The Effects of TV Violence on Children The topic this review will be investigating is the effect of television violence on children. Therefore, the quest is to indicate whether television violence is detrimental to children, the questions of inquiry are: 1) What is the effect of TV violence on children’s aggression, 2) What is children’s emotional reaction to television violence? In a study by Pinto de Mota Matos, Alves Ferreira, and Haase (2012), the role identification of children with violent television heroes, perceived reality in media violence, and enjoyment of TV violence were examined as mediators of the association between viewing violent television shows and subsequent verbal and physical aggression. Surbeck and Endsley (1979) explored
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In particular, watching a great deal of violent television episodes is perceived to be reality by children (Pinto da Mota Matos et al, 2012). In this regard, children start behaving aggressively after watching a violent TV episode as they justify the themes found in the stories as real (Wilson, 2008). As a result, children who watch violent episodes will try to imitate the character-role portrayals in those stories (Brocato et al, …show more content…
Children also develop fear and worry after being presented with scary, violent TV episodes (Surbeck & Endsley, 1979). It has been emphasized that children use their cognitions or schemata to evaluate and interpret their experiences with media content (Van der Molen & Bushman, 2008). For violent television episodes, children will try to imitate the aggressive and antisocial characters, especially when such media portrayals go unpunished or are rewarded (Pinto da Mota Matos et al., 2012; Wilson, 2008). The findings from these studies are noteworthy because they provide evidence that there is a positive association between media violence and the tendencies of children to act in less than desirable ways, which answers the inquiry questions of this research. Nonetheless, as with all empirical investigations, these studies are not without limitations. Most of them have operationalization complexities and a limitation regarding the type of aggression measurement (Polman et al., 2008., Pinto da Mota Matos et al., 2012). Self-reported data used in the research (Surbeck & Endsley, 1979; Wilson, 2008; Van der Molen & Bushman, 2008) would also cause some bias. The generalizability of results could be questioned also as data gathered focused only a single setting
In particular, watching a great deal of violent television episodes is perceived to be reality by children (Pinto da Mota Matos et al, 2012). In this regard, children start behaving aggressively after watching a violent TV episode as they justify the themes found in the stories as real (Wilson, 2008). As a result, children who watch violent episodes will try to imitate the character-role portrayals in those stories (Brocato et al, …show more content…
Children also develop fear and worry after being presented with scary, violent TV episodes (Surbeck & Endsley, 1979). It has been emphasized that children use their cognitions or schemata to evaluate and interpret their experiences with media content (Van der Molen & Bushman, 2008). For violent television episodes, children will try to imitate the aggressive and antisocial characters, especially when such media portrayals go unpunished or are rewarded (Pinto da Mota Matos et al., 2012; Wilson, 2008). The findings from these studies are noteworthy because they provide evidence that there is a positive association between media violence and the tendencies of children to act in less than desirable ways, which answers the inquiry questions of this research. Nonetheless, as with all empirical investigations, these studies are not without limitations. Most of them have operationalization complexities and a limitation regarding the type of aggression measurement (Polman et al., 2008., Pinto da Mota Matos et al., 2012). Self-reported data used in the research (Surbeck & Endsley, 1979; Wilson, 2008; Van der Molen & Bushman, 2008) would also cause some bias. The generalizability of results could be questioned also as data gathered focused only a single setting