Violence in the Media Promotes Thesis

A long list of possibly violent images can be tabulated, as well as their frequency and duration on the screen.

What other things would you need to consider in order to make sure that exposure to media violence was the cause of aggressive behavior and not some other factor? In other words, what variables would have to be controlled?

The ideal way to control for other variables would be to sanction the population sample. If funding and ethical considerations allowed, the participants could spend a series of time watching select media clips in an isolated environment. The only way to determine whether media, and nothing else, caused an increase in aggressive behavior then the participants should not be able to watch any other media, and ideally not even be able to leave the controlled environment for the duration of the study.

Relate your example to the scientific method.

We begin with the hypothesis that media violence predicts aggressive behavior. We narrow down the variables and define terms, and begin to determine what population sample we would like to investigate. We perform a review of literature and explore the theoretical perspectives underlying the research. Then, we test the hypothesis by executing the research.

References

Positive Behavior Support." University of South Florida. Retrieved Feb 5, 2009 at http://myweb.usf.edu/~aheindel/PBSsection3b.html