Investigating the Amount of Aggression in Children’s Television Programs
Introduction:
The aim of this research is to investigate the amount of aggression in children’s television programs. The main concept involved in this research is that children are influenced of violence and aggression by the media. In this experiment, results would indicate the constitute acts of physical and verbal aggression and the number of acts of aggression in each program. This research is considered necessary because it could support theories that children’s television programs that show different kinds of aggressive behaviour and violence can influence the behaviour of the children.
Example of a previous relevant research is Bandura’s “Bobo Doll” research study where he (Albert Bandura) had young children watch a video of a model physically attack a large plastic clown called Bobo. After watching, the children were put to a room full of toys including the Bobo doll. Mostly 90% of the children showed the same aggressive behavior towards the Bobo doll.
The hypothesis for this experiment is that the chosen show, which is Phineas and Ferb, would show a high number of verbal and physical aggressions.
Method:
Participants: Year 10 students, aged 15-16 (Tina, Marie, Ally)
Measures: In this research, it measures the amount or number of aggression shown in the chosen children’s television program. It also states the different kinds of aggression used in the show. (e.g. verbal abuse, physical abuse, etc.)
Procedure:
a.) Select two children’s television program and make sure that each program is similar in time and length.
b.) Define what constitutes acts of physical and verbal aggression and record the number of acts of aggression for each program.
c.) Collect the data and information for results and show it in a table with descriptive statistics, showing who the participants were, the number of acts of aggression and also what kind of aggression are shown. (e.g. physical, verbal aggression)
Results:
Tina: Phineas and Ferb
Marie: Kim Possible
Ally: Kids vs. Cats
Types of Aggression
Discussion:
Based on the results and findings in this research, the hypothesis which stated that: “the chosen show, which is Phineas and Ferb, would show a high number of verbal and physical aggressions” is true.
On the three episodes of the show, different kinds of physical and verbal aggression were shown. There are a lot of scenarios which involves kicking, punching and different kinds of physical
