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Paper Abstract: Theories on impact of filmic & televised violence on teenage suicide. Paper Introduction: Suicide and suicidal attempts are, contrary to popular wisdom, quite frequent in childhood and adolescence. Even in the 1970s, suicidal death was shown to be one of the fastest growing adolescent problems, ranking fourth as the leading cause of death in the fifteento nineteenyear age group (Toolan, 1987, p. 339). This view is echoed in the more current literature in the field, which also emphasizes that 59 to 71 percent of surveyed adolescents believe suicide to be a potential for most within that age group (Domino, et.al., 1988-89, p. 359). Similarly, attitudes toward death within the fabric of American society have significantly changed in post WorldWar II society, primarily because of the pervasive influence of television and the rapid rise in the importance of the media. Prior to the advent of the media age, most Americans lived in smaller, more tightlyknit Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. One would include providing a questionnaire to members of atarget adolescent group after showing them a particularly violent video.The other would be to get access to medical records of adolescents whoattempted suicide and survey their responses to a series of questions.Perhaps the most logical method would be to use a combination of the two inorder to extrapolate a series of common occurrences between the controlgroup (adolescents who have not attempted suicide) and the research group(adolescents who have attempted suicide and failed). Although they do suggest that their results may havebeen colored by a differing attitude toward suicide in general, they alsobelieve that television newscasts about suicide may, in fact, act as apreventative measure (Pfeffer, 1986). Phillips, D. The use of two questionnaires would include two different researchagendas. Do you think that seeing violence on television or in themovies made you want to do something violent? A sample size would need to be at least fifty individuals pergroup, to help insure a more accurate response to the questions. good b. bad c. If you felt bad, did it make you feel: a. AmericanJournal of Psychiatry, 145, 1379-83. Three studies, from 1982, 1985 and 1988 compare adolescents inpsychological research and posit that suicidal adolescents have experiencedfar more stress than their non-suicidal counterparts. (1988-89). Films such as "Halloween," "The RoadWarrior," and "Rambo" depict death in vivid color and often in slow motion.This detailed destruction of humans serves to eclipse the meaning of deathand lessen its impact upon the viewer. Would seeing violent behavior such as this ever make youwant to do something violent?Table 2- Group II (Selected Adolescents Who Attempted Suicide)1. C., et al. The New EnglandJournal of Medicine, 315, 685-9. 359). It seems as if there are several issues at stake in this problem. However, precipitating circumstances often push the adolescentto the option of suicide, irrespective of the media. lonely4. Domino, G., et al. (1988). Conversely, this behavior isimpressionable among children and adolescents, with suicidal death beingsomehow "greater than life" and awe inspiring (Fulton & Owen, 1988). New York: GuilifordPress. Several charactertraits have been identified to support the idea that imitative mediabehavior and television violence do significantly impact on adolescentsuicide. Imitative suicides: Anational study of the effects of television news stories. P., & Carstensen, L. They present evidence that shows, the violent responses of the data,set after viewing violent media portrayals, may be more statisticalartifacts than cogent causal effects. It is expected that the survey results will indicate that violentbehavior in the media does induce violent behavior in adolescents. In fact, adolescents often view the mediaas more of an extension of their own reality, and are similarly unaware ofthe extreme consequences that imitative behavior may have. Initially, they would be asked to watch a 2 minuteexcerpt from a motion picture with particular violence and death scenes.The questionnaire would also include such basic demographics as age, sex,religion, year in school, family data, interests in school, and hobbies.The respondents would be assured complete anonymity. (1987). Commenting primarily on the research design of Bollen and Phillipsand others, Baron and Reiss (1985) argue that the conclusions reached,indicating that the portrayals of violence in the media cause imitativesuicidal attempts, may be premature. C. N., & Reiss, P. Corresponding evidence doesindicate that violent television stories may trigger violent behavior inthe population at large, and the role of suggestion in suicide is clearlyindicated. Kessler, R. (1986). Two methods to investigate this problem in a systematic manner arepresented. A useful tool for such projection would be to numerically code theresponses and then use statistical models to establish the numericcorrelations. sad c. A., & Phillips, D. neutral2. Pfeffer, C. Fulton, R., & Owen, G. Children who don't want to live. In this case,the same data would be collected, taking special care to insure anonymity.It might seem better to also show the media excerpt to the second group aswell; however, this might have the potential for causing trauma (See Table2, Appendix). Toolan, J. Be sure to tell what the movie made you feellike doing, if anything.5. Building on earlier research to establish a baseline for nationalviolence levels, Bollen and Phillips (1982) show that suicides increase inrelation to media exposure. Same time, next year:Aggregate analyses of the mass media and violent behavior. Forinstance, does television or motion picture violence cause imitativebehavior? This mightinsure a more even line of data correlation, since each respondent would beasked to comment on a specific detail from a specific example (See Table 1,Appendix). These findings were consistent regardless of theday of the week, the month, the season, or the year (Phillips & Carstensen,1986). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. The second survey would be focused toward the same age group andlimited to those who had attempted suicide but had failed. This view is echoed in the more currentliterature in the field, which also emphasizes that 59 to 71 percent ofsurveyed adolescents believe suicide to be a potential for most within thatage group (Domino, et.al., 1988-89, p. AmericanSociological Review, 47, 8 2-9. AmericanSociological Review, 5 , 347-63. Orbach, I. P. Suicide and suicidal attempts are, contrary to popular wisdom, quitefrequent in childhood and adolescence. What were some of your feelings before you tried to commitsuicide?2. I. (1982). animated3. APPENDIXTable 1 - Group I (Randomly Selected Adolescents)1. For instance, the paragraphs might be broken down intohighly positive, positive, marginally positive; highly negative, negative,and marginally negative. (1986). AmericanJournal of Psychotherapy, 29, 339-44.----------------------- 8 339). References Baron, J. Suicide in children and adolescents. The first survey would be given to a group of randomly selectedadolescents ages 13-17. Coefficiently, the data further indicates thatthere is an increased amount of violence several days after mediastimulation, with particular regard for imitative types of suicide andsuicide attempts. depressed b. Instead, they question past researchmethodology and offer suggestions for future studies. a. The questioning couldeasily be expanded using specifics from the viewed example. The suicidal child. Death and society in twentiethcentury America. If you felt good, did it make you feel: a. What were some of your feelings after you had been releasedfrom the hospital?3. Even in the 197 s, suicidal deathwas shown to be one of the fastest growing adolescent problems, rankingfourth as the leading cause of death in the fifteen-to nineteen-year agegroup (Toolan, 1987, p. Did you watch any particular show or see any particular typeof movie a few hours or a few days before your accident?5. To alleviate some of this as a problem, certain termsand criteria would be established beforehand in order to code the samplesin a similar manner. Although the data is not conclusive, the findings dopoint to the media and resultant imitative behavior, as a trigger mechanismat peak times, with individuals somewhat prone to suggestion. It would be impossible to study all of these ina single research proposal, therefore, it might behoove us to limit thestudy to the investigation of whether seeing violent behavior in the mediadoes indeed provoke similar violent feelings. Further, the timing of the event, andthe type and quality of the violent portrayal, may have as much of aneffect as individual personality experiences. How did you feel after viewing this movie excerpt? M. Prior to theadvent of the media age, most Americans lived in smaller, more tightly-knitcommunities. Somesubjectivity would arise, however, when trying to numerically code theparagraph responses. As television and motion pictures grew in popularity, however, imagesof violence, death, and suicide formed more of a cognitive pattern withinthe framework of popular culture. Adolescentsand children fall into this category since they are often considerably moreimpressionable than many adults. Similarly, attitudes towarddeath within the fabric of American society have significantly changed inpost World-War II society, primarily because of the pervasive influence oftelevision and the rapid rise in the importance of the media. R. (1988). Nevertheless, one should not neglect adolescent suicidal behavioras a response to life circumstances (Orbach, 1988), and an additionalsurvey or secondary literature surrounding that information would need tobe included in the final research project. (1985). Omega, 15, 379-95. Other research has shown the rise in fluctuation of national suiciderates between control and target groups after media depiction of suicide.Furthermore, as more networks carried stories about suicide, adolescentsuicides increased more. What kind of television shows or movies did you watch mostbefore your accident?4. Both suicide and accidental death were thus experienced at amore personal level - members of the community facing the situation locally(Fulton & Owen, 1988). Taking this one step further, a recent paper (Kessler, et al., 1988)suggests that there is little in the way of conclusive proof to suggestthat a significant number of adolescent suicides are the result ofimitative behavior. The findings thus point to the argument that the national rate ofsuicide among teenagers rises dramatically after media depiction of violentbehavior. Of course, somegeneralities exist, but it would be possible to score data from at leastone aspect of media violence, and then project those findings onto otherareas. Clustering of teenagesuicides after television news stories about suicide. Is this behavior necessarily suicidal, or is the suicide"accidental?" Do news portrayals of suicide make the adolescent think moreabout suicide, or fear it? Collegiate attitudes toward suicide.Omega, 19, 351-63. violent c. Suicideas an option would be seen only in cases in which a combination ofemotional factors acted in congruence with the media to provoke such anextreme behavior. (1988). This would be a limited study, which would need to beexpanded by area, age, and other demographic data. Clustering of teenage suicides aftertelevision news stories about suicides: A reconsideration. excited b. Baron and Reiss,nevertheless, offer little conclusive evidence, nor is their purpose todefinitively prove a hypothesis. In a paragraph or so, describe your feelings after viewingthis excerpt. Bollen, K. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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