Children, adolescents, and media violence : a critical look at the research
(Book)

pt. I. Understanding aggression -- 1. There and back again : a media violence tale -- A look through the violent sands of time -- Evaluating the evidence for evil influences -- Aggressive behavior and aggression-related constructs -- Types of aggression -- Aggression-related constructs -- Violent entertainment and aggression-related constructs -- Answering questions so new questions can be raised -- On the value of research -- Preview of coming attractions -- Summary --

2. Exposing the beast within : aggressive behavior across development -- Normative development and individual variation -- The developmental pathway from anger to conflict to aggression -- Anger -- Conflict -- Normative aggression in preschool -- Normative aggression in grade school -- Normative aggression in adolescence -- School shooters -- Assessing threats made by youth -- Evaluating current threat assessment procedures -- Correlation -- Correlation is not causation -- Individual variation in aggressive behavior -- Desisting -- Stabilizing -- Escalating -- Onsetting -- Individual patterns of aggression as a function of violent entertainment -- Sex differences in aggressive behavior across development -- Sex differences in aggression and violent entertainment -- Aggressive behavior in the context of development -- Developmental tasks and violent entertainment -- Excessive aggression in youth -- Aggression and developmental psychopathology -- Developmental psychopathology and entertainment violence -- Summary --

3. Understanding the beast within : theories of aggressive behavior -- Understanding theories -- Valid theories -- Pseudoscientific theory -- Theories of aggression -- Psychoanalytic theory of aggression -- Evaluation of the psychoanalytic theory of aggression -- Application of psychoanalytic theory to media violence -- Frustration theory -- Evaluation of frustration theory -- Application of frustration theory to media violence -- Social learning theory -- Evaluation of social learning theory -- Application of social learning theory to media violence -- Social information processing theory of aggression -- Evaluation of social information processing theory -- Application of social information processing theory to media violence -- Script theory -- Evaluation of script theory -- Application of script theory to media violence -- Control theories -- Self-control theory -- Social control theory -- Evaluation of control theory -- Application of control theory to media violence -- General aggression model -- Evaluation of the general aggression model -- Application of the GAM to media violence -- Theories of aggression and developmental considerations -- Summary --

4. Dining on death and destruction : the how much and why of violent media consumption -- Media violence consumption across development -- Survey research -- Varieties of survey methods and problems -- Social desirability -- Patterns of media consumption -- Media ownership -- Media consumption during childhood -- Media consumption during adolescence -- Gender differences in media consumption -- Childhood -- Adolescence -- Reasons for consuming violent entertainment -- Uses and gratification of violent media -- Companionship -- Escape -- Habit -- Learning -- Passing time -- Relaxation -- Sensation seeking -- Gratifications specific to violent media -- Vicarious aggression -- Identity formation : individual identity -- Identity formation : social identity -- Defiance of restrictions -- Empowerment and social status -- Mood management -- The importance of understanding why youth consume violent media -- Violent media consumption as a function of development -- Summary --

pt. II. Effects of specific forms of violent media on youth -- 5. Violent media and the need to be strong and powerful -- Historical proponents of media violence -- The so-called modern-day benefits of media violence -- Anecdotal evidence : is it scientific? -- The use of flawed data -- Evaluating the empirical evidence presented by Jones -- Does media violence increase feelings of strength, power, and competence? -- Self-efficacy -- Media violence and self-efficacy -- Does media violence increase feelings of control? -- Locus of control -- Media violence and locus of control -- Does media violence consumption make youth less likely to aggress? -- Catharsis -- Media violence and catharsis -- Does media violence consumption help youth deal with anxiety and fear? -- Research on media violence-induced fear -- Virtual reality and phobias -- A final dagger into the heart of sexy vampire slayers -- Research on media violence and body image -- Summary --

6. Watching the playful beast : sports violence and aggression -- Aggression in modern sport -- There was no "second spitter" hidden in a grassy knoll for Roberto Alomar -- Modeling aggression and its consequences -- Laboratory experiments -- Laboratory experiments and observational learning -- Observational learning and the Roberto Alomar incident -- On the importance of rough-and-tumble play -- Watching aggression in sport and sports entertainment : effects on aggressive behavior -- Sports violence and hostility -- Sports violence and gender -- Longitudinal research -- Laying the smack down on sports entertainment -- The nature of physical activity in sports entertainment -- Competitive contests in sports entertainment -- Rules that govern play in sports entertainment -- Research on the effects of viewing professional wrestling -- Factors that influence imitative behavior in youth -- Power, similarities, and consequences -- Identification -- Personal fable -- Effects of watching aggressive behavior on youth aggression during sport -- Generalizing from observed sport to a different sport -- Priming -- Aggressive networks -- Summary --

7. Violence-laden imagination : comic books, fiction, and toys -- Comic book violence -- Comic book sales -- Comic book content -- Slapstick humor -- Comic book violence in compared to other types of media violence -- Comic book violence and aggressive behavior in youth -- Early research -- Modern research -- Research on late adolescents and young adults -- The future of media violence research may be written in comic books -- Violence in literature and youthful fear and aggression -- Frightening stories and fear -- Aggressive stories and aggressive behavior -- War toys and aggression -- War toy research -- A closer look at gender differences in war toy research -- Critique of the war toy literature -- Summary --

8. Animating the beast : cartoon violence -- Cartoons : a brief historical overview -- Violence in cartoons -- The effects of comedy on the perception of cartoon violence -- Cognitive transformation -- Schematic processing -- Priming -- Contextual factors -- Non-comedic cartoons and perceived violence -- Graphicness -- Perceived actuality -- Perceived similarity -- Perceived reality -- Cartoons and aggressive behavior : the evidence -- Disinhibition -- Laboratory research in early childhood -- Comedic and non-comedic violence -- Object-oriented and person-oriented aggression -- Field experiments in early childhood -- Ecological validity -- Demand characteristics -- Face validity -- The research -- Research on early childhood -- A study that combines object- and peer-oriented aggression -- Within- and between-subjects designs and field experiments -- Research in middle childhood -- Aggressive behavior -- Aggression-related constructs -- Research on adolescence -- Summary --

9. Listening to the beast : violence in music and music videos -- Historical overview -- The focus of modern-day research on music violence -- Heavy metal -- Rap -- The popularity of music -- The lyrical content of heavy metal and rap -- Lyrics and sexual content -- Lyrics and violent content -- The potential effects of lyrics -- Lyrics : are they really that important? -- Lyrical comprehension across development -- Why developmental differences in lyrical comprehension occur -- Lyrical incomprehension : a double-edged sword -- The best comprehension is related to the perceived importance of the music -- On hearing things that cannot be heard -- Can backwards-masked messages be detected? -- Can backwards-masked messages be heard when a song is played forward? -- Backwards-masked messages, suicide, and the law -- Rockin' and a rollin' and a fightin' -- The effects of music violence on youth -- Correlational research -- Experimental research -- Linking suicidal lyrics and suicidal behavior -- Prevalence and risk -- Lyrics and suicidal ideation -- Heavy metal music and suicide -- Amplification effects and suicide -- Heavy metal music and suicide : a link that is broken -- Sex, violence, and video tape -- The Buggles were wrong -- Why music videos may still be important in the study of media violence -- Yearly consumption -- Music video content -- The effects of violent music videos of adolescents -- College students are not children -- Comparing music videos to music alone -- Summary --

10. Watching the beast : live-action television and movie violence -- Violence on television -- Differences between movies and television -- The context of aggression and television violence -- Glamorized violence -- Glamorized violence and learning -- Research on the effects of glamorization on aggression in youth -- Justified violence -- Justified violence in the context of fantasy and reality -- Contrast effects -- The effects of television violence on aggressive behavior -- Correlational studies in childhood -- Preschool -- Middle childhood -- Summary of correlational research -- Experimental research in childhood -- Summary of experimental research -- Research on adolescents -- Correlational studies -- Quasi-experiments -- Experimental research -- Introduction of television and aggressive behavior -- Natural experiments -- Indirect aggression -- The effect of television violence on aggression-related constructs -- Attitudes towards the use of aggression -- Emotional expression -- Fantasizing -- Identification with the aggressor -- Memory -- Interpretation of ambiguous stimuli -- Desensitization -- Habituation to media violence -- Desensitization to real-world violence -- Important of discriminating habituation and desensitization -- Research on habituation -- Research on desensitization -- Behavioral desensitization -- Physiological desensitization -- Cognitive and emotional desensitization -- Limitations of the desensitization research -- Summary --

11. Playing with the beast : violent video games -- The popularity of violent video games -- Teaching kids to kill -- Video game eras and video game violence -- Atari era : abstract violence -- Nintendo era : increasing realism -- Sony era : lifelike violence -- Types of violent video games -- First and third person perspective violent video games -- First person shooter : multi-tiered environment (FPS-MTE) -- First person shooter : rail (FPS-R) -- Third person shooting and fighting (TPSF) -- Subgenres of violent video games -- Online, multiplayer violent video games -- The effects of violent video games on youth as a function of video game era and game type -- Correlational research -- Atari and Nintendo eras -- Sony era -- Putting the "inconsistent" correlational findings in perspective -- Experimental research -- Atari era -- Nintendo era -- Sony era -- Important issues related to experimental research -- Summary --

pt. III. Media violence and the concept of risk -- 12. Aggressive behavior : risk and protective factors -- Beans and aggression -- Defining risk and protection -- Child characteristics that are risk factors for aggression -- Genetics -- Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) -- Hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPG) -- aggression and general underarousal -- Temperament -- Attachment -- Developmental status -- Environmental risk factors -- Parenting and the parent-child relationship -- Parenting styles -- Punishment and monitoring -- Siblings -- Methodological issues in sibling research -- Home environment -- Peers -- Peer acceptance -- Peer relationships -- Neighborhood violence -- Summary of risk factors -- Protective factors from aggression -- Protective characteristics of the child -- Protective characteristics in the environment -- On the importance of risk and protective factors in media violence research -- Summary --

13. The threat of media violence : assessing its magnitude and reducing its effects -- Sizing it all up -- Meta-analysis -- Limitations of meta-analysis -- Strengths of meta-analysis -- Meta-analysis and the magnitude of effects -- Variance -- Accountable variance in the social sciences -- Meta-analysis and research on media violence -- Video games : the baddest of the bad? -- Identification with the aggressor and the rewarding of violent behavior -- Active learning -- Practice effects and murder -- Continuous exposure to violence -- Does size matter when it comes to different types of violent media? -- Placing the effect sizes for violent media in the context of other risk factors for aggression -- Media violence effect sizes in comparison to health-related effect sizes -- Media violence effect sizes in comparison to other risk factors for aggression -- Critique of effect size revelations -- Media violence exposure and moderators -- Child and adolescent moderators -- Age -- Gender -- Trait aggression -- Environmental moderators -- Socioeconomic status (SES) -- Parenting -- multiple moderators and future research -- Reducing the effects of media violence consumption through mediation -- Types of mediation -- Mediation research -- Research on co-viewing mediation -- Research on restrictive mediation -- Research on active mediation -- mediation questions in need of answering -- Summary --

14. Policy, violent entertainment, and youth -- Legislating media violence : is there really a need? -- A brief look at policy making -- Violent entertainment and current policy -- Legislating comic books...almost -- Guidelines of the CCA -- Evaluation of the comic book industry's attempt at self-regulation -- Legislating music -- Evaluation of the labeling system -- Legislating movies -- MPAA rating system -- Evaluating the MPAA rating system -- Legislating television -- Television rating systems and the V-chip -- Evaluating the television rating system and the V-chip -- Legislating video games -- ESRB rating system -- Evaluating the ESRB rating system -- Media violence policy : a look to the future -- Summary --

pt. IV. Nonviolent media and youth

15. The good, the bad, and the ugly : the effects of nonviolent media on children and adolescents

Defining the good, the bad and the ugly

The good

Educational and information programs

Prosocial media and prosocial actions

Effect sizes of prosocial media

Media and academic learning

Prejudice and stereotype reduction

The bad

Prejudice and stereotype formation

Advertising and youth

Drug use and the media

Sexual attitudes and behavior

The ugly

Summary.