NPW /dear rn Prychol. Vol. 7. No 1, pp. 85-89. 1989 0732-I 18x/89 $3.00 + 0.

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Prmted in Great Brirain 0 1989 Pergamon Press plc

DESENSITIZATION TO TELEVISION VIOLENCE: A NEW

MODEL

MARK D. GRIFFITHS and GARY L. J. SHUCKFORD

Department of Psvcholoav, UI
University of Bradford, Richmond Road, Bradford, West
Yorkshire, BD7 IDP, U.K.

Abstract-It has been hypothesized that high exposure to vicarious violence

effectively results in a kind of ‘psychological blunting’ of the normal
emotional responses to violent events. The current explanation of these
events has been in terms of the desensitization process. This assumes that a
scene of violence (CS) elicits fear or anxiety (CR) and is associated with an
anxiety competing response (e.g. food or relaxation) so as to produce a state
of relaxation with the scenes of violence (UCR 2). However desensitization
theory leaves numerous questions unexplained. Why do we find television
violence entertaining? Why do we watch aggression if it is so anxiety-
provoking? Therefore to interpret and overcome some of the anomalies of
this theory, a new model is forwarded attempting to explain the desensitiza-
tion to television violence in terms of conditioning theory involving ideational
processes.

Despite widespread concern about the possible effects of exposure to the

violence and aggression prominently portrayed on the television and in the
movies, relatively little systematic research has been carried out.
It has been hypothesized (Eysenck & Nias, 1978) that such high exposure to
vicarious violence, effectively results in a kind of “psychological blunting” of the
normal emotional responses to violent events. The work in systematic desensiti-
zation (S.D.) by Wolpe and Lazarus (1966) suggests that this may occur through
a process of desensitization.
S.D., a method used to treat phobias, first involves the construction of a
hierarchy of the patient’s fears, ranging from the lowest evoking stimuli to the
most fear evoking stimuli. The patient is then relaxed and asked to
imagine the lowest-ranking item in the hierarchy, thus associating relaxation
responses with the fear-evoking stimuli. Once accomplished the patient
progresses to the next stage in the hierarchy. This is continued until the highest
item is reached. Within a few weeks the patient is ready to cope with actual
encounters, similarly graded, and at no point is the patient unduly stressed
(Wilson SCDavidson, 1971).
Thus to desensitize a person to violence, scenes of violence would have to be
portrayed second hand (e.g. vicariously through television and cinema) and

Reprint requests should be addressed to: Mark Grifliths, Department of Psychology,

University of Exeter, Washington Singer Laboratories, Exeter, EX4 4QC, U.K.

85
86 Mark D. Griffiths and Gary L. J. Shuckford
viewed under conditions of relaxation, e.g. television in our own home or in a
comfortable seat in the cinema.
Thus desensitization is the process whereby a scene of violence (CS) which it is
assumed elicits fear or anxiety (CR) is associated with an anxiety-competing
response (e.g. relaxation or food) so as to produce a state of relaxation with the
scenes of violence (UCR 2). Although the conditions are not scientifically pre-
arranged to produce optimum effects, it is the large number of exposures to
violence that create the effect (Eysenck 8c Nias, 1978).
Research has suggested that indeed, desensitization does take place. Lazarus,
Speisman, Mordkoff and Davidson (1962) found a progressive drop in skin
conductance for 70 students watching a seventeen minute film of primitive
mutilations as compared with a control. Similar results have been found by
Berger (1962) and Averill, Malstrom, Koriat and Lazarus (1972). Futhermore,
Cline, Croft and Courrier (1973) reported that “heavy” television viewers were
less aroused by violent dramatic programmes than were less frequent viewers.
Other studies (Drabman 8c Thomas, 1974; Thomas & Drabman, 1975) also
indicate that a child’s later awareness of more general violent acts is decreased to
the extent that the toleration level of aggression is increased, i.e. that the
amount of television violence viewed is negatively related to responsivity while
viewing real life aggression.
On the basis of these studies it seems that high exposure to violence presented
in the media results in gradual blunting of emotional responses toward violence
on the television in real life (Goranson, 1970).
THE PROBLEMS OF THE DESENSITIZATION HYPOTHESIS
However desensitization theory leaves numerous questions unexplained. Why
do we find television violence entertaining? Why do we watch aggression on
television if it is anxiety provoking? Wolpe’s reciprocal inhibition model also
holds that a gradual hierarchy of anxiety and an incompatible response are
essential for successful treatment of a fear. Marks (1975) however, has
forwarded evidence to the contrary and has suggested relaxation is not essential.
Newman and Brand (1980) have reported S.D. without relaxation (i.e. gradual
exposure) is just as effective as S.D. with relaxation.
This paper aims to forward a new model with .which to interpret these and
other results in the field of desensitization which will hopefully overcome some
of the anomalies of the other studies. As an alternative, we attempt to explain the
desensitization hypothesis of television violence in terms of conditioning theory
involving ideational processes.
AN ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATION
As Gibson (1966) points out, the environment is a rich source of information
and we are constantly bombarded by more information than we can process at
any one time (cf. Miller, 1956). By the process of selective attention humans pick
out important, stimulating and/or novel stimuli. Selective attention may be
explained in terms of the orienting reflex and such information is usually
represented in the system by means of changes in the brain in terms of mental
representations and/or expectations. These representations and expectations
 Desensitization to television violence 87

may be considered conditioned stimuli or responses in their own right as they

may act to initiate other responses.
The basic proposition of our hypothesis is that desensitization occurs when the
stimulus or stimuli no longer remain important, stimulating and/or novel, i.e. the
affective elements have habituated producing an insufficient orienting reflex. It
could be the case that desensitization occurs when the components of the multi-
faceted orienting reflexes habituate at different rates. For instance, loss of
emotional responses would result in partial habituation of the orienting reflex.
In terms of viewing violence on television we propose desensitization occurs
when an expectation (formed through past experience) determines the subse-
quent behavioral repertoire by failing to initiate a response that has on previous
occasions been appropriate to the event containing this particular aspect, i.e. the
psychophysiological reaction to watching violence on television,
We know that the orienting reflex prepares an organism to deal with novel
stimuli and its sense organs become more sensitive and that other activities are
stopped so as not to interfere with the following action (Lynn, 1966). After
repeated presentations of the stimulus an organism may either (a) habituate due
to it being a repetitive non-significant event or (b) will never habituate because of
its ecological importance. In terms of viewing violence on television a viewer may
become aroused at first but as Davies (1987 a) reports “repeated presentation of
irrelevant stimuli those with no behavioral consequences for good or ill, soon
habituate and cease to evoke response.”
The relationship between viewing television violence and subsequent behavior
is mediated by representations and expectations in the brain but may be
described via classical conditioning theory. What has been difficult to show in the
past is the role of mental events in mapping input (e.g. viewing of violence on
television) to output (subsequent behavior) in so far as classical conditioning is
not supposed, in a traditional sense, to treat such problems. The conditioning
paradigm is not normally internalized but processes involving mental represen-
tations are amenable to experimental treatment as will be seen.
Davies (1987 a) has constantly argued that conditioning is a formalization of
the more general term ‘experience’ and that conditioning “provides both a
mechanism of selective attention and a process for minimizing the information-
al load.” As mentioned, recent work (Davies & Mehmet, 1985; 1987; Griffiths,
Gillett ic Davies, 1987; Gillett, Griffiths & Davies, 1987) has internalized the
conditioning paradigm and shown that cognitions can be conditioned through
the process of ideational conditioning and that therefore the conditioning of
higher mental processes is possible. In such experiments cognitions were used in
part of the conditioning sequence and it was shown that a subjects own ‘thoughts’
can act as either a CS or UCS in establishing psychophysiological responses.
As well as demonstrating that conditioning may play a part in cognition, it may
be the case that cognitions play a part in conditioning. Corcoran & Mehmet
(1987) have argued that behavioral flexibility could occur when an “environmen-
tal stimulus-expectation-subsequent behavior” model operates in an automatic
or unconscious manner, leaving consciousness to monitor ‘novel’ situations. We
propose that this monitoring system could also modify the relationship between
88 Mark D. Griffiths and Gary L. J. Shuckford

the old expectation (where expectation is a CS producing a predictive

generalization) and the new behavioral response. Desensitization would there-
fore occur when there is a modification of responses between the new
expectation and the old one. Processing in this case would be immediate as only
the predictive stimulus (i.e. the CS) need be processed and the response (CR)
could occur well before the UCS has either been received or processed (Davies,
1987 b).
The crux of our model relies on ‘expectation’ being a CS. If this basic
proposition is accepted, desensitization would automatically occur if the CS
failed to initiate a response. But it could be that only part of the CS is ‘activated’
producing a partial response, which is more likely to be the case.

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