Final Paper

Violence in the media

Michelle Jose

Argosy University

March 25, 2015

Violence in the Media

1. Research Question: What is the relationship between level of exposure to the media and level of aggression in children between the ages 8-18?

2. Hypothesis: There is a positive correlation to between level of exposure to media and level of aggression in children between the ages of 8-18:

a. Null Hypothesis: There is zero correlation between level of exposure to media and level of aggression in children between the ages of 8-18.

3. Number of Participants: For this research study I will chose to have 60 students to participate 30 adolescent boys and 30 adolescent girls. I would include two different geographical locations in my area with 30 students total being from each location. I would obtain a list of all students attending each school and randomly select 30 names from each school in all ages groups ages 8-18 consisting of 15 boys from each school and 15 girls from each school. This process seeks to generalize the population of youths by utilizing a diverse sample randomly selected from two separate locations. Any children displaying previous aggressive or with a known predisposition to aggression will be excluded from the study to minimize bias in the results.

4. I will use nonprobability sampling to gather my sample. I will use this as persons with predisposition to violence or a history of violence will be eliminated. The use of non-probability sampling allows for this exclusion of persons from the population from which the sample is chosen. In addition persons must be within the ages of 8-18 all others will not be included. This sample can be generalized to school age adolescents in the United States.

5. The variables in this study are aggression, media exposure, age and sex.

6. Operationally defining variables describes exactly what the variables are and how they are measured for purposes of the study. We will define age as 8-18 year old. We will measure the age by asking for each child’s birthdate to ensure that the proper date of birth is adhered to. Next is sex which will be defined for purposes of the study as male or female. We will measure this by checking school registration records for male and female identity. Media is to be defined as any electronic source of entertainment including movies, TV, streaming, video games, and other social media. We will measure this by sticking to the aforementioned categories. Last we have aggression defined in this study as negative or harmful actions or thoughts. We will categorize them into actions towards other people, verbalizations towards others, actions towards oneself, and verbalizations towards oneself for the purpose of this study.

7. Age will be measured through school records and birthdates, sex will be determined by school record, aggression will be measured using a onetime survey as will media exposure. Validity is the measure to which the test measures what it was intended to measure. We can ensure validity by requiring children to put birthdate and gender on the survey from. In addition we can test media exposure and aggression with direct, specific questions on the questionnaire. Reliability is how consistent or able to be repeated with the same results the test is. Again requiring birthdate and sex will make age and gender reliability easy to maintain however the survey must be very to the paint to ensure reliability for media exposure and aggression in children.

8. I will use simple survey technique to acquire my information for my research

9. I will be using probability sampling in my research design with a simple correlational study.

10. I will design the survey to be conducted. The questions will be narrowed and made to tailor to the study and the specific information needed to obtain form the research. Then I will select the area to conduct the reassert and find the sample. A sample will be randomly selected based on the specific research criteria. The survey will be given and all research complied and analyzed from there.

11. The biggest ethical issue with this design and research topic is exposing children to unnecessary violence. This is addressed by using a survey instead of using real life example in the study. Other issues may be bias in the study such children with medical conditions predisposing theme to violence. This will be ruled out by using non random sampling.