It is not surprising to find various depictions of physical violence when we turn on television. Many popular TV shows, movies, children’s programs, and video games frequently contain violent scenes such as attacks with a weapon, battles, or murders. Since media has become an essential part of our daily lives and are easily accessible through various devices for personal media consumption, there has been growing concern over the effects of media violence, which has led to extensive research and public attention. The vast majority of research studies consistently show that violent media negatively impacts viewers, making them likelier to increase their aggressive behavior (Bushman, Huesmann, & Whitaker, 2009). How do people become more aggressive by simply watching violent scenes on TV? Bandura (1986, 2009) argued that people learn to imitate violence through the media, which is called social cognitive theory. He introduced four processes that must occur in social cognitive theory: attention, representational, behavioral production, and motivational processes.
The first process indicated in Bandura’s model is attention. People must first pay attention to a specific behavior in order to imitate it. Which particular behaviors usually draw more attention? According to Bandura’s social cognitive theory, people are likely to pay attention to the modeled behaviors depending on how salient and attractive those behaviors are. Notably, violent behaviors portrayed in media, such as TV shows or movies, attract attention because they are usually thrilling, exciting, and salient. For example, violent scenes depicted in action movies, thrillers, and hero movies are popular, and many people find them exciting and fun to watch.
The second step is the representational process, which concerns the remembrance of specific behaviors. Even though these behaviors are exciting and attract attention, it is impossible to imitate them without actually remembering them. When certain behaviors are repeated multiple times, they are likely to be remembered or learned. For example, types of violence that appear more frequently in media become more familiar and likely to be recalled later for most individuals. People learn to imitate behaviors not only by repetition but also by mentally visualizing or rehearsing them, often through fantasies.
The third process outlined in Bandura’s social cognitive theory is the behavioral production process, in which people learn to perform the behaviors they have observed and remembered. This process involves learning to transform observed behaviors into more generalized or novel behaviors. Even though a person might mentally rehearse shooting someone he or she hates, they are unlikely to perform this action in real life. Instead, they are likelier to behave aggressively without actually harming the person whom they hate and to express their feelings in a more socially acceptable way.
Lastly, the final process of learning to imitate behaviors involves motivation. Even though people pay attention to, remember, and learn to perform behaviors into novel behaviors, they do not perform these behaviors if they are not sufficiently motivated. This can be explained by B. F. Skinner’s operant conditioning, which employs rewards and punishments for behavioral learning. This concept suggests that individuals are likely to become motivated to perform behaviors that are rewarded, while punishment discourages the performance of behaviors for which individuals are punished. This explains why people may not perform every type of behavior they see depicted in media; instead, they tend to perform the behaviors they are motivated to perform.
In sum, many research findings consistently support the negative impact of media violence on people. Potter (2003) found that TV violence increases short-term and long-term aggressive behaviors, the tendency to imitate violence, increased fear and desensitization to violence, and greater acceptance of violence. Bandura’s social cognitive theory explains how people actually learn to imitate observed violent behaviors by introducing four major processes: attention, representational, behavioral production, and motivational processes. This demonstrates that media violence can be learned by observation, but it does not mean that people learn to imitate all the behaviors they watch. Instead, people may learn to imitate behaviors that draw attention and are remembered, performed, and motivated to perform.
References
Bushman, B. J., Huesmann, L. R., & Whitaker, J. L. (2009). Violent media effects. In R. L. Nabi & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of media processes and effects (pp. 361–376). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bandura, A. (2009). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. In J. Bryant & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (3rd ed., pp. 94–124). New York, NY: Routledge
Potter, W. J. (2003). The 11 myths of media violence. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Staddon JE, Cerutti DT. Operant conditioning. Annu Rev Psychol. 2003;54:115-44. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145124