Analysis Hard Times by Charles Dickens - 1807 Words

Hard Times as a Social Commentary with Parallels in the Modern Era The novel Hard Times by Charles Dickens is clearly an incitement of the economic and social burden associated with economic and social disparity. The work is set in a small fictional mill town, Coketown, where the challenges of the newly emerging industrial revolution were fundamentally being set at the footsteps of the poor, who had little if any opportunity for upward mobility. During this period the alternatives for those with little money in the way of work were very few and most tasks were menial, dark and difficult. The challenges seen in this work, probably more than any other written by Dickens reflect his own experience as a child laborer during a period of economic unrest in his own family, when he was forced to work at a Blacking Warehouse, pasting labels on bottles with other child laborers in London after his father was arrested and placed in debtors prison. (Hawes 10) Dickens through this experience was given a stark reality check with regard to the life of the poor. Fr om this knowledge Dickens seems to have never really stepped away from this concern and in some way details this social and economic reality in all his works (Clausson 157). Without the economic means there was really no way for the poor to move out of the challenges of poverty as every type of vocational or even classical education costs far more than one could earn as a laborer. As is seen in his other works as well, withoutShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Hard Times By Charles Dickens875 Words   |  4 PagesAntoine Wood Dr. Dolata ENG-460 16 Jan. 2016 In Hard Times one Carefully Observes the Idea of Change and can Incorporate Different Morals as They Coincide and Transcend Today In the story of Hard Times written by Charles Dickens one can clearly tell that the story is set during a time when many believed in stressing the importance of strict disciplinary actions. The story kicks concerning the idea of facts. Within the text one can notice the idea of a few things: the nature of learning, common knowledgeRead MoreAnalysis of the Credibility of Characters in Charles Dickens Hard Times1512 Words   |  7 PagesAnalysis of the Credibility of Characters in Charles Dickens Hard Times Hard times was written in 1854 by Charles Dickens. Dickens was a prominent Victorian novelist who wrote about the society that surrounded him. He was educated and middle-class but had some sympathy with the way poor people were treated. He was critical of utilitarianism and felt that those in power showed little understanding of the poor. His sympathy with the poor stemmed from his childhood andRead MoreAnalysis of Why Fact and Fancy Are Both Necessary in Charles Dickens Hard Times1362 Words   |  6 PagesAnalysis of Why Fact and Fancy Are Both Necessary in Charles Dickens Hard Times Fact and Fancy in Hard Times Coketown is a monotonous town of machinery and tall chimneys. There is a sense of sameness in the town: â€Å"It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another.† A town so sacred to fact should progress smoothly, yet residents of Coketown â€Å"never knew what they wanted† and wereRead MoreMasterpieces Always Come With Good Reasons And Fantastic1716 Words   |  7 Pagesthose fantacies and make-ups show a writer’s reflection on facts and reasons he or she received, and are extensions of those facts and reasons, rendering the work interesting and even more convincing. In three famous and classic works, On Liberty, Hard Times, and The Communist Manifesto, we can see how writers combine facts with fictions and compose excellent works. I. On Liberty by John Stuart Mill In his work On Liberty, Mill starts from historical facts, analysing facts using his reasons and getsRead MoreVictorian Schools Using Hard Times And Jane Eyre916 Words   |  4 PagesUnfair Treatment (An analysis of Victorian schools using Hard Times and Jane Eyre) The Victorian Era was a time of much turmoil. Through the reign of Queen Victoria there were many aspects of society that took a standstill and some may say, declined. Education is a tremendous example of the stand still in the British society, showing the negative approaches to teaching. Preston Barker wrote about the conditions of victorian schools explaining, â€Å"Children soon learnt to do what the teacher asked, otherwiseRead MoreGreat Expectations1707 Words   |  7 Pagesthe rest of the animal kingdom. The underlining theme of human nature is evident in Great Expectation by Charles Dickens use of his characters. A main characteristic that Dickens displays is friendship. The friendship between Pip and Herbert is strong. Herbert was significant to Pip’s growth in social class and eventual to his revelation. â€Å"Friendship was one of the human characteristics Dickens enjoyed†¦by associating fellowship with good characters and deeds, he made it known that he admires friendshipRead MoreCharles Dickens Utilitarianism Analysis996 Words   |  4 PagesUtilitarianism and Charles Dickens - The Analysis of Impact of Utilitarianism in Hard Times towards Humanity The utilitarianism, is one of the ethical theory genres which greatly affects the western and even world’s development of philosophy. Its originality can be traced back to ancient Greece Democritus and Epicurean Hedonism theory. Jeremy Bentham is considered to be the founder of the utilitarianism theory during the latter half through 18th century in England. Based on the theory of utilitarianismRead MorePip’s Character Change in Charles Dickens Great Expectations1173 Words   |  5 PagesPip’s Character Change in Charles Dickens Great Expectations Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens is a compelling story rich in friendship, love and fortune. The main character, Pip, is a dynamic character that undergoes many changes through the course of the book and throughout this analysis, the character Pip, will be identified and his gradual change through the story will be quoted and explained. The main character, Pip, is a gentle character. His traits include Read MoreCharles Dickens s A Christmas Carol1923 Words   |  8 PagesEnglish author Charles Dickens has written many well known novels such as Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, of which both have a recurring theme: the expectations of society. During the Victorian Era, England was over populated and had terrible living conditions, with an enormous gap between the rich and the poor. Generally, people during the Victorian Era were not allowed to talk about things such as sex and crime, and had to live by strict social rules set by society. With the social disparitiesRead MoreSandwich Factory1688 Words   |  7 Pagesmany - a crowd of insignificant people. This assignment will begin with an analysis and interpretation of the short story â€Å"The Sandwich Factory† by Jason Kennedy. To put the story into perspective the assignment includes a discussion of the text, â€Å"Nice work† by David Lodge and the picture, â€Å"Relativity† by M.C. Escher. The assignment ends with a short essay about the description of Coketown in Charles Dickens’ novel â€Å"Hard Times†. A: The short story, â€Å"The Sandwich Factory† by Jason Kennedy from 2007

Differences Between Minority And Non Minority Small...

The aim of this quantitative correlational study is to understand the differences between how minority and non-minority small business owners’ approach succession planning. This study will use a ex-post facto design. An A priori power analysis test using the G*Power 3.1.9.2 software program will be used to establish a minimum overall sample size of 134. Specifically, a Wilcoxon –Mann-Whitney (two groups) statistical two-tailed t-test calculation with an effect size d of .5, an alpha level of .05, and beta level of .80 will be used to determine a sample size group of 67 participants. The subjects for the current study will consist of U.S. small business owners selected using multiple sampling frames. Although multiple sampling frames hamper generalization to the population, it allows for convenience and is suitable for difficult and rare populations (). Subjects in the study must fit the definition of small business owner, one who establishes an independently owned and operated business for profit in the United States and has less than 500 employees. The current study has two types of variables: the independent and dependent variables. The dependent variables are succession preparedness, enterprise characteristics, and proportion of businesses with formal succession plans and the independent variable, small business owners’ approach to succession planning. The independent and dependent variables will be measured using an electronic questionnaire composed of items fromShow MoreRelatedRelevance And Importance Of Corporate Governance2102 Words   |  9 Pagesfamily-owned-and-managed. Predominantly small and medium in size, these businesses are the backbone of Indian economy with two-third contribution to GDP. They generate huge employment in the private sector and also play an important role in the social upliftment and welfare i.e. philanthropology. History of Indian businesses indicates that majority of prominent business houses like Tata, Birla, Bajaj, Walchand, Modi, Thaper, Dabur etc. According to the CII’s Family Business Network (India chapter), the grossRead MoreDessler Hrm12 Tif0511347 Words   |  46 PagesManagement, 12e (Dessler) Chapter 5 Personnel Planning and Recruiting 1) What is the first step in the recruitment and selection process? A) performing initial screening interviews B) building a pool of candidates C) performing candidate background checks D) interviewing possible candidates E) deciding what positions to fill Answer: E Explanation: The first step of the recruitment and selection process is deciding what positions to fill through personnel planning and forecasting. Building a candidate poolRead MoreHuman Resource Planning3781 Words   |  16 PagesHuman Resource Planning (3rd Class) Definition: The ongoing process of systematic planning to achieve optimum use of an organizations most valuable asset - its human resources. The objective of human resource (HR) planning is to ensure the best fit between employees and jobs, while avoiding manpower shortages or surpluses. The three key elements of the HR planning process are forecasting labor demand, analyzing present labor supply, and balancing projected labor demand and supply. RigorousRead MoreDoes Corporate Governance Enhance Firm Performance?7254 Words   |  30 PagesDOES CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ENHANCE FIRM PERFORMANCE? BY: DR. RONALD IWU-EGWUONWU Introduction: Nations thrive on the performance of their economic units the major part of which are business firms that operate in their corporate jurisdictions. The quality of performance of these firms is of great interest to governments because by them a great amount of the degree of economic development seen in a country is achieved. Governments fund their annual budgets to a great extend by the amount ofRead MoreOecd Principles of Corporate Governance19712 Words   |  79 Pagesmember countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy; – to contribute to sound economic expansion in member as well as non-member countries in the process of economic development; and – to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in accordance with international obligations. The original member countries of the OECD are Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Irela ndRead MoreStrategic Human Resource Management View.Pdf Uploaded Successfully133347 Words   |  534 PagesHUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING ........................................... 257 THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER AND STRATEGIC PLANNING .......................................... 268 SUMMARY............................................................. 272 NOTES.................................................................. 281 vii STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Table of Contents SECTION THREE .........................................................299 Human Resource Planning ...............Read MoreComparision of Corporate Governance in Different Countries in Report Foemat11603 Words   |  47 PagesCountries Abstract Companies in different countries are operating in different cultural, legal, social and economic environments. As a result, each country has developed its own corporate governance system that serves its business operations best. As the globalization of business speeds up in recent years, it is unknown whether there exists one best corporate governance system for all countries. The purpose of this study was to compare the corporate governance component factors in Germany, the UnitedRead MoreOverview of Hrm93778 Words   |  376 Pages†¢ Human (Homo-sapiens – Social Animal) †¢ Resources (Human, Physical, Financial, Technical, Informational etc) †¢ Management (Function of Planning, Organizing, Leading Controlling resources to accomplish goals efficiently and effectively) Management Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed of organizational Functions of HRM Basic functions that all managers perform: planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. 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Annual Report 2005 Year ended August 31, 2005 contents A message from the Chairman, President CEO Our Group UNIQLO business Business model Products Production Stores People Overseas activities 6 11 14 14 16 18 20 22 23 CSR Corporate history Financial section Investor information Corporate information MA strategy COMPTOIR DES COTONNIERS FOOT PARK Theory 24 25 26 27 28 30 32 54 55 It all started here The origin of our â€Å"anybody, anywhere, everyday†

Ap World History Compare and Contrast Free Essays

During the post-classical time period, both the Umayyad and Mongol empires rose to the height of their power through many similarities and differences. For example, both dynasties expanded by militaristic advances, but a single man was responsible for the rise of the Mongols and they also supported all faiths unlike the Umayyad. The Mongol founder, Genghis Khan, conquered surrounding nomadic tribes and brought them under his rule through extensive military conquest. We will write a custom essay sample on Ap World History Compare and Contrast or any similar topic only for you Order Now Over the entire rise of the Mongols, they gained Asia, Russia, the Middle East and parts of Europe all as territories. In fact, the land Genghis had obtained was so vast that it had to be broken up into to four kingdoms upon his death. To conquer new lands, the Mongols were experts on horseback and were known for their cruel and barbaric torturing rituals, such as â€Å"drawn and quartered. † Similarly, the Umayyad prevailed against people groups from Saudi Arabia all the way West to Morocco in Northern Africa. Unlike later Islamic dynasties, the Umayyad were mostly concentrated on power and the conquering of land by their brutal military tactics. With their capital at the central location of Damascus, in Syria, they were able to govern and expand their large Islamic kingdom effectively. Overall, both the Mongol and Umayyad empires expanded through military conquest during their rise to power. The Umayyad dynasty was formed from a clan of prominent Meccan merchants in Arabia. From their established reputations and connections throughout the region, they were able to rise to power and stabilize the Islamic community. Unlike the Umayyad, the Mongols rose to power from one man, Temujin, who is better known as Genghis Khan. At the age of twelve he was orphaned and began to form alliances with other boys his age. Then, over time he had his own army that began to conquer nomadic tribes. Little by little, he began to capture what would soon be his entire Mongolian empire. Not only were the Mongols created by a single man, but they were also accepting of all faiths. Ap World History Units 1-3 Study Guide iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" src="https://phdessay.com/ap-world-history-units-1-3-study-guide/embed/#?secret=nktN2yPGNe" data-secret="nktN2yPGNe" width="500" height="282" title="#8220;Ap World History Units 1-3 Study Guide#8221; #8212; Free Essays - PhDessay.com" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"/iframe They did not persecute any specific religion; in fact they often adopted the native religions of the land because the Mongols had no strong religious influence. This allowed an easier rode to power because the conquered people felt less pressure to revolt on the Mongols. The Umayyad did the exact opposite in their empire since they were the rulers of the dar-al-Islam, or the house of Islam. They had substantial religious ties and favored Islamic people. Many times Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and Buddhists were taxed heavily; this was called jizya. Also, people of different religions could not access wealth and positions of authority in the empire, which created an overall resentment of the Umayyads and a resistance to their rule. The Mongol and the Umayyad empires both had influential effects during the years of 500 to 1000 A. D and rose to power through many similarities and differences in their strategies. Overall both empires depended heavily on their military to expand territory, but they differed in the way they treated the conquered people. Both of these played a role in how each came to power, and also the total effect they left on the world. How to cite Ap World History Compare and Contrast, Papers

MUsic and its violence free essay sample

Discussion centers on the potential role of lyric content on aggression in short-term settings, relation to catharsis and other media violence domains, development of aggressive personality, differences between long-term and short-term effects, and possible dictating factors. As by behaving in symbolically aggressive ways. Though the aggression catharsis hypothesis has been thoroughly explored and debunked in several entertainment media domains, there has been relatively little work on the effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggression-related variables such as aggressive thoughts and feelings.Someone told me once that theres a right and wrong. Punishment was cure for those who dare cross the line. But it must not be true for jerk-offs just like you. And maybe its just bullwhip. Should play god and shoot you myself. ?Tool, Jerk-Off (1992) As evidenced by the creation of the Parents Music Resource Center and the policy of labeling music products containing violent lyrics, many people are concerned with potential deleterious effects of listening to songs with violent lyrics. An accumulating body of scientific research spanning 4 decades supports the hypothesis that exposure to violent media is causally related to subsequent expression of aggression in both short- and long-term time frames (e. G. , Anderson Bushman, AAA; Borrowing, 1 993; Bushman Anderson, 2001 The vast majority of this research has focused on violent elevation and movies (Houseman Miller, 1994).Recently, a small but relatively consistent research literature has shown that short-term exposure to violent video games causes increases in aggression and aggression-related variables (Anderson Bushman, 2001 Nonetheless, there remains among the general population and many practitioners a very strong belief in the age-old catharsis hypothesis?the belief that experiencing and expressing aggressive emotions and thoughts will decrease subsequent aggressive thoughts, feelings, and emotions (Bushman, 2002; Bushman, Bandmaster, Stack, 1999). This ancient Greek idea, later popularized by Brewer and Freud (1893-1895/1955) and now usually labeled venting, states that aggressive impulses can be reduced by watching, reading, or singing about anger and aggression as well Media Differences There are numerous differences between watching violent television, playing violent video games, and listening to popular music. One is the lack of a video component to audio-only music.Another is that aggressive lyrical content of popular music is often discernible only to the most attentive of listeners, whereas videotaped media (including music videos) make their violent intent abundantly and graphically clear. Some rock music songs have such garbled lyrics that they have given rise to debates about what the lyrics are (e. G. , Lieu, Lieu; Nina-Gouda-Dad-Vida; see Marsh, 1993). A third difference concerns attention. A large proportion of time spent listening to music involves paying attention to the music (not the lyrics) or to other tasks.Thus, effects of violent lyrics may generally be attenuated (relative to video- based media violence) simply because the lyrics are not processed by the listeners. Nonetheless, there are valid reasons to worry about potentially harmful effects of violent music lyrics. Numerous studies have shown that aggressive words can prime aggressive thoughts, perceptions, and behavior (e. G. , Anderson, Benjamin, Bartholomew, 1 998; Barge, Chem., Barrows, 1996; Berg Potentiometer, 1982). Indeed, such effects can occur even when the stimulus has not been consciously recognized (e. G. Barge et al. , 1996, Experiment 3). Furthermore, listeners are capable of recognizing themes Of music (I. E. , violence, sex, suicide, and Satanism) even when it is difficult to comprehend specific lyric content (Hansen Hansen, 1991). Additionally, music stimuli are played pedaled, both by radio stations as well as by listeners themselves. Craig A. Anderson and Nicholas L. Carnage, Department of Psychology, Iowa State University; Jeanie Banks, Texas Department of Human Services, Austin, Texas. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Craig A.When Ones video antagonists are similar to Ones real antagonists, violent solutions modeled in the video world are more likely to be attempted in the real world than when the video antagonists are dissimilar (Bandeau, 1 986; Borrowing, 1993; Gene, 1990). The lack of concrete images in violent music may well allow listeners to imagine audio antagonists similar to real-world antagonists. Thus, there are reasons to expect violent-lyric songs to be either more or less influential than violent video materials.The present article reports five experiments testing the hypothesis that brief exposure to songs with violent lyrics can increase two variables that are key mediators of situational influences on aggression: aggressive cognitions and aggressive affect. In the next section, we briefly review the existing research literature. Then we show why the general aggression model (GAME; Anderson Bushman, 2001 ; Anderson Houseman, in press) suggests a focus on aggressive cognitions and affect. 961 Han students who preferred other genres of music, such as alternative, adult contemporary, dance?soul, or country.Listeners to heavy metal music held more negative attitudes toward women. Rap music fans were more distrustful. Similarly, Took and Weiss (1994) found a correlation between preference for rap and heavy metal music and below-average academic performance, school behavior problems, drug use, arrests, and sexual activity. Still other studies have found correlations between music type preferences and a variety of maladaptive behaviors but have not specifically linked lyric preferences to those behaviors.For a recent review, see Roberts, Christenson, Gentile, in press. ) Experimental Studies of Music Without Video Music Without Lyrics McFarland (1984) looked at the effects of exposure to tense, calm, or no- background music (without lyrics) on the emotional content of stories written for the Thematic Apperception Test. Participants who heard tense music wrote the most unpleasant stories. Like the music video studies, these results tell us little about lyric effects. However, they indicate that research on lyrics must control for effects of type of music. Past Music Research Music With Lyrics Experimental Studies of Music Videos Several field and laboratory experiments have examined effects of aggressive music videos. Waite, Hildebrand, and Foster (1992) observed a significant decrease in aggressive behavior on a forensic inpatient ward after removal of Music Television (MAT). Peterson and Post (1989) found that exposing males to neurotic violent music videos led to a significant increase in adversarial sexual beliefs and negative affect.Johnson, Jackson, and Agate (1995) found that males who had been randomly assigned to view violent rap music videos became more accepting of the use of violence in dealing with interpersonal robbers. Related research found that males and females exposed to violent rap music videos became more accepting of teen dating violence (Johnson, Adams, Suborn, Reed, 1995). College students exposed to rock music videos with antisocial themes produced a greater acceptance of antisocial behavior (Hansen Hansen, 1990).Students were also more likely to accept stereotypic sex-role behavior after being exposed to music videos that displayed similar behavior (Hansen, 1 989; Hansen Hansen, 1988). Music video studies are valuable in their own right, but they do not provide information about the effects of exposure to violent lyrics without video. Music videos are much more like other video media (TV, movies) in that they can tell a story with graphically violent images; the finding that they produce similar effects is not surprising.Correlation Studies of Music Preference and Behavior Correlation studies have suggested a connection been the kind of music youth listen to and various maladaptive behaviors and attitudes, though the direction of causality is not clear. Rubin, West, and Mitchell (2001) found that college students who preferred rap and heavy metal music reported more stile attitudes Only a few studies have specifically examined the influence of violent songs on aggression-related variables. Interestingly, most have found no effects of lyrical content (e. G. , Ballard Coates, 1 995; SST. Lawrence Joiner, 1991; Winemaker Recognize, 1989). For example, participants in Ballard and Coasters (1995) study heard one of six songs varying in genre (rap vs.. Heavy metal) and lyric (homicidal, suicidal, neutral). Lyric content had no impact on mood measures, including anger. In other studies showing no effect, the genre of the songs (heavy teal) made the lyrics nearly incomprehensible, a problem noted by the researchers themselves. Barongs and Hall (1995) reported a study suggesting that antisocial lyrics can affect behavior, but the target behavior was not clearly aggressive; thus, its relevance to our work is unclear. Male college students listened to misogynous or neutral rap music, viewed three vignettes (neutral, sexual-violent, auscultative), and then chose one of the three vignettes to be shown to a female confederate. Those who had listened to the misogynous music were significantly more likely to choose the auscultative vignette. Western, Crown, Stuntman, and Hackers (1997) reported mixed results. Male undergraduates were exposed to either (a) sexually violent music and lyrics, (b) the same music without lyrics, (c) sexually violent lyrics without music, or (d) no music or lyrics.Results yielded no differences in negative attitudes toward women among the four groups. However, participants exposed to violent lyrics viewed their relationships with women as more adversarial. Overall, the few published studies on the effects of exposure to songs with violent lyrics have produced mixed results, perhaps because of methodological problems involving confounds with arousal or lyrics that were indeci pherable. We build on prior work by using a social- cognitive theoretical perspective that has emerged from aggression research in several different domains, including media violence.ANDERSON, CARNAGE, AND BANKS 962 Theoretical Perspective The theoretical basis for the present experiments comes from our earlier work on GAME (Anderson, 1997; Anderson, Anderson, Douser, 1 996; Anderson Bushman, Bibb; Anderson, Douser, Denned, 1995; Anderson Dill, 2000; Anderson Houseman, in press). This model draws on empirical and theoretical contributions from overall research groups, most notably the social- cognitive work of Bandeau (1986), Borrowing (1 993), crick and Dodge (1994), Gene (1990), Wassermann (1988), and Michel (1973).Figure 1 presents the single-episode portion of this model. Effects of situational (e. G. , violent media) and personality (e. G. , trait hostility) input variables combine (sometimes interactively) to influence aggressive behavior by influencing the present internal state (cognition, affect, and arousal) and subsequent appraisal and decision processes. These main pathways are linked in Figure 1 by the bold lines with arrows. The dashed lines within the Present Internal State box indicate that these components affect each other.Because of potential arousal effects on other variables, it is important to control induced arousal when examining effects on cognition and affect. The focus of this article is lyric effects on current cognition and affect, so we do not discuss appraisal and action aspects of GAME. According to GAME, long-term effects accrue via the development of highly accessible knowledge structures and emotional desensitizing to violence by well-established social- cognitive learning and systematic desensitizing recesses. In brief, each media violence episode constitutes a learning trial in which one rehearses aggressive thoughts and primes aggression-related affects, creating and making chronically accessible hostile attitudes, beliefs, expectations, and scripts (Anderson Bushman, Bibb; Anderson Houseman, in press. ) Overview theoretical and empirical reasons. GAME explicitly incorporates individual differences as factors important in each individual life episode and as something that develops from life experiences. Past research has demonstrated the importance of trait hostility in a variety of aggression intents.For instance, the effects of exposure to violent movies sometimes (but not always) differ for people who score low versus high on measures of trait aggressiveness (Anderson, 1997; Bushman, 1 995; Bushman Gene, 1990). Similarly, aggressive personality has been linked to n. Wow aggressiveness biases. Dill, Anderson, Anderson, and Douser (1997) found that aggressive people are more likely to expect others to solve problems by use of aggressive behaviors (hostile expectation bias) and are more likely to see interpersonal interactions as aggressive encounters (hostile perception bias).Humorous content was included both to test the generalization of violent song effects and because past research suggests that humor might mitigate effects of aggression-stimulating variables (Baron, 1 978; Borrowing, 1970; Mueller Downtrodden, 1977). Humorous (vs.. Numerous) content may combine additively or interactively with violent (vs.. Nonviolent) content in their effects on subsequent aggressive thoughts and feelings. If they combine additively, then violent humorous songs should yield higher levels of aggressive affect and thought than nonviolent humorous songs but should be fairly comparable with no-song control conditions.If they combine interactively, then humorous songs should yield relatively low levels of aggressive thought and affect regardless of whether they are also violent or nonviolent. Experiments 1 and 2 assessed effects of violent lyrics on state hostility and aggressive cognitions, respectively. Experiment 3 assessed effects of violent lyrics and trait hostility on state hostility and aggressive cognitions using a broader set of songs and a different measure of aggressive cognition.Experiments 4 and 5 examined the combined effects of violent humorous song lyrics on aggressive thought and affect and included trait hostility. The present studies investigated effects of violent songs on aggressive thought and affect, controlling for arousal effects by song selection and by measuring perceived arousal. We also investigated potential moderating effects Of two variables: trait hostility and humorous content. Trait hostility was included for both Experiment 1 Method Participants Twenty-nine female and 30 male students from a large Midwestern university participated.About half were recruited by members of a senior psychology class as part of a class project The rest were from the psychology participant pool in a later semester, and participated for extra credit. This experiment used a 2 (song) D 2 (sex) 0 2 (participant pool) factorial design. The participant pool factor was included in the statistical analysis but had no reliable effects. Songs Figure 1 . The general aggression model. Main pathways are linked by bold lines with arrows. Dashed lines within the Present Internal State box indicate that these components affect each other.From Human Aggression, by C. A. Anderson B. J. Bushman, 2002, Annual Review of Psychology, 53, p. 34. Copyright 2002 by Annual Reviews. Reprinted with permission. We solicited suggestions from students from the same undergraduate population for pairs of contemporary rock songs that had the following characteristics. One song had to have clearly violent content, whereas the other had to have no (or minimal) violent content. Both had to be understandable, the same type (e. G. , both hard rock or both soft rock), and about the same length. Finally, we wanted both songs to be by the same group. We used two songs, each about 5 min long, by the group Tool: Jerk Off (violent; Tool, 1992, from the album Opiate) and Four Degrees (nonviolent; Tool, 1 993, from the album Undertow). Procedure After reading and signing a consent form, participants learned that the experiment involved how different songs affect performance on various tasks. They were to listen to a contemporary song, complete a couple of psychological tasks, and then answer a few questions about the song.Participants then listened to the assigned song, completed the State Hostility Scale (SSH; Anderson et al. , 1995), completed a longer unrelated task, and were debriefed. The SSH contains 35 sentences describing current feelings (either hostile or friendly). For example, two hostile items read, l feel like yelling at somebody and l feel furious. Respondents rate each Sentence on a 5-point Liker-type call (1 D strongly disagree, 3 L] neither agree nor disagree, 5 D strongly agree). The friendly items are reverse scored. The scale typically produces internal reliability estimates in the . 0 -. 95 range, but three items (l feel willful, l feel tender, I feel vexed) often show poor item-total correlations. Willful displayed a low item-total correlation in the present study, so we dropped it. Coefficient alpha was . 96. Rest Its and Discussion Sex was included in the analyses as a covariate rather than as another two- level factor. 1 The 2 (song: violent vs.. Nonviolent) 0 2 (participant pool: volunteer vs.. Psychology) ANCHOVY yielded two statistically reliable effects. As predicted, the violent song produced higher levels of state hostility than did the nonviolent song (Ms 0 2. 0 and 2. 19, respectively), HI, 54) 5. 97, MUSE C 0. 426, p 0 . 02. In addition, females reported higher levels of state hostility than males (MS 2. 62 and 2. 17, respectively), F(l, 54) 6. 71, MUSE 0. 426, p D . 02. 2 This somewhat unusual finding is probably due to the fact that in our participant pool, females typically do not like hard rock music to the same extent as males. These results indicate that the violent content of rock songs can increase linings of hostility when compared with similar but nonviolent rock music.It is important to note that this violoncellists effect occurred in the absence of any provocation. The low absolute level of the SSH means reflect this lack of provocation. Experiment 2 Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1 in all respects except that the dependent variable was a measure of aggressive cognition. Sixty-one undergraduates (30 females, 31 males) participated either as volunteers or as a part of their introductory psychology class. The dependent variable was based on participants ratings of a large number of word pairs from Bushman (1996).Bushman identified 10 words as clearly aggressive in meaning (blood, butcher, choke, fight, gun, hatchet, hurt, kill, knife, and wound) and 10 words as ambiguous in meaning, having both aggressive and nonaggression meanings (alley, animal, bottle, drugs, movie, night, police, red, ro ck, and stick). Bushman showed that people who score high on trait hostility tended to perceive relatively greater similarity of meaning between pairs of aggressive and ambiguous words (from these two lists) than do people who score low on trait hostility.We adapted Bushmans (1996) task in the following way. All possible pairs of Hess 20 words were presented to participants with instructions to rate each pair on how similar, associated, Or related the paired words seemed to be. Ratings were made on 7-point scales anchored at 1 (not at all similar, associated, or related) and 7 (extreme- 963 lay similar, associated, or related). We calculated three average similarity scores for each participant: aggressive-aggressive word pairs (45), aggressive-ambiguous word pairs (100), and ambiguous? ambiguous word pairs (45).Our reasoning and predictions were quite simple. If listening to violent lyrics increases the accessibility of aggressive thoughts in semantic Emory, then ambiguous words will tend to be int erpreted in a relatively more aggressive way, leading to relatively higher similarity ratings of aggressive-ambiguous pairs. This same semantic priming process might also increase the perceived similarity of aggressive-aggressive pairs and of ambiguous-ambiguous pairs, but these increases should be small relative to the violent song effect on aggressive-ambiguous pairs.We used the other two word-pair types as within-subject controls. Thus, we predicted violent (vs.. Nonviolent) song participants to give larger similarity ratings of aggressive- ambiguous word pairs relative to their ratings of ambiguous?ambiguous and aggressive-aggressive word pairs. We computed a contrast score reflecting the main prediction. We averaged each participants aggressive-aggressive and ambiguous?ambiguous scores. From this control rating we then subtracted each persons aggressive-ambiguous score.