Daniel Pedron Development Across Lifespan 4-7-14

Formal Writing Assignment #2 Conditioning Our Children

Daniel Pedron The University of Memphis

Daniel Pedron Development Across Lifespan 4-7-14

I read the article "Behavioral Psychology" Conditioning Kids To Kill, and it intrigued me how much programming violent movies and video games can have on our society through operant and classical conditioning. The article describes how much of an impact the violence that children see in video games, movies, and television has on them, and the safeguards that they are lacking to protect them from this violent programming. Through the violent programming on T.V., movies, and the shoot em video games, the developed nations have been introducing their children to the same weapons technology that the major armies and agencies have been using in order to turn off the midbrain safety catch. In World War 2 General S.L.A Marshall discovered the effect that programming had on turning off the midbrain and the safety catch of soldiers. The effect of this can be noticed where the increased close combat baseline firing rate went from 20% in WW2 to over 90% in the Vietnam War. The US Bureau of Justice Statistics research indicates that law enforcement officers are less likely statistically, to be incarcerated than a nonveteran of the same age. This appears to be due to the fact that there is a deeply ingrained discipline instilled in them through training. The hunting culture also shows signs of the same discipline and safeguards while dealing with guns. Hunters are taught, usually at an early age, strict rules regarding guns. This includes always treating a gun as if it is loaded, never pointing it at something unless you are willing to shoot it, respect the land and the animals, be appreciative of your God-given rights, and obey all rules and regulations when out in the field. These are important training and discipline principals that most children outside of those specific groups hardly ever receive. Yet these children are still being saturated with violent video games and movies that are a form of military conditioning, but without the safeguards.
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Daniel Pedron Development Across Lifespan 4-7-14

From the website Killology.com, The American Psychiatric Association, in their 1992 report Big World, Small Screen, concluded that the "scientific debate is over." And in 1993 the APA's commission on violence and youth concluded that "there is absolutely no doubt that higher levels of viewing violence on television are correlated with increased acceptance of aggressive attitudes and increased aggressive behavior." The evidence is, quite simply, overwhelming. (Killology.com) Dr. Brandon Centerwall, who is a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, has concluded from his research and the overwhelming statistical evidence that he has gathered, that anywhere in the world once television is introduced within fifteen years the murder rate will at least double. He also concluded that if T.V. was never introduced into America, there would be around an estimated 10,000 less homicides each year and 70,000 fewer rapes.

Of course there are many different psychological and sociological reasons through which the media violence turns into crime. Although from a developmental standpoint, a child cannot fully organize the information and where it comes from until around the ages of five or six. This means if they are seeing murders, rapes, and violent acts on the T.V. they dont fully understand where its coming from, and for all they know it is real life. Just as if a child was in a war zone, you would expect a child to be really messed up if they grew up seeing death and extreme destruction all the time. The article uses an example of the movie Clockwork Orange to explain how classical conditioning is used in our society through movies. In the movie Clockwork, a sociopath is injected with a drug that makes him nauseous and then he is exposed to violent movies, eventually he is conditioned to associate all violence with nausea and he is then cured. The opposite is what happens in reality of todays society, where millions of

Daniel Pedron Development Across Lifespan 4-7-14

children are constantly exposed to repetitive media violence, which they learn to associate with pleasure. The pleasure comes from their favorite candy, drink, their girlfriend and friends with them having a fun night out at the movies while watching people get tortured, raped, and die in very high definition and realistic ways. Also, from a behavioral perspective, these children are participating in countless repetitions of the very real-life, and highly popular, first person shooting games. These games provide the motor skills necessary that allow killing to be turned into an automatic, reflexive response; but without the safeguards and discipline that the military, law enforcement and the majority of the hunting community has.

The article concludes to state that from a psychological standpoint, the children within the industrialized world, those who have common access to videos and video games, are being brutalized and traumatized on a daily bases at a very early age, through television and movies. Many parents dont even recognize the negative effects it can have on their young children. Through violent video games they are subconsciously learning to kill, while being rewarded it for it through the video games. The result of all of this programming process is a worldwide virus of violence that is growing every day.

The article I read has numerous references and connections with Behaviorism, especially Ivan Pavlovs Classical Conditioning and B. F. Skinners Operant Conditioning. Classical conditioning focuses primarily on the ability to use stimuli to create involuntary responses. While, according to our book, operant conditioning is defined as a type of learning where a learners behavior is changed by the consequences that follow. Almost every child in America and most industrialized nations are growing up watching television and playing video games, and most of these games and shows are very violent in one
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way or another. These mind control programming techniques are changing our children and culture through classical and operant conditioning. As it states in the article, the military realized the potential of this programming for the greater good in regards of training our military to fight back and shoot without hesitating through operant conditioning. The operant conditioning is a form of psychological programming that involves voluntary actions, (like firing a weapon) reinforced by events that make a person respond automatically, in a prescribed way and even under stress. When the enemy comes up on the screen, the player must kill the enemy or get killed himself, this skill is reinforced over and over again. In video games there is a lot of reinforcement, which is anything that strengthens or increases the likelihood that a behavior will continue. If the player kills an enemy or numerous bad guys they are rewarded with more points, money, or the ability to go to the next level. In behaviorism this is called Positive Reinforcement, which consist of providing an individual something favorable after a particular behavior. This becomes addictive for a lot of children, and it also gives them that classical condition feeling of accomplishing something and feeling good and excited. It conditions them to kill, and they get rewarded (reinforced) to do so. If they dont kill enough bad guys they face punishment from the video game, in behaviorism this is anything that might weaken or diminish the likelihood that a behavior will continue. They will either lose points, standings, or wont advance to the next level. This will motivate them to try harder and kill more next time. In the article from Killology.com, Dave Grossman has termed the reverse-Clockwork Orange process for the classical condition standpoint regarding watching violent movies. When our children go to the movies on a fun weekend night out, they associate the whole experience a something enjoyable and positive. They buy drinks and good tasting snacks, they are usually surrounded by a bunch of their friends or boyfriends or girlfriends. These are innocent fun times
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in a youths life. Although when they go to the movies and watch a very violent and sexually aggressive and abusive film, the positive feelings and experiences they have with everything else gets mixed into the violent scenes they are watching. This is conditioning them from a classical standpoint to associate all of the good feelings they are having with the horrifically violent images they are watching. All of the food and friends while watching the movie is an unconditioned stimuli for the children, which is a natural and automatic impetus that triggers an unconditioned response. The unconditioned respones is the happy and enjoyable feelings the kids are getting by being in that environment. The graphic movie would be considered a neutral stimulus, and over time the children develop a conditioned stimulus that brings them enjoyable and positive feelings to violence and torture, even when outside of the theater and away from their friends. As stated in the article, it is no Qu incidence that once a certain form of media like television is introduced to a country the crime rates, especially murder sky-rocket. It programs the public through operant and classical conditioning techniques. The article did a very good job in explaining one side of the story, and how conditioning is being done through media and games. We werent made to watch a box for hours on end every single day, especially young moldable minds. The effect that these different forms of programming and conditioning have on our society is one that needs to be seriously brought up. Not everyone is going to turn into a killer or monster from watching violent movies and playing shooting games, but for those that already have other underlying issues, this could be a defining factor in who they become and their decisions down the road. Classical and operant conditioning relates to much more than just feeding a dog while using a bell. Throughout my research I really became clear on the different ways that we can be conditioned, with most of them being hidden in plain sight. If this information can be widely known to the public, it will allow parents to
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make a more informed decision on what they allow their children to watch and play, while explaining to them the difference between reality and the television screen.

Daniel Pedron Development Across Lifespan 4-7-14

Reference Page
Conditioning from violent media entertainment contributes to Violence Immune Deficiency - Dave Grossman, Warrior Science Group. (n.d.). Conditioning from violent media entertainment contributes to Violence Immune Deficiency - Dave Grossman, Warrior Science Group. Retrieved April 8, 2014, from http://www.killology.com/art_beh_conditioning Kibe, G. (2012). Behaviorisim and Social Learning Theory.