The Negative Psychological And Physiological Effects Of Media Violence Information Among College Students Of Different Real Life Violence Exposure

The effects of media, similar to those of home, school and peer groups, have become an important factor affecting the socialization of individuals. As the major consumers of various forms of media, adolescents are directly affected by violent programs in film, television and internet. The influence is associated with their violent behavior, hostile cognition and negative emotion and affects, etc. The effects of media on adolescents'socialization, physiology and psychology have always been the concern of various social groups; and the development of media has determined that its effects on adolescents have become a universal problem not confined to a particular country.This research, under the condition of quasi-experiment, aimed to investigate the effects of violence in media and real life on college students'hostile aggression, attitudes towards violence and harmful health behavior (eg. smoking, alcohol use etc.), competitive behavior, negative affects and physiological arousal. Parallel to the fact that individuals are exposed to different levels of home and community violence, participants were randomly assigned to watch one of the two video games with different degrees of violence in order to test their effects for participants.Major contents and steps of the researchA. Some science and engineering students among the freshmen and sophomores of Xi'an Jiaotong University were randomly chosen, and their exposure to home, community and media violence was examined respectively. The potential effects of violence exposure were tested under each condition: did media violence pose greater influence on adolescents exposed to more violence in real life? Was the quantity of violence exposure associated with harmful health behaviors? Were there any mediating factors between the quantity of violence exposure and negative cognitive behaviors?B. The participating students were divided into three groups based on the quantity of home and community violence exposure: the high-violence exposure group, the medium-violence exposure group, and the low-violence exposure group.C. 16 students from the medium-violence exposure group were chosen for a pre-experiment. They were asked to watch o the two video games that included different levels of violence. Then their blood pressure and heart rate were taken and recorded. And finally they were demanded to comment on the features (like their interest, excitement and whether there was violence in the content and image) of the video games.D. 128 male students from the high-violence exposure group, the medium-violence exposure group and the low-violence exposure group were chosen for the quasi-experiment. Pairs of males were matched on lifetime violence exposure group and randomly assigned to watch of one the video games (Counterstrike and Popcart) that included different levels of violence. And changes in their blood pressure and heart rates were tested.E. After watching the video games, the participants'emotion and attitudes towards violence and harmful health behaviors were examined.F. The hostile cognitive bias of the participants was tested through two confusing social conditions.G. The aggression of the participants was tested through social difficulty games.H. The 7-point scale was used to assess the features of the video games.The major findings of this research are:A. Among college students, community violence exposure is higher than home violence exposure and indirect violence exposure than direct.B. The greater is the number of family members, the lower is the level of parental education, and the more under-developed is the original place, the more violence the students are exposed to in real life. Likewise, the more friends with bad behaviors, the more community violence they are exposed to. More male students are associated with community violence.C. The greater is the number of family members, the more under-developed is the original place, and the more children the family has, the more likely are the students to show negative emotions. Meanwhile, the lower is the level of parental education and the more friends with bad behaviors, the more likely are the students to show harmful health behaviors. Besides, the richer is the students'experience in playing video games, the lower is the level of violence reflected by them.D. Compared with participants exposed to non-violent video games, those exposed to violent games are more likely to show anger, negative emotions, hostility in social information processing, negative attitudes towards violence and other harmful health behaviors (eg. smoking and drinking), and more competitive behaviors.E. The more is home and community violence exposure, the more likely are the participants to show negative attitudes towards violence and harmful health behaviors; more community violence is associated with more negation emotions; and more home violence is associated with more hostility in social information processing and competitive behaviors. Besides, the negative attitudes towards harmful health behaviors are also associated with peer association.F. Violence in real life and media violence, under laboratory conditions, interact with each other in their effects on the participants'heart rate, hostile information processing, and negative attitudes towards harmful health behaviors. Changes in heart rates (from at rest to after watching violent games), hostile importation processing, and negative attitudes towards harmful health behaviors are more significant in those belonging to the high-violence exposure group.