Lara Stockdale presented her research on “Emotionally anesthetized: media violence induces neural changes during emotional face processing”. The collection of studies that contribute to this field of research make up the meta-analytical study backing much of the foundation of this research. During her presentation, Stockdale explained that meta analytical studies essentially use research articles to summarize a huge body of research. The results suggested that various media exposures, specifically those with violence, may deprive frequent viewers of violent media/frequent players of violent video games of the basic skill of emotional face processing.
Emotional face processing allows us to process and interpret facial expressions which in turn assist us with negotiating our life experiences. Individuals who are frequently exposed to media violence tend to lack these essential processing skills, making it difficult for them to perceive and interpret threats which are necessary for survival. The article explains a crucial aspect of this research which is that “emotional anesthetization” can contribute to moral disengagement. I would like to make the argument that this can result in the endangerment of others along with the possible threat of the individual to him/herself. Feelings of disengagement can result in an individual creating internal justifications for aggressive behavior. Another factor that supports my argument is that emotional anesthetization also increases enjoyment and pleasure during playing violent video games. The article states that, “Violent-video gamers show evidence of denying the humanness of others and report victims of violence as less human.” (Stockdale) A major research question this study proposed was, is there a relationship between exposure to media violence and real-world aggression? As it turns out, short term exposure to violent media is related to increased aggressive behavior. It was also found that with short term exposure to violent video games comes increased aggressive affects and cognition contributing to increased aggressive arousal. I am currently enrolled in a social psychology course and in a recent case study we reviewed alarming evidence that high levels of exposure to violence can trigger sociopathic and psychopathic behavior in some individuals. We have read studies for classes that had results that supported similar hypotheses, yet results are contradictory.
I am now wondering, can media violence exposure/video game violence participation be a trigger for individuals and promote the possibility of sociopath/psychopath tendencies and responses to various experiences and stimuli? Additionally, can emotional anesthetization enable narcissistic personality disorders? I personally think that violent media exposure wouldn’t necessarily CAUSE a personality disorder, however I would like to know if there are various effects that this research can help us understand in that regard. One frequently overlooked factor is that the general aggression model considers inputs including the person and the situation. A person and the situation work in correspondence to influence how the person behaves. In terms of the long term repeated exposure to violent media: will this eventually change your personality? For example, with an increase in aggression, I am interested in exploring any possibilities for chronic personality shifts. This is important to investigate because individuals are much more likely to behave aggressively in these ambiguous social situations due to vicarious operant conditioning while playing violent video games as well as self-identification with violent “protagonists”. The “protagonists” are rewarded for their violent behavior, and therefore are conditioned to have violent behavioral inclinations.
It has been hypothesized in a wide range of other studies relevant to aggression and violence exposure that feelings of inferiority can often lead individuals to demonstrate aggressive behavioral outcomes towards those individuals perceived as threatening. However, recent studies are beginning to suggest that looking at related constructs such as narcissism is critical in trying to understand aggressive behavior. Recent studies have been looking at the relationship between narcissism and violence in both clinical and student populations. In 2016, Sinead Lambe published the team's research titled, “The Role of Narcissism in Aggression and Violence”. This article aims to systematically integrate the findings found in these recent studies into existing theories of violence. More specifically, however, this systematic review used a twenty article review and worked to describe 25 different samples.
Although emotional face processing has proven itself to be a significant contribution to research on aggression and media violence, the results of this study indicate that narcissism is a relevant construct to understand when it comes to the understanding of aggression and violence. These findings dismantle the limitations of knowledge about the affective processing and cognitive control mechanisms. These results were found consistently in both populations; student and clinical. Additionally, it is known that cognitive control is considered to be higher order processing. It grants us the ability to control our behavior. In her study, Stockdale demonstrated that through chronic exposure to violent media and video games some aspects of cognitive control can be damaged. This happens because the ability to inhibit the less favorable response is compromised. This leads me into my discussion on empathy. According to Lambe’s study, since sociopaths also possess a limited ability to experience empathy to an extent where it could influence behavioral outcomes, I was curious to find out whether or not sociopathic behavioral outcomes can be related to understanding aggression, empathy, and violent media exposure in similar ways we are learning that narcissistic personality disorder helps us understand some of these concepts.
The reason these findings are a crucial contribution to this field of study is because they can help us gain a greater understanding of violence and in turn be able to predict and reduce it. One relevant potential problem is that currently, during covid children in their stages of development are constantly being exposed to various forms of media, including violent media. Due to the necessity of staying inside, the majority of children are resorting to technology for routine entertainment. One final question to consider; what are some of the potential chronic long term effects of a drastic social change as such and could we experience a generational personality shift? In both my social psychology class I previously mentioned as well as the study “The Role of Narcissism in Aggression and Violence”, it was explained that the social learning theory helps us understand learning based on exposure and association. Basically, there is a stimuli focus which directs our attention. Next comes rehearsal and encoding which result in retention. This is then followed by an important aspect of the theory, practice and feedback which should, in theory, be followed by a reward which reinforces and promotes motivation. This theory in correspondence with many others can help in discovering life altering interventions and solutions to various problems with violence exposure and aggression.
Link to New Journal Study:
In Class Article:
No comments:
Post a Comment