By Stephen A. RaguseaThis time the violence involves semi-automatic weapons and scores of elementary school children. There are also dead teachers, a dead principal and a dead school psychologist. All seven adults were women and my bet is that, as we learn more about the psychodynamics of the disturbed young man who was the shooter, we will find that the gender of the victims was not a coincidence, but part of his thought disturbance.
We all want to know why this thing happened and we would prefer that there be one single, clear reason. But, as a clinical psychologist, I can assure you that there were several contributing factors, because human beings rarely do anything for one simple reason. We are complex creatures, we humans. Why did this happen? Part of the answer is that we live in a culture that encourages violence and that culture is held up for worship on the altars of television screens and movie theatres each and every day. It’s in our lust for blood in boxing matches and our appreciation of helmet cracking tackles in football and ice hockey. It’s in movies from “Rambo (I through V)” to Brad Pitt’s “Killing Them Softly.” It’s on television via movie reruns and shows like “The Sopranos” and your favorite version of “CSI.” We are a culture that embraces violence.
And, don’t forget our love of guns. ABC News recently reported that during the three day Thanksgiving holiday weekend alone, over 250,000 guns were sold in the United States.
Over the next couple of weeks, you’ll hear the same question over and over in the news media: does violence in the media increase violent behavior? For nearly fifty years the American Psychological Association has issued a variety of reports answering that critical question with an emphatic “Yes!” In psychological research, the viewing of large amounts of violence on television by young children has been correlated with increases in violent behavior into adulthood. Well, if TV viewing can impact our aggressive tendencies, what about the music we listen to?
One 2003 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggested that listening to songs that contain violent lyrics results in an increase in aggressive thoughts and emotions. Some think that listening to powerful, violent, angry, songs can provide a “venting” of these powerful feelings, but this research provides evidence that just the opposite is true.
Of course, we must also ask ourselves “How much violence do we expose our children to?” One 2007 study found that “By the time the average U. S. child starts elementary school, he or she will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on TV.” And, that doesn’t include exposure via music and movies.
Add into that mix the fact that a small percentage our population suffers from various forms of severe mental illness and that we perpetually underfund treatment for psychological disorders. Make semi-automatic weapons available to that group and sooner or later, we will see an explosive incident such as that which occurred in Newtown, Connecticut. If we don’t do something to influence this course of events, we’ll see these incidents occur again and again.
Violence directly and negatively impacts our physical and mental health. Because violent content in movies, television, and songs has so consistently been shown to increase violent behavior, these characteristics should be diminished in our entertainment products. Psychologists have been giving that research-based advice to American society for almost 50 years. Quite frankly, nobody seems to be listening.
We can do better. Each one of us can decide to stop consuming these products. When enough people boycott media violence, producers will stop creating these violence-encouraging forms of “entertainment.” We can do better and we’d better do that.
Stephen A. Ragusea, Psy D, is a clinical psychologist in Key West and on the medical staff of The Lower Keys Medical Center.
