The Effects of Violent Song on Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings

Abstract

The aim of this present study was to investigate the effects of violent song on aggressive thoughts and feelings. The present study also hoped to answer whether males or females will show higher level of state hostility when they were assigned to listened to song with violent lyrics. In this research, 11 male and 30 female students from Help University College were recruited. The participants were assigned to listen to a song with violent lyrics or song with non-violent lyrics and were asked to complete State Hostility Scale (SHS; Anderson, Deuser, & DeNeve, 1995) after the song was over. The result showed that the participants, both male and female, who exposed to song with violent lyrics, scored higher level of state hostility than the participants who exposed to song with non-violent lyrics. The present study also found that male participants who listened to violent song indicated a higher level of state hostility than female participants who listened to violent song. The results suggested that the violent song did play a role in increasing aggressive thoughts and feelings.

The Effects of Violent Song on Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings

Violence among the people in the society has increased through out the decade to a state where it is not tolerable anymore. It has become an alarming issue as it has reached to children, adolescents, young adults in such acts. Who is it to blame for such an act? The numerous videos games now-a-days or music that expresses sex, violence and drugs? Who should be responsible for all the violence and to take the blame?

The American's society has been concern about the negative effects of prolonged exposure to violent television programming emerged shortly after broadcasting began in 1946 (Anderson & Bushman, 2002b). The six major professional societies in the United States, which are, American Psychological Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, and American Psychiatric Association, have concluded that there is a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children, adolescents, and young adults (Anderson & Bushman, 2002b). However, the society do not seem to be getting this message from the press that media violence contributes to a more violent society, news reports about the effects of media violence have shifted to weaker statements, implying that there is little evidence for such effects (Anderson & Bushman, 2002b).

Research conducted over several decades has shown that violent media increase aggression (Bushman & Anderson, 2002). The question of why violent media increase aggression has been answered by Anderson and Bushman in year 2002 through the General Aggression Model (Anderson & Bushman, 2002a). The General Aggression Model suggests that recent exposure to violent media can cause short term increase in aggression through its impact on a person's present internal state, which represented by cognitive, affective, and arousal variables (Bushman & Anderson, 2002). It is said that for example, violent media increase aggression by teaching observers how to aggress; by priming aggressive cognitions (including previously learned aggressive scripts and aggressive perceptual schemata, by increasing arousal, or by creating an aggressive affective state (Bushman & Anderson, 2002). From the report of Anderson and Bushman (2002a), the General Aggression Model also specifies that social knowledge structures develop over time through learning process, such as learning how to perceive, interpret, judge, and respond to events in the physical and social environment. Each violent media episode is essentially one more trial to learn that the world is a dangerous place, that aggression is an appropriate way to deal with conflict and anger, and that aggression works (Anderson & Bushman, 2002a). With repeated exposure, such hostile knowledge structures become more complex and difficult to change (Anderson & Bushman, 2002a). In this way, repeated exposure to violence can make hostile knowledge structures chronically accessible, essentially creating an aggressive personality (Anderson & Bushman, 2002a).

In 1997, Anderson conducted a study on effects of violent movies on hostile feelings and aggressive thoughts. 53 university undergraduate students were recruited (Anderson, 1997). The participants first were asked to view a violent movie clips on affect and cognition (Anderson, 1997). Later, the participants went through a series of deception process and finally ended the experiment by completing the questionnaire of State Hostility Scale (Anderson, 1997). The results showed that participants who viewed a violent movie clip reported higher levels of state hostility than did those who viewed a nonviolent clip. This study suggested that violent media may increase aggression by increasing hostile feelings and the accessibility of aggressive thoughts (Anderson, 1997).

Bartholow and Anderson in year 2002 conducted a similar experiment but it was based on violent video games. They wanted to see the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior and potential sex differences in this area. A total of 43 students were randomly assigned to play either a violent (Mortal Kombat) or nonviolent (PGA Tournament Golf) video games for ten minutes (Bartholow & Anderson, 2002). Then, the participants competed with a confederate in a reaction time task that allowed for provocation and retaliation (Bartholow & Anderson, 2002). Punishment levels set by participants for their opponents served as the measure of aggression (Bartholow & Anderson, 2002). The results showed that playing the violent video game would result in more aggression than would play the non-violent game (Bartholow & Anderson, 2002). Besides, they also found that the effect of violent video games on aggressive behaviors was larger for men than women (Bartholow & Anderson, 2002).

The next past research that conducted by Anderson and Murphy in Year 2003 was concerned about the short term impact of exposure to violent video games on young women, a population that has received relatively little attention in this area (Anderson & Murphy, 2003). 91 female students were randomly assigned to play a violent video game or a non-violent video game for 20 minutes, followed by competitive reaction task and then were asked to complete a questionnaire (Anderson & Murphy, 2003). Anderson and Murphy found that brief exposure to a violent game increased aggressive behavior (2003).

In another study conducted by Anderson, Carnagey