J. Senft" <[log in to unmask]>wrote: >Point well taken. Though I don't know that I would so readily dismiss all >laboratory research as ungeneralizable to real-life. All of behavioral >psychology (learning theory) is based on this type of research, and has be= en >very successful in many ways that go out of the scope of the discussion of >film, so I too will refrain from going deeper into it. I agree with you to >a large extent, but it is just too strong to say that behavior in lab >situations "doesn't have much to do with ..." > That depends on the behaviour and the research design. In the Bandura case,= as=20 in many lab studies on media effects, I find it very hard to generalize lab= =20 behaviour to real-life situations. After all, there is a long step from hit= ting=20 an inflatable Bobo-doll after getting the impression that it is OK to do so= , to=20 actually hurting another human being. > > >However, the fear of disinhibition [to violent imagery] stems from the idea >that it will lead to imitated violence. > I wouldn't say that. Disinhibion theorists can just as well claim that viol= ent=20 behavior is caused by biological/genetic factors or by other factors than t= he=20 media and that media violence makes us more prone to aggressive acts by=20 supressing inhibitions towards such behaviour, not by imitating it. Ulf ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]