence in the media causes real-life aggression and violence. In June of 2000, a number of American medical and psychological associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association, issued a joint statement about the pathological effects of entertainment violence (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2000). According to these groups, evidence points to a causal association between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children. Some scholars have evaluated the magnitude of media violence effects on violent behavior as almost as important as gang membership (Anderson, Gentile and Buckley, 2007). However, there is ongoing debate as to whether there is a causal relation between media violence and aggression. Furthermore, the importance of this relation, and whether it warrants widespread concern, is highly disputed (Mc Charles,

It has been suggested that exposure to media violence from an early age desensitises children to aggression and normalises aggressive behaviour (Eron, 1982). Television violence and aggressive acts may promote aggression as a behaviour that helps individuals to achieve their goals.

First things first, modern cartoons have difficulty embodying the same type of in-depth, adult-themed, bro-mantic adventures that older cartoons thrived off of. Take for example the original Transformers series. A group of ultra intelligent, sentient robots escape their crippling homeworld of Cybertron in order to seek out the much-needed (hyphenate to words that form an adjectiveresource of Energon. Upon finding Earth, our heroes the Autobots are attacked by the evil Decepticons only to crash land and wake up thousands of years later in the year 1984. Thus series continues on with Megatron trying to harvest the Earth for its resources and Optimus Prime and his band of allied companions foiling his every attempt. The next 4 four (spell out numbers ten and under) seasons present the viewers with the overarching theme of teamwork and friendship. Granted, it did this very well and the show is praised for its originality and

Today, children are translating the fiction from television shows into real acts of violence. "Television is becoming less and less an escape route into fantasy, it's becoming reality" (Palmer). Horrible murders, even by kids as young as age twelve, support Palmers' statement. Television may not be the soul cause of the terrible crimes, but there is proof that some of these unimaginable crimes are caused by violence seen on the television.