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Desensitization to television violence: A new model

1989; Elsevier BV; Volume: 7; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0732-118x(89)90039-1

1873-3522

Mark D. Griffiths, Gary L.J. Shuckford,

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

It has been hypothesized that high exposure to vicarious violence effectively results in a kind of 'psychological blunting' of the normal emotional responses to violent events. The current explanation of these events has been in terms of the desensitization process. This assumes that a scene of violence (CS) elicits fear or anxiety (CR) and is associated with an anxiety competing response (e.g. food or relaxation) so as to produce a state of relaxation with the scenes of violence (UCR 2). However desensitization theory leaves numerous questions unexplained. Why do we find television violence entertaining? Why do we watch aggression if it is so anxiety-provoking? Therefore to interpret and overcome some of the anomalies of this theory, a new model is forwarded attempting to explain the desensitization to television violence in terms of conditioning theory involving ideational processes.