Gender And Social Aggression Analysis

In a research article by Behm-Morawitz, Lewallen, & Miller, (2015, April 20) experimenters questioned how television affected viewer’s gender stereotyping and beliefs about social aggression. Experimenters were particularly interested in investigating if different sub genres of reality tv has an effect on gender stereotyping and social aggression beliefs. The focus of the study was on emerging adult women, gender related and social aggression beliefs. Researchers hypothesized personal desires would play a role in the formation of gender and social aggression beliefs. Researchers also examined perceived realism, essentially how real the viewer believes the events in the show are and homopily, the extent to which the viewer identifies with a …show more content…
(2013) researchers hypothesized that increased exposer to media would increase the level of social aggression participants exhibited. Researchers measured media use, social aggression and perceived realism in a self report survey. Participants included 174 (majority female) high school students (14-18 years old). Researcher found that girls spent more time watching socially aggressive reality shows than boys. Additional results showed that most viewers didn 't view reality television as highly realistic. Researchers found a connection between the frequency of watching reality television and increased social aggression. For participants that didn’t view reality tv as realistic there was no correlation with their level of social aggression. For participants that viewed reality television often and perceived the content to be realistic they showed an increase in social aggression. Experimenters couldn’t fully explain the relationship between frequency of viewing and levels of social aggression, meaning socially aggressive participants could have chosen to watch these shows because it matched their ideas and perceptions or socially aggressive behavior on reality television could have increased socially aggressive behavior in viewers. Researchers noted the limitations of their sample, the sample was both small and …show more content…
They also show relational aggression to be a staple of reality television and a measurable aspect of negative attitudes towards women. These articles provided evidence reality television is popular among female adolescents and female emerging adults (modeling meanness, mean girls) providing support undergraduate students at Pace University is a good sample. The articles show that factors such as perceived realism (modeling meanness, mean girls) is important to take into account in assessing the reality television effect on viewer