Aggression and Affect

Affect is the result of an animal’s or human’s exposure to stimuli. Affect has been equated to other feeling states such as mood and emotion in past research; however, in its most basic form, affect represents a neurophysiologic state characterized by valance (pleasure versus displeasure) and strength (high activation versus low activation), and is conceptually and operationally different from other feeling states. Furthermore, scholars continue to conflate core affect by using it interchangeably with the concepts of emotion and mood. However, these three feeling states are different with respect to the level of description they provide for explaining responses to stimuli. For the purposes of this discussion, this entry uses James Russell and Lisa Feldman Barrett’s (1999) conceptualization of core affect as an ever-present state marked by fluctuating biological, mental, and physiological responses to the environment or a situation. Core affect represents an objective state onto which subjective attributions and evaluations have not been placed. In contrast, emotion and mood represent as internal subjective states that correlate with core affect but have been attributed and evaluated.

Core affect is a central topic in psychological research; however, it is also very relevant to media effects, and especially to media violence. Media (the physical medium) and content (the information [Page 18]communicated through a medium) are both stimuli that can evoke affective states. Research on core affect addresses topics in human psychology such as cognition, attitudes, and behavior; however, little is known about how affect is related to the aforementioned areas. Nonetheless, one domain in which the association between core affect and human behavior is related is that of aggression. For the purposes of this discussion, Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman’s (2002) conceptualization of aggression as a goal-directed behavior toward another individual or group with the immediate purpose of causing harm is used. One’s internal state can directly influence the appraisal or decision process preceding aggressive action. These internal states are made up of feelings (affect) and thought (cognition), whereby core affective states of displeasure and high activation combined with thoughts of hostility or resentment may lead to decision processes ending in aggressive action.

Consequently, one can hypothesize that media violence acts as a stimulus that makes accessible or evokes these internal states (both cognitive and affective) that influence aggressive behavior; however, little is known about alternate explanations for the role of affect and aggression. For example, an individual might seek out certain stimuli for the purpose of evoking aggressive affective states. In this case, media violence may not be directly associated with aggressive action. Instead, exposure to media violence may reflect an individual’s preexisting preferences, or personality traits, that may ultimately be the cause of aggressive action. Thus, the question of whether media violence begets aggressive behavior is confounded. What is clear, however, is that violent content in the media, which represents a stimulus, evokes affective states that can be, but are not necessarily, associated with aggressive behavior. Consequently, a better understanding of how core affect is influenced, as well as how core affect influences behavior, may clarify effect of media violence on aggression.

...