Twelve-year-old Leo regularly plays realistic, 18-rated combat video games with his older cousin. He invites his classmate Toby over, and they play one of these highly violent games together. Toby is strictly forbidden from playing violent games at home; during the session, he becomes highly anxious, his heart begins to pound, and he feels physically sick. Leo, however, is completely unfazed by the graphic violence and finds the action sequences entertaining. At school, teachers have observed that Leo often reacts aggressively during minor playground conflicts, whereas Toby tends to walk away and avoid confrontation.
With reference to the scenario above, use your knowledge of explanations of media influences on aggression to explain the different behaviours shown by Leo and Toby.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Aggression with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 71 questions covering Neural, hormonal and genetic factors in aggression, Ethological and evolutionary explanations of aggression, Social psychological explanations of aggression, Institutional aggression in prisons, and Media influences on aggression, matched to the AQA A Level Psychology (7182) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.