PSYC 2030 Chapter 7: PSYC 2030 Chapter 7 Notes
5 Jun 2018
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PSYC 2030 Chapter 7 Notes
Introduction
Adjoining Room
• Each child was taken into another room and seated before a panel that had wires
leading into an adjoining room.
• On the panel was a green button labeled HELP, a red button labeled HURT, and a white
light between the buttons.
• The experimenter then told the child that another child in the adjoining room would
soon be playing a handle-turning game that would illuminate the white light.
• The participant was told that by pushing the buttons when the light was lit, he or she
could either help the other child by making the handle easy to turn or hurt the child by
making the handle become very hot.
• When it was clear that the participant understood the instructions, the experimenter
left the room and the light came on 20 times over the next several minutes.
• So each participant had 20 opportunities to help or hurt another child.
• The total amount of time each participant spent pushing the HURT button served as a
measure of his or her aggression—the dependent variable in this study.
• The results were clear: Despite the availability of an alternative helping response, both
boys and girls were much more likely to press the HURT button if they had watched the
violent television program.
• So it appears that a mere three-minute exposure to televised violence can cause
children to behave more aggressively toward a peer, even though the aggressive acts
they witnessed on television bore no resemblance to those they committed themselves.
• When students discuss this experiment in class, someone invariably challenges this
interpretation of the results.
• For eaple, oe studet reetl proposed a alteratie eplaatio that ae the
kids who watched the violent film were naturally more aggressive than those who
athed the trak eet.
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