What is the relationship between viewing violence on the one ...

[c0205847]

What is the relationship between viewing violence on the one hand, and behaving aggressively on the other hand? How might an observational researcher, a correlational researcher, and an experimental researcher answer that question?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Where do theories come from in social psychology, and how do social psychologists refine them?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[debra928]

Answer to Question 1

Answer: Observational researchers might systematically observe how much violence children watch on television and how aggressively they behave on the playground or in the classroom; they might also conduct archival research, comparing rape statistics with the availability of violent pornography. Correlational researchers might use surveys to see whether there is a relationship between what people watch on television and their self-reports of aggressive behaviors; alternatively, they could survey parents about children's viewing habits and survey teachers about the children's behaviors. Minimally, experimental researchers would randomly assign participants to one of two experimental conditions (experimental and control groups) that systematically vary in violence content, and collect dependent measures of participants' aggressive behaviors.

Answer to Question 2

Answer: Researchers sometimes arrive at hypotheses and theories by reading and thinking about previous theories and research, and sometimes through their own personal observations. Once a researcher arrives at a hypothesis, he or she tests it scientifically (empirically). Depending on whether the hypothesis is supported, researchers might revise their hypotheses, and perhaps even their theories, and subsequent hypotheses are then tested. This process continues to yield a cumulative body of knowledge about human behavior.