An Analysis of The Factors Affecting Aggression

Young-adults and children are constantly bombarded via all media portals with violence, violent acts and differing types of assaults against mankind. It is inevitable that our children will see a considerable amount of violent imaging knowing that all that violent content, images, and scenes that are on television, film, and online and they will see these violent images out of context. Consider for one moment, some of the most utilized media that promotes social interaction are the very platforms that radicals use to normalize political violence through messages that promote pro-terrorist ideology to audiences who may be susceptible (Huey, 2015). Of course, this type of interaction of radicalization is not usually exposed to children, however, the constant exposure to violence in the media does represent a risk factor that threatens the mental health of children and adolescents and many times undermines the very serious business of parenting.

In order to get a better understanding of the issue at hand, I think it most important to understand the mechanics of aggression in relation to violent behaviors. Aggression by definition is any behavior that will cause psychological or physical harm to someone else (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2012). Therefore, aggression can be physical, perhaps by assault via pushing or hitting; aggression can be psychological, perhaps by ruining someone’s reputation with a lie or with a truth that is not very flattering; or aggression can be verbal, perhaps by using negative derogatory remarks to someone in order to cause a negative response. In all of these things, we do understand that aggression is the precursor to more violent behaviors which would result in a physical injury, death, or any type of behavior which would lead to the necessity of medical intervention after the act.

Understanding the relation of aggression and violence, we can focus more clearly on the aggressive nature of all the media around us. Many of us grew up watching aggressive behavior and violence even as toddlers. Let’s recall for a moment simple cartoons such as “Bugs Bunny” and “Yosemite Sam.” When we recollect the many encounters therein, we see how we as a culture are introduced to aggression and violence through the simple interaction of a funny cartoon show. Consider for one moment the aggression that “Yosemite Sam” showed towards “Bugs Bunny” with the pulling out of guns and shooting at the rabbit. Consider how this was seen as a funny moment as no matter how often the trigger was pulled and shots were fired, “Yosemite Sam” almost never hit “Bugs Bunny.” Not only that, think back on the moments when he did hit “Bugs Bunny” and it was made light of that he was hit through all types of theatrics that we as children sit and laughed about while “Bugs Bunny” goes through the motions of “dying.” How do we take these types of acts of aggression and say on the television screen via cartoon they are most hilarious but we never consider the responsibility that we hold if our children begin playing the games that are seen on the television. We never took into consideration that the funny moments that we laugh at would become a reality for our children while they were in school and decided that someone made them angry so they decided to hit another child with a toy brick as had been seen many times on the “Looney Toons” cartoon shows.

The culture of aggression is so engrained in us that we have made it into cultural iconography and have plastered it in the lives of children from the cradle to the grave and we wonder why more and more children and people in general are displaying much more aggressive behavior than in the past. We have to even look at the current state of our social media crazed “reality” television shows that are a normal part of everyday life. Just looking at the line-up of shows on television, we see that ninety-percent of the shows are a type of reality based show. So now, we have moved the aggression and violence from cartoons and movies which cannot possibly be “real” to a “reality” show where although the plots are probably many times thought up for the hope of ratings, and where the drama (i.e., aggression) is conjured, however, what is presented are the real lives of real people experiencing real problems. For instance, just the other night on a tv show entitled “Preachers of Atlanta”. A prominent very well-known woman who is a singer as well as a Pastor almost ran her husband over with a car because she was angry with him. We need to truly understand for one moment what all of this means. A reality show where children are watching sees a Pastor and her husband (also a Pastor) arguing, putting hands on one another, and then nearly one being run over due to the nature of the conversation which was being had. Understand, the culture of aggression is not simply in a “make-believe” format anymore, it has now entered “reality” and children are both watching and considering the behavior of adults while making decisions as to how their behaviors will conform to the world of tomorrow. The use of reality television has successfully distorted reality and no matter how much of a fictional world within which one may reside, if that fictional world is the reality, then that world is real to the person who lives therein.

The use of entertainment in successfully acclimating us to suggest that aggression and violence is not only natural but it’s okay and should be used in order to settle issues and problems between individuals. Entertainment is nothing more than propaganda to incite aggression and violence in the lives of individuals. Many children have many experiences with aggression and violence through the media and consume huge volumes of violent media but that consumption does not necessarily lead to an immediate bout with aggression neither violence in children. Millions of dollars are spent on a day-to-day basis developing some of the most aggressive and violent video games and even using and paying young-adults to test the games to give user input about the game, however, there is not an aggressive or violent act after most incidences of individuals battling one another in these video games. Thankfully, most of the children who play violent games don’t end up becoming violent themselves, however, we cannot throw out the thought that children are not affected by seeing all the aggression and violence found in the media: inclusive of video games, social media, and the news.

Every year, youth homicides and injuries relating to assaults results in $16 billion in combined medical and work loss costs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control., 2010). How do we know that these aggressive and violent behaviors are the result of the media propaganda? We have to consider that the debate about whether or not media is a major cause of aggression and violence in children has been debated for years. We must also take into account that a panel of experts concluded, “research on violent television and film, videogames, and music reveals unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts” (Baran & Davis, 2013, pg. 182). In addition, the Media Violence Commission on the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA) states, “Over the past 50 years, a large number of studies conducted around the world have shown that watching violent television…or playing violent video games increases the likelihood for aggressive behavior (2012, pg. 336). What does this mean? This means that there is evidence to support that aggression and violence can be contributed in part to what is presented in the media by affording a more positive attitude toward violence by making violence a common factor of life and offering aggressive and violent solutions to issues. In addition, this results in a decreased sensitivity to scenes and images of actual violence which could also increase the propensity to behave in ways that are aggressive and violent in nature.

We must concede that although the risk factor in viewing aggressive and violent media has a direct correlation to increasing the changes of aggression in children, we cannot say that it is the only factor involved. Instead, there are many factors that stack upon one another to increase the risk factor of involvement in aggressive and violent acts. Every factor presented attuned to aggression increases the propensity of an aggressive or possibly violent reaction. With this concession, we must also understand that there are those who outright deny the effects of violence and aggression related to media. The prevailing thought is that if an immediate aggressive or violent act cannot be substantiated then the act that may result at a later time is not predicated on the media but possibly upon mental issues or simply premeditated acts of violence.

This opposing view can be found in the Supreme Court striking down a California law banning the sale of violent video games to children, stating, “Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively. Any demonstrated effects are both small and indistinguishable from effects produced by other media” (Supreme Court of the United States, 2011, pg. 2). Understand, this law was built surrounding the effects of violence on children being more susceptible to violent and aggressive behaviors due to violent games, however, this law could not continue to establish itself on that base considering the violence of other media types which were not banned to be viewed by children. In addition, there are parents who hold an interest in violent media and use that media as a time of bonding between them and their children. This law would prohibit the use of this media by those parents which would be prohibitive to an adult who approves such media for their children. These are the same parents who hold the view that media violence has no effect on aggression and actual violence.

There is a grave lack of consensus surrounding media violence versus actualized aggression and violence whereas a key contention is whether or not children will develop behavioral problems because they see people behaving violently on television and whether children who are anti-social prefer to watch violent programs (Robertson, McAnally, and Hancox, 2013). This coupled with the fact that there are not many studies which take into account those children who are aggressive and who do acts of violence that are also mentally ill. This leads many scholars to believe and to concede that there are some serious flaws within the whole paradigm and contention stemming from media violence and actual aggression and violence due to the methodology of measure not being consistent with all the factors related to those who are aggressive and who display violent behavior (Ferguson & Savage, 2012). Douglas Gentile, PhD identifies risk factors such as bias towards hostility, low parental involvement, participant sex, physical victimization and prior physical altercations as remaining indicators which help to stack toward possible aggression and violent acts (Gentile & Bushman, 2012). In addition, he continues that the greatest single indicator of aggression and/or violence in the future was past issues dealing with aggression.

Children are moldable and influenced so behaviors are not formed of their own will and volition, it is the complex interactions that children have that leads to behaviors being developed and acted upon. It is not simply one single fact that play a role in children developing aggressive and/or violent behaviors but several risk factors which indicate the propensity towards violence. Understanding this helps us to understand how when all the factors that are attributed to childhood aggression are present and looked upon, we can gain clarity as to how children are being desensitized to violence and therefore lose their ability to empathize with both the victim and victimizer. Although the media is not the main proponent for this issue, the media does play a crucial role in helping children to understand the overall story of the film. Instead, much media focuses many times on the violent and aggressive parts while the non-violent portions are not very exciting and thus children receive a skewed version of the media and thus builds upon the context of aggression and violence in lieu of the overall story contained within the media. This skewed vision is further perpetuated by the fact that consequences of violence and aggression are never taken into account and therefore children are unable to come to a viable conclusion which would help them to reject violence and aggression but instead this could be used a justification to using violence to retaliate against the perception of victimization and therefore youth will continue to use violence to solve problems because they have no other viable alternatives.

In the media, there are no models of conflict resolution which does not invoke violence or aggression to solve problems and issues. This is a major issue due to the fact that the one thing that children do today the most cannot help to stabilize and promote thoughts to positive conflict resolution. Therefore, it is most important that parents become involved in the lives of children. With all the new computer systems and portable media devices, it is getting increasingly difficult for parents to monitor their children’s online habits and media use, however, a parent can still teach their children how to be critical of what they view in the media and of how they interact with their peers. In addition, listening to lyrics of music, going behind them to see what tv stations they are watching and what movies they are going to see, and even checking their phones to see how they are interacting with others are all important factors in helping a child to acclimate to peace instead of aggression. Also setting limits concerning the use of television and portable media devices and becoming an active and engaged parent with children will also help a child realize how important respect is to everyone.

At the end of the day, we cannot conclude by offering extreme ideologies concerning media violence and actualized aggression and violence in children, however, we can without question know that although not the main risk factor, media violence does play a role in children developing aggressive and violent behaviors. Of course, not every child who consumes violence via media will be noticeably affected, however, when we understand that the psychological process that is involved goes on and has some form of effect on every person consuming violence. Gentile notes that the “risk-factor” approach can help to offer some reprieve to this debate concerning the effects of media violence and hopes that people begin to understand that media violence is no different from many other risk factors in association with aggression and violence, and, that parents understand that this factor is easier to control than other factors such as bullying or living in poverty (Gentile & Bushman, 2012). “You are what you eat” has been a cliché for so many in the world, however, it is important to note that this principle is applicable even to ingesting healthy media (Warburton, 2012). Violence and aggression has existed since the beginning of mankind, it is time for us to see it for what it is and to tackle all of the risk factors by not simply focusing on one while ignoring the rest in order to help decrease aggression and violent acts in our children.